Kummerspeck

A friend sent me a marvelous list of foreign words that don't have an equivalent in English.  It is missing one such word that I use frequently:  saudade, which, in Portuguese, is an extreme longing or homesickness for someone or something or some place.  The Brasilians who stayed here, and especially the ones who have remained in our lives all these years, and I use this term all the time--it's a very long time between visits, so there is much saudade.

While most of the words on this list are totally unpronounceable, the first word on the list is one I think I can pronounce easily. (don't ask me how to pronounce "mamihlapinatapai," which is in the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego and describes that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.)  The pronounceable word is "Kummerspeck," which is German for "excess weight from emotional overeating, or, literally, 'grief bacon'."

What a marvelous word.  If I didn't already have sebendy-leben blogs already, I'd start a new one just to call it "Kummerspeck" and then decide how to tailor the content to the title!  I have suffered from Kummerspeck my whole life and just never knew it before!  I feel like Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller what "water" is..."It has a name...It has a name!"

And if I weren't before, I am definitely in the throes of a nice episode of Kummerspeck right now.  Trying to juggle all the things that need to be done to get my mother up here on Saturday has me scarfing down food without even realizing that I've eaten anything until after it's all gone.

Kummerspeck.  I like it.

This morning I ran around town getting last minute things done.   On the way to Target, Ed called me (a call I took on the bluetooth in the new car.   Have I mentioned I love that car?) and we talked about the status with money and other things about moving.  He feel bad about not being there on Saturday, but thinks that with so many other people around he would probably just be in the way and he needed the rest and would stop by and see her on Tuesday, which is probably going to be better.   Less confusing for her with fewer people.

I bought a shower curtain and rings to install in the bathroom, then got toilet paper, tonic, ice cream, and ice cream cones to go with her vodka and cashews and took it all to the apartment and got the curtain up, but couldn't close most of the rings, so Walt went and finished the job later in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, I worked at Logos.  Lemme tell ya, working at the book store was so far off my radar screen that I had to literally force myself into "book store mode."  

Just before I went to work, I received the bill for my mother's first month at Covell.  They only overbilled us by $6,000.  Billed us for two payments she made already.  Naturally I called right away and was told that the billing person was presently busy and would get right back to me.  I have discovered that this seems to be the standard answer at Covell.  The person you want to reach is always busy and is always going to "get right back to me" and never does.

At 4:30, naturally I had not heard from her so I called again (the glory of being able to take your cell phone with you to work!).  And, of course, she had gone for the day, but would call me tomorrow.  I'm afraid I made a bit of a stink about how we haven't even moved in yet and I'm already fed up with the runaround I get every time.  The person on the phone told me she would talk with the manager and he would "get right back to me."

I had little hope, but he actually did and we actually had a very nice talk.  I have the feeling that the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing in that place.  For example, he told me that when my mother moves in, someone would bring her a set of keys.  I probably should NOT have admitted that we already have keys (at least I didn't admit that we have three sets of keys!)   He assured me that this was not their policy and that he would talk with his staff about it.  I hope I didn't get anybody in trouble. I had been told throughout the signing up process that as soon as all the paperwork was finished and all the money paid, we had possession of the apartment and they would give us keys.

Owell...that's their problem to work out.

The next thing to keep me awake is worry about whether the movers will actually show up on Saturday.  They are supposed to call me tomorrow.

Walt is driving me down to Terra Linda tomorrow and I will stay there until the movers come on Saturday and then drive her up and help her get settled and stay to have dinner with her the first night.