22

sure, i have my kentucky plate and even a kentucky driver's license, but that doesn't make me a kentuckian.  and since i can't stomach bourbon anymore (oh poor choices when i was seventeen), i'm going to have to start talkin' right.  sure, there's the whole accent thing, but sounding true isn't just about how but what.

are you there g-d?:  i need to stop saying "oh god" or "oh my lord" or even one of my personal favs "lordy lordy."  because as much as i'm not trying to offend or blaspheme, it's simply not done here.  the first week i was here, i overheard a conversation about a third person daring to "say G-D" and it took me a for-real minute to understand what they meant.  so more "good grief!" and "my word!" and i sometimes feel like i'm in the forties and a total square.

hisself:  oh my word (see!) i love this word.  some yankee snobs say that this isn't a "real" word, but dude?  jump off that stuffy prescriptive grammarian train and chill out.  you know, i used to be a self-described prescriptive grammarian.  but i was twenty and even more painfully self-conscious and still an INFJ instead of the INFP that law school led me to.  i might be one of the few people who becomes less judgey in law school, but i picked up enough faults to make up for it.
oh yes, hisself.  love it.  LOVE it.  first of all, himself?  sounds wrong.  his/self--you can break it down to a phrase that makes sense, and i like the idea of getting back to the self.  not in an -ish or -absorbed sort of way, but in an -affirmed and -confident one.  "he better watch hisself."  oh yes, that self better be on guard.

bless his/her/your heart:  and this is where my non-nativeness really betrays me:  i don't understand when to use this phrase.  sometimes it's used sincerely, like as a response when someone's sniffling in front of you because she's been working nonstop for two days sewing little appliqued owls for a fearsome toy store boss and you actually feel sorry.  that one is accompanied by a pat on the hand and rummaging through the cabinets to get the fixings for tea.  (how the heck did THAT become my example?).
oh, but sometimes it's used a little sardonically, with an edge.  after someone's told you about her ex-husband who never had it together during the marriage, and now that they split, he's decided to finally start up a custom motorcycle business and he's made up business cards and has started handing them otu at her kid's soccer game.  well bless his heart, because even if he works his fingers to the bone for the first time in his life, it ain't gonna happen.
at least i think.  and then there's other uses, like insulting someone to her face but she knows it but not really all the way, and i need someone to sit me down and be my virgil of the vernacular.  maybe i just need to start trolling the aisles of wal-mart more and start taking notes.

21

so long california license plates!  hello single kentucky plate (the front of my car is going to feel so naked).  don't you like how kentucky puts your religion on the plates?   (kidding!  it's the county, but i can't wait for horrified glances if baas ever returns to the west coast).   i also got a new driver's license today, and i was SO AMAZED by the crazy wizard machine creating the card right in front of me that the lady said, "well it sure doesn't take much to get you excited."

oh hon, you have NO idea. 

20

i've definitely worried about separation anxiety with habie, and according to cesar millan forums (oh yes, i went there), one big sign of troubling codependence is when the dog follows you from room to room. and it is a little creepy when she stands outside the bathroom and whines.  but oh, when i'm sitting on the couch and the girl comes galloping in like a little horse and leaps with such a thud onto the couch, my heart is beyond full.

te amo habiecakes

(oh, i am SUCH a goner)

19

oh hello dining room, says the living room. 

this has been a crazy long week, and my head (oh scar) and feet (oh work shoes) have hurt a LOT, but what keeps me going:  getting a dog on saturday (!) and my lovely lovely house.  the light is awful in this picture, and i clearly need some furniture (although it's really fun to run around the house in circles and not worry about bumping into anything), but ohhhhhhhh, every time i step into the house, i can feel my load lighten.  this house has good bones and a great feel and i can't wait until it's a home.