Pee Pee or Tee Tee? That is the Question! Post #49

         Until moving to Mobile I thought I knew how all southerners talk; and that would be like my Kentucky family.  But every so often, I would see a movie where a southern accent is portrayed and would comment, “That accent is so fake!”  And I really believed that until I moved to Mobile, a sibling city to New Orleans, Gulfport/Biloxi, and Pensacola. 

Probably the most unexpected thing about moving from the great white north to the Deep South - particularly the Gulf Coast - is the various dialects of southern accents.  Both my mom and dad’s families were southern and at family reunions, we  were the ones who had the accent, though I learned to talk in Maryland by parents who still had southern accents.   So all my life, no matter where I went, people told me I had an accent.  Or at the very least, “You talk funny!” 

               

In this sisterhood of cities, there is a blend of French, Spanish, Creole, Laotian, cultures, with a side of Vietnamese and/or British.   Simple phrases are said in many different ways and it took a while to realize that each southern accent was just as legitimate the next.   But sometimes I assumed something was a cultural phrase or word when in reality, it was unique to an individual or family.  For instance, when my oldest daughter was a baby, she called Ice cream ‘Hawseyke’ (halls-ike).  Don’t ask me why, she just did!   Therefore, that became our family's word for ice cream until nearly the time she went off to college.  And that is how it was with my sweet friend, Laura.  She had two kids who were about ten and twelve years old when I moved here.

              

  I remember the first time I heard Laura ask her kids if they needed to go ‘Tee Tee’.“Tee Tee?”   I thought.  “Well, that’s a new one!  That must be her kid name for Pee, or Pee Pee.”  Many times in the north I been in public and heard a kid or an adult – even a classy-looking woman -  crassly announce, “I gotta Pee!”  I have to admit, Tee Tee was much more subtle and maybe even a little cuter sounding than PEE.  But one day, Laura and I were out by ourselves when she suggested we stop and get a drink and go Tee Tee.  I thought she was kidding at first but when I looked at her sweet, innocent, adorable face it was obvious she was completely serious.  “I don’t go ‘Tee Tee’! “  I thought.  It sounded so childish and I wondered what she would have thought if I had said, “Why don’t we stop for Hawseyke instead?”  But I got it.  Her kids were still young and the more I thought about it, it really was just so much 'softer' sounding than PEE.  

                Eventually I became accustomed to Laura’s word for Pee and accepted the fact that she not only uses it for her kids, but for herself, and even me.   It was a sunny, warm, fall day when I went to the doctors for the first time in Mobile.  During the triage, they take your blood pressure and weight.   The nurse chatted happily, as most Mobilians do, as she put the pressure belt on my arm and continued her banter throughout the process.  Then she handed me a cup and said, “Now Miss. Mary Beth, we need you to Tee Tee in this cup!”   She look at me questioningly as I stared at her with my mouth hanging open as though I had no clue of what I was supposed to do.  And to be honest, if it was not for 'Laura Quite Contraura,' I wouldn’t have.  But I was frozen with my eyes locked on hers and the only thought I could seem to muster up was, “Now I know she just didn’t say Tee Tee!”  Then I walked into the bathroom, still in a daze and starring at the cup thinking, “I have to Tee Tee in this!  I, Mary Beth, am going Tee Tee!”   I had never gone ‘Tee Tee’ before  and I  laughed  hysterically the whole time.  From there it was time to pick Shanon up from school and she looked at me like I was from Mars when I said, “Guess what, Sweetheart?  I went Tee Tee today.”

I’ve heard Tee Tee said many times since then.  As a matter of fact, the only Pee, or Pee Pee people are Yankees, mid-westerners, or West Coast transplants.  This past fall, I landed in the cardiac unit for nearly 4 days .   You’d think the primary thought in my mind would be the issue at hand – which was a health snafu.  But once again, I found myself amused at the southern terminology used even in the hospital.  For instance, when the sweet, tall, young and handsome night orderly came in my room in the middle of the night to do stats, each time he would say, "Miss. Mary Beth?  Do you want me to walk you into the bathroom to go Tee Tee?"    And over and over I told him, "No, thank you!  I don't need to go Tee Tee!"  The nurses instructed me about making sure to Tee Tee in the measuring cup and each day the doctors asked how many times I Tee Tee’d.

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  I still haven’t changed from Pee Pee to Tee Tee yet.  We are big tea drinkers at my house and somehow I still can’t separate the two.  Is Tee Tee actually Tea that we Pee?  'We don’t know!’   But somehow I have this strange feeling that, when the grand-babies come,  my Pee Pee days may very well be over.

Snow Drefts Post #48

Candle makers

 

It’s amazing the difference a year can make and what can happen when we focus our life energy into our passions.    Even better, to weed out the things that block or disperses that energy.   I've come to the conclusion that everything and everyone either feeds or bleeds us.  This is why the New Year always brings me focus and hope.  Last Christmas season was difficult as it seemed I was in a time warp, living 2004 –a divorce, the death of my step mom, the brain injury (and 4 years later the death) of my mom – all over again.  What I thought had been laid to rest – no pun intended – came screaming back into my mind like a freight train that I found hard to shake. Also, I had been working contract-to-contract, making it nearly impossible to buy a house, which I have desperately wanted to do. But the good news is, living in a place that is full of lush color and nature, for me, makes a huge difference on how life is experienced overall and, though last year was hard, it may well be the very thing that kept me from becoming completely enveloped in relapsed grief.  It was time to set some serious long-term goals personally and professionally to be executed in the New Year.

Friday, after an intense late afternoon meeting, I walked a couple blocks to my favorite boutique – Covered – and discovered that the ‘North Pole’ event was going on downtown.  I could hear the happy laughter and voices just a block away as Christmas music permeated the air and later decided to walk over.  The Christmas train carried moms, dads and kids up and down Royal Street.  As is tradition to this four year old event, Spider man came down the side of the Hampton Inn from the roof to the ground.   A cardboard version of Whoville was set up in the quad at the Riverview Hotel and people waited in line to sit on Santa’s lap at Hargrove Engineering firm.  In various places there were snow machines blowing ‘snow’ (I hear it is Dreft laundry soap) off the New Orleans-style balconies that line the street.  I found myself thanking God that it is Dreft as I looked at all the happy faces who were most likely wishing that it was real snow.

   Then I thought of all those unappreciative northerners who have no idea that there are people who are so desperate to see snow that they are actually dancing in floating flakes of laundry soap.  Yet, there they are, Upstate New Yorkers, often getting six feet or more of the stuff and then having the nerve to complain!  But me…I’m not greedy because I never liked the stuff in the first place, which is why I prefer laundry soap and am thrilled at the empowerment of somebody being able to just shut it off.

 Today was my favorite ‘secret’ Christmas party ever (see last year’s ‘Merry Christmas from Dixie’) that takes place on the property of a well-known local family.   Their houses are scattered throughout the woods and they moved historical buildings doomed to be torn down to their land. The invitation boasts of the “restored Chapel, Country Store, Pottery Shop, Grist Mill, Blacksmith Shop and the old Toulminville Schoolhouse. There will be a Blacksmith, a Potter and a Candlemaker on hand.  Also enjoy touring the decorated and lighted Boardwalks through the Forest beside the Bay.  Holiday music will be presented in the Chapel and at the Amphitheater”.  Again, it was a splendid event.  Last year it inspired me to push beyond the flood of grief and make conscious goals and decisions for the second half of my life.  Perhaps it was walking the lighted trails around the pond, or seeing the fruition of a dream come true simply because the dreamer had a vision and lived his life accordingly.  I thought of how many times my decisions have not reflected my long term goals and I vowed to change that.

Changes are in the midst and many have already happened.   A standard full-time job  would show a steady income to buy a house again.  In January 2013, that happened and now buying a house is only months away. There are bridges to cross but I find that, as each barrier is removed, new opportunities seem to appear out of nowhere and suddenly, previously dark and scary roads become brightly lit with all kinds of signs pointing the way. 

 I can’t help but to believe that much of the foundation was laid in 2008 by taking the risk and giving up the familiar to find a place that resonates with my spirit.   It is things like the Camellias that bloom in December and the sweet scents that permeate the air year-round.  Its Christmas Carols on a 75 degree night and lighted trails through the woods with boardwalks on the bay.  It’s the friendly people who have made sure that we continue to feel welcome even though we are no longer new; like the elderly man who approached me at the party with something he had been driving around with for a year waiting to give me when he saw me.  Its the palm trees with Christmas lights and white sand that looks like snow.  And yes!  Best of all, it’s the laundry soap!  It’s definitely the Dreft!