UMs, UHs, and a Woof or 2

Today is meeting day for me. 75% of my day will be spent on the phone. My second call of the day is worthy of a blog (let's be honest, some days I am desperate for content).

We all say things or do things while we are speaking (note this is not like my other entry Tired Terms). We may say things like: like, mm hmm, yup, k, (or we may say nothing at all), but what we also may say is UM, and today, this little gem and it's partner UH came out in full force, to the point where it was almost a distraction.

The presenter was very knowledgeable, but had a very monotone voice, zzzz, and this certainly didn't help with the choice of words, but during the one hour presentation, 37 slides, I heard and counted 80 UMs, interspersed with 6 UHs. Now the UM could have been placed at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle or at the end, and even in some cases, the UMs were strung together as in a succession of UMs....um um.....

I have to give credit though (if you're going to knock something, it is always good to prop it up somehow). Toward the middle to the end of the presentation, the UMs had mostly disappeared, and were being used as emphasis, but initially, the UMs were frequent, and may have been attributed to nerves.

Oh, and there was also the squeaky door in the background. Every once in awhile, the presenter would walk over to open a door, which of course had a squeak. Again, to give credit, the presenter never faltered, never skipped a beat, and was not distracted....and never missed an UM either.

OH! And the dog* barking! That must have been the reason for the squeaky door opening! Sounded like a big dog with a big woof. Now the presenter sounded a bit shaky. I can visualize fingers being pointed and shaking at said dog. Mouthing the words 'bad dog' or 'shhhh' or 'come here puppy'. *sounds of barking trailing off in the distance*


Too funny. The dog never used UM once, nor UH.

I can hardly wait for the rest of my day to take shape.

* The dog turned out to be a Weimariner..........I have actually met one of these beautiful dogs, since there is one at our marina....velvety smooth coat.