Revertigo

I was about to write a blog about a pizza place I just grabbed grub at tonight with some off the charts margarita pizza.  Then I realized, I just wrote about food.  I mean I am a fat kid trapped in a fat body, I love my food, but I've got to switch it up.  So let me just let you know we gotta pizza, hookah, and probably something about one of my favorite indie/folk bands coming up. But enough of that, on to the issue at hand, revertigo.

Revertigo is not a real psychological term, and blogger must not even acknowledge it as a real word, because every use has been marked to me with red squiggly importance.  However, revertigo is quite real.  In fact, it probably has a better name and has, at least I would assume, had abstracts written about it.  Now I was first introduced to the idea of revertigo by guilty pleasure sitcom, How I Met Your Mother or HIMYM for short.  Now if you aren't familiar with HIMYM I'll key you in really quick so you're not lost when I start name dropping.  The entire show is the retelling of the main character, Ted's, life to his children, as he explains how he became the man he needed to be to end up with their mother.  The five friends that the show revolves around are: Ted, the oft love sick puppy, Marshall, the quirky best friend, Lilly the aspiring artist and Marshal's wife, Robin, the reporter who we all wanted to be Ted's wife, and Barney, author of the bro code and play book, as well as a the ultimate ladies man.

Now the plot of this episode revolves around Robin's experiences with something called revertigo when her high school boy friend comes to town.  However I think that Lilly's trip down revertigo lane is far more comical, and in its simplicity, more poignant.  When Marshall witnesses Robin revert back to her awkward high school self, he mentions to the group Lilly has someone from her past that makes her revert in a far more humorous manner.  This woman is named Michele, an African American friend of Lilly's from college.  When Michele walks in, Lilly who is the farthest thing from "hood" yells out, "HAY GURRRRRL" and later proceeds to yell something to the effect of  'OH GURRRRL, Turn that shit up, you KNOW thats my JAM!'

Revertigo is the condition one experiences when one finds themself with an old friend, reverting to old habits, speech patterns, brews, bands, books, etcetera (is it a shameless plug to plug oneself in poor taste and all too cornily in the very medium you are plugging? Let me know).  Now when I watched the episode Sandcastles in the Sand, I found revertigo amusing, however after some musing, I found it intriguing.  When I hang out with my friend Big Nick, one hood motha, I start slippin inna ma slang, "Dude bro you hear that track Hova just dropped?  Fuckin killed that shit man! I keep tellin ya, he's a betta MC than Shady meng".  You put me in front of one of the big dogs in the Spiritual Formations office at my school and I unconsciously stop swearing, and start speaking Christianese.  You put me in a philosophy class, well I suppose one could assume where I'm taking this illustration, however Hobbes would say that without a precise definition of all the terms involved agreed upon by both parties involved...

Long story short, next time you're with your buddy and you start swearing, or talking to a family member and raise the pitch of your voice, or find yourself with an old  friend from high school and get awkward about not being at that party last week, well... let's just say, look out.  Revertigo is real, and if you know of an actual psychological condition that sounds something like this, let me know.  Thanks for reading, have a good one.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/