Wednesday, May 2, 2007

With bated breath

25 comments:
 
I am wearing Richy's pajama pants, as mine have gone to the Land of Sock. And they are cutting off the circulation to my... stomach, I guess. Anyway, they are dadgum tight. This is not how it should be, folks.

Last night was Richy's work party. We had dinner at Lupe Tortillas and then games and such at Main Event. I left Brynn and the young gents with VKG... Brynn did fine but I was having withdrawal!!
Anyway, you know how this is... you're going somewhere, and you don't really know people very well, and all the sudden it feels like junior high. And you know you don't look quite right or belong but you hope everybody likes you. (and really, from an an adult perspective, who cares?) But anyway, I just had that whole nervoussy thing and forgot what I have learned about human nature. People are not thinking about you, they are thinking about themselves. So it was great food and then we went to Main Event.
I've never been the arcade-y type. I'd much rather read a book. And even though I took bowling as a class in high school (to avoid the outdoors), I bowl about a 40 game. Around 16, things changed a little. I became a Girlfriend, and one of my specific responsibilities was standing around arcades and bowling alleys, looking impressed. Last night it all paid off. Cheescake Factory on the Girlfriend tables. (moment of respectful silence) I ate about 18 dollars worth of cheescake and had a great time. And Richy won two prizes, a Blockbuster gift card for being on the highest scoring bowling team, and a gift card to Red Lobster (smile)(BIG smile) for being the second highest score overall. (150 to the other guys 155) He did not win anything at LaserTag. And I didn't ask. You know how veterans are about reliving it all.


Today, I shall take the minis to the library. And Target, should the fates allow.

25 comments:

  1. Fisrt!!! Yuppers, being on another continent has its perks! Good mornin' people!

    Hope ya'll have a great day. It was a little chilly here in Romania, but overall not too bad for May 2nd!

    Blessings! Kerri

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  2. "I only believe in fire. Life. Fire. Being myself on fire I set others on fire. Never death. Fire and life.
    Les Jeux ."

    - Anais Nin, "The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol 7", 1980

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  3. never read that book, but cool quote

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  4. which is scarier ?:

    1. being with a bunch of adults that you don't know at a business gettogether
    or
    2. going to wallyworld to do monthly shopping with 3-5 small children

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  5. I'm sure the question of which is scarier was addressed to Jess, but I'll put my 2 cents in. "Scarier" would be in a group of unknown people...even semi-known. There's a different word for the child vs. you in a store. I'm thinking "frantic". It evokes a totally different emotion. ...for me, anyway.

    Although...I've graduated that phase of life. Well, until I have multiple grandkiddies to play with.

    Yay grandkiddies!! Woohoo!!

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  6. so uh hello

    good blog today, jess

    angie, check your myspace messages; i don't know your email

    =)

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  7. oh and beth

    it depends very much on whose three children you take to the store and whether they're asleep

    also it depends on the business meeting. i can lay low and eat appetizers with almost anyone. i just listen, and then someone who's bored spots me and talks to me all night.....and i have some punch. =)

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  8. is it spelled "bated" or "baited" and what does that phrase mean?

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  9. Q] From Steve Gearhart: “Where does the term baited breath come from, as in: ‘I am waiting with baited breath for your answer’?”

    [A] The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there’s every chance it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: “She hasn’t responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath”.

    It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it has the meaning “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.

    Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice: “Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”. Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale”.

    For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, baited breath evokes an incongruous image, which Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat:

    Sally, having swallowed cheese,
    Directs down holes the scented breeze,
    Enticing thus with baited breath
    Nice mice to an untimely death.

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  10. So, in conclusion, "baited breath" is with malintent, and "bated breath" is with great anticipation. I think I prefer the second. :-)

    So, the next time I find out someone has "baited" breath, I'm getting the heck out of Dodge!

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  11. Oh...and phenominal encyclopedic explanation, Mama! Very enlightening, and even fun to learn!

    Love!

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  12. Oh my goshness! AI results show is about to come on. ...Do they have a rehab facility for AI watchers??...

    NO, I WON'T SPOIL ANYTHING! Stop yelling at me!

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  13. Good to know I'm a genius... thanks, MPC!

    NO SPOILERS.

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  14. OMG, Jim Bo Bumkiss got voted off AI!! OMG... OMG... OMG! Not Jim Bo Bumkiss, I'm GOING TO DIE!!!

    OMG...

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  15. And yes, they do have rehab for AI watchers. The facilities are better known as psychiatric wards.... ya know, where you go to have your head examined.

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  16. I like the word study....
    learning is so GREAT!


    THINKING BIG

    "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

    "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." -- Walt Disney

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  17. marnin cowgirl..
    is that you in the pic?

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  18. Stacey, from Jacksonville, Florida, was eliminated during the live broadcast despite delivering what judge Paula Abdul said was the show's best opening all season. He sang "Blaze of Glory" on the rock-themed edition, mentored by Jon Bon Jovi, while Richardson, of Chesapeake, Virginia, performed "Wanted Dead or Alive."

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  19. Just before the elimination, Lewis said he and Richardson were "going on tour together" regardless of which one lost out.

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  20. How many different color crayons are there in the crayola family?

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  21. that's me; i was 2

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  22. wearin' my daddy's boots, hat, and sunglasses...heehee funny stuff

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Jess here: if Blogger gives you problems, just click "Anonymous" and sign your name. Roll with the punches, folks...

 
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