Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Must be a mom thing . . .

I'm not a mom (as my nieces and nephew remind me often) but I KNOW lots of moms and I've observed that something strange happens to women when they have kids. They sleep lightly enough that a baby moving its little finger will wake them up. They wash dishes in water that Satan himself would call scalding. And they start to willy nilly re-name places and things around them.

For instance . . .

My mom just recently got a new television and a Blu Ray player. She's never really used the Blu Ray on her own so she doesn't know how to use it yet, which prompted this little conversation between my mom and my sister Erin:

Erin: What are you gonna do tonight, Mom?
Mom: Vicki and I are going to watch a movie.
Erin: Oh, that's fun! Are you gonna watch it over here or at her house?
Mom: Well, I don't know. I'd like to watch it over here but I don't know how to use the Black View yet.
Erin: The "Black View?"
Mom: Yeah. I just don't know if I know how to use it.
Erin: The "Black View?"
Mom: Yeah. Can you show me how to use it?
Erin: [thinking . . .] Are you talking about the HD?
Mom: No. The Black View.
Erin: [thinking . . .] Ummmm . . . the wide screen?
Mom: No. The BLACK VIEW. The thing that you put the things in.
Erin: Okaaaaaaaaay . . . that helps tremendously.
Mom: You know . . . the thing.
Erin: No - I don't kn- oooooooooooooooh! I got it! The Blu Ray?
Mom: Yeah . . . Wait - why are you laughing?

And it's not just my mom . . .

My friend Robin just emailed me the other day to tell me that her mother had called her to see if she wanted to grab lunch at Genghis Grill. If you've never been there, it's a really cool place. It's a Mongolian grill so you go through a buffet line, putting all the raw ingredients, spices, and seasonings you want into a bowl. When you get to the end of the line, you hand your bowl off to a guy who cooks it all for you. Then they give your food in a cool red bowl and you eat it up. Well, Robin's mom, Sandra, wanted to go grab lunch there so she called Robin and they had this conversation:

Sandra: I was just calling to see if you wanted to go to that Beijing place!
Robin: The "Beijing place?"
Sandra: Yeah! You know - Beijing Bowl.
Robin: Beijing Bowl??
Sandra: Yeah! You wanna get lunch there?
Robin: [thinking . . .] Ummm . . . Beijing Bowl??
Sandra: Yeah. You know - the Beijing place with the red bowls.
Robin: You mean Genghis Grill?
Sandra: Yes! That's it! [pause] So instead of a "BB" it's a "GG" . . .

But the best messed-up name I've heard in a long time actually came from my best friend's mom, Pam. She was helping Jill put some laundry away the other day and she picked up one of Jill's bras and said "This is a pretty one. Did you get it from Rebecca's Secret?"

And, actually, that story got even funnier to me tonight when I told my mom what I was going to write about. I re-capped the stories and she said "The red bowl one is so funny. But I can't remember what's wrong with 'Rebecca's Secret' . . ."

Hilarious.

Man - you gotta love our moms and their creative re-naming processes! I don't know how they do it . . . but I'm sure glad they do!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. You are one of the funniest people I know. A place in the "funniest people I know" group is not something I dole out mindlessly.

2. I read this post and laughed aloud in my office. The Blu Ray thing was great, but when I got to Rebecca's Secret... man, that was funny.

3. xoxoxo

Anne Cagg

Phyllis Eddings said...

OK. Here's how Rebecca's Secret works. Kirstie Alley used to have a show about a lingerie store owner called, "Veronica's Closet". Kirstie used to play a Rebecca on Cheers. You just have to connect the dots.