Il ne faut pas confondre les faux pas / One mustn’t confuse the faux pas…..

“faux pas”

I noticed this curious little tidbit probably a few months ago, it resurfaced when I was in Florida, and just again today, so I thought I’d share this with you.

  I’m curious if the first people to use “faux pas” in its current sense realized they had two sets of homonyms that end up with the same overarching meaning….. quite witty if they did.  Here’s how it works:

“faux pas”:

“faux”: false
“pas”: step

= false step, misstep
∴ a social slip-up, blunder

“faut pas”:

shortened from “il ne faut pas” in slang
“faut”: must
“ne….. pas”: not

= [indefinite] “one” must not, “one” shouldn’t
∴ when used as a noun, a social blunder

  Quite witty, if that was the intention.  Oh words, how I love thee…..

Day 2

Today was Christmas!  Merry Christmas everyone!

It started with me waking up late, daydreaming myself awake.  Kinda lovely to do sometimes.  I got up, had a small breaky, sat on the balcony.  We’d already exchanged gifts beforehand (since my sister couldn’t come with us, we had our celebrations last week), but my dad still had a couple gifts to give to my mom, so after that we sat on the balcony and took in some sun with our coffees.  After a nice morning walk around the Pass with my mom, we went back to the condo for bacon & eggs and cleaned the place up for our dinner company….. then another walk …… and another….. then friends came over for Christmas dinner and we had a blast.  Such fun people.  I hope I’m that fun when I’m their age.  Of course, they’re my parents’ age too but umm…… no, I really don’t have a way to get my foot out of my mouth there.  New topic!

So today on the beach I was walking mostly in the water to search for the bigger shells, so I didn’t see as much interesting stuff today, but here’s the daily list anyway:

• dolphins several times, lots of them including the mutant one!  In years past, we noticed a dolphin with a sliced dorsal fin….. we suspect it was from a boating encounter.  There very well could be hundreds like that, but we like to think it’s the same families that stick around the area, with his sighting meaning all is well with them.
• several decent-sized shells with their residents still alive inside…… I threw them back into the ocean to hopefully have a few more days (or more!) of life
• a large shell with resident inside…… I’m gonna research what kind he was, because I’ve seen the shells before and they’re beautifully decorated, so I’m curious anyway.  I’m told I found a sunray venus shell….. go here to view and learn: http://www.shellmuseum.org/Sanibel/shells_nimbosa.html  I had seen it near the beginning of my walk, and was dumbfounded when I couldn’t find it after the initial sighting (I’m a pro at shelling…… I don’t often lose a shell to the waves once I’ve seen it), especially since it was so large.  Anyway, after giving up (doesn’t come easily to me), I continued my walk, well, shelling session anyway haha….. and on my way back I was about to leave when I saw it again.  I’m sure it’s the same one I’d been searching for earlier because it was like a rose in a field of thorns — nothing else had been that large, and that particular type of shell wasn’t even found in pieces anywhere where I’d walked….. so I went to get it, and sure enough I lost it two more times before I finally grabbed it.  The problem was that it was so heavy it only strayed to the visible area on occasion — otherwise it stayed where the waves were crashing (hence the water was sandy and I couldn’t even see my feet in less than a foot of water) and there his colours blended in.  But I got him.  And of course threw him far into the ocean again.  I have to admit, there’s something kinda humbling about holding an entire creature in your hand who created this beautiful piece of art to house himself….. used to living almost entirely at the hands of the ocean.  He really has no defenses besides his shell….. anyway…..
• Maddy and another heron!  …… they weren’t hanging out though.
• fishermen
• seemingly more people…… I think partially because it was a fair bit warmer today, plus everyone’s done their Christmas shopping!
• (earlier, by the Pass) ~12 foot tall bird of paradise plant!!!!  seriously incredible.  I vaguely remember discovering it last year but boy is it impressive.  The flower parts are different colours from the regular bird of paradise wild oranges and purples….. I found out from here http://www.mgonlinestore.com/Juncea/  that it’s the white variety…… much larger than the regular orange kind.
• 2 dogs in motorboats, 1 laying down for a nap, and 1 riding at the bow of his boat.  It’s not that uncommon really, but I always find it amusing.
• 1 dude paragliding?  I’m not sure the term for it.  Yup, turns out that’s it.  Only this dude was motorized.  And boy was he flying LOW!

Well that’s all I can think of right now, mostly because I’m tired!  If I remember more, you can be sure I’ll get back to you with it.

Again, happy holidays to you, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas  🙂

An Artist’s Rendering

I have heard there are some
who have never seen dawn
I cannot fathom a life
so deprived
how can you not be curious?
the world may change dimensions
at precisely four o’clock
for all you are aware
have you never walked a street
with no one on it?
not a car, a person, a pigeon
to disturb your view
you see your world in these moments
vivid like a painting
unrolled before your very feet
as if to say:

“Walk me”

Copyright L.M. 2007.

Castles (September 2006)

This poem was written last year, when my sister challenged me to write about Florida.  Castles, castles, in the sand…..  Anyway, hope you enjoy    🙂

      

Castles         

it isn’t silence
the sound of light winds
muffled by the white
soft underfoot
recently blessed by sun
sings to the water
tucking, buckling,
racing chariots of miniature waves
leaving treasures to be found
and closely examined
by little hands and feet
the passing curious
whose eyes stray easily
landing upon the pier
with the fishermen ready
dinner in mind
(or maybe pizza tonight)
looking from face to smiling face
everyone knows
everyone feels
it’s love at first breath
sound
touch
sight
and smell
cleansing salty air
performs a miracle
delivering its message of peace
infiltrating lungs with purity
seaweed and all
inciting song and dance for many
and adoration for all

  

    

Copyright L.M. 2006.  (yes, this is a repost, but if you didn’t want to download the .doc file you can now read it here.)

Why I Love Walking

Today I was walking around downtown Kingston, trying to make up for lost time.  Lately I’ve been so busy, and have had such little sleep, that I’ve pretty much been a (non-)walking zombie. Yesterday when I went to class, I was literally stumbling. If you know me, you know that I can handle being tired. Heck, in the past people have commented on how upbeat I was, not knowing that I’d pulled an all-nighter the night before. So, for me to say I was feeling it, I mean I was feeling it. Today I had to get up for a group meeting, which consisted of very little work, but at least a little organization. After that, I decided it was time to walk off everything that’s been building up in me.

I had a great experience. A lady came up to me and asked me what the wreath was that I was wearing. Confused, I looked to where she was pointing: my poppy. She didn’t have an accent and didn’t look stupid so I was curious why she didn’t know what it was….. I asked “You mean my poppy?” She nodded. “Well, we wear it to recognize and give respect to our veterans. For Remembrance Day.” She smiled and said, “Ahh. We were wondering why everyone was wearing wreaths. We’re from California.” She thanked me, we walked away, and I heard her telling her friend the result of her inquest.

That made me smile.  I think because the poppies had been so prevalent in walking downtown that it made her curious enough to ask. That impressed me, and I suddenly felt very patriotic 🙂