“Could you hand me the clicker-dicker?” “Where is that thingy I just had?” “Would you please get me a pill from that squarish-round bottle on the shelf?” “It’s in the dark place where we keep the stuff we need.” That’s RitaSpeak, or so my spouse, R, says. Frankly, it is perfectly clear to me what I mean. In reality, it is probably part my short-hand (or long-hand) for stuff and the loss of memory that goes with aging.
For example, I can remember (now, of course) that once I could not for the life of me remember the name of the refrigerator. And so, RitaSpeak went something like this: “I’d like a soda, but not the ones in the pantry but one from the ???, place that is cold where we keep our food.” Have any of you ever done that or is this something totally unique to me? Sometimes when I forget a name I just keep thinking until it comes to me, but I’ve found that RitaSpeak works just as well.
Being products of corporate America both R and I use short-hand letters or acronyms a lot. We have two pantries and they are called “P1” and “P2.” Our upstairs loft/office is called the “L’office,” and our living room, dining room, kitchen, great room is called the “Groom.” I guess you might call that OurSpeak. We even have OurSpeak rules like rule one is “Keep the door to the bathroom closed,” and rule two is “Put the toilet seat down.” Saves a lot of words. I wonder if that qualifies as going “Green” with words? Does that lower our carbon footprint with less exhaled carbon dioxide?
The other day we were driving somewhere (doesn’t matter where) and the display lights on our dashboard were dim. R asked me if the round dial thingy for lights was up? RitaSpeak at its best! What that meant was “Is the dial that controls the dimming of the lights in the off position?” It was, and strangely enough, I knew exactly what he meant. R was astounded that he had even said that because he has never spoken RitaSpeak! I guess it is contagious. LOL.
My daughter thinks some of our RitaSpeak words shouldn’t be used like “Clicker-dicker” because it doesn’t seem to connect to anything. Well, I’m sorry, but “Clicker-dicker” is the remote control for the TV. Even I can understand the “Clicker” part, but where I came up with the “Dicker” part is beyond me. Or maybe not – it rhymes with “Clicker.” Oh, well, such is RitaSpeak!