Today is the sixth day of the April A to Z Challenge. During this month I will be writing blog posts every day (with breaks on Sundays) about the topic “Sh*t I Say” starting with each consecutive letter of the alphabet. This is one crazy project, y’all.
For the Love
I’m trying to stop swearing. I’ve been working on this for oh, about seven years now. It started when I was pregnant with Kyle and thinking about how I didn’t want his first word to be “motherf*cker.” It’s been a long, hard battle and I haven’t won yet, but I’m still trying.
One of the phrases that I now use in lieu of the F-bomb is “fffffffor the love.” I picked this one up in 2003 when I got to know Becky, my eventual partner in crime on the Style network show “You’re Invited.” We spent a season developing and directing the episodes together and we got to be thick as thieves, even though she was a pure, sweet Christian girl who lived at home with her parents. In Orange County, even. She was devoted to her church and treated it like a fun thing. And she never swore, but used the phrase “Oh, for the love” as every other thing she said.
You know that in her head she was telling us all to fuck off.
But I admired her ability to not actually say it. When you spent 16 hours a day with someone, they start to rub off on you. I’m not sure what Becky ever got from me, but I will credit her with adding a less obnoxious catchphrase to my toolbox of things to say when something bothers me.
Becky’s all grown up now, married, and calling the shots on some great shows. We still see each other on the Facebook sometimes.
I think I may have to add “for the love” into my repertoire now.
I need to add that to my arsenal as “What the fudge?!” is still perilously close to that other thing…In lieu of “motherf*cker” there’s “mother pus-bucket” (which I remember hearing Bill Murray say, though I can’t recall in which flick), which is almost as satisfying. 🙂
Some Dark Romantic