Hoosegow.

Honey, he in Hoosegow!

-- [what??]

Let me share an embarrassing and unfortunately true story that happened today.

There I am at work, peddling along at a steady pace through each line of my daily [running] list of things I need to accomplish as part of my well rounded diet of job duties. I figured I'd get some candidates in to the office to interview, and set out to do so from applications we receive online.

I called one in particular that wasn't available, because, according to his husky-voiced father,

"Honey, he in Hoosegow! You got a message? I'll tell him as soon as he back" [verbatum]

I'm thinking, '[I have no idea how to even spell that, but] sure, sounds good!' I leave my message that I have his application and was interested in speaking with him in regards to potential employment opportunities. I thought nothing of it, and hopped off the phone expecting a phone call back within the next few days or so.

Consider the fact that I am still a true idiot when it comes to navigating around St. Clair and Madison Counties here in Illinois. If it weren't for the printed map of Madison Co. that I have hanging by my desk [with plenty of Sharpie'd-in additions with little arrows denoting approximate direction], I wouldn't have the first idea in which direction Marine, IL stems in relation to anything, or that Bethalto to Millstadt is probably not a practical daily commute. I hear of and find new titles to add nearly on a weekly basis, so, out of habit, I casually voiced across to Nancy,

"Hey, Nanc - where's Hoosegow?"

To which she replied,

"Ummm... Jail!" 

Yiiiiiiikes.

I spent the next half hour still blushing about the fact that I'd come within millimeters of asking this guy's father how far away that was and when he expected him to return. Nancy and my boss were cracking up over my blunder, which was not only embarrassing enough in and of itself, but also that I had never heard that term before today.

Naturally, within 3 minutes of my mistake, I was demanding answers from Google and realized that the terminology spans back for long enough that I can't blame it on any recent generational concept. I know, I know - Under what rock have you been hiding, Cori??Dumb, Cori. Dumb.

Anyway, I still half-wonder what that man would've said had I asked him to guesstimate the ETA of his son from the non-mapped location of Hoosegow.

What I do know: next time I play Monopoly, you can forget landing me in Jail, 'cuz

HONEY, I'M GOIN' TO HOOSEGOW.

[later.]

xo | cmd