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.

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.

 

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.