i gotta scoot out the door, but i had the funnest thought.
and yes, i said funnest.
had to share.
i got a note yesterday from someone trying to be helpful.
they were pointing out a grammar blunder.
trust me, i get a lot of these notes.
and i DO try to go correct them.
but this one's on a print, and well, i'll get to it when
i re-order. it really doesn't bother me.
i will change it. cause it's correct the way he told me.
and i'm fine with that.
just not in a panic over it.
and i'm grinnin'. and there IS a point to this.
i used to get in a panic over it.
ohmygosh, look what i did! i'm so stupid!
these don't bother me anymore.
i've made too many!!!
i admit it...i have no idea when to use lay/lie
i have to look it up every time.
i can tell then/than apart (altho that's the mistake he pointed out!)
so i still mess up.
and it's total habit to put the apostrophe in 'it's' every time i
type that darn word.
and yes, i've been told what's the correct way to use its and it's.
then there's the complete misspellings!! some are just typo kinda things,
some are just um.....i'm a horrible speller!!!
there's grammar in general...but that's been out the door for so long,
people have given up on that.
what's cool about this is.....IT DOESN'T BOTHER ME ANYMORE!!!
and it used to.
people have different approaches to how they tell me. and most people
are super gentle and try real hard to present it nicely.
i'm thinking this guy probably tried to be nice....
but his saying he didn't buy this piece because it would 'offend' the person
he wanted to give it to who was an english teacher made me laugh.
this morning i was thinking of the note.
i was thinking of offending the english teacher.
i was thinking of the ONLY teacher who never like me was in fact,
AN ENGLISH TEACHER! and i do think i sorta offended her in some way.
so i thought the whole thing was funny.
and the fact that messin' up with then/than could offend someone.
wow.
i laughed and thought 'trust me, there's a lot more about me that
would offend her then that.'
and i smiled and enjoyed the whole thought and realized something...
this seriously doesn't bother me anymore!!!
i don't feel stupid. i don't feel inadequate. it's not a big deal.
yeah, yeah, i'll fix it.
but that's it. i'll fix it. that's it.
and that! that! is big news!!!
and the offense thing?
seriously.
what's up with that???
i'm startin' to see what's my deal and what's not.
and i thought it was pretty darn nifty!
or um......just one of the funnest things to share today!!
grinnin'.......
5 comments:
that's funny Terri, about the English teacher thing. You know, I'm usually a stickler for word use myself, but that's my perfectionist self always wanting to do things the right way, so usually I'm just checking if I'M using it the right way.
But on the offense thing, I've started doing this thing lately where when people are complaining about silly things, or are "offended" by meaningless things, I smile because I am happy for them. I started doing this when my grandfather went in to the hospital. A friend was stressing about her vacation plans, and I didn't feel the need to put her in perspective like I have done in the past, and say, "well, my grandfather's in the hospital..." I just smiled for her, because how wonderful to have the things you complain about be really so meaningless in the grand scheme. How blessed a life we have when we have the luxury to stress over what to wear, etc. I'd rather have the worst offense in my life be the use of words, then the use of weapons or oppression. :)
Bring/brought
Take/took
I swear this drives me nutzoid.
Everyone uses "bring" for everything. And I swear I think it's wrong, just plain wrong.
My writing coach tells me grammar rules are ever changing. I throw in commas whenever I feel like taking a pause. Right? Wrong? No big deal.
But I brought my dog to the park, does NOT work for me.
Just saying.
We've had so many changes and on line forms for everything under the sun, all new this year. And, it doesn't work for a fair number of people the first time...so we hear about it. And when I'm with a group and they bring it up, or some other thing about being "reorganized." My response is, yup! We are all confused, you are right, and hopefully next year it will be soooooo much easier!
Now, if I could do that in the places where I think I let someone down, or didn't do the right thing...now that's a different story altogether!!
That is a wonderful place to be in where you don't scold yourself anymore...I like it! This is the kind of thinking that I need to hear about, the kind where we are gentle with ourselves, not there yet but getting closer...
I am drowning in English teachers (high school theatre dept attracts them...) in my life and while they are wonderful to proof a program or press release, most havent been too smitten with my writing style and most often don't even get the point because they are so hung up on my run on sentences or poor punctuation...
Glad you posted this...
I love your blog, Terri. It makes me laugh, cry, smile, cheer. Thank you for it.
My dad (from whom I sadly became a grammarphobe) used to tell a story about a doctor telling him to lay down on the table. Said he, "Are you providing the girl, because I've got no eggs." I haven't had trouble with lay and lie since.
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