Embrace the Suck.......

I know people on the East Coast are using shovels on their driveways today....but here in the South it was beautiful....and I think that's why I 've been cranky all day. There's nothing like a spring day you can't enjoy to put you into a foul mood.

Smarting from a medical procedure..... plus working on a community project which sucks hours like a black hole ......PLUS getting #$#@! tax receipts ready....has stopped me from dancing with leprechauns today.

And then serendipity... I stumbled upon a perfect phrase...."Embrace the Suck."

NPR's website featured a pamphlet by retired Colonel Austin Bay which listed and described Military Speak...the specialized language used by the armed forces. In his guide, Bay notes that every trade from priests to prostitutes have their own specialized language. Warrior slang, Bay says, "accepts suffering as inevitable," so "embrace the suck" isn't merely a cutesy wisecrack....but wisdom....face it....it ain't an easy day..there's never easy days..now DEAL with it.

I wrote the phrase on a post-it note and slapped it on my computer screen. I immediately felt better.

I noticed some other military language gems that apply to my life today:

Groundhog Day: A day where you keep doing things over and over again and still can't seem to get it right.......or how I keep rewriting and rewriting the opening to an essay and it still doesn't sound right.

John Wayne Driving School: Banging up a new vehicle in the process of teaching a new recruit to drive it....or what my teenage son is doing to my once cute Subaru.

And some good terms for work situations I've encountered:

Semper Fi, is of course, the Marine motto for "always faithful."

But sometimes you have a .....Semper I situation..which means you're working in an environment or with a person who is very self-centered.

or.....the very lucky.....Sempter Knife situation.....which means you're working in an environment or with a person who is always back-stabbing.

Well....I'm going to go and embrace more suck now....those IRS receipts are even half done.

~~~