Words Words Words

I'm nearing completion on the last paper I have to submit to complete my Master's coursework.  This made me think about words.

Anne-Marie is thinking about the inadequacy of words.  I think that's because, last week, she was overwhelmed by words.

Krista just sent me an email which concluded with the words, "Good luck with the last paper.  Thinking of all the words you've had to write in the past 2 years makes me nauesous.  You have a gift that I don't possess."  (Let's keep things in perspective here, though.  This is a woman who, after giving birth to her daughter naturally, told me that sitting on an exercise ball and having her husband roll a water bottle along her spine were great "pain relievers.")

This made me wonder: how many words HAVE I had to write?  So I added them up.  Well, I added up the number of words I've actually submitted.  The magic number is (currently):

114, 486!

I have no idea how many words I've actually written.  I usually end up trying to cut a significant portion of every draft.  This exercise also revealed to me that both my PhD writing sample and my MA writing project were exactly 10,018 words.  What are the chances of that?!  Guess I've got a new lucky number.

Let's not even try to imagine how many words I've read.

The best part is, we literary studies types will tell you that words don't actually, in themselves, mean anything.  I know: it's complicated.  I'll just stop there.

In other news, the rest of the work going on at this house is a little bit more pragmatic.  Patti, Chuck, and Brian spent last week helping Billy power wash and stain the deck in preparation for our cookout next weekend.  It looks great but it's currently under water, so you'll have to come see the "after" shot yourself.

(Words Words Words has a summary on amazon but my brain is too fried to figure out what this book is actually about.  But it's written by a linguist, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's about words.)