Friday, April 25, 2003

Today, 3:00pm

The phone rings at work.
It's Teta Ljuba.

Me: "Hi Tetka Ljuba"

Tetka Ljuba: "Hi...lissen...mama call me to sei dat (husband's name) iss vorkink an Sanday. I tink maybe mama is confus. He vork an Saturday...nat Sanday."

Me: "No, he's working just in the morning on Sunday. We'll be there. Maybe a little late, but we'll be there.

Tetka Ljuba: "So, mama is no confus."

Me: "No".

Tetka Ljuba: "Lissen....no buy da chokolat or da flowers for da Easter. Don brink"

Me: "Ok, Tetka Ljuba"

Tetka Ljuba: "NO...LISSEN TO ME....no brink...I'm an da dieta"

Me: "Ok, Tetka Ljuba"

Silence

Tetka Ljuba: "Don mekka me med..."

Me: "Ok, Tetka Ljuba"

I'ma gonna brink da flowers and da chokolat....anyvay...heh heh.

Lunch With Mom

My mother came to meet me for lunch yesterday.
We met at the usual place and talked about the usual things.

Prologue:
This is a few days before Orthodox Easter.
We go to my Uncle and Aunt's house every Easter.

This conversation happened:

Me: "Ma, when do you want us to pick you up on Sunday for Easter Lunch at Uja's?"

Mom: "Uja's?" with this surprised look on her face.

Me: "Yeah, ma...for Easter Lunch.

Mom: With an indignant look on her face, "I don no...nobady invite me..."

Me: "Ma, we go there every year for Easter. You know that!

Mom: "I don ker....no body invite me. I no invite. I no go"

Me: "Oh for God's sake!"

I stopped by my Uncle's store on the way home to drop off some stuff and tell him to please call his sister and invite her to Easter lunch on Sunday.

Uja: "Oh for God's sake!".

He called her right away....and get this....he had to convince her!

Geeeeeez.

On an Engrish note:
I was talking to Uja a couple of weeks ago and he was telling me about some billionaire he read about in the newspaper.
He referred to this Billionaire as a Big Typhoon

You have got to love him!

Monday, April 07, 2003

2:25pm

The phone rings and I see on the call display that it's my mother.
I was expecting this call because there is 5 to 15cm of snow headed our way after the ice storm of a couple of days ago.

Me: Hi, Ma.

Mom: Sine (child), vy don yu leave early today. Da sno is gonna be too mach...I'm vorried for your drivink. Yu ar da bass...yu ken leave early.

Me (sarcastically): Oh sure Ma, I'll just drop everything right now. I'll cancel all my appointments and leave in a few minutes.

Mom: Finally! yu lissen to yor mader! Call mi ven yu get home.

Click.

I've found the answer.
Don't argue, just say you're going to do it.
Who knew the answer was so simple?

And here I was all concerned about telling her the truth and trying to explain how things in the working world work.