As you might know, I started this blog at the prodding of girlfriends last summer. It actually started as a series of Emails I sent to my girlfriends, and then when I learned to use Blogger, I switched to this format.
My friends would say, in the beginning, how they enjoyed my "deep thoughts," and this freaked me out--I knew I'd run out of deep. So one day, I went shallow (okay, I exposed shallow--it didn't take any effort).
I wrote about some healthy treats I had discovered lately, how cool it was to be carded at 47 while out with a childhood friend, marveled at losing 15 pounds yet still fitting in the same jeans (shouldn't I have been swimming in them?), listed the simple pleasures I was enjoying in summer, and this:
"Here's another confession. We all make typos, but I will admit I am too easily bothered when people make the following mistakes in writing:
1) Using more than three dots for an ellipsis (...)
2) Misuse of me/I (some people tend to think "I" sounds more correct when often it's just wrong)
3) Confusing the definitions of imply and infer.
Cranky, aren't I?"
Then I asked my friends to write back,"Go ahead, write back and share some pesky shallow thoughts with me, I invite you to!" I got lots of pesky, funny, shallow thoughts back from my fun-loving and picky-as-me friends, but the wildest thing about this, one woman whose blog I used to read decided that my admission of my being too picky about typos was all about her.
She was furious with me!
She said I was an uptight teacher who needed to relax and focus on the "important things in life."
I couldn't help but recall, she had written a blog post about the need to follow pedicure rules before wearing sandals.
Heck, why worry about things like English grammar and the like when there are people out there with chipped toenail polish and crusty heels?? Really, what's more important?
Remembering all this makes me (laugh and) ask the question for this week:
What shallow thought is plaguing or entertaining you right now?
16 comments:
At the moment, dandelions are my
nemisis. I feel like Bill Murray
in Caddyshack. I pull one and another one pops up somewhere else. Most people just ignore them
and wait for them to run there course. Not me. I am now going
the chemical route. I was saving
my mask for swine flu, but I may
need to use it for pesticide application! Brenda
I can relate to being bothered by typos. In e-mails and personal things they don't bug me but if it's anything professional I have to cringe. Tony's even more of an editor than me and anytime there's a mistake on the PowerPoint at church he points it out and sometimes we'll share a glance when we both notice one during a song. It's pretty silly when it's something like "...to say that Your wonderful" but we still giggle at the awful typo that gave us "...Satan has vanquished" (a much different meaning than "...Satan was vanquished").
Arrggghhh! Those drive me crazy too. I've even written to folks who could have them changes, and there they remain.
Sometimes people think that joking/complaining about "trivial" stuff is making light of the serious problems in the world. It's not.
Man, I've been through some tough times, and more keep coming. So, I'm glad when the only thing that bugs me during the day is a chip in my polish or a slow driver in front of me! That means it's a good day. And it's okay to be bothered by the little stuff. It doesn't mean you're shallow.
Oh, and teachers aren't the only people worried about the decline of the English language. Communication is a gift, and if you have been gifted with the ability to speak and write, you should do it well. Many people have disabilities that make it hard for them to communicate, I think they would say, "Don't waste that gift."
We use ours and recognize theirs--even when limited.
L.N.
Hey L.,
I think I know what you mean. The woman who was upset with me has a sweet daughter with disabilities. They both work hard for the daughter's growth and celebrate all accomplishments. That's so beautiful. So I could understand had she lambasted me for grammar if she hadn't written about something so trivial as toenails and heels.
The anger is okay, the trivia is okay, but I'm allowed my trivial stuff too. And it was funny that she thought I was calling her errors out when I make boo-boo's all the time AND when I was being self-deprecatng about getting too bothered by it!
By the way, has anyone out there tried teh Ped Egg? I love mine, so my feet meet the sandal rules--at least as I remember them!
I just went to an awards ceremony at the high school today and one of the teachers used incorrect English in one of her sentences. I can't remember exactly what it entailed, but it wasn't one of the frequently heard mistakes that we all make; and it made me cringe! If she's the teacher, obviously she's setting a yukky example of using the spoken word. I always think of my mom, who broke me of ending my sentences with prepositions when I was in high school, and I thought at the time, what is her problem with just letting me speak and leaving me alone on the corrections?! Of course, now I'm thrilled that she cared enough to want me to sound halfway educated : ) She would always say, you're murdering the Queen's English! I definitely understood that this drove her up a wall. I know I make plenty of mistakes, but I hope most of the time I'm okay with putting together a sentence - written or spoken!
As far as the dandelions go, I've spent over a week popping them with my handy-dandy dandelion digger and am smiling because I always joke that digging dandelions is cheaper than therapy, so I continue to go after them that way. All my neighbors go with ChemLawn or some other similar group. The smell makes me cringe. To each his own!
Oh Mama Mara--
Brenda's dandelions are going to cause her to need therapy. Her house is up for sale, and they keep a blooming.
As for your writing and speech, you do speak well. I hope Mitch and Elle's fifth grade teacher didn't ever make you cringe!
Oh yeah, and hanging out with you is just like tea with the queen!
:) I miss you! When are you coming to IL?
panty lines.
i can't stand it.
'nuff said.
shallow enough?? :)
I think about my stretch marks a lot. I want them to go away. It is pretty shallow considering I have them because I gave life to someone.
In the realm of typos...(only used 3, Ellen) It drives me INSANE when people use apostrophes incorrectly. I try to drill it into my students' heads how to use them. I even tell them that if I find out when they are older that they used an apostrophe incorrectly, that I will find them and lecture them.
Megan
Too funny, I made two typing errors in my last comment. Teh is a big one for me, I type too fast.
Agnes--no, not too shallow at all. I wonder if women ever take a good rear view?
Megan--they'll get better. And as for apostrophes, I know what you mean! One of my kids (I hope he wasn't yours), writes "you'r". I keep telling him there's no such word, but he obviously refuses to believe me!
I have nothing superficial to complain about...I'm perfect in my daughters' eyes at least! (Two hearts that beat of mine, and love it no matter what--how can you beat that?)
And Missy, I DO read your blog regularly~you are the reason for my own resurgence in writing, myself. I owe you for that, and the LEAST I can do is come to this site daily.
XOXOXO~
Grr.. Shallow thing that annoys me? That I let myself get caught up in ridiculously dumb competitions with my very good friend Troy. The catch is, he has NO idea we are competing and he always wins! It's just my darned jealousy, but I am on a constant quest to beat him at even the smallest of things, like taking the longer strides, being the first through doors...
If he ever found out about my little obsession, I'm certain he'd have me admitted to the psych ward, but I cannot help it! But the fact that I do it, drives me crazy...
It's also bothering me, that I haven't had a thing to blog about in a week.
Oh, and when boys don't pull their pants up to cover their skeevies. It's obnoxious, inappropriate, and makes me feel sorry for my own generation :)
Wishing you a happy Wednesday!
Always,
Kayla
PS.. I'm off to beat Troy to our staff meeting :)
Maybe you could post about boys skivvies!
Speaking of boys, poor Troy!
BTW, do you mostly win?
Funny you should ask about my next trek to IL. My June doc appt. is Monday, 6-22. I'm going to drive from DSM to my friend Steve's house in Chicago the night of Friday, 6-19, and stay with him for most or all of Saturday. Then I'll head back west but haven't made any real plans of where to stay. I was trying to decide if I should take the whole day off on 6-19 so I had more time to visit. I'm saving as much of my vacation time as possible to visit colleges with Elle. We have a weird vacation system where I get all of my new time starting with the new fiscal yearon June 1. Different, huh? Are you going to be in town over that weekend?
You set a great example for M & E! I was happy, happy, happy that they both had you!
Where do I begin with petty, shallow annoyances? People picking their nose in public just infuriates me. Just Monday, my new boss was talking to me and jammed his finger in his nose. I was waiting to be asked to call 911 because I swear his finger disappeared and he'd need help digging it out. Actually, I don't think public nose picking is petty or shallow. It's more about manners. So. Let's think of something shallow, shall we? How about people talking with a mouth full of food? Again, that's in the "Manners" category but it's a huge deal-breaker for me. Whenever I mention this annoyance, it makes me go back to a memory I have of my ex-husband's friend, Steve. He had a mouthful of peanuts, the kind with the skins on them, and he was talking to me while sort of quasi-chewing and I couldn't help but notices the skins hanging on his teeth and the part crunchy, part creamy peanut butter he was creating. *memories* That's the kind of memory that I want to keep back in the dusty, web-filled corners of my mind.
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