I was in a coffee shop in my neighborhood here yesterday, and I was replying to an email about a job opening. I was agonizing and agonizing over whether or not to include a little joke sentence, or to just say, "Meet you there," etc. I had spoken with this woman on the phone, and we got along well, and her email had something whimsical in the subject line about "seeing sights," so I felt like I should say something non-worky. I work in PR, so thoughts like these, hitting email tonality exactly correctly, is kind of my thing. I finally decide to say:
"I hope I have a less cloudy day than today for sight-seeing!"
I look at it, and I shake my head, and I say, "That is so gay," as I'm erasing it. I had my headphones on, and I may have spoken a bit loudly in the cafe, which was otherwise deathly quiet. I look up, and I see someone in the cafe is like staring at me with her mouth open, like how in the WORLD could I say something that offensive. And honestly I NEVER say "that is so gay," I'm not one of those people who say that reflexively about a million things. And I admit it is a stupid and offensive thing to say, and I totally felt like an asshole for having said it. But, I mean, "I hope I have a less cloudy day than today for sight-seeing!"?!?!!?! That is honestly such a gay sentence. It's either gay, or it's like something my mother would say. I guess I should have said "That is so Mom," but I didn't think of it first. My bust, universe. My bust.
1 comment:
I grew up using gay very liberally (what a pharse!). But anyway it has really just been as an adult that I phased it out of my vocabulary out of consideration for others. I think that it was a part of our normal childhood language and that's why we cling to it. In a perfect world you would not have had to endure that gaping maw.
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