My mother is completely forgetting how to speak English. Now, there have always been certain words that she couldn't remember.

"Look, look, there goes one of those animals again! You know, an écureuil!" "It's a squirrel, Mom."

...but we're used to that! Now, I was on the phone with her last night and we were discussing the box turtle (buy one for your child today and be forced to take care of it twenty years later when she's all grown up and moved away!), and she kept saying things like:

"When I give him broccoli, he really seems to like la tige." "Flowerettes?" "No, the other part." "The stem?" "Yeah, that's it!"

and...

"Those needles come off the pine trees and they get caught in the turtle's carapace" "You mean water dish?" "No, you know, the little house he carries on his back!" "It's called a shell, Mom!!"

I swear, she's been in this country since the 50's, she never speaks French, practically, because she doesn't have any friends who speak it, and all of a sudden it's like she's just off the boat!

Little house he carries on his back, indeed...

I talked about my mailing list yesterday, and I think that I may have been unclear.

It's not a notify list, because I update every day at the same time so it would get a little monotonous. I send what I write to two friends who have limited or no web access and I'm far too egotistical to let them miss out on a single syllable. I'd really rather not send it to anybody else, as I'd rather have you look at the page that I put up. A. it's nicer to look at in your browser than as a bunch of code, and B. yes, I'd rather get the hits on my counter! I admit it freely! I'm really glad I was as unclear as I was, though, as I heard from tons of people who have never written before!

However, since I am leaving town next week I am compiling a one time only notify list if you'd like me to let you know when I've come back and posted a new entry. E-mail me if that's what you want! And if you haven't written me before, tell me how you found me.

Watched Truly, Madly, Deeply on PBS last night. God I love that movie. If you haven't seen it, it's about a woman who's boyfriend dies and she misses him so much and grieves so much that he comes back. And it's not the hideous Ghost, either, it's for smart people.

It was the first time that I saw it since my Da died, and it took on a whole new meaning--it was as though I can understand it in a different way.

Variety gave Bruce Willis' new film, The Fifth Element, a horrible review, and ol' Bruce said that nobody reads anymore anyway and who cares about words and he was taking his ball and going home!

Isn't that cute?

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