Friday, April 02, 2010

in which I whine again

"When's the big day?" is a phrase many conversation partners have decided to use to replace the question "What is your wedding date?" Does it feel so weird to say that I'm getting married? Is it a way to make a perfectly good question more conversational? Maybe it's hard to make appropriate jokes about me getting married, so my interlocutors must resort to colloquialisms to keep a serious subject light-hearted. Anyway, I think it's kind of weird that probably 80% of the people I talk to about myself ask when I'm getting married in those exact words.

Something mostly unrelated that has been bothering me: I still don't really have an occupation. I don't want to teach freshman English for the rest of my life. I wonder if I could become a bibliotherapist ("oh, well, if you have insomnia, you should try reading Proust, it puts forty percent of readers to sleep within ten pages"). Sometimes my classes just feel like book clubs glorified with some background reading and justified with a degree. It's fine for a hobby (for me). I still don't really understand how literary criticism makes the world a better place (Scottish independence notwithstanding). Maybe a more entertaining place. Also - this is possibly bad of me, but it's such a relief to have in the future a husband who will support me in my entertaining indecision.

5 comments:

krebscout said...

Can't it just be a common way to put it? Like "What's up?" or "How's it going?" instead of "How do you do?" Do colloquialisms have to mean something else?

Rachel Helps said...

I don't know. It just seemed weird to me and then I decided to be snobby about it.

Andrea Landaker said...

Bibliotherapist all the way.

Got anything for narcolepsy? :-D

If you get pregnant, people will talk about your due date the exact same way.

curiousCat said...

Cliches are just verbal shorthand. they save you thinking out an original way to say. "I'm glad you're getting married. This is a major step in your life. What date is it going to happen? Please tell me more about this." By which time you thinking, "Why don't you just ask me, 'When's the big day' instead of indulging in pomposity."
So be grateful for cliches. It could be worse.

Charly said...

I will cast a vote for bibliotherapist!

For some reason, the Internet abbreviation of "DH" grates on my nerves like none other. Why not just say "my husband"? Argh! It sounds like "the big day" may be like this to you.

Yeah, I know the feeling about being relieved, etc. The problem seems to be that not a whole lot seems to make the world a "better" place--is my job scanning yearbooks really changing anything? Improving lives? Does a temp job have anything to do with a career> (Answer: no.) Well, people always tell people our age "you're young! You have time to figure it out!" Although quite frankly, I feel old. Often.