Monday, January 31, 2011

Hulabuns' Life Lessons: Discombobulated

Phew! Binderclips and I are so happy to be done with our move, let me tell ya! I will also tell you that moving to Milwaukee in the dead of winter was not the smartest idea that we have ever had. It's pretty darn cold here and it snows almost daily (even if we just get a slight dusting). It's snowing again today, however the snow flakes are larger than they have been so far, it's very pretty actually. Also, the National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Watch for Tuesday to Wednesday of this week. I'm hoping it hits just south of us, but we'll see.

So, can I interest you all in little something I'd like to call "Hulabuns' Life Lessons"? Yes? Good, 'cause I was going to share them anyways. So, it's not like you actually had a choice in the matter. Here we go (brace yourselves - it may be a bumpy ride)!

1) Did you know that most of the counties/cities in the Milwaukee area were named for their ties to Native Americans? Well, neither did I and that's why I pronounce almost all of them incorrectly.


Example:


City name: Waukesha


My pronunciation: wa-KEY-sha (did I mention I grew up in the Detroit metro area?)


The actual pronunciation: wa-ka-shaw

I thought it was pronounced like an African American girl's name, no - not so much. Note to everyone; if you say it like that - people WILL laugh at you.

Life Lesson: Try to trick the locals into saying the name of the cities before you try saying them. That way, you can possibly eliminate you making an ass out of yourself.

2) Question: When you go through airport security after taking almost all of your clothes off (ok, you don't have to take them all off, but it sure feels like it sometimes) and emptying all of your bags to pass them through the scanner machine, do you feel discombobulated like I usually do?

I'm here to tell you that the Milwaukee Mitchell Airport has found a way to tug at your heartstrings (well it found a way to tug at mine). It has a dedicated "Recombobulation Area" that's on the other side of Security. I'm totally not kidding. Binderclips and I took a picture of it (see below). I feel like every airport needs one of these signs and I might even consider getting one for at home.

Life Lesson: Recombobulation Areas/signs are a necessity, especially at airports.



3) Upon arriving at the airport to fly home after looking for apartments, several interesting things happened:


  • Binderclips and I recombobulated ourselves in the dedicated "Recombobulation Area" (see #2)
  • I had to use the restroom, but it was early and I was really tired, so seemingly normal tasks were incredibly difficult. Namely, trying to get into a stall in the restroom. A lady with a stroller (just so you know I just typed "A lady in a stroller" on accident and it made me laugh out loud) followed me into the restroom. I tried to pull on several stall doors as she watched me. Finally, I decided to push on one of them and it opened. I turned back to the lady with (not in) the stroller and simply said "It's a push not a pull". She looked at me like I was crazy.
  • After leaving the stall I went to wash my hands. A Hispanic lady was washing her hands at the sink next to me. When I was done I reached for the paper towel (the dispenser was in-between the Hispanic lady and I), however I could not figure out how to get the paper towel to come out (did I mention the lady with the stroller was now standing behind me at this point? well, she was). The Hispanic lady had to actually show me how to pull the paper towel out of the dispenser SEVERAL times 'cause I just could not figure it out. The lady with (again, not in) the stroller laughed at me.
  • I walked out of the restroom to find Binderclips waiting for me. I picked up my portion of things and started walking then saw this sign:



Although, for some reason I didn't see the "er's" part of "Usinger's", so I read it as "Using Fine Sausage". So, I said "Why would they want to use any other kind?" to Binderclips. Baffled, he looked at me and said "What are you talking about?!" When I explained that they had a sign that said "Using Fine Sausage" he just laughed at me and said "Really?" After a brief pause where we both just stared at each other with very confused looks on our faces, he said "It says Usinger's Fine Sausage", then pointed at the sign. I looked up at it and when I saw what it really said I started laughing. His response "Seriously, what is wrong with you today?"

Life Lesson: I'm not sure what the life lesson is in this one, maybe it's that I shouldn't get up super early or be trusted to go to into public restrooms on my own?

I hope these Life Lessons can help you it in some way or another, you know what they say "Hind sight is 20/20" (wait, isn't hindsight one word? my bad, hehehehehe).

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of the inside of our new apartment. I took this picture from the loft where our bedroom is. The little area on the other side of the stairs is our office, where yours truly is typing up this very blog post. 

Anyways, I hope you have a great day today. Later gators!! 

7 comments:

  1. I had the same problem pronouncing street names when we lived in L.A. Sepulveda and Cahuenga and La Cienega all got me laughed at in the beginning. So confusing.

    Glad you're getting settled in! Hope we'll hear more from you soon. :)

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  2. You are such a dork and that is why I adore you. The apartment looks amazing! Just think when you get furniture how fun it will be. *teasing*

    I read this part fast, "Binderclips and I recombobulated ourselves in the dedicated "Recombobulation Area"" And thought it meant you had sex there. Don't ask me why. It was the first thing I thought of. But I didn't see any privacy areas in the picture. So I reread it and felt like an ass.

    You will get used to those names. They will be fun for you. You can be a name dropper to your friends who don't live in WI.

    So glad things slowed down a tiny bit, so you have time to post.

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  3. So Snowwhite not making the money to keep her as she was accustomed decided to get the mining dwarfs into sausage making.

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  4. OMG... I am not alone. We need to start a support group.

    Leafy

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  5. Funny how life works... the other night I was at a party for an artist friend showing his new paintings, and many of us there were not locals, but from back east mainly from New York -we spent some time laughing at our foible's with the names of areas here many are Indian names along with our NY accents. The bathroom is a water closet, my friend was very confused about that one...

    But your story tops everything I heard....
    Love your new diggs, very pretty, the way it snows there it rains here...

    joanny

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  6. Great post.

    I laughed at this: "... thought it was pronounced like an African American girl's name."

    Also, I didn't know they let Hispanics in your new state. Too bad.

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  7. Recombobulation area? I've never heard of anything so silly! Did someone have a bunch of sign letters that they needed to get rid of and so they thought, "Geez, let's put up recombobulation and show everyone how smart we are!"
    Your new place looks fantastic! I'd love to live in a multilevel condo! Congratulations! - G

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