Sorry for the belated August blog posting. School ... ya know?
I am going to tell you a funny story that had happened to me
recently. You might have had a similar
experience at some point:
The Grocery List
Dad picked you up
from cross country practice and the two of you are on the way home. You always call Mom to let her know you and
Dad were on the way home, but mostly to find out what was for dinner and to
decide if it was acceptable. If the announced
meal plan was not acceptable, then you and Dad swing by the grocery to buy food
for a “good” dinner (“good” as determined by you and dad, i.e. no broccoli and
more ice cream!) So, on this day, you
call Mom and you ask "What's for dinner?"
Mom replies,
"Pizza, but we are missing some ingredients." Mom listed the ingredients that were needed
for pizza, you are able to catch all of it, because you have helped make a lot
of pizza and know the ingredients necessary for pizza. But then, Mom told you there were some other
items needed.
Mom lists the first
item. It flew right over your head. You ask her to repeat it. She did.
From the sounds you could hear, you hazard a guess.
"Silk?"
you asked.
Dad, who is
driving, started laughing (not at you though), "No silk on the
pizza!" He was the master chef of pizza.
Mom replied no, and
she repeated the word again.
"Oap?"
you asked again, clueless.
At this point, Dad
laughed and listened in the phone conversation to help you.
Third time really
is a charm. "Soap."
Dad laughed again,
"No soap on the pizza!"
Now you figured out
one item, you listened for the next.
Once again, it flew over your head.
"Ba-Ba-Bar?" You burst out laughing. That could not be it. Mom is hard-of-hearing, too, and this time
she was confused also.
You try again to
figure out the word with Mom. Mom
repeated the sounds; you hazard another guess.
"Garlic chives?"
you asked.
Dad looks
puzzled. Mom replied “no” again and
repeated the words.
Once again, third
time is a charm. "Oh! Garbage
bags!"
Dad laughed
Mom said yes. Now that you had the complete list, it was
time to go off to the grocery.
Afterward, Mom and I talked about this little miscommunication. We were actually surprised that the cellular
conversation was not more confusing; we came up with a list of words that we
could have confused with garbage bags, words that were about three syllables
long, that could be found in a grocery, that begin with a 'g' or a 'b', and
that end in an ‘s’. It was a sizable
list: garbonzo beans, green snow peas, grocery bags, buffalo wings. If that happened again, Mom and I decided, we
would just text each other the list or word.
