(Started this post in February and never posted it. Hence the reason it talks about shopping for a wedding dress. And for those wondering, the dress I ended up with is 10 times more amazing and also a thanks to the help of my big sis!)
These past two weeks I have been pondering the history and meaning of phrases. Not because I'm some huge English geek (sorry mom!) but because they just struck me as really odd and funny.
For instance:
As I am driving in the car with my sister and girlfriend, Rozanne, coming back from trying on a wedding dress. (A wedding dress that I might have bought had it not been for the saving graces and honesty of these two wonderful ladies) (A dress that I might have purchased before my sister said, 'Oh my god Kristy! You have a 'back butt'!')(A wedding dress that also, on that particular wet, cold, and snowy day made me feel rather 'sloth'ish'...especially since I then realized that I could have a 'back butt') So on our long, slow, wet, cold, snowy, blustery drive back home this conversation ensued:
Me: I am so sick of this weather! I have cabin fever so bad!
Sister: No you don't.
Me: Huh?
Sister: Cabin fever (matter-of-factly), you don't have that.
Me: Ohhh right, because it really doesn't exist and is just some stupid phrase someone made up when they were cooped up in their house over the winter. Well I don't care where it came from, I have it and am sick of it!
Sister: Actually, it came from way back when, when people lived in small hand built shacks (i.e.- cabins) with usually a wood burning stove or fireplace as the main source of heat. The cabin was sealed up tight to keep the cold air out and there was no place for the carbon monoxide to escape. Thus ensued sickness, fever, etc. from the people cooped up inside.
Me: uh-hmmmmm
Sister: Sooooo, quite literally you cannot have cabin fever because you are not suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, you don't live in a cabin, and you have no ill symptoms such as fever.
Me: touche (I am notorious for throwing this word into conversation. Yet to this day, I have NO idea how to use it properly in a sentence!)
Now, did I actually believe her at the time? Ehh, her 'story' seemed logical enough but this is my sister we're talking about. The same person that when asked, 'Hey, who sings this song?' could look at you with the straightest of faces, act like she was really digging deep for the answer, ponder it for just the right amount of time and then say, 'Nirvana' as matter-of-factly as if she was telling me that the sky is blue. Only to later find out that the song was actually sang by Queen. She's good at what she does, I'm tellin' ya!
Fast forward two days later:
I'm sitting at my cubicle, at my new job, chit chatting with the IT guy at my desk. Why? you might wonder? Because I have entered a new IT ticket for every day I have shown up to work this week. On this particular Friday (my most favorite day of the week) no one was in the office and I was rather the Chatty Cathy. So I tested his knowledge and asked him where he thought cabin fever came from. His story almost 100% reiterated my sisters. ERRGIN-SCHMIRGIN'!!! I'll give her just this one!
Well, this conversation somehow lead into talk about meanings of words and such, which ensued the following:
IT guy: Oh yea, and 'cake eaters'...uggghhh
Me: (Weird, confused look on my face.)
IT guy: You know, a cake eater?!?!
Me: (Wheels are starting to turn and it's not good. I quickly think, surely he's not 'politely' trying to call me fat is he? I don't look like I eat cake all the time! Okay, I know I've put a few on, but it's WINTER! What a JERK!)
IT guy: You know, like the kids that went to...(dramatic pause)...priiii-vate schooool.
Me: (gasp! He IS calling me a cake eater!!!)
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