Express Yourself

#84: Ye, Mariana Means Something

"Ye."

I like the sound of that word. It's distinguishable as a "yes" or a "yep" but not completely there. It probably leaves the listener wanting to put an "s" at the end or perhaps a "p"... maybe even an "ah"... but feeling absolutely helpless to do anything about it (or feeling dorky about wanting to do something about such a petty thing.)

You see, I'm conducting this experiment. I'd like to see who gets bothered by the "Ye" and who gets to assimilate it into their vocabulary.

Earlier today, my boss was pushed to the breaking point and had to ask me in a mock-irritated pitch, "What the heck is 'Mariana?'" I gave him an innocent look. Why should it matter what it means? You know it's an expression - an interjection, a filler.

"Traffic was horrible this morning! This intersection was unbelievably jammed with at least 4 cars trying to lock themselves in an unbreakable grid. Mariana!"

Well, he's not the only one to ask. This colleague of mine once sat across me and gave me this very serious look (the peering-over-invisible-glasses look with a touch of the trying-to-avoid-glare-from-the-sun look), "So tell me. What does Mariana mean?" Another officemate (the one who was supposed to have been my direct boss) heard me mutter "Mariana" and declared with glee, "Mariana? Hey I like that expression!"

Well, I told my boss that he didn't need to know. He said he did. Fine. Mariana is an expression I made up to replace 'Maryosep.'" When I found out that "Susmaryosep" stood for "Jesus-Maria-Joseph," I was appalled at the blatant misuse of the Lord's name. I replaced "Sus" with "Sows" and "Maryosep" with "Mariana." So that's the lengthy version. I merely told my boss, "Mariana" is a sosyal "Maryosep." End of story.

He wanted to kick his head for even asking me. (Or maybe what he really wanted to do was kick my head for making him curious enough to ask me.)

In case you want to know, I also use "Fart" and "Fudge" because I don't say "F*ck." I'd rather say "crap" than "sh*t" and "darn" than "damn."

Does it matter? Well, it doesn't have to matter to anyone else but to me it does. Does it make any sense? Probably not but it works in my head so that's reason enough, ye?

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So what's your uniquely weird/weirdly unique expression?