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Sunday, October 07, 2007

Completely Potty



















Some things are immutable, and I am one of them.

After 12 year in America, I still can’t make the adjustment.

I sit in a posh restaurant with my good pals. Their children are now adults. My pal stands up, adjusts her lapel and whispers sotto voce, “I just need to go potty,” as she departs. I resist falling off my chair because I have an instant translator, but I can’t quell this automatic response. Why do grown up people who are long out of diapers, insist on using this repellent terminology?

To be fair, I waited many a goodly year for my own boys to use that very same phrase, preferably prior to the act. Now that they are older and words are more common, they do use it, sometimes prior to the act. With the speech delays, it would appear to be too much of a challenge to move them onto a different word, such as toilet or loo, although they do know what both those words mean.



I think that part of the trouble stems from the pronunciation, not just their’s but everyone’s. It’s so disconcerting how they say it. Maybe it’s the American accent? Maybe it’s the Californian lilt? But to my ears, it always makes me do a double take. It would be o.k. if they said ‘I need to go ‘Pot EE,’ but they don’t, do they. No! Instead, they say ‘I need to go ‘Pah DEE!’ It’s an invitation to celebrate, to boogie on down, crack open the champagne and let rip with the fire crackers. It gets me every time.

………….

I sit in the garage on my three legged stool drowning in my own creative juices. A small spot light is trained on the pottery wheel in the gloom, so that I am at the centre of my own little universe. I have a factory mentality. I am already up to par, 20 minutes to throw a wibbly wobbly pot. 3 pots per hour. If I continue at this rate of production I shall be all set. I glance up at the shelf of squidgey pots. It’s a pity that they not all the same, a set perhaps? They do not look manufactured. I remind myself that they are art. They are supposed to be different, er…unique. If they were all the same then they wouldn’t be art. The only things that they have in common with each other, is that they are made of clay, vaguely round, in the ‘pot’ category and made by me. That will just have to do. “Good Enough.” I hear the telephone ring in the kitchen and step towards the door leaving a snail trail of clay in my wake. I listen. It is the school.

I pick up the receiver, it is slippery with slip. [liquid clay] We exchange information and I promise to be at the school shortly, with a replacement set of clothes. I replace the receiver and wonder if it will now cement itself to the handset. I have clay on my ear. I scrub my hands and ear and then run upstairs for clean undies, shorts and socks, just to be on the safe side. I dither.

I should cycle to school? But there’s the flat tyre. It would only take me…..too long. The planet loses again. I drive to the school. I am an environmental wimp taking the easy rout when I hit the first pebble on the road. Mother Nature will disown me.

The administrator tells me that my son will be with me shortly and adds, “you have dirt on your nose.” I blink. When American’s say ‘dirt’ they do not mean dirty. When they say ‘dirt,’ what they really mean is ‘mud, soil or earth’ depending upon the consistency, Occasionally they do say and mean dirt, but not very often, and they never use a ‘y.’

It is the sort of comment that women make to other women or sometimes men. It falls into the categories of ‘lipstick on your teeth / Charlie’s Dead [ your petticoat is showing] / your flies are undone,’ kind of a comment. I never mention the ‘undone flies’ myself, but that is because I am a respectable married women, the kind that needs a good reason to justify gazing at men’s flies. As yet, I have not been able to come up with a good reason for staring at men’s flies, so I avoid the subject completely, and leave the topic well zipped.

“It’s clay,” I tell her unnecessarily. It sounds like an apology but she wasn’t accusing. Her unspoken ‘whatever?’ hangs in the air. The delay between her comment and my response is far too long, so now I appear odd as well as foreign and dirty and apologetic. I decide this is not a good combination to be on display in public. My son bowls into the office, where his boot lace legs appear to have become entangled.

I whisk him into the bathroom to help expedite his change. As the door closes, the light turns on the extractor fan kicks in. This is just as well as the stench in such a confined area, is enough to bring on a fit of the vapours. I suspect that I have turned into a girlie. Boys' innocent pee has been transformed. My olfactory powers have altered. I am in a four foot cell with moose musk and no peg for my nose. He sits on the loo, the only convenient spot whilst I wrestle with his shoes and Velcro. Because he sits in this position, he does what comes naturally and demonstrates how he had the accident in the first place. His “oopsie’ is perfectly timed to co-ordinate with the fountain. I am glad that the speech delay has not delayed his verbal response. I am sad that his useless father has failed to teach him the basics of gravity. Hands free is not a good technique.

It is immediately apparent that his shirt will need replacement too. “She’s right!”
“Who is right dear?”
“My teacher.”
“What is she right about dear?”
“It’s real stinky.”
It would appear that all relevant personnel are aware that my son smells like a skunk but no-one saw fit to advise me that I needed to bring a sterilization unit as well as clean clothes. I tell him and relevant personnel that I will return shortly with more clean clothes and hare off home again. I am glad I am in the car ruining the planet because this means I’ll be able to make my second trip within the hour.

Timing is crucial. I have three damp bottoms to trim sitting on the shelf in the garage. If you flip over any piece of crockery, you will notice a ring of unglazed clay. This is the foot of the bowl. The potter carves it into the base, so that you don’t scratch your table. The pot must be dry enough to carve, but not dry enough to crumble. Timing.


I get home and grab a clean T-shirt. I hover. What have I forgotten? I grab a bag of baby wipes and a hand towel. I see the telephone blink at me. A message. I have no time for messages and dash back to the car and the school. By the time I arrive it is break time. All the children are running around. I look for a static one in a soggy red tie-dye T-shirt. There appear to be a great number of children all wearing red T-shirts today, although they don’t appear to be soggy. I spot him and lunge on over, waving a white T-shirt of surrender. I stop just in time to prevent collision but he’s already ahead of me disrobing the wrong half of his body. I yank up his elastic and whip off his shirt with a flourish. He finds his nak.ed tummy to be a great source of amusement and contrived embarrassment. I am flummoxed. Why the top half? We kiss and hug, to the bewilderment of other players and I leave.

I stomp into the house having gassed myself driving 7 minutes in a hot car with a pile of rancid clothes. I gasp for air to rid my lungs of the fumes, fill a bucket with hot water and plunge them in to soak. I hit the message button. I learn that my son has had a potty accident. I saunter off to the garage to trim bottoms. I pause. I walk back into the kitchen and press ‘replay.’ Different time, different message, different son. I bound up the stairs three at a time, grab two T-shirts, two pairs of shorts and underwear and four socks just to be on the safe side. One set goes in a bag to remain at school as insurance against further mishaps, the other I roll up into a sausage and tuck under my arm as I head off for school, with sack of baby wipes under the other arm.

I extract child two, strip, clean and re-dress the screamer before heading to the class room to deposit the bag of spare clothes on the teacher’s desk.
“Hi Maddy,” she smiles. I pat the bag and she looks at it. “Oh dear!” she adds.
“Oh dear what?” I ask.
“There seems to be some er……dirt on the bag. I hope it isn’t inside too.” I look at the bag and the smear. I do not spit ‘clay,’ because it’s not her fault that she is more observant than I am. I snatch the bag away and grin, “I’ll be back!”


Outside I am accosted by a strange child. Strange Child clutches two library books to his chest, moves from one foot to the other blocking my escape and doesn’t meet me in the eye. I have no time for Strange Child as I have pots with dry bottoms to attend to. Possibly crispy bottoms by now. He continues to talk at me. Why is he talking to me? I want to interrupt him, ‘listen here Sunny Jim, who do you think you are talking to? Do I look like a librarian to you?’ I remember that I am an adult. Adults on school premises are by definition teachers, aids, administrators and other safe people whom you can accost at any time for any whim. I give up.

I hunker down to sort out whatever it is that is bothering him. I look into his eyes as he explains. I am just about to offer a solution when my handbag bleeps, loudly. It bleeps so loudly that I tip over backwards, sprawled before Strange Child like an upended cockroach. “Oh, you’re not the librarian,” he says in surprise.
“How do you know?” as I cannot resist.
“Coz you’ve got dirt.” I resist shouting ‘CLAY!’ as this might be mis-interpreted. I am surprised to learn that librarians have a reputation for being squeaky clean. I make a mental note to seek out dirty librarians and photograph them.

I stomp towards my car. I am now in a thoroughly bad mood. I am not anxious to go home and recycle crispy pots that are past their trim by moment. I shall never manage to make a decent pot for my brother and his betrothed before their wedding day. I am doomed, downcast and desperate. I drive to the studio because it is very close to the school and I have 7 and a half minutes until school is dismissed for the day. I go to sulk and perhaps a little inspiration, because there will be nobody there to grouch at, just artists silent creations. I plod up the one in three hill that is the driveway entrance. Inside the owner sits at her desk. I have not visited for over a year. She doesn’t recognize me at first until I greet her.
“Maddy! I hardly recognized you!” I grin and flash her my retainer. “I’ve been meaning to phone you. You’ve still got those pots on the glaze shelf.”
“Really?”
“Sure, outside, on the members shelf.” I skip out to the member’s shelf because I had forgotten that I belong to another and entirely different club. I peer through the dust. It’s not so much that my membership has lapsed, more buried and superceded. I recognize nothing. I spot a Goldfish. Horray! That must be mine. I pull it out from the back, covered in clay dust, dust bunnies and grit. I gallop inside to the tap to rinse it off. Perfect! Well, not really perfect perfect of course, but ‘good enough’ has become my new motto.

The pursuit of happiness is part of life's journey but perfectionism will drive you way off course, to a cul de sac at best or a padded cell at worst.

Party more probably promotes potty less.




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6 comments:

Randy said...

I don't know many adults who say they need to go to the potty. Most either take the high road (e.g. "Pardon me, but I need to go to the ladies' room") or the low road (e.g. "Hold that thought. I've got to take a really big ____"). Given the setting you describe, I would have expected the former and not the latter.

Anonymous said...

Its just how people are, they are excusing themselves, which is Proper. Telling someone their "fly is open" sometimes saves embarassment. I see you cant adjust but maybe just catching up on how things are or how the slang is would help you?

The Shepcarpclan said...

I usually excuse myself, not much more. Now if I have a child well thats a different story, depends on the child. Fly is open, I always found "your barn door is open" to be funny. Again, depending on whether a child is with me or not is how this is handled. Otherwise eye contact and a gesture works. I am usually reminding one of my own children they need to zip up. You certainly had a long day but all that running around resulted in a forgotten treasure being found.

Angela DeRossett said...

Ah, one of my greatest pet pevves too... it goes hand in hand with mommies who feel they have to address me in their sing-song baby voices.

Unknown said...

Did you really make that pot? Did you?

It's beautiful!

Anne said...

Beautiful bowl, and my daughter will whisper to me "xyz." That translates to "examine your zipper."

 
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