Daily Archives: March 3, 2010

03 Mar

ordering subs

Where: sub place like Subway or Quizno’s

Around 4 years ago, here I am at the Carnegie Mellon University, so proud of myself about going to one of the best universities in the world. Well, not really. So, one day, after I finished my morning classes, I was so hungry. I was more than ready for lunch. Looking around South Craig st, I found the Subway store. Well, it looks like it would be really fast and easy to order a sub. So, I went in, there was a long line. What?? How come people are waiting here? What the heck? I decided to line up. Then, I saw many people asking something about their subs. I spoke to myself, “Guys, it is just a sub. What are you asking for? Just get anything they give you.” Here comes my turn. I ordered something like Chicken….. whatever. And the employee started asking me so many questions.

1. Which bread do you want? sometimes, this is even shorter. “wheat or white?”

2. Do you want it to be toasted? or “Toast?”

3.What kind of cheese do you like? Here you need to know the name of the cheese. Oh! I like provolone cheese. But then I know Jake will make fun of my pronunciation of provolone. So, I will go for swiss cheese.

4. What do you want to put into the sub? This is the worst part. You should know all of the names of them. The easiest answer is “Everything!”  Then your sub becomes really thick like stuffed chicken. Can anyone comment about the name of the stuff? Seriously, I cannot remember all of them. Oh I know tomato and lettuce.

5. Then again, what dressing do you want? At this moment, I am like, “dude put anything you like”

Why is it so hard to have just a sub? Give me one! You know what! Now, I am so proud of me because I can order a sub without any issue and even more I can be picky about the stuff I want to have. Am I becoming an American?

03 Mar

her bark is worse than her bite

Where : TV show “Parenthood”

Scene: This expression is used by the TV show, Parenthood. Specifically, when a mother of a daughter comes to the daughter place where she stays with her boyfriend. I think the daughter is pretty young like high school student and tries to stay with her boyfriend instead of staying her parents. The mother looks angry and says very strong expressions to threaten the daughter’s boyfriend. Then the daughter tells to her boyfriend, “Stay right there, it is all right. Her bark is worse than her bite.”

Definition: This  means someone’s actions are not as bad as their threats.

03 Mar

talk of the town

Who taught: James

I started this blog from Mar 1st, 2010. Within just one day, this becomes popular in my office. Over the lunch today, many of my friends told me they really like the blog. And James came into the kitchen, sitting into the chair, saying “So, Terry, your blog is the talk of the town now!”

What the heck? I could not understand what it means exactly and had to ask him, “What does it mean?” He explained it to me that it means “something that everybody talks about.” And I told him back, “Well, I will add it to my blog.” So here it is! The talk of the town, my blog! Yay!

03 Mar

while the cat's away, mice will play.

Who taught: Ari and Andrew

All right, today is a new day. Let’s get to work! Today’s expression is “while the cat’s away, mice will play.”

A few days ago, I was having lunch with my friends at work. For some reason, we started to have a cat conversation.

And Ari asked me about my interpretation of the expression, “while the cat’s away, mice will play.”

My answer was “hmm…. I think it is that, if there is no people with power, then the others will rule the world.” I think I was pretty close, wasn’t I? Maybe not!

Then Andrew explained to me that this expression means “if there is no authority, things will go over the limit. For example, when there are no parents, children will go crazy like having a party. In that case, you can use the expression.”

And Ari (?) also told me, “the other example would be, if there is no Carl, the PS engineers would slack.” (FYI, Carl is my boss and I am in Professional Services department.) Now I totally understood the meaning of the expression.

But, to be clear, the PS engineers never slack but work hard even Carl is not around. Go, PS!!!

PS: I asked Jessica about her interpretation. She told me, “let’s say there are two bosses, one is higher than the other. When the higher one is not in the office, the lower one tries to act like he/she is the top boss in the office.” This sounds very similar to mine. No wonder why we are married!!