tomorrow/today

going to the chapel

my brother is getting married saturday.  i'm a little stressed, mainly because my sister and i are supposed to sing a duet at the wedding, a song my future sister-in-law picked out that neither my sister nor i know the words to.  something about brides and hands and beauty and god.  something like that.

my brother is 6'5" and his bride is 5'5".  our family are all staunch baptists, her family includes former-catholic-turned-agnostic parents, and a zealous jehovah's witness grandmother.  the wedding is at a small baptist church outside annapolis, maryland, but the reception is down the road at the catholic church, to accomodate the polish folk dancing that the bride's family wishes to include in the reception.  in true baptist fashion, no alcohol will be served and the wedding starts at 2 and ends at 8.  fun times....

back home

i moved back to houston 10 days ago, and was surprised at how happy i felt to be back.  it makes me hesitant to move again.  i love knowing exactly where the closest grocery store is without having to stop and think about it.  and knowing to slow down on certain stretches of the interstate because of speed traps.  and knowing when all of my favorite restaurants open and close, and how to get to the airport fast if there's a wreck on my usual route, and i even like learning everything that's changed in the 10 months i was gone. 

i've forgotten my radio station settings though, and haven't had time to find them again.  :(

lost in translation

so long since i last blogged/so much to tell. 

my boyfriend/"friend boy"/guy-i'm-sleeping-with/etc. called me dumbass last week, as in i made some comment and he responded "no, dumbass."

this did not go over well, to say the least.  to make matters worse, BF did not seem to understand why i was so upset.  he insisted that he had called me that before with no reaction out of me, i insisted that i must have misheard him before because i felt certain i would have reacted, and regardless, i did not want to be called that in the future.  at the end, we sort of agreed to disagree.  well, he agreed not to call me that, but disagreed as to what he perceived as my overreaction.  i agreed to continue seeing him, although i disagreed with his perception that calling me dumbass was not a big deal.

have i mentioned before that english is not his first language?  because it is relevant to this story.

he was speaking with a fully bilingual friend a few days ago, and called her dumbass as well.  remembering my reaction, he asked her about the term and discovered that he had been mis-translating a spanish word.  apparently, she informed him that whatever the spanish word in question was (i can't recall), the proper english translation was "silly" rather than "dumbass."  we were both much relieved to learn our difference of opinion was merely semantic.  i don't at all mind being called silly.

the whole thing reminds me of that still-embarassing memory of telling a deaf man in broken sign language that he and i should marry, when i meant to say we should be friends.