Mrs Gold, Calling Mrs Gold

I went on a cruise a few years ago, with my parents and my eldest sister. (I call her ELDEST, cause she's not my BIG sister. She's kinda shrimpy in the height department.)

Sister and I shared a room. Hubby stayed home and took care of sick kids. Yes, I STILL here about that, to this day, that I "got to go away for two weeks while (insert "I'm a hero/martyr/manly man in touch with my feelings type guy" tone)I stayed home and took care of your children.

Get over it.

Sister and I shared a cabin, and won at trivia so much that people stopped showing up. It was pretty hilarious. By the time we got off that ship, I think everyone knew us -- except our cabin steward. My sister's last name is Gould. Gould, as in sounds like a scary thing with a D on the end. My last name, in case you're a little slow on the uptake, is UTTER. Utter, sounds like Butter without the B.

Every day, our cabin steward would greet us, with his very limited English. Good morning, Mrs. GOLD, he would say. Good morning, Mrs. OOTER. It was kind of cute, and we always got a giggle out of it. If you said anything other than a greeting, he got a little lost, so we just stuck to hello. He was always scurrying around anyway.

The last night of the cruise, we tracked him down to give him his tip envelope. Imagine this poor guy's surprise when, after ten days on board, we hand him his envelopes, and he suddenly realizes that Mrs OOTER is actually Mrs GOLD, and vice versa. He looked a little confused, then his eyes got big, and we just started laughing.

It's not like my name never gets messed up anyway. Happens on a daily basis, actually, so it's no biggie.

So, I had a good chortle this week, when I was doing my shipping (sales are good in the hood), and realized that I had sold something to none other than LINDA GOLD. Not Gould. GOLD. That actually made me stop and laugh for a minute, then remininesce about fourteen days with no husband and no children(that alas, ended with a horrible sinus infection and a temp of 103, but hey, ya gotta pay the piper sometimes). Wonder if I'll be selling to an OOTER next week.

And so, in honor of my OLDER sister, Mrs GOLD, here's a cute, cute, cute gold sequined party dress, from my buddy Jen, of Mom's Patterns. Kinda reminds me of the metallic dress I wore all evening on formal night on that same cruise -- and didn't realize till late that it was on backward. But that's another story that will have to wait.