Infographic Monday: The Longing

My own personal Psuedo Househusband of Old Town, XFE is coming home again tomorrow and it is not a minute too soon. I’ve missed him terribly. There’s only so much remote control responsibility a girl wants before she realizes, there really isn’t anything good on TV anyway.

Where the heck is he??
Where the heck is he??

288 hours is a lot of time to fill without your best buddy/personal chef/sommelier/comedian/bill payer/grocery shopper/personal trainer/stylist/gossip sharer. There really isn’t one good, all-purpose word to accurately describe what XFE is in my world. Except, maybe, everything. Or, my safe spot. My home.

Maybe that’s why I keep engaging in the Inuit practice known as “iktsuarpok”: the feeling of anticipation that leads you to keep looking outside to see if anyone is coming. But in this case, it’s not just anyone. It’s XFE. I keep looking outside to see if XFE is coming.

The French also, predictably, have a phrase for how I’m feeling: “avoir le mal de quelqu’un” — missing someone so much it literally makes you sick. “Someonesickness.” I love that.

Ah words, they can be so clever. This infographic has some fun phrases that defy translation into English. Also: the delightful website, Better Than English, is an excellent diversion for occasions when one is flitting about restlessly, waiting for someone to come home.

11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures

 

The French also have a delightful word for what I anticipate I will feel when I rush home tomorrow after work and see XFE waiting for me: “retrouvailles.”  Literally translated as “rediscovery,” retrouvailles is the happiness of reuniting with someone after a long separation. Yep. That sounds right. Rediscovery accompanied by my co-captain for life.

 

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