PACT

So I found the blog of an old friend today and I got to reminiscing. How precious time and life are. I once, and really always will have, these three best friends. They were in large part, the reason why I miss high school every now and then. (okay I get it, who MISSES high school) They didn't actually go to my high school, but they made that time in my life...well they just made it.

We are so so different. I haven't really heard from one of them in a while, but the other two I try to keep up with as best as possible. Brooke and Sarah. They have always been so much more adventuresome than me, but thankfully they have let me tag along every now and then. You might be thinking, you are adventuresome Rebecca you went to Costa Rica alone for six weeks. If you think that, just take a second to talk to these ladies. They one time ran down the streets of Manhattan while taking off their shirts just for the fun of it, because nobody was around. I am telling you it really happened, and I just stood there in awe.

From afar they still motivate me to always push my limits and go beyond my comfort zone. If you guys read this...I love you.

Theme of the Week

So lately I have encountered three situations involving early morning smoking...

1. It was about 10 am, I was headed out to the Woodlands when I encountered an odd situation. There were about 3 cop cars surrounding an older red car. There were two teenagers cuffed and sitting on the ground. Really guys, high at 10am...and driving?

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2. I was driving to church Sunday morning, about 10:15...fine 10:25 (I was late) when I saw a guy smoking a pipe. No big deal, right? But it wasn't just any guy, it was a young guy driving with the windows down in his mid size pick up truck. A pipe? At 10:25 in the am.? While driving?

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3. I was just completing a 3 mile run, it was about 7:45 am and I ran past a guy in sweat pants and a wife beater smoking outside of his house. He had that I just woke up and here you are running like you are something special look on his face. I made sure to cough loudly as I ran past him to indicate to him that he was contaminating my running air. Really the first thing you have to do in the morning is wake up and smoke a cigarette?

My thoughts on the matter are this, if...IFFFF you are going to smoke, lets wait till at least noon and for the teenagers that were arrested, might I just say this. Permanent Record.

Phrases…or Euphemisms…sort of??

You know those phrases that frankly we all use to “soften the blow”??? I would love to meet the brilliant mind that introduced those to our cultural. For example, “Bless her/his heart”. I picked this phrase up after I started hanging out with my country friends in college. They would mention a friend, smile, shake their head, say “Bless their heart” and then same something down right ugly. Example:

“Bless her heart, she just can’t sing for her life. When I here her sing I want to go and jump into a pit of venomous snakes…but bless her heart.”

Or they say “Now I would say this to their face, if they were here…” That is absolutely not true, would you really say that to the person if they were standing right there? Okay, maybe you would, but would you say it to the person if they were standing right there with their grandma…probably not. Those country folks are tricky with their phrases, because I would leave an evening with them thinking that country people are just the sweetest people I have ever met. THEN I would recount all of the Bless her hearts, I know they mean wells or I would say it to their faces and realize maybe they aren’t so nice after all.

There are also phrases, which I mostly picked up from my northern influence that are more direct like:
• “I don’t mean to be rude but if you don’t step up off my lawn I might just…”
• “Don’t take it personally but your breath stinks”

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I also recall a phrase that I use to be direct, but appear that I am actually being indirect. This is the “I feel” phrase. I feel like eating at Cheddars tonight, I feel like we should go to the lake, I feel like I want a chocolate chip cookie. These are all things that I want directly, but have acquired the tendency to use as a cushion to the truth or a filler as I actually decide what I want “I feel like (pause) pizza for diner”. Really I don’t feel like a piece of pizza, I just want to eat pizza.

As I studied Spanish the summer in Costa Rica, these are the cultural things I slowly began to notice. For example “lo que”. I would began all of my sentences with “lo que” which means “its that”. This way I could think about what I was going to say next. So I wonder what other phrasal crutches Spanish speakers use to soften the blow, or what new phrasal crutches we might develop in the future.