My (not so) Awesome New Year's Resolution.

A couple of days ago, on January 1st, I was chatting with a friend, when I noticed something: I use the word "awesome" a whole lot. It's a very versatile word. It works as an all-purpose positive adjective:

"That was an awesome meal!"
"That movie looks awesome!"
"Thanks for getting the door for me. You're awesome!"

 As well as an all-purpose positive exclamation:

"You're checking out that new restaurant? Awesome!"
"Awesome! The new season of Psych is airing next month! It's going to be so awesome!"

Often I use it when I can't think of anything else to say:

"So, my uncle is coming to visit from Albuquerque next week."
"Awesome."

It's a word I enjoy, and it lends itself to almost any situation. But I'm a writer. It's my job to think about word choice more deeply than that. And so, since it was January 1st, I decided, somewhat as a joke, to make it my New Year's Resolution to find some new adjectives and exclamations to use in place of the word "awesome." Not to stop using awesome altogether. Just to inject a bit of variety into my language.

The resolution was, as I say, supposed to be a joke. But then I went to the Thesaurus... There are some really fantastic alternatives to that word. In fact, I just used one in the previous sentence. Some of them may sound a little odd at first, but I think it would be wizard to throw a few of them into my daily conversation. It might spice things up a bit. Here are some of the options I've found to replace the word "awesome":

As an adjective:

Magnificent
Fascinating
Wonderful
Stupendous
Amazing

As an exclamation:

Capital
Boss
Champion
Whiz-Bang (frankly, I may not use this one, interesting as it is, since it always makes me think of a rather unpleasant former boss of mine. Perhaps my next blog will be about my irrational distaste for certain words.)

Not that I didn't know these words before, or don't already use many of them at least occasionally. But it's all about context.

"What did you think of the book you just read?"
"It was magnificent!"

"I just passed the bar exam!"
"Capital!"

Isn't that so much more interesting than the word "awesome"?

So anyway, this will prove to be an interesting experiment, at least for the next few days. Anyone have any other suggestions for word alternatives?