fishing for carp
(photo by Gray)
Thanks so, so much for enabling supporting me. I'm feeling much better and everything will work out and, though it may not be immediately obvious from the general tenor and content of this blog, I don't actually enjoy being all whiny. Really. I swear.
Which brings us to the fascinating (well, to me, anyway) question of whine v. whinge. Apparently (at least according to the first few google results I looked at) whine derives from the Old English verb, hwinan, meaning "to make a humming or whirring sound," while, in contrast, whinge comes from the extremely closely related Old English verb, hwinsian, meaning (no surprise here) "to wail or moan discontentedly."
Of course, the main difference is that whinge, was, until quite recently, a mostly non-US usage. Though these days you hear it more and more from the same Anglophile types who say things like presently instead of soon and holiday instead of vacation. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyway, misery loves company, so I'm thinking we should have a contest for best whin(g)es. And by best I mean something like loudest or most creative or most trivial or most disproportionate to the thing complained about.
So leave your whiniest whines in the comments and help me pick the winners Bonus points for a complaint that is, itself, annoying.
Whin(g)e away.
29 comments:
Today's whin(g)e:
After a week of perfect healthy habits, I gained .4 pounds this week. It's not even half a pound, but God it irritates me! Why? Why did I GAIN? GOD!
Ok, I just annoyed myself a little...
Someone made a grammatical ERROR on their blog! A really, really BAD ONE!!!! And I had to READ it!
Cripes, I have been one long bitch all week--my husband had elective surgery for bunions last Friday, and when we were literally bringing him in the door from hospital (my own little British-ism) my daughter started puking from norovirus, which she continued on and off until Sunday night, while my husband was moaning and incapacitated on the couch. Monday evening, I began puking while caring for both of the recovering and angry gnomes of my home. My daughter is refusing to eat anything but cookies, and not napping. Oh, and I am currently 31.5 weeks pregnant after losing my last child at 38 weeks for no reason, which means I am also a hysterical wreck most of the time. And now, the dog is sniffing and licking my jeans, for some absolutely horrifyingly annoying reason, and whining to go out. And I can't even have any good cheese with my whine, because it is soft and unpasteurized. (I can't even have any good wine with my whine for that matter, either.) I actually kind of annoyed myself with that whingey whine.
Anon @10:44: Um, there's a grammatical ERROR in your comment! A really, really BAD ONE!!! And I had to READ it!
(well, I didn't actually *have* to, but I did)
I didn't get to drink my 2nd cup of coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. And now it's coooooooooooold. And I hate the bra I am wearing right now. And the rabbit ears don't pick up NBC and I can't watch figure skating and I really really want to and I can never seem to find time to watch it online and I don't WANT to watch it online I want to watch it on tv and and and and oh please don't let your smart readers hurt themselves over all of my grammatical errors because I am certain there are tons. and now I feel so stuuuuuuuupid.
um. yeah.
this morning before i even get out of bed my husband tells me he is too sick to get the bills out, so i will have to write out all the checks and actually go to the post office to mail one overnight, then tells me to call the doctor and make an appointment for him. (we are living with my in-laws right now) i get out of bed and walk to the kitchen where my mother-in-law tells me to do the dishes and take out the recyclables before lunch because my father-in-law is sick of it. i made a mistake in the checkbook that my husband found when he was double-checking the work he asked me to do! i splashed water all over my front while doing the dishes...from last night that weren't even mine! i cried for about 15 minutes. then i made lunch, which my son refused to eat and my daughter only ate half of and finally had time to check blogs...i found this and here i am...thank you for listening!
The coffee machine in my office has been broken for WEEKS. Everyone is demoralized. And decaffeinated.
Does whinge rhyme with hinge?
@Magpie: and also binge!
I'm supposed to go on a trip and the pilots are on strike.
Also, trying to write my thesis and worrying so much that I won't make it to the deadline that, if I spend enough time worrying, I actually won't make it.
I'm tired of working and I have to do it for at least 15 more years. Probably more like 25. Probably in the same place.
And my coworker gave me yet another case to proof which is like 5 in the last 2 days. Since we're supposed to rotate, and since I know she hasn't done 10 in two days, I'm starting to think she's unloading all of her crap on me. That's making me tense and irritable, and if I'm her for 25 more years, I think I'm going to crack!
Or in true whin(g)ing terms:
I'm tiiiiired.
and
She's picking on me!
I'm going to have to pay $30+ a day in taxes for my hotel room for BlogHer...oh the horror.
Hmmm...let's see. Here's how it looks to me so far:
@angie, @calliope, @michelle get points for their ability to combine a number of varied complaints into a lengthy screed.
@areyoukiddingme's second whine is notable for its style and concision.
But I think that right now I have to call @Kristin the early favorite based on degree of difficulty, since her her so-called complaint cleverly conceals a taunt. ("nyah nyah, I'm going to BlogHer and you aren't).
Feel free to chime in.
I can't help but agree. Kristin sort of has it in the bag. She has to win something...cheese?
I live in a barbaric country where women only get 12 weeks of leave after giving birth (the last 4 unpaid). My girl will be 12 weeks old on Sunday, which means back to work on Monday.
I don't wanna!!! Nobody can take care of her like I do. :-(
Niobe, I love it when you write about language. They are possibly my most favourite of your posts.
How funny to think most Americans don't say Whinge. It's a word heard daily over here.
Whinge, whinging, whinger.
As in, bad parenting 101, "Stop being such a whinger", "Don't whinge" or "Stop whinging about..."
Holiday vs vacation? I never say vacation but I love what that word conjures in me.
I loves me some whinging. It's such an expressive word, almost as lovely as "gobbet," my all time favorite word. Yes, as in 'gobbets of flesh.'
Ahem.
My husband abandoned me Tuesday night; left me with his spawnlings, a two year old and a 10 month old,
The cupboards were bare, the kitchen was buried in dirty dishes, and the kids had no pajamas to wear.
I remedied that Wednesday morning; my son repaid my hard work by not napping that afternoon.
Thursday I counted down the hours to my husband returning home that evening. No nap again.
Today, no nap, yet tantrums All. Day. Long.
The 10 month old is teething. The 10 month old has been teething all week.
My nerves, they are shot. My glasses, they are dirty. My hair, it is unwashed. My socks, they do not match.
The cats keep touching me.
I don't sleep well without my husband in bed.
And you'd think that any parent fleeing his young kids for two nights would use that time to get some sleep. My husband squandered (squandered!) that opportunity!
Twice!
I'd kil - ok, I wouldn't kill, but I might attempt some gobbets to get 8 hours of sleep! Contiguous sleep!
My TiVo ate all my Cooks Country and America's Test Kitchen. It recorded both Alien and Aliens and ate my shows! Alien(s)! Why?!?
My TiVo ate my shows because we're so behind on watching the Olympics - we were watching Sunday's broadcast today.
We're so behind because in part of my husband's trip.
Basically it's all his fault.
And he didn't get me anything for Valentines' Day.
Did I mention the cats keep touching me?
I have such first world problems.
My next door neighbour is doing home renovations....... as he has been doing every Sat and Sun for FOUR YEARS. And if I hear another power tool I might have to hold a nail gun to his head and SHOOT THE F*ER, ^&*$%&* *%&$*$%( W$*%&(*$& %&*$(*$#&%&& (*$&% #*&%*&!!!!!!!!
(hmm I think that was a little more than a whinge...... ermmm...... sorry)
i swear when i first glanced at the title of this post i thought it said:
"fishing for crap"
anyway...i was in a TERRIBLY whiny mood yesterday. i was feeling sorry for myself b/c everyone went out of town for break and i wasn't. WAH!
Not sure why the anglophiles think we use presently all the time - we don't. Can't think of the last time I heard it. That will be my whinge for the day.
My 16-month-old son is crying in his bedroom off the kitchen. I just mopped the kitchen floor (and probably woke him from his nap in the process) and can't get him until it's dry per the Orange Glo's Hardwood Floor Clean and Shine System's instructions or the floor will implode. And when did mopping get a "system"?
And my husband just left for the weekend. Leaving me with the three children.
-e
And my neutered cat keeps humping the throw pillows I made and destroying the integrity of the stuffing in the pillow and the integrity of cats in general.
-e
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I am annoyed by the comment spam-bots. And people who write alot instead of a lot.
Oh my, the peramsmile on my face right now can't be erased. I know - not a whiney response, but I've missed your blog so much. Your writing, your wit and your intellect really picks me up! So, there - perhaps a really good compliment will do some good.
um, i've never been to the Alhambra? and that's just wrong.
(though the pics are helping. and at the same time exacerbating my self-pity.)
My baby has the worst cold ever and he can't breathe cause he's so stuffed up and I've changed his clothes four times today because he's coughed so hard that he's managed to make himself puke (luckily he puked up some phlegm with it.) And he cannot sleep because he can't breathe. And I have get up at 6am to work in the morning, but I have to take care of the baby all night because my hubby's at work until 11pm and he'll just pass out when he gets home like always.
I've started using whinge on my blog because it seems to capture the exact spirit in which my older daughter (who is 5) talks to me sometimes.
So this is for her:
I was a Very Nice Mommy (and Wife) yesterday, and while I was out running numerous errands yesterday (sans children because my husband has decided to let them destroy the house — judging by what I came home to) I picked up little gifts for them: some colorful stones for a glass vase at my husband's office, poster board and fun stickers for my younger daughter's potty chart (now SHE has a reason to whinge), and Bendaroos for my older girl. After making a puppy for her with them, and an owl for my younger, Flora gave her puppy to her daddy to get another animal. As I had no intention of making her another animal out of bendaroos (because it's not really my idea of a good time) she went off about how she had given her puppy to daddy and now she had no animal. The humanity.
Actually, this is kind of a twofer, as if you noticed I snuck in a whinge about my husband staying home with the children by himself, which hasn't happened in a while. I just wish he had learned at some point to multitask. Because my house looked like a tornado had come through, and my older daughter was still — at 5 p.m. — in her pajamas.
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