what am i - a schmuck?

a long time ago, in a land far, far away we took a trip across the pond to listen to cori sing in the liverpool cathedral. she had written, along with kurt bestor and mark robinette, an oratorio celebrating the movement of the "saints" ie latter day saints trek from europe to "zion". (cori has since adapted an unplugged version of the musical story and in fact will be performing it this coming pioneer day holiday at the farmington arts center. see coriconnors.com for more details) anyway, back to my story - it was a trip to remember, full of adventure, joy, laughter and much fun. cori, dave, kate and annie arrived first with visits to burmingham, (note - there is no ham in burmingham) bath, bristol and the land of Jane, Elizabeth, Bingley and Mr. Darcy. sherry, gram, cinny and i met up with them in london. right off we knew why we were so grateful to have cinny along. not only was she great company but we immediately dubbed her our schlep. she packed and toted and hauled and lifted everything for us. now schlep, meaning traipse: walk or tramp about; pull along heavily, lift a heavy load against a resistance; "can you shlep this bag of potatoes upstairs?"; a tedious or difficult journey, also spelled shlep or shlepp or schlepp is not to be confused with the yiddish meaning of shclepper as an awkward and stupid person. I don't believe cinny had ever been called a schlep before but accepted the new name willinging. it was probably around the third day into the adventure, as we were driving along on the wrong side of the highway, with cinny freezing because we had the ac turned down so low, that out of nowhere from her spot in the back seat she asked "what am i, a schmuck?" it took us sometime to gain our composure but when we did we assured her that she was no schmuck! she was our schlep and we loved her for it. seven years later she continues to schlep for me and i continue to love her for it.