Words and seasons

Our new Boss of Bosses has been working with Marie on a problem. He came in this afternoon and said something about "Are you getting tired of this, young lady?" I don't believe he calls Cary or Joe "young man," but I could be wrong. Anyway, they discussed this problem, and Bob said, "We're going to my office to take care of this right now. Bring your poop."

I turned around. One of Bob's favorite phrases is "dork it up," which is funny once and irritating in the aggregate, but I can pass it by. This I couldn't pass. "What?"

He turned to me quizzically. "Her poop."

"Meaning what?" I knew what he meant, I was just aghast.

"You know, her stuff." He swept Marie out while I twitched.

I suppose I could hail it as simply another euphemism. But I can't. "Your shit" is vulgar and "your crap" isn't much better, but at least they're used commonly enough that they actually mean, you know, stuff, in addition than their original meaning. "Poop" does not qualify. Christ.

(I never used "Christ" as an expostulation before I wrote Naomi, who used it. I should do something with her someday.)

In other news, I don't get that job I asked for but I may have made a contact, which pleases me; and it feels very much like fall. I missed fall last year, you know. I didn't realize it at the time, mostly because I wasn't in a state of mind to notice such things, but fall pretty much passed me by (except for one manic afternoon unnecessarily raking leaves, and not really even then). This year I'm in a much better frame of mind, and I love that it's rapidly cooling, I love the sky again in a way I don't in the heat of summer, and I enjoy sitting in my front room doing cozy things rather than feeling guilty about them. It's this last one that really got my attention. I haven't done anything different, it's not really any cooler inside (of course, now the thermostat's off rather than set on cool at 76), but suddenly my same activities feel different. I suppose my incipient move (five and a half weeks!) has something to do with it; fall is my time for new beginnings and I'm embarking on another one. I start to pack as soon as it turns October.