I am Amy and, from time to time, the heroine of whatever novel has hold of my imagination.

I like the melancholy sound of Chopin played on an out-of-tune piano.

I am searching for release from my inhibitions, wishing for the freedom of a butterfly fluttering from its cocoon.

I understand quadratic equations and the need for law and order, but I am baffled by the miracle of unconditional love.

I hear the sound of children playing in the park, a bumblebee buzzing within the rhododendron bush…

I dream about my lover’s lips curving into a tender smile.

I want to dream, think and wonder throughout all the days of my life.

I believe in the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity.

I worry about too much and forget to enjoy the small, but good things in life.

I pretend I am confident and grow to believe it.

I reach out, hoping to touch the hearts of others.

I am constantly evolving, learning about what it means to be me.

Ever since I took a linguistics class in college, I have been fascinated with the ways in which non-native speakers interpret idioms. Scanning through the following list reminds me of the time I accidentally called my French teacher a “cow who makes cheese.” Don’t ask. I couldn’t repeat the phrase.

* Panasonic developed a complete Japanese web browser, and to make the system user-friendly, licensed the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as the “Internet guide.” Panasonic eventually planned on a world version of the product. The day before the ads were to be released, Panasonic decided to delay the product launch indefinately. The reason: an American staff member at the internal product launch explained to the stunned and embarrassed Japanese what the ad’s slogan, “Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker,” might mean to English speakers.

* A warning to motorists in Tokyo: “When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor.”

* Chicken-man Frank Perdue’s slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” was terribly mangled in a Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”

* The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coke the researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, “ko-kou-ko-le,” which can be loosely translated as “Happiness in the mouth.”

* Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means “big breasts.” In this case, however, the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.

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When I was teaching seventh grade English, I had my students write “I Am” poems. These poems proved a great way to learn more about the students…what they thought, felt and dreamed. I would like to initiate the same kind of sharing process with my fellow bloggers. Send me your own “I Am” poems and I will post them here with a link to your site. The poem can be in any format you wish…haiku, sonate, free-verse…or, if you’re poetically challenged, as I am, try completing each of the following lines:

I am . . .

Who likes . . .

I am searching for . . .

I understand . . .

I hear . . .

I dream . . .

I want . . .

I wonder . . .

I believe . . .

I worry . . .

I pretend . . .

I touch . . .

I am “name.”

Yesterday, Robert and I went shopping for the suit he’ll wear to our wedding. It was a much easier process than shopping for my wedding dress. He only tried on two suits before he made up his mind. It was easy to see why. The suit he chose was very flattering. It’s an elegant style, fashioned out of a lightweight black wool crepe. To complete the look, I picked out a hand-made silk tie with a subtle pattern of garnet and olive diamonds.It will coordinate very nicely with the dark red roses in his corsage. How handsome he’s going to look. I’m sure my heart will stop beating for a moment when I face him down the aisle. What a lucky girl I am!

Ok, enough romantic gushing. In order to spare my readers, I try to keep it down to a minimum. But every once in awhile, it’s impossible to repress

Other than that, I haven’t been doing too much this weekend. What a nice change. No more papers to write or tests to study for. But, as most of you have figured out by now, I’m constitutionally unable to relax. Instead of schoolwork, I have been agonizing over my website. I am totally disgusted with it right now and have run out of fresh ideas. It’s so difficult to come up with something that truly reflects who I am and where I’m at in my life. I have been working on adding css to my site…so, if anyone encounters any problems, no matter how small, please drop me a line.