thankful for the bossoritis

I called Becky last night in the throes of all kinds of confusion about this article I'm working on. She was in the middle of putting away the groceries so she put me on speaker phone, which she knows I hate. But that way at least I got to say hello to Teakettle, Luigi, and Freddie (where was Ruthie, I wonder). As she's clearing out the fridge to make room for the new stuff--"I'm not gonna eat ham that's dated April 27," she says--she listens to me try to articulate my argument about anger and plagiarism and, away from a computer, away from a note pad even, she repeats back to me what she hears me saying and when she does that, it begins to make sense! (I hate exclamation points! but here they're warranted!) I had been a little bit hesitant to call because I wasn't sure I could even talk her through it--she being a terrible audience for me because she can fill in all the blanks that I don't necessarily cover--if I couldn't talk her through it, I couldn't talk anyone through it. But I did it, she got it, and she helped me enormously. So thanks, boss.

Incidentally, it has come to my attention recently that I use an awful lot of italics for emphasis in my writing. What's that all about? And now I'm hyper aware of it. For some people, this is a nuisance. Just let the language do the work, says Julie Wonka, emphasizing that fourth word.

Well huh.