Thursday, September 28, 2006

Elevators, Latin and Marines

I was in the elevator the other day, and a mother was asking her 4-year-old girl to press "four." And like a good little girl, she pressed the cardinal number four next to the forth floor button. The mother instructed the child to press the button, and then the elevator obeyed.

At that moment, I thought the child, not the mother, was right. The girl pressed exactly what the mother asked. And I thought to myself, how imprecise our language is. Perhaps 98 people out of 100 would have pressed the button when asked to press the number, yet we all know what people mean when they say something approximating what they want.

Anyway, I am not advocating being precise; I just found the whole experience curious.

Have you ever really enjoyed a bad movie? I mean, really enjoyed the movie but knew it was a crappy movie. It never happened to me, either.

I feel so random today. Really random.

I feel like I have been in some deep depression and the sun has just come out. So here I am just looking at the clouds, feeling good, and then it occurs to me: I don't feel like shit anymore. Speaking of being precise, what exactly does "shit" feel like? I don't even like the word.

Part of me would love to be an elementary school student again. Funny that most of us have "high school" reunions but not "elementary school" reunions. Why is that? From what I have heard many people say, elementary school rocked. I mean, you get to nap, eat paste, draw to your hearts content. I think it would be great to meet up with 30-something former classmates, talk about the guy who ate paste, sleep on mats and drink chocolate milk. That is my idea of a good time. Er, maybe I am alone.

I heard the other day about an initiative for Jewish people to learn to read Hebrew. We have a rather large Jewish population in Savannah, and I think such an initiative is great. How many Catholics would sign up for a course to learn Latin? Not me, buck-o. Heck, I can barely say, "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti" or "Ave Maria."

The Marines have some Latin phrase, and I don't know what it means. I sort of think it means, "We can kick your butt" but I am not sure of the meaning. Someone said it means "always faithful." I think that's just what Marines tell non-Marines.

Well, I guess I need to adjust my medications. Sometimes I wonder if those who are psychiatric inpatients make fun of those of us who are on the outside. "Do you know how many sane people it takes to change a lightbulb? None. Sane people never change."

14 comments:

Muse said...

I find it interesting that you caught such an interaction and were able to turn it into something read worthy. I wish I had such talent.

Glad you feeling better Babe, drop me a note and fill me in, k? Ive been wondering how its all going.

And sane people never change? Then I am crazy cause Im changing aplenty. :-)

Anonymous said...

Elevators are for sissies.

which....

makes me a sissy of course

or....

just old and frail.

Tony said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tony said...

I liked today's post. I'd tell you to ease up on the coffee and leave your meds alone but I don't know if you drink coffee.

Lots to choose from. I'll take bad movies for $100.
Have you ever seen "Office Space?" It never won any Oscars but I love it.

Leesa said...

halo: thanks for the compliment, and I will drop you a line.

mike: sometimes buildings are poorly designed and they hide the freekin' elevators.

tony: I don't watch bad movies. And I am full of crap.

Prata said...

What you saw is called "concrete thinking".

Tony said...

Hey Leesa, I think I may have somehow deleted ~deb's comment. She made a comment and I responded to it starting my comment with "~deb:", but then I decided to remove my comment but then after removing my comment I saw that ~deb's was no longer there. If I deleted it I apologize. It was a good comment about Grant.

Deb said...

Hey! Where'd I go? I said something along the lines of Grant having the talent to speak Latin backwards. But...poof...gone!

Hmmm. It was only a joke! ;) I love busting on Grant!

Leesa said...

prata: concrete thinking. I like that.

tony: scary!

~deb: I think tony accidently did something.

Pittchick said...

I get annoyed when kids press elevator buttons. They take too long and i'm a very impatient person. Plus, they oftentimes press more than 1 button.

dasi said...

Actually, I recently got an e-mail from an old friend who actually IS planning a grammar school reunion... and you're right, I am looking forward to that much more than my high school reunion (which is next month). Twenty years out of HS this year, twenty five out of grammar school next year... But I think the thing is too, HS reunions suck because people in HS were usually clique-y and mean, and in grammar school, we all were too young to really get into the "being mean just to be mean" thing. Plus, the class is a lot smaller - 63 as compared to 300-something in HS.

Right now, we are having a great time tracking people down and trotting down memory lane while doing so... the tally so far? Two doctors, three lawyers, two confirmed dead, one THOUGHT dead (but very much alive), one ex-pro wrestler, two gays, and one currently in jail (although he's up for parole in November - we may still invite him...)

Anyway, I'm sure you really don't care about all this, but you struck a chord talking about grammar school reunions, so... ;)

Ian Lidster said...

I think the only Latin phrase anybody needs to know, Ms. L is "Non illegitemos carborundum," -- "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
I liked your random musings of today.

Your friend, Ian

Leesa said...

dna: when I was a girl, I rarely rode on elevators and loved pressing the buttons. Before I get mad, I remember the feeling of pressing buttons when I was a girl.

dasi: I actually love reading about a grammer school reunion. Thanks for the information.

zack: occasionally I like sticking my head out of the car - the only thing that keeps me from doing it too often is the tangles.

Grant said...

Learning Japanese has made me think more about our own language and how funny it is. For instance, we were taught the verb "to see" and were told not to use it like "I'm going to see my friend" because that would literally mean you're going to go stare at your friend. Throwing a party is another odd thing we say - they say do a party.