stale is the only option

I'm tired of the same old words. They are like ash on my tongue, dishwater on my fingertips. To write "regarding," "please note," or "it is requested" till the end of time could very well bring on a premature death--perhaps not literal, but every other kind of death that is referred to in the literary realm.
The past few days I've been looking through a book of vocabulary. Call me ridiculous, but I've been making flashcards for words I only half-know, or don't know at all. I'll flip through them, maybe at stoplights on my way to work, or during commercials when I watch TV on Sunday night, or at the kitchen table after a long day.
Studying is like slipping on an old, worn, but friendly t-shirt. It's familiar and comfortable. It reassures me that things aren't so bad, that they'll get better.
The real challenge, I suppose, won't be thumbing through the definitions on a semi-regular basis, but actually making use of the words I'm studying. There's no modest way to insert "bellicose" in the middle of an e-mail. It's pretentious, no two ways about it. It's like wearing a siren red suit while working in a grey cubicle under dim artificial lighting. You can't help but notice. And who do you think you are anyway, throwing around "desultory" and "edacious"? What's the occasion for that suit? Trying to show you're more than just common. Warding off an identity that is already upon you--might as well give in. In fact, it is requested that you do.