Sex Dreams And Nicknames

  “True creativity often starts where language ends.” ~Arthur Koestler

 To fully understand the conversation between Lenin, Rusty and myself on Friday, you need some background information. There are two bits of information that are needed.

The first bit came from when Lenin and myself traveled to Seattle for work. We would go to work for the day and immediately sight see after work. On one of our evening excursions we were driving on Whidbey Island, after seeing Deception Pass. It was getting later on in the evening and we were hoping to get to make the ferry before it was too late to grab dinner. At one point during the drive through Whidbey Island I was making random conversation and mentioned that I had had a weird dream about one of our fellow co-workers who is absolutely worthless. “I had the craziest dream about Benji last night.”

“You had a sex dream about Benji?” Lenin teased, knowing full well my reaction would be utter astonishment at his joke. I was blown away and we found a new topic of conversation.

Second bit of information came Thursday. Jenna and I were teasing Stephen about how mean he is to us. His cube is between our cubes and we all badger one another. He informs us that we have it easy and he and I both get up to leave our cubes. I head down to the printer to pick up a document and Stephen is headed to Lenin’s cube to talk to him about something. Stephen stops me as I pass near Lenin’s cube and informs Lenin and myself that Jenna and I have only seen the Pussycat version of Stephen. However, instead of saying “pussycat” Stephen accidently says “Pushycat.” Lenin is rolling laughing because he thinks Stephen is describing me with the description of “Pushycat.”

Friday, Lenin, Rusty and myself have to attend a meeting in a different building. It is about a mile walk to the place we are going, but it is much easier to walk the distance than to try and find a parking space. So as we walk we are all talking about a variety of things. At a point in the conversation Lenin looks over at me, “I decided last night you have three nicknames. You have a choice in which one I will continue to call you from now on.”

“I have three nicknames? My goodness, that is quite a lot. At least I get a choice in the matter. What are they?” I ask as Rusty listens on as we walk.

“Pushycat.” Lenin laughingly informs us is the first one. Rusty laughs because he had not heard this before. I nod my head in understanding. “What’s the second one?”

He says it and the name is a play on “Athlete’s Foot.” A very creative play with the word that incorporates part of my actual name. Rusty is laughing his backside off. This is one Lenin has used quite a few times in the past and whenever I take my shoes off in the office to grab something from the printer, it is brought up. I take in this option, “You said there were three. What’s the third?”

“I probably shouldn’t say. You might be embarrassed by it.” Lenin responds.

“It’s can’t be too terrible. Go ahead, what is it?” I ask, a bit perplexed because Lenin doesn’t normally say things that are crude or embarrassing.

“Sex Dreams of Benji.” he says. I was floored. I never expected that to come out of his mouth. I had honestly forgotten about the whole episode until that came along. I smacked him with my notebook and said his full name in the manner that a mother uses when she gets angry with her child. I then proceed to state repeatedly, “It was not a sex dream.”

Lenin is laughing so hard, as is Rusty. They both know I am extremely embarrassed by this and I can’t get mad at Lenin because I walked right into it and gave him permission to say it. Rusty looks to me teasingly, “Don’t worry Bella, I have sex dreams too. They aren’t that good. I never get to the part. . .”

I interrupted him before he could say anything else, “TMI Rusty. Too much information. It was not a sex dream. His dad and his sister were in it. There was no sex. Oh my goodness. . .”

Lenin explains the situation to Rusty on how he took it out of context. Lenin is very proud of himself and the giant grin on his face is hard to miss. I look at him, “Pushycat, I pick Pushycat.”

Lenin looks at me, “Pushycat it is then. But I will be making up an acronym for Sex Dreams of Benji."

I can hardly wait.That was my Friday.