Thursday, November 10, 2005

I Like Pelicans.

So here’s a little bit of insight into something that started out as a simple comic that made me laugh and has evolved into a way of life.

The above comic is “Robotman” (now “Monty”) and it is circa 1994. I’m not sure how I got a hold of it, because it wasn’t published in the paper that I got at home. I was probably reading this other newspaper during class. I mean I was LEARNING. LEARNING. I was probably perusing the NEWS and accidentally glanced at the comics section. Oh no I wasn’t perusing the news. I was totally reading the comics -- I never read the news, especially not as a senior in high school, which is when this was.

Anyway. For some reason, this struck me as hilarious. HI-LARIOUS. Seriously – who hasn’t been in a situation where there was an awkward silence and in your desperation to think of something to say, something totally ridiculous comes out? Don’t lie – you know it’s totally happened to you. Hope and Alice -- I know you've got something for me here.

So I showed the comic to my girls, and they also thought it was funny. And so was born one of our “timeless catch phrases.” Whenever there was a long silence, someone would say “I like pelicans.” Whenever someone would say something random or out of the blue, the other ones would look at them and say “…and you like pelicans?” I get that a lot, which may come as a surprise to all of you, since I am always so LOGICAL and SENSIBLE. And not at all random.

My parents caught on to my amusement by this comic, mostly because they kept hearing “I like pelicans,” followed by loud laughter, and so a few years ago, they started buying me pelican paraphernalia. It got off to kind of a rocky start when they went to Mexico and brought me back a bracelet that was all penguins. I didn’t get the significance, which must have showed plainly on my face, because my mom said “it’s penguins. Because you always say ‘I like penguins.’” And I started laughing and said “It’s PELICANS, mom. I like PELICANS.” Oh mom, you're always good for a laugh since you usually only half listen to me. Anyway, so once my parents got it straight and my firends caught on, the pelican stuff started to filter in, because, lets face it, there isn’t a lot of demand for pelican merchandise in a landlocked state such as this one. But then we went on a family vacation to Virginia Beach 3 years ago. We always do the touristy shopping thing (and we did a lot that week because it rained the whole damn time) and since it IS a beach town, there were a LOT of pelican items to be had. Thanks to my dad, I’m pretty sure that I left with one of each of them. And what I didn’t get in VA, I got the next year when we went to Florida. Thanks, dad!

Anyhoo, that’s the story of how I started collecting pelican stuff. And also the story of the advent of one of the best catchphrases ever. In my opinion, that is. Feel free to use said catchphrase whenever the awkward situation warrants it.

18 comments:

PackerPundit said...

what are you telling me... pelicans dont migrate???

certainly they have to like go south for the winter and stuff and like Colorado is... ummm south of something... dont you get like Montana's Pelicans???

hey did you hear John Elway is going to be starring in one of those Made for TV movies... Its the OJ story and John will be playing the part of the slow moving white bronco

snicker snicker
old joke but a classic LOL

heart ya... and your pelican fixation

Whinger said...

Do you still collect angels? You should mix the collections all together for a weird, "They all have wings," collection.

Marissa said...

That is absolutely HILARIOUS! Okay - I hate admitting this - I am SO one of those people that says the stupidest things during awkward silences! After John Mayer came out with the song "My Stupid Mouth" my friends told me it was for sure written about me. Just great, I love having a stupid mouth. So there we have it...I like pelicans.

Miladysa said...

Bet your Mum still buys penguins :)

Miladysa said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
BB said...

I like pelicans.

Fish said...

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
It's beak can hold more than it's belly can

Congratulations My Lady!

ME said...

pelicans...nice bird we have lots of em in louisiana

Alice said...

dude, i am soooo taking this line. it will be MUCH better to have a ready-made random line to fill the silence, because you are so right, i can't ever let an awkward silence be and i NEVER manage something relevant / interesting / sane when i do try to helpfully break the silence. usually i think telling a "one time at band camp" story is the way to go. typical 1st date convo:

alice: [silence]
date: [silence]
alice: so this one time? i ripped my toenail off while i was dancing at a club in nycity and luckily i was really drunk but it still really hurt but i just waited until the next day and flew back home anyway except i couldn't get my foot to fit into a sneaker or anything since the nail was, like, sticking straight up and i got off the plane and went straight to the emergency room and they removed my whole toenail, ha ha!
date: um, i'm not really hungry anymore.

Danielle said...

funny story! congrats on being a fit bit!

Carl Spackler said...

hi amber!

Tha BossMack TopSoil said...

Bring your ass to see me!

Just Me said...

that's hilarious...

Amanda said...

that's a great story. i think i may invoke the pelican next time i have nothing to say. pelicans are rather fascinating animals. haha.

Marie said...

Hahahaha!! I will have to use that next time there's that awkward silence. I love your story! :)

JillWrites said...

Excellent. I needed another random thing to say when my students look at me as if I have six heads because I want them to make a grammatically correct English sentence. "Yes, it requires a verb. I like pelicans."

Bobby said...

You could make up some crazy, absurd factiod about pelicans:

"I like pelicans . . . because they've taught them how to practice law . . . "

That will really get the conversation going.

Or sink it.

Pipi Longstockings said...

For the life of me, I have never seen a pelican ever. Im not even sure wht they look like. Im gonna google pelicans