Stolen Words

My words have been stolen!

We spent the weekend in the Smoky Mountains and visited Ashville, North Carolina. On our way home I saw a billboard for Carl's Jr. (well, it's actually called Hardee's, or something like that here but it will always be Carl's Jr. to my California heart). The billboard read "Brunch or Linner". Linner? OMG, I was about to have a heart attack! Linner is my word, I invented it and no one has ever used it but my family since that amazing day several years ago. Here's the story of how my word came to be:

I was going to Santa Rosa, California for work. It was a very long drive, I would be spending the night. I decided to take my mom and the girls (we only had 3 back then). It was 2008. On the drive up the girls were complaining they were hungry so once we made it out of L.A. (and the horrible traffic!) I stopped at a Denny's. We all sat down to eat. L started to complain that it was so late and they never even had lunch, it was about 3:30. I said well we'll call this "Linner!" So, that's how the word was born and we have used it many, many times since then. Sadly, there have been quiet a few occasions where the girls have missed lunch and had to combine lunch and dinner, usually because we are traveling. And don't worry, they always eat plenty of snacks, they just sometimes don't have a proper meal at the times of day they think they should have them.

So, because of this, and many other words that have been stolen from my brain, I have come to the conclusion that the government has wire tapped my brain. I mean, I know I'm clever and make up some random but awesome things, so there is simply no other explanation. How would Carl's Jr. get my word? If anything Denny's should be using it in their promo ads, since technically they inspired the word.

I think I will wait for my royalty checks to roll in from Carl's Jr.

P.S. We had an amazing time this weekend and when I'm not so exhausted I will write about it. For now, I just needed to express my shock at this billboard :)