Je suis un fou officielles

My sister has had a difficult week, so I spent the day at her house, because, you know, nothing helps with a hyperactive three-year old and a colicky infant like also having to take care of your crazy sister.  I debated kidnapping G for the day, but decided I needed to spend time with my sister.  Besides, I tried a batch of Bakerella’s cake balls, and they were getting all eaten at my house, so I needed to get rid of as many of them as possible.

While I was there, I helped Sis sort out the clothes that G and E have grown out of, and pull out some of G’s hand-me downs for E.  When we finished, and she was boxing up the newborn clothes, she said “Je suis grande maintenant.”  A quick note–my sister took French in middle and high school–I chose to use the discretionary language credits taking creative writing classes.  I did pick up a little French on my mission in Canada–a very little, mostly what was on packages in the grocery store.  Basically the names of fruit.

My sister, after showing of her bi-linguality, asked if I understood what she said.  I admitted that I didn’t. She told me it meant “I am big now.”  I joked that if she had thrown a fruit in there, I would have understood–“Je suis grande pamplemousse.”  I then had to admit that I couldn’t remember exactly what fruit pamplemousse is.  I had to ask Google, which then became difficult because I stink at spelling in English.  Spelling in French is nigh on impossible.

Anyway, I’ve spent today basically fighting panic attacks.  Strangely, I’ve felt them coming on when I’ve been in the car–first going up to my sister’s house, then when we were leaving Chick-fil-a where we went for lunch, then on the way home. This was odd–I love to drive.  I do have a hard time if I don’t have an exit route–like if I’m in a car with someone I don’t know very well or don’t trust behind the wheel, but my sister doesn’t fit either of those criteria.  And when I am in the car by myself, or when I’m driving someone else, I’m usually okay.

Long story short, on the way home, I found myself practicing saying “I am a big grapefruit” in French in an effort to calm myself down.

For those of you wondering, my header means “I am an official crazy person”, at least that’s what I typed into translate.reference.com.  When I switched it around, it came back “I am a crazy official”, which would be more àpropos is I had a job…

If either of my readers know how to more appropriately say “I am an official crazy person” in French, and would care to share it with me in the comments, I would be most appreciative. If you also happen to live within walking distance, I’ll even share the cake balls.

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