Car and Wife

This is my wife and the car we bought together in July. It is the first car I have ever bought and the nicest one I have ever driven. I like it. It is a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am GT. When we bought it it had 107,000 miles which is alot but we both liked the car and it drives nice. I hope that we can keep it for a long time.

The girl on the car is my wife. She is totally awsome. We have been married for almost 2 years now. She has turned out to be very good for me. She is a very hard worker and is alot of fun to just hang out with.

Update

Hello, I just thought that I would throw out a shout out. I am finishing my outline for the ciriculum for the next semester. I hope that I didn't get myself out over my head this time. Either way, I feel that if I just work hard on it, it will work its self out. At least I hope that is how it works out.

Work is going better. Despite the cold I think that I like it. My coworkers are all nice and treat me with respect.

I am getting excited for grad school to start. I talked with Jake at ISU and he reassured me that I will do very well there, possibly better than him. I just hope that is the case. But I can't imagine it otherwise. I seem to do well in school even when I don't put in much effort. So for now I am going to say good bye. I have to get cleaned up for Tie Kwon Do.

Compromise

On December 16 I graduated with my bachelor degree. I was so excited because I was finally able to get a REAL job. For years I have been working construction and now I finally would be able to do something that earned money that allowed me to use my mind instead of my brawn. My first prospects were promising. I received a phone call out of the blue from the College of Massage Therapy, they wanted me to teach pathology for one semester. I graciously accepted as they offered me $25 per hour to do this. But this job didn't start until Jan. 26 which left me with about a month of nothing. Also the job was only the one class Tuesdays and Thursdays. This would not be enough to sustain my family through the eight months until I start grad school.

So I began my search for a job to fill the rest of my time. First, I wanted to find something in my field so I gave a resume to every Physical Therapist with in a thirty mile radius. After a week of canvassing for reality hit me that I would not be able to find work. So I began buying the new paper, responding to the ads. Nothing. I began asking every person I saw if they knew someone hiring. Finally, I went to an old friend that owns a siding / roofing company. Prior to this I had made a goal that I was not going to do construction again. I had had enough of it. I had enough of bosses belittling me, crude coworker, bitter elements, and life threatening work conditions.

Two summer ago I nearly died when I fell from a 30 foot building. I only reason I lived is that 15 feet from the ground my hammer, in my tool belt, caught on the ladder somehow, stopping me from landing on the scaffolding below. In addition to the fall I can't even count the number of stitches I have received from being cut by razor sharp metal. (I erected steal buildings)

Anyways, I am back in construction. My friend wants me to be one of his foremen, which is a good thing, but I was hoping that I would never have to do this again. Working in the freezing cold does not sound good to me right now. At least it has warmed up, it is only 15 Degrees Fahrenheit. A month ago the temperature was negative 15.

So I am feeling a little defeated right now. I have had a lot of pressure to take what ever job I can get because we have a lot of bills and only a little money. I wish that I could afford to hold out for a phlebotomy position that is available at the Plasma Center. They are supposed to call me next week to set up an interview. But I can't wait that long. So I took the job doing construction and start tomorrow. I guess I will make the best of it, at least in a few weeks I will be the foreman of my own crew and get to work for Russell. He is the greatest guy I know.

Copacetic

COPACETIC

Fine, excellent, going just right.

It’s possible that this word has created more column inches of speculation in the USA than any other apart from OK. It’s rare to the point of invisibility outside North America. People mostly become aware of it in the sixties as a result of the US space program—it’s very much a Right Stuff kind of word. But even in the USA it doesn’t have the circulation it did thirty years ago. Dictionaries are cautious about attributing a source for it, reasonably so, as there are at least five competing explanations, with no very good evidence for any of them.

One suggestion that’s commonly put forward is that it was originally a word of the African-American community in the USA. The name of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a famous black tap-dancer, singer and actor of the period round the turn of the twentieth century is commonly linked to this belief about its origin. Indeed, he claimed to have invented it as a shoeshine boy in Richmond. But other blacks, especially Southerners, said later that they had heard it earlier than Mr Robinson’s day. But he certainly did a lot to popularise the word.

A more frequent explanation is that it derives from one of two Hebrew expressions, hakol b’seder, “all is in order”, or kol b’tzedek, “all with justice”, which it is suggested were introduced into the USA by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants. Yet other accounts say it derives from a Chinook word copasenee, “everything is satisfactory”, once used on the waterways of Washington State, or from the French coupersetique, from couper, “to strike”, or from the French phrase copain(s) c’est épatant! (“buddy(s), that’s great!”), or, in a hugely strained derivation, from the cop is on the settee, supposedly a hoodlum term used to describe a policeman who was not actively watching out for crime, and so one who was OK.

In the absence of further evidence, which may now never be forthcoming, none of these suggestions can be definitely disregarded, though most are extremely implausible.

Written By Michael Quinion
World Wide Words