I was lucky enough to spend some time last weekend with my college friend Jody. We had a great time clipping coupons, reliving memories and watching our kids play. More than once during the weekend, Jody said "snap" in the same way I use "shoot" or "darn," so I started saying "snap" in my head just to see if I could work it into everyday life. I finally had to realize that I cannot pull off "snap." Even worse, I realized that it had been a few years since I could pull off the latest street jargon. When I was in college, I used "my bad" correctly, and I think I did OK with "you go girl". My youngest brother is 12 years younger than me, so he taught me how to say "that's tight" or "off the hook", and the taught me when and how to keep things on the "down low". Apparently though not too many people say down low anymore. I think it has been replaced by "QT", which makes no sense to me. In my mind, QT should stand for quiet time, of which I am definitely a fan!
So it makes me wonder what happened to me and my youth. It seems like somewhere along the way, I have lost my ability to have fun and be cool. Did I just wake up this old one day? I have three plausible theories:
1. It seems like I have already forgotten a lot of what Alex and I have done in the last three years, so maybe I didn't really live it. Maybe during my sleep, I was transported through time.
2. For three years, I was an accountant at our local hospital. Maybe the other accountants were jealous of my youth, sense of humor, and zest for life. Maybe they kidnapped me and forced me to have a lobotomy that took away the fun part of my brain.
3. Our cell phone plan does not have texting. Maybe everyone in the US but me is getting texted with the latest catch phrases.
Don't cry for me, my peeps. There is still hope. I also heard Jody say, "holy chicken cacciatore" and I think I can roll with that one.
9 comments:
Word!!
I can handle "holy chicken cacciatore," but if I hear you say any of those other things I'm not going to be able to stop laughing! I think we create our own coolness without having to use the lingo that's out there. Besides, Pam, you have some of the best one-liners and comebacks of anybody I know. You're already fly. Fo' shizzle.
That is off the chain...I'm crackin' up! This reminds me of how weird I sound when I use curse words. I don't use them anymore, but there was a time when I cursed more often (college) and it never sounded right to my own ears. People would just look at me funny...I realized I'm just not the cursing type.
I taught in a classroom of "street-smart" middle schoolers for several years and could kinda keep up with the lingo, but I only used it myself to diffuse a situation and make the kids laugh (they had serious anger issues, so keeping a sense of humor was key!). Some of you have heard me call things "BoBo," as in "cheap, generic, non-brand, your-mother-must-not-love-you-if-she-made-you-wear-those-shoes"...but that's probably been relegated to the lingo graveyard by now.
Funny post, Pam!!! ;-D
I used to teach in a middle school and Laugh at what they were saying. Most times it did not make any sense... and they though I was pretty funny to try and explain it to them.
I think that instead of thinking you are "old" you should see yourself as more mature, sophisticated and classy! I mean, isn’t chic “in” now-a-days?
Fawnda
This is just too funny! And Rachel said, "Fo shizzle." LOL I can tell you from experience, Pam - it's much more fun and a lot less stressful to just embrace your inner nerd. I'm not saying you have an inner nerd. I'm just saying...um...just in case...if you're feeling "white and nerdy"...sorry...will stop now...
Oh my goodness. This post was too funny. I so did not realize that I say "snap" so often. And in my defense the "holy chicken cacciatore" incident was under extreme circumstances!
Jody, we understand. Extreme circumstances call for extremely explicit chicken recipe names...preferably shouted in public places for all to hear (or blog about later :-D). I'm sure there are other kitchen expletive linguists out there...somewhere...
I'm sendin love to all my sistas in bloggyland :) You guys are so funny. If you don't know what Liz is talking about, you tube 'white and nerdy". It is a wierd Al song. Need I say more.
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