Buckets, Heaven, Potty Trains, and being called "cute"

When I was young I was either kind of special or brilliant, I'm not quite sure yet.

My mom always used strange old-lady phrases that I didn't quite understand. For example, when my fish died, she said "Uh oh, looks like the fish kicked the bucket." After I likely grieved for days over the passing of my fish (there wasn't anything I didn't cry about,) I began to inquire about the statement my mom had made. "Mom, where is the bucket that the fish kicked?" I asked, genuinely concerned about the whereabouts of this bucket.

Whenever I said cute stuff like this, it resulted in being spoiled with affectionate "Awww, isn't she so cute!"s and, in my opinion, ultimately resulted in my ill-adjustedness to adulthood where these kinds of praises are few and far between.

But anyhow! Crazy little me also overheard a lot of talk among my parents about my needing to start "potty training" soon, so naturally, when I heard talk of potty training, I stared up innocently at my mom with my curly little afro and big hazel eyes asking, "Mommy, when do I get to ride the potty train?"

The cuteness doesn't end there. When my grandpa died, I remember looking up in amazement at the chandeliers at the funeral home ( which I would still do, in natural ADD fashion.) After staring at the ceiling for a long time, I asked, "Mommy, is this heaven?"

I think that one just resulted in my mom sobbing more, though she did manage to crack a smile.

I suppose I am still a little naive. That, coupled with having a baby face results in many older folk still referring to me as "cute" quite a bit more often than I'd like, 20 years later.

It doesn't bother me TOO much because it's usually said by people I like, but it is kind of weird when you're supposed to be an adult and people are still using an adjective to describe you that is often used for babies and animals.

I looked up "cute" in the dictionary, and being called "cute" with this definition in mind makes it a little easier to digest: "mentally keen; clever; shrewd"

Hey, I can live with that!