I owe you a post about contests. And winners. And winning.
But, you people are such prolific sharers of all things #ToLiveForeverbook, that we are still in the throes of compiling the results. Please stay tuned. We want to be thorough. And fair. The big announcement is coming any day now.
Thank you for making Rowe, MTM and me work so hard. Really, we were up until almost 2am Wednesday morning, before we finally decided to go to bed. I’m honored that you deemed this whole thing worthy of that many shares. And retweets. And blog posts. You are among the best people on earth.
And the best people on earth find ways to communicate, even when it’s challenging.
Take Tuesday night.
My friend Nico Romo’s dad and step-mom were in town from France. We’ve become friends with them throughout their various visits, even though they don’t speak English. And we don’t speak French. MTM and Manuel, Nico’s dad, can cobble together a conversation in Spanish.
Sort of.
And Nico’s wife Harmony acts as translator. Her French is way more proficient than mine. I only understood what people said to her baby Elsa. Ouvert while she held a pacifier. Manger when he waved a bottle. Pppppppppppppt, the universal French expression for everything.
Elsa’s French already exceeds mine. She’s nine months old.
Yeah, I feel stupid.
But we’ve grown to love these people, even though we can’t exactly communicate. We hand-gesture and sound-out and garble our way to a rousting evening, fueled of course, with wine. Everything’s perfect. Absolutely fine. Even though we’re different.
And, that’s my definition of #winning.
Get the novel that’s encouraging me to read about venereal disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis is available in paperback and e-book formats at these outlets: Click to Purchase To Live Forever.
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37 Comments
That sounds like a wonderful time Andra 🙂 #winning, indeed!
It was great to kick back and relax for a couple of hours, Fiona. Haven’t been doing much of that lately. 🙂
Ive always wanted to learn at least some french but never actually done it, I just leave it for later and forget.
One of these days…
I’m around it enough that I can read basic signage and whatnot, but I can’t understand much, and I can say even less.
Wine…it’s the language of the world.
Isn’t it? 🙂
Je parle francais un petit peu, mais, je parle vraiment de vin.
http://youtu.be/8UiuL9Y_A2M
I’m afraid to watch this, Lou. Will he be seducing her on the counter???
Wine. Fine. Dine. Sounds like a perfect evening… in any language. How fun.
We don’t get to see them nearly enough. They’ve been here since February and leave tomorrow, and this was our only visit this go round.
I took two years of French back in high school and the only sentence I can still put together reliably is:
“Je ne parles pas Francais.”
🙂
I can still say ‘je m’appelle Andra.’ 🙂
heh, I guess I can still remember that one too!
You were speaking wine, that’s the common language of a great night. 🙂
The food was pretty good, too.
Gravy.
No French speaking here either….two years of Spanish, waaaaaaaaaaay back when, and I’m good for precious little of it anymore (there’s much truth to that adage about losing what one doesn’t use).
That said, I think there’s another old adage that covers your situation: where there’s a will, there’s a way. 🙂 Sounds as if you all had a wonderful evening and a lovely break in the routine of counting entries, traveling to and from book signings and business meetings, etc. Do you ever stop to catch your breath?
My body forces me to stop eventually. I’ve been fighting a migraine for most of this week, so there’s that.
Oh, noooooooooooo I hope you’re winning.
I do a lot of gesturing to supplement my poor Spanish. I’m learning that love and friendship have little to do with language.
AND, by the way, I just last night got to start reading your book. What can I say? Sorry for the delay. Things have been busy. But, my GOD, it is so DAMN GOOD! Could NOT put it down. Seriously, Andra, I’m picky, and your book is brilliant!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
Kathy, you need not apologize. You’re reading it, and that’s what matters. 🙂 Some people I considered close friends won’t bother to read it. Perspective. 🙂
Ha! I know what you mean! I met a kid in Atlanta some years ago who spoke three languages. by the age of 7! My Spanish is nothing to write home about!
MTM gets by with Spanish, though more than a decade away from total immersion has left him very rusty.
brillante, my amiga
🙂
I’ve had a lot of those types of exchanges throughout my life, and they are the best 🙂 We have to rely on our “human-ness” to communicate. There’s nothing better than that…except for wine, bien sûr.
I hope you’ll get to have many of them in Provence this September. 🙂
I might be better suited for drinking with friends that can’t understand me. 🙂
That sounds like a lovely evening, Andra! Although I took Spanish in school, I remember barely a lick of it – yet, my best friend was in French, and often I’d tag along to her class as well as the French field trips (I’m not entirely sure why the teacher tolerated me…). To this day, I remember just enough French to understand the boy when he garbles something at me from *his* French class!
Wine goes so well with so much. Glad you had a lovely relaxing evening (emphasis on relaxing).
My fingers are crossed on the contest. Orion is the polyglot in the house. I’ll take him someplace where multiple languages are spoken and he’ll say hi to everyone (in the language they’re speaking which he’s identified) and potentially strike up a conversation while I nod and smile.
Good thing MTM has his Spanish. Spanish has saved me on many similar occasions! Then there is always just smiling which is universal. 🙂 Glad you are getting a bit of R & R. You have worked very hard, mi amiga!
how fun, well, somehow it always works out, and you are able to communicate in ways you never imagined )
Sounds absolutely divine, Andra, if lingually challenged.
Having growing up in a bi-lingual home where I understood more than I could communicate, I appreciate the baby’s gurgling help.
Well hell, I know I wrote a comment to this one…just don’t know where it got off to. :-/ I feel like I’m a winner (although I already know I’m not a winner in regard to this contest). After all, I did win the autographed book that was signed at Mile Marker 222 (currently my Mom is reading it with the promise not to bend it). I also feel like I’m a winner for being a part of this group – a group of people who adore Andra. Win/Win I say. Andra, I’m going to hand write a little note to you…just need to find some lined note paper…cause when I hand write a note without any lines…it is slanted, starts off big and ends up being very small. 😉
I told my Mom I would purchase one for her (she doesn’t have internet – I know – FREAKY), and she lives way out…Glen, Montana – go ahead look it up…my GPS will not even recognize that town. Anyway, I’m heading her way in a couple of weeks to take my book back and give her a new one. 😉
Bottom line: winning is being happy. And you certainly sounded like you were on this occasion, Andra 🙂
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