Vocabulary Question

Okay, my vocabulary is elephantine. Voluminous. Literally verbose. Prodigious to a monumental extent. And most of my engineer coworkers are left in my erudite dust.

But I attended an informal lecture this evening on the topic of "Growing Up Female in America", which was intended for the parents of daughters (which I am, "Abu el Banat" in transliterated Arabic). The lecturer is a Ph.D. candidate on the topic of gender studies as it pertains to adolescent development.

So shouldn't she be at least familiar with the word "ostracize"?

Anchored

I love my mom, really I do. She drove me nuts as a teenager, of course, but we get along mostly fine now.

But she yammers on the phone.

We've crossed the half-hour point now, and we still haven't talked about anything. I say "Mmm-hmm" from time to time.

She's still going strong. Something about her town's high school band and the Inauguration.

I'll be up for air later.