Bleh and Woif

It's important to have useful interjections to employ for certain situations. For example, I recall going roller-skating back in college. I was not particularly skilled in the arcane arts of balancing, so whenever it seemed like the top half of my body was about to join my bottom half on the floor, I would spontaneously say, "Woif." I do not know where this word/sound came from. It sounds vaguely Klingon-like, but since I did not have a Klingon wetnurse, its unique brain-chemistry origins remain shrouded in mystery. I do not even know why I felt obliged to make a sound at all: perhaps I subconsciously believed that the soundwaves would bounce off the floor and bounce back, correcting my trajectory and returning me to an upright and locked position. Regardless, the world is quite useful in situations which involve me falling, or involving me about to fall, and the word has stuck with me.

I also often employ the interjection "Bleh!" While "Woif" is a word I use to express a lack of balance, "Bleh" describes the feeling of general ickiness. We often use interjections like "darn" or "crap" to refer to something concrete and immediate: I accidentally stubbed my toe, darn it! "Bleh" is sort of like saying, "I am completely sapped of strength by all the bad things that have happened in my life. I will expend all my remaining energy in this one desperate cry of exhaustion: Bleh!" It is often brought about by stress. I didn't used to say the word a whole lot, but I think the whole job market/getting my dissertation done is getting to me, so now I just find myself walking into empty rooms in our apartment and saying, "Bleh!"

Normally, this wouldn't be so bad. But my usage of the word is intruding into awkward social situations. I've been chairing a socializing committee for our department, and this past Tuesday, we put on a big party for the grad students and faculty. Various last-minute problems arose, I was running late, and literally ran back into a school building. Unable to take the cold, the running, and the stress, without thinking, I just blurted out, "Bleh!" I did not realize it at the time, but a student in my line of sight undoubtedly took this as a noise directed at herself. I suppose it's understandable: here's this strange guy, wearing a peacoat, sweaty, and apparently shouting "Bleh!" at you. As I started running up the stairs, I began thinking, "I often read those reports in the school newspaper about how some strange, middle-aged man is on campus and sexually harrassing students. What if there's going to be an article about me? 'Be on the lookout for a man, about in his 30's, wearing a peacoat. Man is known to go up to female students and shout sexually suggestive grunting noises at them. Witnesses do not know if he is fully clothed beneath his peacoat. Witnesses said his hair appeared greasy, and he was panting leeringly.'"

So, does anyone out there have their own little pet interjections?