Did you grow up hearing Mexican dichos or sayings/proverbs?
Dicho in Spanish:
Ande yo caliente y riase la gente
Dicho in English:
As long as I am warm, let people laugh
I thought this was a good one for this morning (43 degrees at 10:46 a.m.). I am totally prepared to live the entire year in shorts, flip-flops, and T-shirts. I used to be successful at that until I got older and could feel the cold seeping into my aging bones. Now cold weather throws me into a state of confusion, clothing-wise.
Earlier this morning I took my son to school. It was much colder. I was wearing brown doggers (cheap version of crocs) with white socks. When I was young I swore I would NEVER wear socks with sandals. Oh well. Funny how that happens.
I threw on some jeans that were still in a suitcase from a Vegas trip months ago that had questionable cleanliness (the jeans, not the trip). I topped that with two short-sleeved shirts never meant to be layered or worn in the winter – one a T-shirt and the other a gauzy summery shirt with beading on the V neckline.
I also wore a “jacket.” I’m not sure if the “jacket” qualifies as such. It’s more decorative than functional. Something only sold in the summer to people who live in hot deserts for about $10. Plus it still had some dog blood on the white fringe from when a dog claw got clipped too close this weekend and tons of dog hair all over it’s dark navy-blue fuzziness (from hugging the dog all night to make up for the claw).
That was my only choice since I pretty much own two jackets. The decorative one and one suitable for running a dog sled race in Alaska that I bought 8 years ago when I was freezing my gluteus maximus off in NY City when the decorative one failed to protect me against a NY winter. Let me tell you, exiting the airport there was quite a shocker for this native Tucsonan! It’s hard to move my arms and steer the car in my second jacket, and it wasn’t THAT cold yet, so it wasn’t an option.
Because I was thrown for a loop by the cold weather, that meant no time for make-up and hair shoved into a very messy, awkward pony tail. When I ran into Circle K, I looked down at my shoes and realized they were not only dirty and stained from gardening but they didn’t match either. The white socks only made the fact that one shoe had circular holes and the other rectangular more obvious. Oh well, I thought, at least I’m warm. It could have been worse – I could have worn my black shiny dress shoes with thick white athletic socks.
When I arrived at the school, I saw most of the other parents were totally pulled together with cool-looking jackets, mittens, hats, winter shoes. Some even had bags that matched their shoes or matching hat, scarf and mitten combos. Everything looked shiny and new. No doubt many of them come from far off lands where snow is common this time of year and they have acquired the skills of maintaining winter and summer wardrobes and switching out clothes at the appropriate times.
For me putting winter clothes in storage means folding a couple sweaters and putting them on a high closet shelf. But then when winter rolls around, they have a layer of very fine dust and moth holes (I have a swamp cooler and a poorly sealed house), and I don’t even want to touch them. I probably have sweaters that have sat up there for over 15 years. So then I have to resort to my summer gear until I get into the swing of things (don’t worry, I usually hit my stride by spring). Yes, I’ll incorporate plastic bags into my storage routine at the end of the season – just like I said I would do last year.
At the school I thought, oh screw it, let them laugh as I trudged my son to the gate (don’t worry he had a new jacket and matching hat and mittens – purchased last night). I’m warm and that’s all that matters. So right now when I sat down and saw this dicho in my dicho files, I thought it was perfect for today. “I’m warm, go ahead and laugh.”
It brings back memories of my grandma wearing her dark dress sandals with white athletic socks and either a mumu-type dress or a bright polyester outfit with a big lumpy 70′s sweater thrown over it. When I would laugh at her, she didn’t care and would say, “Ay yay yay, que Betty Jo” which pretty much means “Oh my gosh, that Betty Jo.”
Of course this dicho applies to much more than just the literal meaning and can be used in many situations. I’m sure you get the drift if you think about it.
Enjoy. I’m off to hunt down the matching shoe mates, scrub them down and wash my jacket and jeans in time for pick-up. I may be ghetto and nerdly but at least it can be relatively clean ghetto nerd style. 
See a list of all my dicho posts here.
Do you have dichos to share? If so, email them to comments@bjaysplace.com.
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