Christina's Corner: Rain, Rain. Oh, how I love you.

Living down here is pretty different. You never know what the day is going to bring. What's it going to be today? A power outage? No internet? No water? But I always know one thing for sure. Today is going to be hot and humid. Like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. You catch my drift? But everyday I hope for rain. Rain does wonders. It somehow brings relief - but only for as long as it rains. So I also hope for a good long rain! Funny how living in Washington, the home of 9 months of rain and where I was so sick and tired of rain, it is when I move here that I want rain soooo badly!! It's not just for the relief that I want it but also because for the brief time that it is here, it brings me back to Washington. So for all you Washingtonians, love the rain!!! Well if you can anyway!!! lol.

                                            ~Christina

Language Learning Laughs

Learning a new language at my age is a challenge. One of my frustrations is the way that so many words in Spanish change meanings depending on the context and word placement in the sentence. With very little change in sentence structure I can say that Christina and I are eating dinner...or... that I am eating Christina for dinner. In order to keep me humble I recently read a piece on the complexity of the English language. We just assume English is easy because we are so accustomed to it. Isn't that true for so many areas in life - we assume it must be easy for others if it is for us and often have little compassion or understanding as a result? It certainly is for me. So, here is your English lesson on the word "UP".

This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is'UP.'  It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?  We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car. At other times, this little word has real special meaning.  People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. 
And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.


We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.  We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!


To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of  UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.  In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.  It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. 

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.  When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP.  When it rains, we say the earth soaks it UP.  When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.  One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP!

Oh . . . one more thing:  What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?   U     P!

Did that one crack you UP?  If you want, look UP everyone in your address book and pass this on. Or not . . . it's UP to you. Now I'll shut UP!

Economy air fare In El Salvador

I "borrowed" this from a Salvadoran friends' facebook page. 

Yet another example of how to save money when the economy is down.