Happy BIRTHday to my blog. (and to jesslyn)

So I've done it. I've started a blog. This was a request made to me by my dear friend Jesslyn on her birthday (Jan 9th) and that girl expects to get what she wants on her birthday.... so I had to deliver. So - after only approximately 35 days of gestation on my to-do list and a relatively painless birth, tonight I proudly become the guardian and caregiver of my own newborn bloggey thing. I hope I don't neglect him/her. (I have a feeling I might.)

In naming this blog I tried a variety of possibilities - most of which just popped into my head at random. Such random titles include 'bloggityblogblog', 'dittydittyblogblog', and 'yowordkeepitreal.' All these names (and some even weirder ones) were already taken. What was not taken, however, was 'thatsthepoopyscoop.' Why, you may ask was such a strange, yet poetic name still available? Because my mother has yet to start her own blog and she is quite possibly the only person on the planet that has ever uttered that sentence. The fact that this phrase, which when used by my mother means something like "so that's whats going on in my life," would never have been taken by any of the thousands of millions of bloggers out there only proves what I have suspected for years. My mother's expressions, those quaint idioms I grew up hearing on a daily basis, are not in fact remnants of some charming southern upbringing. They are totally made-up. Like "dumping the dishwasher" for example. I didn't realize this wasn't what everyone said when referring to the act of taking the dishes out of the machine and placing them back in the cupboards until I owned my own dishwasher and lived with roommates. I volunteer to "dump the dishwasher" and they look at me like I'm nuts. When googling the expression the closest I got was "How do I keep my cat from dumping in the dishwasher?" And nearly every time I talk to my mother on the phone, after giving me the rundown on what's new in her life, she ends her monologue with "so that's the poopy scoop." I'm telling you, I never questioned it until tonight.

This also reminds me of other idiomoms. One new phrase came out recently while she was arguing with my Dad. Apparently he was pissing her off (nothing new there) and out it came, without warning, from the depths of her being. "Bullhockey shit!" she yelled. This was, as I've said, a new phrase and therefore triggered amusement on the part of my father, which of course did not make my mother happy since they were in a heated argument and this was an inappropriate response. The interesting thing about this one is that urbandictionary states 'bullhockey' does in fact exist, but that it originates from Banbury, England. My mother, Darla Jean, is from Alabama. Hmmmm......

I have a Masters in Linguistics and I went all the way to South America to do research for my thesis. Perhaps I should have just stayed in my mother's kitchen. 

Anyway - thats the poopy scoop!