I remembered!!!

One of the not craft things I was going to talk about :)

There are words... words that I use,that I hear, that I know - but don't truly know....

You talk with people, you use a word correctly, but it turns out someone else isn't sure of what you mean, and they ask. You suddenly realize, that you *know* the word, but you don't know how to explain it, how to define it. So you look it up....

Or, you just suddenly decide yourself that you don't know really what it means. Maybe a little bit of self-doubt... "am I using this word right, or am I making a fool of myself???". So, you look it up....

The second example happened to me recently - though I was reading the word, not saying it.... Was pretty sure I knew what it was, but I googled anyway. Found a neat write up at that wi-pedia thingy site.

The word was "bling". Or "bling-bling". I kind of thought it meant the glittery jewellery stuff that people wear. I was pretty much right. Though I learned a few other things....

First, I already sort of knew about the part where a word (any slange word, not just bling) starts out as a cultural slang, then finds its way into everyday conversation, then the originating culture stops using it because it is no longer their own. This also happened with a lot of music - rock for example.

I can just imagine how all those hip young street type people felt when "little old ladies" started knitting with "Bling Bling".... (a name of Bernat eyelash type yarn).

Now, taking a bit of an aside here, I know it isn't just little old ladies who knit, but that vision still seems to persist. For some reason. I don't know why. What I do know is that even my own husband once told me (over 12 years ago, at least) that I was "too young to be doing all that knitting stuff like little old ladies". How did I fix him? Well, I started making things for him.... He still proudly shows off the afghan I designed just for him, and loves telling people how popular the free pattern for it is on the net.... I really need to get going on fixing some socks for him, too... he gave me three pairs that all need the heel fixed - I told him I'd get to them when I can (need to figure out how I'm going to do it, since I think that re-knitting an entire pair is easier than understanding how to darn thesocks - other than, saying "darn you socks!! why did you get holes??? ) and he said, that was fine, as long as he had them back for the winter....Guess I better move them up the "to do list"...

But, the neatest part that I learned about bling, is that it doesn't always have to be jewellery. Turns out that I've been wearin' my Bling for YEARS.

I quote from the wi-pedia thing site:
"In its essence, the term refers to the exterior manifestation of one's interior state of character, normally displayed through various forms of visual stimuli."
So, by always wearing either a kitty shirt, or kitty earrings, or kitty sockies, or kitty *something* somewhere on my body (yeah, ok, watches and earrings and pins count as jewellery) I've been "hip" for a long time :)