At the End of the Day, Overused Phrases Bug me
There is something bugging me, and it's the phrase, "At the end of the day." You hear it on TV, you hear it a LOT in presidential debates. You hear it from friends, read it in papers and, if you're like me, you say it. At the end of the day, we are going to need a good fiscal policy. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many miles you ran, but that you ran. At the end of the day, he knows he was wrong.
I say "at the end of the day," but I don't like that I do. I try not to. It's overused, and really, it's not necessary in any of the examples above.
Another phrase that I have come to loath is "wait for it." I do not say this. I never have. I never could figure out what the waiting was all about. I could have written this definition which I found in the Urban Dictionary:
"An overused phrase intended to add a level of sarcastic suspense to a ― usually pointless ― event. Usually repeated at least twice in addition to dragging the words; especially "it" (waaiitt for itttt…. waaiitt for itttt….). It used to be somewhat funny the first or second time you heard it. But anymore, there seems to be an abundance of people going out of there way to try to fit it in to their conversation, even when it doesn't fit. All of a sudden someone in the conversation will start saying, "wait for it… wait for it…," and you know it didn't belong in the conversation; they just wanted to use the phrase. If you are going to use this phrase ― along with wearing a trucker hat and Heelies ― AT LEAST wait for a time in the conversation when it actually applies and is appropriate."
Here's another overused phrase, and once again, I am totally guilty of using it far too much: "No problem." One day, I was booking Moose into the luxury penthouse that some might call "boarding." I pay handsomely for Moose to stay here, so when I thanked the girl for booking it, she said, "no problem." Like she thought there could have been a problem, but fortunately, there was not, so she was going to step out there and do me this solid. Which she so was not doing, because my booking just made it possible for her kid to get braces. She should have said, "My extraordinary pleasure, Miss London." But she said, "no problem." 
What about overused, useless words? When I am writing, there is a word the creeps into my prose that has no business being there: Just. He just this and she just that. It adds nothing, it means nothing in that context, and yet it is the bane of my writing existence. I just can't stop. Nyuk nyuk.
What are some overused phrases that bug you? If you can't think of any, no problem, because at the end of the day, they're all just…wait for it…words! We all use them and not always correctly. But if there are any words or phrases that bug you, we'd love to hear them. Happy Monday!
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