5:45 AM phone call
The phone rang 10 times at 5:45 this morning. I didn’t answer. When it was done ringing, I got out of bed to check the Caller ID, worried it was an emergency. It had to be an emergency. Why else would anyone call so early? I looked at the number. The first three digits matched those of my cousin’s number. I pressed the call button. Here is the conversation that followed:
GUY: Bueno?
ME: Hello?
GUY: Quien habla?
ME: [groggily moving into Spanish mode] Gwen. Me llama-… me llamaste?
GUY: [pause, then, paraphrasing here] Te llame…? O… te llame. Es que equivoque el numero.
ME: [icily sarcastic] O, okay. Pos, *gracias*.
GUY: [starts to say something]
MY PHONE: Cuh-lick!
How do you put emphasis on a word that you’re typing in another language? I asked a UT English teacher that question once. She didn’t know. I said I didn’t like that Spanish was always italicized because it made me read it with emotional emphasis in my mind. I wondered aloud what style guides would do when bilingual literature became more common. Some bitch across the classroom (transfer from Texas Tech) rolled her eyes at me and said that that was the way the New York Times did it, whether I liked it or not, and could we please change the subject.
I said nothing.
College was sometimes a big, alien pain in the ass for me.
