Dad and Mom are 56 and 9 years old, respectively

So when I get home from my evening run last night I had 2 messages on my voicemail from the parents.

Message 1 [6:32 pm]:
[Mom spitting words through fits of hysterical laughter] CALL ME!! (aaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha AHAHA) It's so FUNNY! CALL AS SOON (AHAHAHAHHHAAA] AS YOU GET THIS!!

Message 2 [6:47 pm]:
[Dad] This is your father. Call me. Your mother wants to publicly humiliate me.

(sidenote: this is the same dad thatwould send packages to me at college containing a sheet of paper with the word M E M O R A N D U M along the top of the page. And yes, there was a listing of all enclosed articles - encl. - in the lower left hand corner of the memo.)


A little background. Mom and Dad are taking a Spanish class together, once a week, on Mondays, from ... I don't know. But it must begin close to 5:00 or 5:30 because my Dad can't seem to get there on time. After walking in late last week, the teacher asked my father to stand and recite the days of the week (in Spanish, in case you missed that). Dad obediently stands up, takes a deep breath, and begins reciting, "Tuna ... ..." To those of you that don't speak Spanish, let me assure you there are no days of the week with the same name as a canned meat.

Moving forward to this week. So I return their phone call and my dad answers the phone. It went something like this...


[Dad] I'm out trying to earn a living and so I'm a little tardy to class. I try to come in unnoticed since the room is silent and so I go sit by your mother and try to find where we are supposed to be reading in the book.

[Mom, in an inaudible whisper] She wants you to stand up and recite the days of the week.

[Dad, frantic and hurried] What?!?

[Mom, in a slightly less inaudible whisper] The teacher wants you to stand up and recite the days of the week.

[Dad, quickly standing to not lose any more time begins in a confident voice] Lunes ... Martes ... Miercoles ...

[Mom guffaws hysterically and points at the slow-witted class dunce ... cackling alone since no one else was in on the joke ... eventually has to apologize to the class because she is unable to control her laughter. Church giggles remain long after the laughing subsides....]