Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Rainy Weather and Difficult Words

As I was driving home from work in this "lovely" weather tonight, two things crossed my mind. 1. Do I want to go to the gym? and 2. What should I blog about tonight? Let's start with the gym. I joined the gym years ago because I wanted to do better with exercising. At the time I lived in Boston and there was a gym around the corner from my apartment. Location, location, location. Since it was so close, I was very good about going regularly. A few times I even managed to go before I went to school to student teach. Now I only go to the gym in the mornings if it's a weekend or day off. Instead I usually go during peek hours and then complain if I can't get a good machine. Actually, usually there are enough decent machines and one night a week I do a Zumba class there instead of the machines. Anyway, when I moved back home, I joined a local gym, not quite within walking distance, but only a five minute drive from home and a heck of a lot cheaper than Boston. We're talking 1/3 of the price! Woohoo! My mom said I should just go for walks. I told her I enjoyed walking, but on a cold/rainy/snowy day, it wasn't happeneing, hence the gym. (I do still go for walks sometimes, before my friend Tony moved to FL last year we used to walk all the time and I walked with my mom sometimes too. I also walked to work when I worked close to home.) So why I ask you, if I joined the gym in order to exercise, but especially so I would be able to exercise year round in crap weather, did I find it so difficult to go to the gym in this weather? I should have brought my gym clothes to work and changed there then went because once I got home I did not feel like going back out in the rain. In my defense, I pulled out an exercise dvd and did that so I was not a total slacker. Tomorrow, I will be tutoring five minutes away from the gym so I shouldn't have an issue going bad weather or not. Speaking of the weather, I get that we need the rain since we didn't get a ton of it this summer, but I'm ready for sun again. I live in a condo and have no grass around me so I'm not feeling the brown grass disappointment everyone's had with their lawns this year. Come on Mother Nature, give us some sunshine please! Oh, and if you could prevent any crazy snowstorms this year, that'd be fabulous too, thanks!
Anyway, as I was trying to come up with a blog topic on my way home, I hadn't planned to blog about the gym so I guess this is a double blog. I drove by a pizza place called Gianni's and was reminded of how I used to mispronounce it. It got me thinking about words people have trouble saying. I used to call Gianni's Gee-ahni's, it's actually pronounced Yanni's. Oops! Well, no matter how you say it, the pizza was good. I also used to say draw for drawer (that's how my mom said it!). I still can't say bury correctly. When I say it, it sounds like berry instead of bury. And don't even get me started on a few last names. Met someone earlier this year and I totally put the accents in the wrong place in her name. I felt like a fool. I used to say pa-lin-drome instead of pal-in-drome until one day my brother corrected me. Thankfully, that doesn't come up in conversation too often and I think I've got it right now. A friend of mine can't say dyslexia, but in her profession I doubt she had to say it too often. I once knew someone who couldn't say Mitsubishi so I guess I'm not alone in my word difficulties. Do any of you four people that read my blog have problems with any words? :)

3 comments:

jess said...

my problem is usually that i'm talking to fast, so i flub things up. like, if i were speaking right now i might have said thlub fings up. which has a name that i can't think of right now. i ALSO have trouble remembering words. i'm constantly saying things to roberto like "what's that word? that means the same thing as xyz?! you know the one i'm talking about, i think it starts with a P." and he's like "existential" and i'm like "YES!" :)

Cat said...

Spoonerism I believe is the word you're looking for.

Natalie said...

You know, as a speech therapist, I could probably do a few therapy sessions with you and get you back on track. If you didn't live 2,000 miles away that is.

I have trouble with the word aurora. But that's it. My mother-in-law spoke French until she was 6 and then learned English. There are many words she still has difficulty with (and always will) because your brain has a cut off age for being exposed to sounds and sound combos. If you don't learn something until after that time it will always be hard. She obviously missed that cut off.

I'll tell you what annoys me all the time though. When I hear people say flustrated. It's frustrated or flustered. You can't combine the two dammit.