is anyone out there???

A rose by any other name...

I went hiking with my friend Sandy yesterday. Her daughter Lizzie was wearing "flip-flops" for the hike. When I grew up we didn't call them "flip-flops." To the great disappointment and embarrassment of my children, I can never remember to call them that.

"Hey Lizzie, don't you hate it when you get blisters from wearing your thongs?" I asked her. Everyone looked at me strangely, except Sandy, of course. She grew up with me, she knew what I was talking about, she called them the same thing.

"Yah, Lizzie, you can tell everyone your thong rubbed you the wrong way on your hike." Sandy joined in. It was too easy. And we weren't even trying...

I was in Walmart the other day with my kids. I yelled out, "Run and pick out some new thongs---yours are all so nasty." I turned around and my kids were gone, they had vanished. At that point, I couldn't figure out why. Then I heard the guys next to me laughing. "Oh," I thought. But instead of getting annoyed at the perverted guys next to me, I decided to go with embarrassing my kids---intentional or not, it was always fun. "There are some cute green and yellow thongs over here, pick out what you want and find me in the food aisle." I knew they were hiding close enough to still hear me so I walked away.

It really wasn't my fault. Surely someone was creative to give underwear it's own name without having to steal the name from footwear, right? And if not, why couldn't they use one from shoes, I don't wear? For example, Penny Loafers or Mary Janes---I don't wear either of those. So, Mary Janes can be the new Thongs. Confusing? My point exactly. You can hardly blame me for not remembering to call "flip flops" by the right name. But really, I shouldn't bother to try to change the name, it is way too fun to embarrass my kids...