Saturday 18 June 2011

Terms of Endearment....

Remember when I told you with Cute Guy and me, I'd like our FIRST TIME together to be somewhere neutral so it wasn't his turf or mine? Well, he's had a lot of fun with that... at my expense... "So... you put a lot of pressure on a guy... you know, with our first time having to be in SWITZERLAND and all."  I get the feeling he's laughing AT me rather than WITH me... 

I think we're sitting in Austria right about now, thinking about making that border crossing, but we're still trying to figure each other out to some degree... and that leads into a whole other hurdle with starting a new relationship.  He has yet to introduce me as his "girlfriend" and I haven't told people he's my "boyfriend", he's still the guy I'm seeing...

As parents, you have nicknames for your kids.  You know...sweet little names for them that start when they're tiny... My boys share a nickname, because it was just easier that way for me.  It's Monk... it's a derivative of Monkey, because when they were tiny and I would carry them around they seemed like those cute baby monkeys hanging on to their mom... While there are times you want to call them Demon Possessed little Bastards, I generally save THAT name for the cats...

As a parent, because nature has a way of making you love your kids no matter what, you also have names like Babe, Sweetie and Darlin' for them as well...


These are the names you have to be careful about because you can easily let them creep into conversation with the new man... but then you have that whole moment where you're unsure if you should have or not... Thing is, it's equally as awkward when those words are conspicuously left out too....

We had one of those conversations the other day. Cute Guy was away on a business trip again and we were chatting over the phone about his upcoming dinner with a long time employee and what he had planned for the rest of the trip. When we were saying goodbye, it became a little awkward.

Me:  "Well, have a good sleep, and I will look forward to seeing you when you get back."

Cute Guy: In his best radio DJ voice... "Yes.  Well.  Very good then.  I will look forward to seeing you in future too.  Thank you for your time." 

Thing is, terms of endearment can be nauseating when they're used too much between couples, especially couples who are a little too into the whole PDA thing... I love being called a sweet pet name, and holding hands or other benign little gestures are great, but it can be taken too far....

My darling brother and his wife were absolutely revolting when they were dating... they were young and in love, and it used to be just torturous to sit there with the two of them in a room... GAG... it was enough to make you yak a little in your mouth.... it was bad enough when they were talking to us, but even worse if they talked to each other.... Every sentence was punctuated like this....

"Um...Sweetie *kiss*...do you.. *smooch*...think, Dear, you can... *smack*...pass me...*sigh*... my drink *kissy-kiss* Baby Doll?" 

This was made even worse by the fact that they were like 18 at the time... what 18 year old calls his girlfriend DEAR?  ...BLECH!

They've gotten over that in the million years since they married, but it's still one of those family stories that gets told because their shmoopsie-poopsie-ing was absolutely epic.  God... I have to say I'm feeling a little green just remembering it.

 My sister had been married to a decidedly NOT publicly affectionate but funny guy for a couple of years before my bro and his squeeze got together.  He was constantly revolted by the whole thing.  So one night as we're sitting there watching this worse than a "B" romance movie unfold, he looks at my sister across the table and says "Skookumpups... can you pass me my drink?" while batting his eyes  at her... For some reason, my sister and I thought this was hilarious. 

My brother didn't find it amusing in the least, but it has stuck as the go to schmoopsie-poopsie word for my family...

Anyway, Cute Guy made an interesting observation.  I was telling him that ending conversations is hard at the beginning of a relationship.  He says he figures it will get easier once we've been to Switzerland...  We'll see...

Later....

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