My mom is having surgery today. She has a tear in her rotator cuff that needs to be repaired & a bone spur on the shoulder joint that will be removed at the same time.
This is a first for my mom as she's never had surgery before. I told her that if she wanted to take a page from my playbook, I would have preferred that she take a dance class. :-)
If you've got a moment to send up a prayer or to keep a good thought that everything goes well for her, I'd appreciate it.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
How Do You Say that in English?
It always surprises and amazes me when I come across something that I can express in aother language, but don't know how to say it in English.
For instance, I can't sail in English. I'm sure that sounds strange to most people, but I had never been sailing until I was an exchange student in Sweden. My host family had a 30+ foot sailboat and we spent a couple of weeks sailing on the Baltic. Never having done it before, I learned all my terminology in Swedish....A couple of years later, a friend took a group out for an afternoon sail. She had asked before hand if any of us had been sailing before & I told her I had. Thus, she was expecting me to be able to help out. Unfortunately, I discovered that I couldn't sail in English when she called for me to do something and I had no idea what she wanted.
I just ran into a similar situation. My SO needed to meet up with someone who lives approximately an hour away, so they decided to meet about 1/2 way. They wanted someplace easy to find/hard to miss, and right off the freeway to make it easy. The perfect location turned out to be an Ikea.
This is the closest Ikea to me, but since it's 35 minutes away, I don't go often. This may be a good thing as I tend to spend more than I'd like to admit there. Unlike most ppl, I don't spend it on the furniture. Nope, I could spend tons of $ in that little area outside of the cashiers that sells Swedish food. Admittedly, Swedish cuisine isn't well-known; when was the last time someone said, "let's go out for Swedish tonight"? But, for me, it takes me right back to the time I spent there & there are things I really love that one just doesn't find anywhere in this area other than Ikea.
So, I wanted to ask my SO to pick up something for me.....but I didn't know what to call it in English.
Luckily, I was able to describe the items well enough that he figured it out. (Actually, I gotta give it up to my sweetie -- not only did he get the item I wanted/asked for, he also got me 3 or 4 other things that he knows I like. )
But, yeah, it's a very odd feeling to hear oneself saying, "I don't know how to say that in English," when English is one's native language.
For instance, I can't sail in English. I'm sure that sounds strange to most people, but I had never been sailing until I was an exchange student in Sweden. My host family had a 30+ foot sailboat and we spent a couple of weeks sailing on the Baltic. Never having done it before, I learned all my terminology in Swedish....A couple of years later, a friend took a group out for an afternoon sail. She had asked before hand if any of us had been sailing before & I told her I had. Thus, she was expecting me to be able to help out. Unfortunately, I discovered that I couldn't sail in English when she called for me to do something and I had no idea what she wanted.
I just ran into a similar situation. My SO needed to meet up with someone who lives approximately an hour away, so they decided to meet about 1/2 way. They wanted someplace easy to find/hard to miss, and right off the freeway to make it easy. The perfect location turned out to be an Ikea.
This is the closest Ikea to me, but since it's 35 minutes away, I don't go often. This may be a good thing as I tend to spend more than I'd like to admit there. Unlike most ppl, I don't spend it on the furniture. Nope, I could spend tons of $ in that little area outside of the cashiers that sells Swedish food. Admittedly, Swedish cuisine isn't well-known; when was the last time someone said, "let's go out for Swedish tonight"? But, for me, it takes me right back to the time I spent there & there are things I really love that one just doesn't find anywhere in this area other than Ikea.
So, I wanted to ask my SO to pick up something for me.....but I didn't know what to call it in English.
Luckily, I was able to describe the items well enough that he figured it out. (Actually, I gotta give it up to my sweetie -- not only did he get the item I wanted/asked for, he also got me 3 or 4 other things that he knows I like. )
But, yeah, it's a very odd feeling to hear oneself saying, "I don't know how to say that in English," when English is one's native language.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Ruby -- The Adventures Continue...
When I first introduced you to my foster dog, Ruby, I ended the post by saying "more adventures to come". What an understatement that was!!
First, she went into heat about a week after coming here. She was scheduled to be spayed just 2 days later, but that had to be postponed until she was out of heat. We survived that and a month later, she got spayed and after recovering from that, was finally ready to find her forever home.
The first family that was interested would have been perfect for her. They'd just had to put their previous dog down, and ultimately decided they wanted another male, so it was a no-go. The next family that inquired wasn't a good fit -- Ruby is a bouncy, in-your-face, play-play-play type. This family has a dog with hip issues, so he could unintentionally end up hurt if Ruby were to bounce on him. Thus, she was still hanging around here until the right home could be found.
Then came last weekend. Sunday morning, Ruby started having grand mal seizures. They were thankfully, short-lived, but pretty dramatic -- she was out of it/unresponsive, back legs paddling, rest of the body stiff/arched, hypersalivating, shaking violently. Think of the way Hollywood portrays a seizure & this was the canine equivalent. She had 7 of them in the first 24 hrs, until the vet was able to get her stabilized and on meds to control them. The good news is she hasn't had any since. The bad news is they can't figure out what caused/is causing them.
She's been walking around like a "punch drunk sailor" as her body acclimates to the meds. She's getting better, but still is lacking somewhat in coordination. It's like her back half and front half are a 1/2 beat out of sync. A couple more days and hopefully she'll be back to her usual bouncy self. Who would have thought I would miss that?
Michael Jackson RIP
I know it's been more than a week since Michael Jackson passed away, but this is the first time I've gotten the chance to sit down and put my thoughts together. Mostly, it's just sad to lose anyone that young, but most especially to lose someone with that much talent & artistry.
His songs were the soundtrack to most of the jazz classes I ever took. One of my jazz teachers actually was in the video for Beat It and again in the Weird Al parody of it, Eat It. (In Eat It, he was the "gang member" in the white leather jacket with the smiley face & "have a nice day" on the back.)...It's rare that I don't hear one of those songs and it doesn't place me immediately back to whichever dance class where we used that song.
Another one of those "burned forever in my mind" memories from high school was the time when 3 of us decided we had to go get ice cream from a place approximately 30-35 minutes away. The only one of us who had use of a car that night was a friend who could borrow his mom's car -- a small convertible. (Luckily, I'm small enough to fit in the back or it wouldn't have worked.) That friend was in the process of creating a music mix, but the only stuff he'd gotten to so far was 3 old Jackson 5 songs: ABC, I Want You Back, and one other that escapes me at the moment. For 35 minutes out there, and 35 minutes back, we heard those same 3 songs over and over again, top down, singing along...I don't hear any of those 3 songs without thinking of that night.
And who (who was around) can forget the impact of the video of Thriller?! A friend of mine managed to record it and we played it over and over until we managed to break it down, and then we knew it by heart. Yeah, I'll admit it, we were all dancers, so we kinda get a pass, but I'd bet there are tons of others who, if they were being honest, would have to fess up to the same thing & they wouldn't have the excuse that they were dancers.
He was always breaking new ground & and what he did one day would be tweaked & modified and incorporated until 10 years later, there it was at the core of whatever was hot. The "heartbeat" in today's hip hop? Take a look at this video of Dirty Diana and you'll see it developping:
And, yes, as a dancer, I know that the Moonwalk came directly from Bill Bailey:
but you gotta admit, MJ made it his own and it grew from there. And, I think that's really the saddest thing -- that we'll never know what he would have done next or when that next iconic thing would have appeared.
His songs were the soundtrack to most of the jazz classes I ever took. One of my jazz teachers actually was in the video for Beat It and again in the Weird Al parody of it, Eat It. (In Eat It, he was the "gang member" in the white leather jacket with the smiley face & "have a nice day" on the back.)...It's rare that I don't hear one of those songs and it doesn't place me immediately back to whichever dance class where we used that song.
Another one of those "burned forever in my mind" memories from high school was the time when 3 of us decided we had to go get ice cream from a place approximately 30-35 minutes away. The only one of us who had use of a car that night was a friend who could borrow his mom's car -- a small convertible. (Luckily, I'm small enough to fit in the back or it wouldn't have worked.) That friend was in the process of creating a music mix, but the only stuff he'd gotten to so far was 3 old Jackson 5 songs: ABC, I Want You Back, and one other that escapes me at the moment. For 35 minutes out there, and 35 minutes back, we heard those same 3 songs over and over again, top down, singing along...I don't hear any of those 3 songs without thinking of that night.
And who (who was around) can forget the impact of the video of Thriller?! A friend of mine managed to record it and we played it over and over until we managed to break it down, and then we knew it by heart. Yeah, I'll admit it, we were all dancers, so we kinda get a pass, but I'd bet there are tons of others who, if they were being honest, would have to fess up to the same thing & they wouldn't have the excuse that they were dancers.
He was always breaking new ground & and what he did one day would be tweaked & modified and incorporated until 10 years later, there it was at the core of whatever was hot. The "heartbeat" in today's hip hop? Take a look at this video of Dirty Diana and you'll see it developping:
And, yes, as a dancer, I know that the Moonwalk came directly from Bill Bailey:
but you gotta admit, MJ made it his own and it grew from there. And, I think that's really the saddest thing -- that we'll never know what he would have done next or when that next iconic thing would have appeared.
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