I’m a little plum…

Today in class we were taking science notes on sound. The portion we are looking at today is about the human voice and vocal cords. The information we were discussing was that part of the reason men tend to have lower pitched voices than women is that their vocal cords tend to be longer. 

This led to a tangent about how some adults are tall and some are short and how people are built in different ways. Marie said that since both her parents are tall she will probably be tall and have a low voice. Josie mentioned her mom and how she’s “the size of a teenager” and said “that must be why she has a high voice!” 

Her mom really is tiny so I said something like “oh yeah, she is short and skinny isn’t she.” 

This was met with horror and accusations of rudeness because “my mom is NOT skinny, she’s totally normal!” I explained that all I meant was that she’s slim, and the reply was “well you should have said that. You can’t just call people skinny! So rude!”

I chuckled to myself. Most women would kill to be called skinny (or be skinny) and these girls were so offended. That’s probably a good thing, maybe..?

We began another tangent about what the difference between “slim” and “skinny” and “athletic” are in terms of appearance are, as well as explaining that it’s the way you use he word “fat” that determines if that’s a rude way to describe someone or not. 

They were still outraged that I called Josie’s mom short and skinny. “Well I’m short too…” I said, “and almost fat…” The boys laughed at this and the girls rolled their eyes. I was joking so I’m glad it wasn’t taken too seriously. Josie pipes up, “you’re not fat Miss Ratajczak, you’re just a little plum! Or whatever that word is..” 

It took me a minute to realize she wasn’t calling me a fruit. 

“Plump?!” I asked. 

“Yeaaaahhhhhhh! You’re just a little plump Miss Ratajczak! Don’t worry about it! Plump is okayyyy!” she continued. 

I fully cracked up at this point, as did the rest of the class, though I’m sure they had no idea what they were laughing about. 

At least they vaguely remember a word we learned back in September from some other book… I guess. 

Close enough. 

I’m just a little plum.