My mom is a fantastic talker. I don’t think anyone would dispute this. She’s just great at talking — she has a brilliant command of words and just knows how to use them in a compelling way.

One aspect of this is her use of expressions. All of us have certain expressions or phrases that are part of and define our day-to-day conversation, whether we or others notice them or not.

Today I wanted to share a couple of my mom’s that I find to be especially endearing. I realize there are bound to be so many of hers that I never noticed or thought about, or simply can’t recall in this moment, so if you have any to share, please do comment — I’d love to hear them.

One expression of hers that I found to be so sweet was, “See you later, rotten potato.” Over the past few years, my mom started saying this to us kids from time to time when we were heading out somewhere. The phrase might sound a bit bizarre, I know, but my mom always said it in such a sweet and playful way. She had taken the well-known expression, “See you later, alligator,” and then adapted it to make it her own — which apparently meant bringing a rotten potato into it! It’s an expression that makes me smile because it’s reflective of my mom’s charming silliness and playfulness.

Another endearing one is when she would say, “I told you…” and then go on to share something she hadn’t in fact shared before. For instance, she might have said, “I told you about running into your friend at the supermarket the other day…” Which actually meant: “I didn’t tell you about running into your friend at the supermarket the other day, and I’m telling you now.” I always found this very funny and amusing, and would tell her this; at least in my conversations with her, her use of “I told you” was a telltale sign that she definitely hadn’t told me before.

My favorite one, though, is “Everything’s in sync.” She would say this when she would look at the clock and it happened to be 1:11, or 2:22, or 3:33, and so on — when all the numbers were the same. (Nikhil claims she would do this too when it was 12:34, though I don’t believe I ever witnessed this!) Although a fun way to acknowledge the time, I feel like her expression also represented her deeper view that there is in fact order in the world — and she chose to use the time as a lighthearted means to recognize and express it.

I love this expression, because every time I look at the clock and see the time in this way, I think of her saying to me, “Everything’s in sync.”

Who knows, maybe next time you see the clock and it’s 1:11 or 2:22, you might catch yourself thinking of this too 😉