Inside Jokes...

Little words, phrases, or actions that make those in-the-know smile fill our lives. Out of context, the minute gestures or conversations may seem trivial or those observing two friends laughing hysterically will think those holding their guts and slapping their knees are certifiable.

While DM wrote a post today (Friday) about the letter Q, I could write a post about the letter K. For no reason what-so-ever, the letter K pops up into my favorite phrases regularly. Most of those result in an inside joke.

For example, I am extremely ticklish. It is so bad that I will giggle and laugh and feel like I am being tickled with just someone mentioning the word tickle. Those I work with and those I know from karaoke (another word with K) all torture me with this fact. I cannot tickle someone else without giggling uncontrollably and there is another supervisor at work who gets great pleasure at making me laugh all afternoon long.

Monkey! A few years ago, I was watching "Planet of the Apes," with Keem and DM. To annoy Keem, each time an ape was on the screen, I would say, "Monkey!" Yes, I know apes and monkeys are different. This was done to annoy Keem. I like monkeys, somewhat. They are cute and all, but no where near my favorite animal. But since I said this during the movie, people keep giving me monkeys. I have one that I really like, a stuffed animal that Ellen gave me years ago named, Elwood. She has his brother, Jake. Now Steve, my tem lead, loves monkeys and can do a pretty good impression. It doesn't hurt that he looks a bit like Curious George to begin with. Today, to entertain our HR consultant who was having a bad day, I was pulled into her office to be tickled while Steve acted like a monkey. It did make her smile.

There are other words that have strong K sounds in them that have been picked up as vocab between DM and I. Our trip to Canada helped us learn Kakabeka. A trip to Wisconsin helped us pick up Kinnickinnick (which is totally fun to say).

But the ultimate word that has a K sound in it that I've adopted is Chicken. Thrown randomly into conversation is a great way to watch DM throw up her arms and make the disgusted, "ARGH!" noise. The beauty of chicken is the fact that it is a common topic and references to it are easy to make.

It started simply, when DM would ask a question (such as, "What should I sing?"), I would reply, "Chicken." Then I grabbed the Ukrainian-English dictionary I have (before I had heard from Andriy) and learned the Ukrainian word for chicken is pronounced as "Kour-kah." More K sounds.

Then it has become a great challenge to find new ways to involve the word into conversation or throw a reference to it into DM's life. I'm particularly proud of the greeting card I sent inter-office mail to her, wishing her happy thoughts and CHICKEN! A radio ad helped me quite a bit by stating, "We've asked everyone and the answer keeps coming up CHICKEN." Co-workers (the other supervisor, Steve, and Sarah) have all sent her chicken related emails.

Earlier this week, while Christmas gift shopping with DM, I preprogrammed my cellular phone to say, "CHICKEN!" when closed. She was not expecting that one. Sarah told her last night that she is getting DM chicken for Christmas.

Two weeks ago, my team had a meeting where we watched a movie. The team chose to watch "Chicken Run." When I got to karaoke, I told DM that we watched a movie about chickens. Her reply, "No, no you did not. You're trying to get me. What did you watch?" Then I told her it was "Chicken Run."

The great part is now every time someone brings up the topic of chicken to DM, she thinks I had something to do with it.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy, safe, memorable, and pleasant holiday season. Don't cook the duck. It just tastes like chicken.

Teri said: I think you should learn to say chicken in other languages in order to drive DeeEm totally crazy. Spanish: Pollo (Poy-yo) French: Poulet (Poo-lay) German: Hähnchen (han-chen) Latin: pullus go here to get millions more language options...

CarpeDM said: Stupid thing wouldn't let me comment earlier. Teri, that's just mean. But funny! Beth, I loved this, especially about the monkey and the chicken part. It's always fun when you get goofy! Merry Christmas. I'm going to take a nap now.

Mother of Invention said: A Krafty and Kool post! HA! Have a wonderful Christmas...feast and fest!