The perils of living with valismort

[valis2]

Fact about me you need to know for this entry: I can't remember nouns. Seriously. (Ask julian_black if you don't believe me.) I can't remember the proper names of things at least one out of every four times. When it's a verb, it's not so bad, because I can usually redirect through a slightly different verb for a similar effect. (Think "jumping" instead of "leaping," for example.) But for nouns, sometimes there is only one proper name that will do.

I do try to think my sentences through a little more carefully when I'm around new people or at work. But around really good friends and (especially) the husband, I will often stick a placeholder into the sentence where the unremembered word is because I need to get the entire phrase out before I forget it.

At this point, Husband knows what I mean at least four times out of five. There are several nonsense words that end up rolling off my tongue and acting as placeholders. One of them is "Shna Shna Higby," which is entirely burned into my brain because there was once a magazine in the front of my car for seven months with Sha Sha Higby on the cover (she's a performance artist).

Now that you have the [far too detailed] background on yet another of my eccentricities, I can reveal this exchange between Husband and myself just moments ago:

Valis: Can you take this detritus to the Shna Shna Higby for me? [Detritus = an empty root beer bottle and a glass, but I couldn't remember the word for bottle; Shna Shna Higby = kitchen]
Husband: For you, my dear, I would venture into the depths of Shna Shna Higby itself.

Comments

[innerslytherin]

LOL and in my family we just rely on "watchamacallit" and "thingamabob" with an occasional foray into "thingummy".

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Not only do I use words, but sometimes I even substitute hand gestures for some items. Years ago I worked with a really cool co-worker and I asked her to get something for me--and I just made these weird motions with my hands. She went and retrieved them and was halfway back before she groaned and said, "Damnit, I knew exactly what you meant!"

Oh, and I do say "thingamajig" quite often as well. ;)