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Miniature force of nature?
Jan. 9th, 2004 10:41 amMom just called and put Nicole on the phone. She moved in yesterday. They're getting the paperwork ready to enroll her in the Sag Harbor elementary school. She sounded very eager and excited and very, very hyper. She loves my room; I told her to read all my books; she told me she's already reading one with dragons. Which is nifty, since the very first book I read with my father was Dragonworld, when I was just a year younger.
Mom (Grandma!) says that she's a completely different creature from me when I was a kid. She's incredibly active and social and dynamic, talks a mile a minute, and Dad's already starting to lose his mind trying to think of ways to keep the girl busy. Mom's thinking of having her clean the house. I point blank said to Mom, "My gods, what have you unleashed on this sleepy little town?" She laughed and said, "We'll see!" I'm not sure Southampton, let alone Sag Harbor, will be ready to handle seven-year-old Nicole Collins.
And on that note, looking back on that last post, I realize that I seem to have lost all traces of my faint occasional Brooklyn accent. I never really had one; it only came out when I'd be talking about Brooklyn or Manhattan. But I've been in Maryland for over two years, and I think because, like my mother, I'm a "dialect chameleon", I've unconsciously fazed out the New Yorker in favor of the Marylander. I don't really have a natural accent, since I conform to my environment. I did that at a summer camp where I spent a week in the infirmary with an Australian nurse. Mom does it whenever she meets someone British. Dad's native Brooklyn-Italian accent has lessened over the years after enough Long Island exposure. But I sort of miss mine. I asked Mom the classic Brooklyn-Italian greeting "How you doin'?" and I realized I could barely get my voice to that sharp, King's Highway tone. Nicole does not, however, seem to have a Queen's accent. Maybe because she's still young. Christina and Danny both sound like they're from the Astoria ghetto or something, but I think Nicole is like Mom and me, a blank slate. I just hope Tina and Danny will get their act together so their daughter--my great-neice-- can go back home.
Mom (Grandma!) says that she's a completely different creature from me when I was a kid. She's incredibly active and social and dynamic, talks a mile a minute, and Dad's already starting to lose his mind trying to think of ways to keep the girl busy. Mom's thinking of having her clean the house. I point blank said to Mom, "My gods, what have you unleashed on this sleepy little town?" She laughed and said, "We'll see!" I'm not sure Southampton, let alone Sag Harbor, will be ready to handle seven-year-old Nicole Collins.
And on that note, looking back on that last post, I realize that I seem to have lost all traces of my faint occasional Brooklyn accent. I never really had one; it only came out when I'd be talking about Brooklyn or Manhattan. But I've been in Maryland for over two years, and I think because, like my mother, I'm a "dialect chameleon", I've unconsciously fazed out the New Yorker in favor of the Marylander. I don't really have a natural accent, since I conform to my environment. I did that at a summer camp where I spent a week in the infirmary with an Australian nurse. Mom does it whenever she meets someone British. Dad's native Brooklyn-Italian accent has lessened over the years after enough Long Island exposure. But I sort of miss mine. I asked Mom the classic Brooklyn-Italian greeting "How you doin'?" and I realized I could barely get my voice to that sharp, King's Highway tone. Nicole does not, however, seem to have a Queen's accent. Maybe because she's still young. Christina and Danny both sound like they're from the Astoria ghetto or something, but I think Nicole is like Mom and me, a blank slate. I just hope Tina and Danny will get their act together so their daughter--my great-neice-- can go back home.
