Words

I love my family and would not trade them for the world. I have inherited many things from my dad and mom, and extended family as well, one being the use of uncommon phrases. My family has a few common phrases that can heard regularly that might make an outsider go, "what!?!" but is completely normal for us. Below you can find my favorites, and how they originated.

"Freeze cat." My grandma coined this phrase when I was younger, as she was referring to me and two of my aunts as people who are always cold. This is true - I am always cold. I wear sweatshirts regularly in the summer, both inside and outside. When I visit my parents, I always think their house is cold. This always gets my mom to respond, "you're such a freeze cat." Contrarily to what the world might think, it has nothing to do with freezing cats.

"I'm high." If you have diabetes, this won't be anything new to you as I'm sure it has come out of your mouth before as well. However, if I say "I'm high" in public I get a lot of stares. I'm talking about my blood sugar, not about using drugs. Although, I would need my drug of choice (insulin) to make me feel better.

"Slower than a herd of one turtle." The only thing I am on time for is teaching. For almost everything else, I am late. I used to not be that way; however, since I've gotten older, the worse I have become. When visiting my parents my lateness seems to be escalated. However, my mom is always on time....but my dad is always late. So my dad and I are a herd of turtles, but my mom is the on-time person.

"Kapeesh." My grandpa coined this phrase when my mom was growing up and she has used it ever since. Translation: got it? For example, she might say "We are leaving at 2:00, kapeesh?" I would say yes, because I understand we are leaving at 2, although since I am a herd of 1 turtle, that won't happen.

"Fair is a 4-letter word." My dad's coworker coined this phrase, along with many others that are often heard in our house. However, this one is used regularly. It does not matter if things are fair, as fair is a relative term. This is a phrase that I think about often. Is it fair that I have diabetes? No. But I do and I deal with it. Life isn't always fair...so just deal with it.

Another personal favorite from my dad's coworker is "I'm in there like a biting sow." Translation: I have a fighting chance to win/succeed and will do all I can do make it happen.

Do you say anything bizarre that gets people to raise their eyebrows at you?