Du Whut?

Most would agree that I am a moderately articulate individual with a decent vocabulary. I try. Public speaking IS my job. Being from Texas, I try to speak as plainly as I can, not letting an overt accent affect my speech. (you be the judge)


However, growing up in Texas presents its own set of linguistic challenges.

You see, Texans, or Southerners in general, speak in colloquialism that isn’t quite appreciated outside of our fair borders. We say things and can be thought, um, well, dumb.


Example. If  preparing to embark on a journey, I would say, “fixin to.” As in, “I’m fixin to go to the store, do you need anything?” I don’t choose the phrase “fixin” it just comes out. It is beyond my control.
For a task that you were previously capable of, but are no longer, “I usedtocould do a round off back handspring, but these days I’m not so sure.” Even better, if you were previously unable to do something, but now have gained that ability, “You usedtocouldn’t cut through there but now they’ve opened it up.”


Aren’t we just charming?


And one of my favorites. If I don’t hear you right and would like you to repeat yourself, I’d likely find myself calling out, “Do what?” Oh yes, I realize how unintelligent that sounds. Do what? Here it is phonetically, “Du whuuut?” Nice.


Last week I lost my mind (on several occasions actually) and signed up for a race that had me saying, “Du whuuut?”


Oh yes, I signed up for and raced my first duathlon. Run Bike Run. It was a little itty bitty sprint du. What’s better than a last minute race? Worked for me last weekend! Less time to freak out about how undertrained and unprepared I was for this particular adventure.

I had a blast!  I raced this purely for fun.  My only goal was to not get called out for breaking one of the many cycling rules. Golly, the only rule in running, well, there really aren't any rules.  Try to watch where you spit?  Mind your elbows?  When I ride with RBM the general rule is to stay 3 ft away from each other but here I was supposed to stay 3 bikes length back.  Turned out not be an issue because it was a pretty small field.  Whew. 

Ever the planner, I did have a race strategy.  However, that went out the window as soon as the race started.  I set my Garmin to multisport and apparently, the way I have it set up, I cannot see my pace or speed.  So, yeah.  Running the first leg purely on feel was kind of freeing.  My Garmin ate the data so I have no idea how fast or slow I actually went at any point during this race. That's fun. 

I took home a trophy for 2nd in my AG, that was a nice surprise. Du what? I'll def du this again.  Unfortunately, the next one around here is the day after my next 50K.  Not sure what kind of racing shape my legs will be in after that distance though.  Hmm.

All week I've been thinking about a different kind of Oktoberfest. The Bavarian kind of fried potato fame!  There is a large German population in Texas, more so the Hill Country, but we do okay here too.  Oktoberfest is a really big deal in these parts. Ours was voted Top 10 in the US and I try not to miss it.  So I headed over to Addison for a bit, eager to snag some kartoffelpuffer with real sour cream, not the Greek yogurt I usually substitute.  I can't tell you the last time I had sour cream.  Probably last Oktoberfest.  It was delicious.

And as I enjoyed my fried goodness, I sang a familiar children's song, replacing schokolade bon bon with kartoffelpuffer, "Eins für mich eins für dich."  (one for me and one for you)Hold, up, I'm here alone, no need for sharing!    Fünf für mich.  ALLE FUR MICH!!!   Just kidding.  I only ate about half of it.  Whomp whomp. 

We all know I love a good polka band and I stayed just long enough to enjoy "No beer today" (yes, I sang along...not surprisingly, I know the words to many a polka) and finally a sweet, sweet version of Edelweiss. 

Oktoberfest, turns out,  is best enjoyed with someone else.  Preferably an inebriated German!  (oh, the memories...)

Is Oktoberfest big where you are?