When you've been around someone long enough you start to develop a series of code words, shorthand and inside jokes that can even outlast the relationship.
My friend Alisa and her college boyfriend called the television remote the doo-dooter. Boyfriend's long gone, but my husband and I never call that thing a remote.
When a kitchen counter or dishtowel might have been contaminated with raw chicken (or some other icky foodstuff), we say it has chickenosis, thanks to our friends Eric and Joletta.
We also have:
Funkatosis: An offshoot of chickenosis. Used to describe anything smelly. If that smell resulted from gastrointestinal distress, the culprit is said to have Foggy Bottom, a holdover from when we lived in D.C., where one of the Metro stops was Foggy Bottom.
Crouch: Popularly spelled, and pronounced, crotch. But my husband's mother mispronounced it once, so "crotch" is no longer part of our vocabulary.
F.P.: Short for "freakin' problem." As in, "What's your F.P.?" Used in particularly exasperating situations, like when your beloved won't give you the doo-dooter.
W.E.: Short for "whatever," also courtesy of Eric and Joletta. Used when you don't want to waste breath or effort on an argument.
Those are part of my relationship lexicon.
What's on your list?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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3 comments:
An old girlfriend introduced me to a few phrases that became part of our communication. Namely, sex was always referred to as "the enjoyable". If we were really hungry and sat down for a good meal, we were "getting our mack on". And "Fleetwood Mac" was a reference to being too lazy or too busy to do something; we allowed their Greatest Hits CD to shuffle and repeat at least ten times one night...maybe that's why I can't listen to marching bands anymore(Tusk!).
I bet your mother in law was playing with you or kidding you and you (as so many editors can do with words) missed it and took it way too serious. Lighten up and be more care free and less editing outside the office area is what I suggest. A long time ago I was friends with an English teacher and learned from her to smile and laugh and play with words and especially with the various areas of the USA and the way people talk or say things or kid with words and the closeness to other words. Good old Mark Twain or you can name a whole lot of fun talking people who with their serious faces on fooled others with 'playing with them'; while the other one takes them way too serious the one doing the playing enjoys their reactions or behaviors (sometimes without saying a word). Daughter in laws can be so much fun to watch or 'play with' sometimes with the way they interrupt and listen to their mother in laws, when most of the time it is about the daughter in law being so very serious with what she thinks she hears! Play with words, laugh with words, enjoy words or smile together with words more often; especially those editing souls out there wanting to edit when no edit is needed!!!!!
Poets love to do this with words!
Talk and pronounce or as some might think mispronounce words all you want, I say to your husband's mother with a smile. She is a 'great' lady, full of JOY and LIFE and tons of fun to be around. A true GEM for sure! So cute with talking and communicating she always is and other's love her for it and love to be around her, (that is if they are fun lovin and full of postive energy too and not those 'so serious' types! There is always enough of that type of person in the world to stay away from if we can!)
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