Vocal-larity

Gracie has been particularly vocal here as of late. She has had a lot to talk about.

Conversation number one.

Gracie : Augustine is sooooooooo cute, I tell him that a lot, he said to me once that I say that all the time, and one time, one time last week, I told him, I know I say that all the time, but I like to tell him that because he is just adooooooorable, so adorable, I used to think Fabrezio was cute too but he doesn't come to our class anymore, but I told him once he was cute and he said I say that all the time and ya know what, ( name changed to protect the guilty) Lisa, a girl in my class kissed a boy, but it wasn't Augustine, it was another boy, she kissed him twice, and she shouldn't do that should she? That was not appropriate for her to do was it? She shouldn't do things like that, she also kissed one of the boys on her street like last week and she shouldn't do that either, even if its not in school she shouldn't kiss a boy like that, I wont kiss a boy, unless he is family like my daddy, my bitty, (her dog) or well, I wont do that.

She said all of this in one breath. She makes me tired

During this brief warm spell we had just a few days ago Gracie was riding her bike and I was removing debris and dead stuff from the flower beds. She pulled up on the driveway apron and said.

"What in the tarnations is all this mess?"

Tarnations? Oh it gets better.

I asked, " what did you say?"

She said:" You say, Goo-ooood Looo-ord, mommy says, goodness gracious, and I say tarnations"

First, I have no idea where she got the word from. but she uses it correctly for the culture of this area and in context of the rules of her family. She pronounces it correctly, Tarn-ation-s. She has a little bit of a hick inflection going with it and she adds the inappropriate 'S' at the end. What do I mean by local culture? I mean it sounds country. What do I mean by the rules of her family? Well that would be the use of the inappropriate 'S'.

You know the 's' it shows up in words like:

• Deers - plural form of deer
• Macaronis - plural form of macaroni
• and of course, tarnations.