The saga of Hank and Lois (stolen from lois)

This is such a great story, I stole it from Lowdown form Lois.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Just for Sarge...

During my last cruise, Sarge asked me about the origin of my pseudonym (that's fancy talk for a fake name, my blog name, or an alias), Lois Grebowski. Here's a brief story about the birth of Hank and Lois.

Lois is the name of a family friend from when we lived in Philly. As a child, I called her "woe-diss." Every Lois I've met was a fun-loving, caring, gentle person who never met a stranger. Hank is a nickname that just sounded right for our last name Grebowski.

Let me just start by saying in real life we're newlyweds. I think it will be seven years this June (the years fly by so quickly). Hank grew up in a working class town west of Chicago. I grew up in well to do suburb of Toledo, Ohio. I was country club; he was neighborhood tavern. Yep, it was just like My Big Fat Greek Wedding when both families got together. Trust me. But that's a whole 'nother blog post!

Our last name originated through something Mike Ditka, famous past coach of the Chicago Bears said (I just kinda changed the spelling a bit):

"There are some teams named Smith and some named Grabowski.
We're Grabowskis."

Translation: The Grebwoskis are the loud, beer-drinking, bratwurst grilling face painters; the Smiths are the plaid blanket, chablis-drinking, and chicken salad croissant type of people (if you catch my drift).

And so we begin...
The February before our wedding we took a cruise to the Western Caribbean. It was hubby's first cruise ever. We were on the Voyager of the Seas (RCCL - sorry, Bee!) a few months after the inaugural cruise. Wanting hubby to get the full cruise experience, we did the dining room thing and we asked for a large table.

We were assigned to a table for six. There were two other couples besides us -- A handsome used car salesman from Switzerland and his young German mistress (she spoke no English), and the other couple (our age) from Chicago.

The Swiss gentleman (Thomas), was in his late 50, totally buff, impeccably dressed and looked like an interpol agent straight out of Robert Ludlum novel. He had very steely blue, piercing eyes... His mistress was a beautiful blonde (at least 20 year his junior), equally attired and bejeweled. Trust me this guy looked like an assassin, but he was sooooo nice!

Anyway, this couple from Chicago was just jabbering away about nothing. She ("Princess") kept whining about her Daddy buying the cruise, and that she was just stuck at this table with people she didn't know while her family dined elsewhere (maybe for a reason?). That the cabins were small, not nice enough, and no robes, etc. Her husband was dressed up like an admiral...LOL! He had on a navy crested sport coat and stuff... Looked ridiculous. All the while they were trying to be these ultra-swanky people... He owned a soup restaurant just off the miracle mile (yep... right!). They were quite annoying! I was over this mess.

At that moment, I gave hubby "the look" and introduced ourselves. I told them our names (Hank and Lois Grebowski) and mentioned that we were from Joliet, Illinois.
Note: to a moneyed Chicagoan, Joliet is not the most desirable place to be from (I picked the location from my favorite movie, Rudy). Knowing Joliet was a big union/skilled labor town, I promptly told them that I worked at the local union hall as a bookkeeper, and that hubby was a garbage man. To add insult to injury, I added that we won the cruise at the bowling alley. It was our honeymoon. Hank came into the hall one day from his truck a few months before, and it was love at first sight! That was how we met.

I wish you could have seen Princess' face! OMG, it was just utter disgust! Like she felt dirty or ate poop. Pay no mind that hubby, Thomas and his mistress were all talking (Hubby in German!) about places they had in common. Princess and the admiral just couldn't see past their noses...too wrapped up in their own snobbish world to really know the truth.

Let's just say there was a sweet couple from Oman in their place at the table the next day. We were all quite pleased Princess and the Admiral finally got to dine with Daddy (grin).

And Hank and Lois Grebowski were born.

Hubby's family still gets a kick out of our nicknames. But my family still hasn't totally embraced it yet. It really puzzles people who've known me a long time.

I'll just say that many years ago (in my mid-30s) I had a life-changing experience and no longer give a flying rip about what people think of me. I used to be so caught up in keeping up appearances so much that it ruled my life. And thankfully, I now have taken control and have a firm grip on reality (at least I think I do... hahahahahaha).

So, Sarge, this post is dedicated to YOU!

Hope I did it proud! :-D)