More about Connie

This is how Connie feels about getting another year older. =}

Since this is Connie's birthday month, (her bday is the 12th) I wanted to tell some funny stories about her. Well more funny stories about her, there are so many to choose from.

Besides the habit of falling, Connie has another curious habit. She says things backwards or transposed, meaning she either swiches the first letters of two words that go together, like for instance, eggs and bacon would be beggs and acon, or she says them in the wrong order like Taco Bell is always Bell Taco.

I'm not sure when this started. I don't remember her doing it as a kid. The falling I remember. The falling could be hereditery as my mom fell a lot too.  But I don't ever remember Mom gettting her words mix up like Connie does, so I think this is just her own little thing. She calls it Spoonerism, though I don't really know if that's what it's called, or if it is even a word, but she insists it is and I think she was just thrilled to learn her disorder had a name. (I have learned since posting this that there is indeed something called "Spoonerism" and from the definition, it's sounds like Connie does suffer from it.=)

Here are a few examples that I remember, (there have been so many, I should start writing them down). We were driving down the road and we saw a bill board advertising the new Star Wars movie. My little neice Emily, well she was little at the time, was with us and  Connie says to her, "That looks scary, especially that Vath Darter." meaning, of course, Darth Vader. Emily says, "Yeah." My sister in law, who was driving, was laughing so hard we almost had an accident.

One summer we went to Colorado to visit our good friends the Neiswenders. Jane was graduating from Seminary with a degree in counseling so we were there to see her graduate. Her family gave her a party and one of her gifts was Pumba, from the movie Lion King. When Connie saw it she said, "Oh it's a wag hort!" meaning - wart hog. We all fell on the ground laughing. When we told the story to a friend, he said, "What is it supposed to be?"  Connie says, "Hort Wag." I, of course, lost it.

See if you can figure out what she is trying to say in this one.One day we took a friend home from work. I work for Wycliffe, a missionary organization, and our friend was a very proper missionary girl. Connie was saying how she didn't know if we would be able to go walking that evening because I was having trouble with "splin shits".

How about this one, the other day she told me she was in a meeting and "Small Pith" was there via tela-conference. (Paul Smith)

We worked with a man named Larry Perry. Connie lived in fear of calling him Perry Larry.

One day I was watching a TV show, one of those survival shows, I think it was call, "I Shouldn't Be Alive." (I should tell them about Connie). Anyway this guy had just fallen and gotten these huge thorns in his hands.Connie came in as he was running through trees, trying to get help for his friend, pulling these throns out of his hand. Connie says, "Are those stee bings? I mean stee bings. No, I mean stee bings." Can you guess what she is trying to say? At this point I am on the ground and I don't care what she means, though I know what she is trying to say. I have developed an ability to understand her transposed talk after so many years. (It's "bee stings")

Many times after she tells our friends something, they all look at me for the translation.

She also tells jokes wrong and gets saying and slogans mixed up.  She is always saying, "He'll get his up comings."  "Bedside manner" is "sidebed manner". One day we were talking about Timex watches. Connie says, "Yeah, they take a beating and keep on licking." The slogan is "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking."

Life is rarely dull around here.