"La langue internationalle"
This morning Dan showed me this on his favorite multi-lingual website:
"Les White Sox de Chicago ont remport» les honneurs de la S»rie mondiale de baseball pour la premiÀre fois depuis 1917 quand ils ont battu les Astros de Houston 1-0 mercredi pour balayer les honneurs de la s»rie en quatre matches."
Dan read this posting aloud in a perfect french accent, while i was in the bathroom brushing my hair.
"Are you practicing your french for when L'Africainne gets here?"
[backstory for the uninitiated: Tom's girlfriend will be arriving from Gabon, Africa in less than two weeks.] [For the wicked uninitiated: Tom is Dan's brother, and he is in love with a girl from Africa.]
"No, i don't speak french, i only understand it."
"So you won't talk to her, you'll only listen? I will have to introduce you as my mute husband."
Privately, and also publically and on the internet, i have been worrying about my potential communication skills regarding L'Affricainne (french for female resident of the dark continent... haha... i added in the racist part just for fun.) As our family's resident former french major, i am supposed to have a certain command of that language. Really, if i'm not able to speak french after 12 years of schooling and 150grand of colleging, there would need to be some mental issue addressed in more depth. Secretly, though, i am out of practice in the whole forming-sentences thing. I remember being fluent at one time in my life, but then i also lived in France and dated a french significant-other, and lingustic fluency can be like a STD: strong at first, but clears up over time. Hopefully when i get excited about French again, it will all pop back up, like an inflimation...
Did you know that even if you're not currently having an outbreak, you can pass on genital herpes any time? I learned this on a TV COMMERCIAL last night. i felt so violated and grossed out.
PS: I was pulling out of the driveway this morning, when i suddenly realized it. I rolled down the window and shouted to Dan:
"Wait, the White Sox won the World Series???"