I Told The Best Joke Ever......and Nobody Got It
Ever hear of a Chinese fire drill? I can remember doing this with my friends when I was a teenager. We thought we were so clever and funny, when more than likely we looked like a bunch of morons.
J's parents are visiting for a few weeks. They are wondeful people but have this annoying habit that I've learned to adapt to. It is when we decide to leave the house for an errand or something someone will say "come on, let's go now." For me that is the signal that we are leaving so I pick up my purse, put on my jacket and go to the door. I turn around to find that no one is behind me. They have scattered to other parts of the house to fuss, primp, organize, discuss, rearrange, change their minds, etc. To them it means we will be leaving sometime in the future, but not necessarily now. Maybe in the next hour or two. I've learned to just keep doing whatever it is I'm doing and not pick up my purse and go to the door until everyone else is assembled and ready to go.
I think I've told the story of J being mistaken as Chinese - by other Chinese and even occasionally by filipinos. I have a great story about this that I'll tell another time. It's so pervasive that while we were in Hong Kong J would send me to ask questions because if she asked questions, people would answer her in Mandarin - which she does not speak or understand.
So now it has become a running joke with us. When we are in the Asian market and a shrill, warbly, nasally song comes over the PA, J will stop and say "wait, I will interpret" and makes up a funny story about what the song is about. Whenever we see something in the news about Kim Jong Il or some other Asian public figure who is misbehaving, I will say to her "you should talk to your people."
Sunday morning J, the 'rents and I were preparing for a jaunt around town. Keep in mind that J is very detail oriented and has thought everything through before we leave - what car we'll take, the route we're going, what stops we'll make - everything planned to the last detail. Once the plan is made it has to be executed pretty much accordingly, and it's difficult to make changes - unless she changes her mind and creates an entirely new plan, but then that one is well thought-out too and has to pretty much go in order. I used to resist and get frustrated. Again, I've learned to live with it and go with the flow.
One of the stops on our outing was to return a piece of equipment to the electronics store so we made sure it was placed in the trunk of the vehicle du jour. And the sucker was heavy! Once I got it in the trunk, I knew there was no way it was coming back out. The next person to take the thing out of the trunk would have to be someone at the electronics store.
I'm getting to the point......I promise.
After much preparation, primping and planning finally everyone is in the car and we're about two blocks from the house when I noticed I'd forgotten to change my shoes. I was wearing my ugly outdoor gardening shoes and not my cute little tennies that were perfect with the outfit I was wearing. I exclaimed "Oh no! I have to change my shoes! I can't wear these shoes with this outfit." All you girls know that this is serious and must be dealt with immediately.
We turn the car around to go back home, then J gets the idea that maybe we should change vehicles while we're at it. We pull into the driveway and everyone gets out. I put on my shoes and get ready to get the keys to other vehicle when J remembered that we had the piece of equipment in the trunk and, in fact, could not change vehicles after all.
So we all got back in the car again. Her parents were laughing, having a good time with this business and her Dad giggled "Boy, your neighbors must be thinking we're very strange. They probably think that this is our custom."
I said "they probably thought that we were having a Chinese fire drill."
NOBODY GOT IT!!!!!!
Dang it.
J's parents are visiting for a few weeks. They are wondeful people but have this annoying habit that I've learned to adapt to. It is when we decide to leave the house for an errand or something someone will say "come on, let's go now." For me that is the signal that we are leaving so I pick up my purse, put on my jacket and go to the door. I turn around to find that no one is behind me. They have scattered to other parts of the house to fuss, primp, organize, discuss, rearrange, change their minds, etc. To them it means we will be leaving sometime in the future, but not necessarily now. Maybe in the next hour or two. I've learned to just keep doing whatever it is I'm doing and not pick up my purse and go to the door until everyone else is assembled and ready to go.
I think I've told the story of J being mistaken as Chinese - by other Chinese and even occasionally by filipinos. I have a great story about this that I'll tell another time. It's so pervasive that while we were in Hong Kong J would send me to ask questions because if she asked questions, people would answer her in Mandarin - which she does not speak or understand.
So now it has become a running joke with us. When we are in the Asian market and a shrill, warbly, nasally song comes over the PA, J will stop and say "wait, I will interpret" and makes up a funny story about what the song is about. Whenever we see something in the news about Kim Jong Il or some other Asian public figure who is misbehaving, I will say to her "you should talk to your people."
Sunday morning J, the 'rents and I were preparing for a jaunt around town. Keep in mind that J is very detail oriented and has thought everything through before we leave - what car we'll take, the route we're going, what stops we'll make - everything planned to the last detail. Once the plan is made it has to be executed pretty much accordingly, and it's difficult to make changes - unless she changes her mind and creates an entirely new plan, but then that one is well thought-out too and has to pretty much go in order. I used to resist and get frustrated. Again, I've learned to live with it and go with the flow.
One of the stops on our outing was to return a piece of equipment to the electronics store so we made sure it was placed in the trunk of the vehicle du jour. And the sucker was heavy! Once I got it in the trunk, I knew there was no way it was coming back out. The next person to take the thing out of the trunk would have to be someone at the electronics store.
I'm getting to the point......I promise.
After much preparation, primping and planning finally everyone is in the car and we're about two blocks from the house when I noticed I'd forgotten to change my shoes. I was wearing my ugly outdoor gardening shoes and not my cute little tennies that were perfect with the outfit I was wearing. I exclaimed "Oh no! I have to change my shoes! I can't wear these shoes with this outfit." All you girls know that this is serious and must be dealt with immediately.
We turn the car around to go back home, then J gets the idea that maybe we should change vehicles while we're at it. We pull into the driveway and everyone gets out. I put on my shoes and get ready to get the keys to other vehicle when J remembered that we had the piece of equipment in the trunk and, in fact, could not change vehicles after all.
So we all got back in the car again. Her parents were laughing, having a good time with this business and her Dad giggled "Boy, your neighbors must be thinking we're very strange. They probably think that this is our custom."
I said "they probably thought that we were having a Chinese fire drill."
NOBODY GOT IT!!!!!!
Dang it.