Is My Southern Showin'?

Southerners have a way with words.  Dripping with honey... lubricated with sweet tea... drawn out through a velvet drawl... Our vocabulary is as colorful as our heritage and applied with molasses liberally over all we come in contact with.  Only a Southerner can get by with calling both their waitress and their mechanic "Hon" without drawing so much as a raised eyebrow.  "Hon" is just our way of politely acknowledging you.  Yours Truely cannot imagine a day going by without uttering "hon" at least a half dozen times through the course of day.  What else would one say?  "Hey you" is just so common, not to mention rude...

To Yours Truely, however, while "hon" can be applied to anyone from birth to grave.... "darlin'" is reserved for those especially close to your heart... The Boy may occasionally cringe, but receives the coveted term from Yours Truely on a semi-regular basis... at least when he's on good behavior.  The only other person currently eligable for the honor is my girlfriend.  She is my darlin'... a term she hears daily from Yours Truely.  (After all, "Absolutely, Darlin'" and "Yes indeedy, Darlin'" are two terms any Southerner who hopes to keep their gal happy should learn and apply liberally...)

In a recent New Year's post, Yours Truely spoke of the need for a proper pseudonym for my girlfriend... after all, The GF is already in use.  We tossed around a few ideas, including MML for My Main Lady that was suggested by a friend... but nothing felt right to me.  It had to be just right.... she was my darlin' after all... and then the lightbulb went off!  So Dear Reader... without further ado, please allow Yours Truely to introduce... My Darlin'.  (The following has been added to the Cast Of Characters for future generations edification and enlightenment.)

My Darlin' (Yours Truely's girlfriend) - A bubbly, passionate personality equally at home on horseback or poised on high heels.  She's been accused of resembling Sandra Bullock... but Yours Truely see a wee bit of Claudia Christian in her as well.  An animal lover, her household includes... a horse, a bearded lizard, a raccoon, and two dogs.... Oh, and a six year old son.   She's a patient, loving mother... a hard task with any energetic, young child.  Just the sound of her voice lifts Yours Truely's spirits and fills my heart.

Hanging at the Hilltop Hostel

The Boy, his girlfriend (aka The GF), and Yours Truly fled the state this past week for some long overdue downtime. We hit the road to Washington DC… home of monuments, museums, memorials, and the Cherry Blossom Festival. I considered seeing if The Boy would like to try his hand at interstate driving, but was dissuaded from the idea by the three car wreck in my rearview at just that moment. Nothing like hearing a “whoompf” and seeing bumpers flying in the air to wake you up in the morning! We were stopped for another wreck at the time, but luckily had just enough room to pull up and avoid being the fourth car in the stack. At least we got our close call for the week over early!

After a long (9 hr) drive, we arrived at the Hilltop Hostel in Tacoma just outside DC. Our first hostel experience was definitely a fun one! The hostel is in an older, three-story house with tons of character. We were given a brief tour of the facilities, sheets for our beds and shown to our rooms. When I first made our reservations they were for just The Boy and myself, so I’d booked us into a private 2-person room. Since The GF was joining us, we’d kicked The Boy out into one of the co-ed dorm rooms.  If you can handle walking up stairs to your room, bunk beds, and a relaxed college dorm like atmosphere complete with classic rock playing from the speakers, you'll love this place!  The Boy and The GF especially enjoyed the game room downstairs where it's a tradition for guests to write or draw on the walls. 

Menus, souvenirs and thank yous
from guests festoon the wall

Over the course of the week, we hung out with fellow travellers from all over the globe... kinda a surreal extended family feel to it in a way.  There was the Japanese historian in town to explore documents at the National Archives for his next book in a spirited conversation with the out-of-work mason from the midwest about role of oil resources on World War II.  Over here we have two groups from the UK, both traveling around the US but in different directions, comparing notes on various cities' hostels and social scenes.  The young man from Germany here for an internship shared his bottle of wine with myself and a couple of the staff. The au pair who was going back to Sweden in a couple of weeks talked about how she'd miss the family she'd been with the last two years, but was looking forward to going to university on her return. 

One visitor was there from my hometown looking at apartments as she had accepted a job in DC and another was in town for an interview.  There was the young man from Korea that watched "Gran Torino" with me one evening, laughing at the interplay between Clint Eastwood and the Hmong grandma.  A couple of girls from China laughing with a staff member in the dining room and the mother of one of the staff shared memories of her life with me on the back porch one sunny evening. 

The last morning at the hostel I was debating on getting up, listening to the early risers moving around when I heard the shower in the bathroom next door to us turn on.  Suddenly the air was filled with exuberant, full-throated song!  I'm still not sure what language it was in, though it sounded slightly middle-Eastern.  The GF and I both started giggling as we gave up on sleeping in. 

Easter decorations were starting to spring up all over the hostel by the time we left.  "Leaving so soon?  Awww, you're going to miss the Easter Egg Hunt!"  Next time I'll have to stay longer obviously... and there will be a next time. 

Next Post:  DC in Springtime

Work Habits

Work for Yours Truely consist mainly of plugging away on computers in a small office with the three other members of my team.  We're all slightly geeky and, after working closely together for a number of years, have formed our own warped, dysfunctional family atmosphere.  We not only live with each other's habits and fobiles... we proudly point them out to visitors as part of the charm of our daily landscape.

If you read Round 'n Round..., you may have figured out that I work in the automotive industry.  Our office used to be located so that headlights would occasionally shine in the windows from one of the off-line areas.  Quite a dramatic lighting effect since we leave off all but one overhead light.  (Easier on the computer-weary eyes)  Each time the light would shine in, my co-worker would rise from her desk, hands and eyes raised to the heavens, intoning "Ahhhhhhhhh!"  It didn't matter what was going on or who she was meeting with... she would pause to celebrate the glory of the light.  This became such a tradition that unless a new visitor was present, it was given no notice... as though time was suspended for that brief moment, conversations resuming without even an eyebrow being raised. Unfortunately, expansion lead to the relocation of our office and the demise of this beloved tradition.  Now it's become a popular myth passed along from cubicle to cubicle in the main office... along with other whispered speculation on our little alcove of geekdom.

Our office has always been something of a myth in and of itself.  As mentioned, we leave off the majority (or all) the overhead lighting with ambient light from the windows and the computer monitors providing a dim atmosphere perfect for programming.  So perfect that most of the employees around us think it's an empty room, until they get curious and try the door.  Ours is a secured, badge-access area so it is not unusual for us to startle visitors and the occasional curious sort rattling our door handle... peering through the one-way glass trying to determine if anyone is home.  The one-way glass has provided an endless source of fun for us watching unsuspecting passers-by stopping to comb their hair or pick their teeth. 

We love our office oddities too... like our Flying Pig.  Perfect for those occasions when the I/S department is giving it their "best effort" or as a subtle answer to a visitor's uninformed inquery or a co-workers frustrated rhetorical rant.  We also proudly display our team's name over the office door decorated in that well-known Matrix code style.  Of course, being uber-geeks, we used some SQL code of our own to create the effect.  Makes it more personal, you know.  Of course there's a Dilbert desk calendar in the room, select pages of which festoon our desks as personal motivation... complete with the names of fellow workers of whom the characters remind us.

Perhaps the best known of our habits is the daily game of Speed Scrabble.  For the longest time we each played computer games during lunch, sometimes challenging each other's score but essentially playing alone.  Because we realized that we needed to take some time off from continually starring at a monitor, this friendly competition was born.  With few exceptions, nothing is allowed to interupt our need for this daily fix.  One of our team actually seems to do better when she's following a conference call while playing!  There's been serious discussion of handicapping her during those occasional lunch time calls... maybe she should have to juggle one-handed too.  Then we might be able to keep up!  The "speed" component of the game is a rule we agreed upon so we could finish a game during our lunchtime.  Each play must be completed in 90 seconds or the player must pass.  If you want to try this at home, start at three minutes and gradually decrease the time allowed to get used to thinking fast.  As geeks, we had to take it a few steps further by creating our own custom Java app to track the time allowed, complete with a 10 second warning buzzer.  We also developed our own web-based dictionary tool using the SOWPOD's word list derived for Scrabble tournament play.  If it's not in SOWPODs, it's not allowed.  I'm often ribbed for trying to sneak in the occasional phonetically spelled word when I'm too close on time to look it up.  I've tried claiming that that's how it's spelled in my home state of Tennessee, but I don't think they're buying it.

Any quirky habits or curiousities where you work?  Feel free to leave a comment and share.

Taking the plunge....

My son suggested starting a blog as an alternative to talking to him about all the insanity that comprises my life. Of course, being 18 (almost) the suggestion came out in a more "I really don't care.... Blog it" way. The more I thought about it though, the more I came to realize that he might have something there... whether he meant to really be helpful or not.

Without further ado, welcome reader to the first installation of the "Galloping Insanity" blog! If you're curious about the title, it's based on a quote from one of my favorite movies, "Arsenic and Old Lace". Cary Grant's comment that "Insanity doesn't run in my family... It gallops!" seemed to fit right in.

Cast of Characters (aka "The Family")....

Teenaged Son (aka "the boy") - Tall, handsome young man always ready with a quick quip. Enjoys playing bass in his band, music (read iPod implanted permanently), and texting.

Grandma (aka "G-Ma") - Mid-sixtyish, enabler-extraordinaire. Embodiment of the Einstein's definition of insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results". Agrees that she needs to allow the Brothers (see below) to experience the consequences of their decisions and then calls to sheepishly confess to digging one of them out of their latest catastrophe. "I had to buy him another car! If he lost his job, he might have to move back in! I know he didn't pay me back for the last one, but he's promised to work out payments this time. I'll just have to put off getting my teeth fixed a little longer... It doesn't hurt that much."

Twin Younger Brothers (aka "Brother1" & "Brother2") - Mid-thirties twins with... shall we say "challenges" that has left them permanently in a social, emotional mentality of early teen development. Both have to have the last word.... making their frequent confrontations of epic length. They split our father's manic-depression down the middle.... Brother1 is a depressive and Brother2 is a manic.

Brother1 - The depressive. Can be located by the dramatically, loud sigh that accompanies the mention of his name. Despite his somber personality, he often dresses with the flamboyance of a homeless, old queen. (note: he's straight) Case in point.... his outfit for Christmas consisted of bright red pants, bright green shirt, bright green fedora, a red, white, & green striped tie and a walking cane made of a dowel painted like a candy-cane. The outfit was actually fairly toned down for someone who has a leopard-print "smoking jacket" hanging on his bedroom door. He currently resides with G-Ma, but just while he trys to get custody of his two children so that he'll be eligible for a larger government-subsidized apartment when he does move out.

Brother2 - The manic. Can be located by the laughter bordering on hysteria that accompanies anything he says. Fascinated by uniforms, leading to his obsession with security work. Shades of Barney Fife. He's recently divorced (again) and falls into relationships at the drop of a conversation. His latest "girlfriend" according to G-Ma was a "relationship" based on chatting online for less then 30 minutes. His outfit for Christmas.... casual wear topped by a Santa hat and a huge grin.

TWolf (aka "Yours Truly") - Late-40s, single mother. Self-described geek with more of an affinity for computers and sci-fi then people. I grok, fondly remember the days of DOS, and scored a 45.36489% on the InnerGeek Test. I went through two marriages and several years of self-loathing before finally coming out as a lesbian. I'm a conservative, non-rainbow waving sort despite G-Ma's TV driven concerns about my "lifestyle". Said "lifestyle" in recent years consists of working long hours in front of computer screens and supporting my son's activities in both the school marching band and his garage band. G-Ma's seen more action of the last few years then have I. No one escapes my family without their fair share... I've struggled with mild agoraphobia (where thoughts of leaving the house brings on anxiety) and depression for years. The Boy claims I'm also bipolar just because his teenaged ways can make my mode change on a dime, but I'm pretty sure that's normal.

Next Post: Don't you dare Tweet that!