7th Period is Twelve Hours Long
I'm a freaking dynamo all morning, but after lunch, the last two periods of the day just draaaaaaaag. And while I'm at it, why doesn't someone give my kid a job? Why couldn't the economy have waited until next fall to tank, after scads of teachers retired and my kid got one of their jobs? Hmmm?
Speaking of kids and what they wear -- I know I did that one day, maybe yesterday -- why do the girls think that as long as they're wearing a bra, they're in good taste, even if they're wearing a regular bra with a halter top, or something equally absurd, sometimes, a tube top with a bra under it. Uh, hello? Fashion police, please? Kids are so odd. And the variety you see among high school age kids is astounding. I have one freshman here who has the tough demeanor and walk of a seasoned senior, but he is not even close to five feet tall and has a baby baby face under his soon-to-be five o'clock shadow. There are some extra-heavy girls wearing those shorty-shorts because, of course, that's the style, but it's not the style for them. Don't they have mirrors? I don't think everyone should be thin -- for sure, I don't; the stick thin kids scare me -- but I do think everyone would want to wear the clothes that are most flattering for them. And while I'm at it, those too-long-to-be-shorts-too-short-to-be-pants that a lot of the boys wear? What is up with that? I call it the Bobby Hill Look, like the awkward kid on King of the Hill. These boys might just as well be wearing a sign that says I am too immature to know the difference between kids' clothes and men's clothes. And the boys with the gigantic feet hanging off the ends of skinny stick legs, and of course, those guys are wearing the stupid shorts. And then there are the occasional kids that look so adult, you think it must be a substitute, or a new teacher, kids who have just got it together.
I'm going to the inner ear doctor tomorrow about the tinnitus, and to see if it's maybe connected to TMJ, which is problems with the jaw and the joint that connects it to your ... head, I guess. When I looked up that other thing I've got in my knee last night, the avascular necritis, I read that one of the most common joints to get that in is .... your jaw! So now, of course, I'm thinking that I have this crap in every achy joint in my body, and by the time I get it all replaced, I'm going to be the Six Million Dollar Librarian. (Or maybe by then I'll just be the Six Million Dollar Grandma.) Although I don't think there are replacements for everything yet, but really, are they going to CAT scan my whole body to see where I've got it? I'll glow in the dark.
Speaking of being a grandma -- no, no news on that front, not for a long time -- when I was a kid, I called both my grandmothers Grandma and my grandfathers Grandpa. If necessary, we added their first name for clarification: Grandma Ida, Grandma Sadie. I thought all kids called their grandparents that (even though my mother always referred to her own grandmother as Bubbe, but I actually thought that was part of her name, like my mother would have addressed her as Grandma Bubbe Pesha, since I didn't know that Bubbe was Yiddish for Grandma.) Anyway, when R was born, my ILs stated their preferences for what they wanted to be called, which was Nana and Gramps. I had really always thought such things were affectations, but I guess that's what they called their grandparents, and what their kids called their own grandparents. (Although Gramps was formerly the Italian equivalent, I know not what, and Nana came from the Irish side, although the Italian is Nonna.) Either way, my kids immediately corrupted Nana to Nannie, which the MIL wasn't crazy about, but learned to live with. I know lots of people who use various ethnic terms; my pal The Colleague and her husband go by the Polish equivalents, and E goes by the Hebrew. So here's my question: what words do you and your family use to mean Grandma and Grandpa, and why? Just curious.
(One of the craziest, to me, is my Chum, who has three step-sons, and is the only grandmother their kids know. When the first was little, she often wore a sweatshirt with bees drawn on it that she had painted, since the baby loved it, and she has since become known as Grannie Bumble, or just Bumble. That's a little too weird for me.)
We've been playing Mystery Computer Network here at school all day. At any given moment, the Internet will go out, or saved documents will vanish from kids' accounts. It really is like a system designed by monkeys. Twenty minutes to go, and then I can hobble down the stairs to freedom.
watching WIFE SWAP :: ENTRY #2058
READING: American Lion: Andrew Jackson by Jon Meacham
My husband and I have no grandkids so far, but our daughter has decided we'll be Grandma Sue and Grumps. My husband really loves "Grumps" and I think it's cute and original.
ReplyDeleteRegarding teen fashions: one of the things that always astounds me is how the same kids who would fight against required uniforms have no difficulty with wearing the exact same outfits as all their friends.
ReplyDeleteAs you may remember, I didn't have all four grandparents. My father's mother was Gramma, and so was my mother when my kids were growing up. My mother's father was Grampa, or as he pronounced it, Grrampa. My father was Grampa too.
Just to break the chain, and not to be confused with Vovo, I am Bubbe.
Oma and Ota on the paternal side and Grandma and Grandpa on the maternal. 'Opa' is the correct German, but 'Ota' was started by one of the dozens of grandkids who came before me and my sister and was the family norm.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to Texas and heard 'Mee-Maw' and 'Pee-Paw' for the first time I flinched. Never did get used to that weirdness. Over my dead body my grandchildren call me 'Mee-Maw'.
Out of six grandparents (biological mom, stepmom, and dad), I had a relationship with only two -- three died before or just after I was born, and the fourth was estranged from my biological mother for years -- and that was my stepmom's parents. They're Grandma and Grandpa to me; it never occurred to use something else. Grace calls both sets of grandparents Grandma and Grandpa, and if we have to differentiate between the two sets, we use the last name, with the exception of my (step)mom who is just Grandma Marty since she does not share a last name with my dad. Grace will also call her "My Precious Jewel" since that is what my mom calls her, in remembrance of her grandmother calling her that.
ReplyDeleteKurt called his grandma "Mom-mom," a nickname given to her by his eldest cousin, which I think was inspired. The great-grandkids called her Mom-mom too, which is a lot easier to say than "Great-grandma." She died in April; I miss her so much.
My real mom insisted that her grandkids would call her Mee-maw, but I always said it'd be over my dead body. Fortunately it's no longer an issue.
I never new my mom's parents, but Dad's parents were always Gramma and Grampa (no d). My son always calls my mom Gramma. He has so little contact with Mike's mom he doesn't even really have a name for her.
ReplyDeleteI called my grandparents Gramma and Grampa Lastname when we spoke about them in conversation, but to their face they were just Gramma and Grampa. My son calls my mother Nana and my father Paw-Paw - a habit that began with my older sister's children. He calls my husband's parents Grammom and Pop. My FIL has always been called Pop, by his children and his grandchildren.
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