Hahaha…thanks Christina! I’ve only got about a week and a half left on it before I can’t get on until evening again, but in the meantime, it’s nice to have more time!

My own colloquialisms are from all over the place. Sometimes on here I’ll see things like “down here in [insert state here] we just call all soda Coke.” And then I feel weird because I grew up in California, and for a very long time, I called all soda Coke. I graduated to calling it “soda” after living in Chicago, where everyone called it “pop,” which wasn’t my cup of Coke tea. I wanted to be different, but didn’t want to be different AND inaccurate.

My dad (the original one) is from Oklahoma. My grandmother on my mother’s side, who did most of the actual raising of me (the part that wasn’t done by TV and friends’ parents), was from Ohio. I watched children’s television produced all over the country (and even some from Canada, like You Can’t Do That on Television). And since I grew up in the L.A. area, some Spanish colloquialisms were a given that I would pick up.

So most of he time I hear a local colloquialism, odds are that I won’t think of it that way…the yumptos (“I’mma eat, yumpto?”), the verklempts, the howdys, the hosers, the wicked pissahs, da Bearsss, the homies, the vatos..they’re all just different parts of our collective language, and I don’t tend to think too much about the origin of those slang terms on a map.

I do have one, though, that I enjoy and can trace to a certain area of the globe…I just have to go overseas to do it. There’s just nothing like a British “bloody hell.” I love the phrase, but I sound like a hoser if I try to use it.

I will also accept “fucking hell” or “bollocks” if no little kids are around.

A six-pack of Dr. Pepper and a few sandwiches is all I’d need. Of course, outside the cooler, I’d need a comfy chair, my iPod, a pole holder, a port-a-potty, a generator, a TV, a satellite dish, season one of Once Upon a Time on DVD (which I guess means I need a DVD player too), and a butler.

But I could get by with just the six-pack of Dr. Pepper.

You should have seen my reaction once that ending hit me…I was pissed off that it was going to end that way, but it seemed right.

I actually cried while typing out the last few shuffles.

Thanks for reading it!