That's what it's been doing around East Texas for several days: drizzling enough to curl my hair so that every day it looks as though I just got a haircut. A very bad haircut ... with the piece de resistance being a double spritz of overpriced Mega Frizz.
It's not just the rain that has me thinking of our time abroad, though. I've been reading Madeline a chapter a night of "The Secret Garden." (We adore it.) The book is set in York, and a number of the characters have a broad Yorkshire accent. For the sake of performance integrity -- and the need to distinguish between characters -- I must, of course, employ different dialects. The problem is that I don't have a wide repertoire. In fact, the only accent I can feign with better-than-nauseating results is a sort of Gaelic mish-mash.
I can also hold my own as a Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz, which was always fun in college. When JT and I got bored, we'd go through Wal-Mart and speak only in high-frequency Munchkin speak. That was after we'd gone to Chevron and charged off-brand Doritos, 2 cans of tunafish and a 2-liter of Coke to her dad's gas card. But I digress.
When Roy and I lived in Dublin, two of our flatmates were college students from County Galway. They were lovely (LOOHV-ley) girls, a fascinating mix of modern and traditional, unthinkingly sprinkling their everyday speech with thee's and ye's. ("Do ye mean to say ye didna know black puddin' was blood sausage? I bet that surprised thee.") It was like having a conversation with a King James Bible, only hip and funny.
I learned a lot from our talks in the teeny-tiny "kitchen/eating area" we shared on the first floor. Among which was the certainty that having a bathroom off a teen-tiny kitchen you share with three other people, with a door that's two inches shy of meeting the floor is not desirable.
For love of mercy, just finish your freakin' tea and bickies and go!
I have a couple of stories worth sharing, like the time Roy unintentionally insulted the Lord Mayor and the time I assaulted a man. But they'll have to wait until we get back from Mardi Gras. We're off to spend a family-friendly weekend in Loueeesiana.
Ye be good.
-30-
6 comments:
I don't know, Toni. That lovely living arrangement sounds pretty wonderful compared to some I endured. Well, that bathroom/kitchen arrangement could have been a little embarrassing I suppose.
It's always so much fun to come over here. You have the most amazing way of saying the most amazing things. :-)
PLEASE, I beg of ye, havest some bread pudding for me? And some strong coffee? And some jambalaya? And a beignet?
Okay. Pretty much just think of me when you eat anything at all. Especially if it has Tony Chachere's on it.
I think that I remember you and JT from Walmart or maybe I just stood in line behind y'all at the Chevron while I was charging groceries on my dad's charge card.
Thanks for the trip abroad that I've never had. Someday...oh someday.
I too use different, let's just call them voices, while reading to my children. But I forget which belonged to whom and they call me on it. Dang kids.
I sometimes think the most gracious thing I do for our guests is to run the kitchen water loud when they're visiting the little potty just off the kitchen....
Okay, now JT's comment at Big Mama's makes a WHOLE lot more sense now that I've read this. I just thought she was a little bit crazy. :)
And what on earth are bickies???
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