(no subject)

[froodle]

So today I went out to the airport to pick up my cousin, Lee, only it turned out my mum had gotten the dates wrong so he wasn't on the flight. I go over to the information desk to get the right flight times and the woman working there is the mum of someone I went to school with. She recognises me and I politely enquire after her daughter. Turns out she's married, three kids and living in a semi-detached house in what passes for our capital here on the Rock of Smell.

"How about you?" says the woman. "Any ring yet?"

Dudes, I realised about five minutes afterwards that I should totally have said "He died" and then started crying. Why do you never think of these awesome responses until it's too late to use them? Fuck! At least I'll have it ready for next time.

Comments

[incandescens]

There's a French term for it - "l'esprit de l'escalier" or something like that (literally "the spirit of the stair"), meaning the feeling you get when you've left the room and are going down the stairs outside, and only then think of what would have been the perfect thing to say. ;)

[froodle]

Hah! At least I know that it happens to enough people that there's a proper name for it. In the Scarlet Pimpernel, Percy calls it "carriage wit", because you think of it in the carriage on your way home, but even on the Isle of Man, we're a little beyond carriages these days so it doesn't work as well.

[prepare4trouble.livejournal.com]

You totally should have done that! As long as you can do the crying without snickering between sobs. (Might be a giveaway.)

It's scary how many people I went to school with are now married with kids. I think it's approximately... all of them. My facebook flist is a parade of baby pics and posts about weddings.

[froodle]

I think I could convincingly work my snickering into grief-fracked hiccups without too much effort - I can do full-on hysteria, I just can't do the stoic single-manly-tear thing without starting to laugh.

It's madness! One of the guys I went to college with has a five year old daughter. FIVE. YEARS. OLD. I'm not even collected enough to get pregnant and carry a baby to term RIGHT NOW, much less five years ago!

[prepare4trouble.livejournal.com]

My sister has a baby, and a wedding booked for September. She's five years younger than me. Even if I was that way inclined, I still feel it'd be too soon for me. I guess everyone's different though.

Good thing too, or the human race would soon cease to exist..!

[froodle]

That's true, I guess we need people who WANT to have babies otherwise we would all die out - I guess because I've been away so long, and only remember these people as teenagers, it's really jarring for me to think of them as having spawned minature versions of themselves already.

Still, as long as I don't get asked to babysit, I can deal with their weird adult-type lifestyles.

[shirleyann66.livejournal.com]

I used to tell people we were waiting to see if he would make parole.

Nobody asks anymore... ;D

Oh, and my biggest freak-out was seeing a guy I graduated high school with who was a grandfather at the age of 41. I still felt like I wasn't old enough for children let alone grandchildren. *shudders*

[froodle]

Ooooh, that's a good one too! I'd better remember these next time it comes up.

Grandfathering would be way too weird, although given the number of teen pregnancies at my highschool and the tendancy for that kind of thing to become a self-perpetuating cycle, I'm sure some of the people I knew are well on their way to becoming grandparents before they reach thirty.