Isn’t it amazing what you learn about people when you travel together?
I have pet peeves about written language. I hate bad spelling, poor vocabulary is annoying, I abhor bad hand-writing and improper grammar gets right up my nose. You are not too busy or important to take care of these details; you are just either too ignorant, too lazy or too disrespectful.
Personally, I plead the former (except in the case of this blog, where I am typing way faster than the s-l-o-w connection can take). I can’t spell (although I am learning!), I have limited vocabulary and if my Dad was still alive he would forever have me restating my sentences correctly.
But I do have neat handwriting and I do know my way around an apostrophe.
Before we left on holidays I bought several disk carriers (of the CD and DVD variety) in various shades of blue (to match our car). They vary in colour so that we can easily distinguish our different disks: children’s, adults’, DVDs, CDs. However, my DH still found the need to scrawl in bold, black texta on their coloured expanse. *Alas*
Today, the little boys were going a bit wild as we attempted to prepare dinner. As there is a DVD player in our current unit (and it was outside “ABC Kids” time), I reached for the MotoGP DVD (pops all three of my menfolk into a trance – very handy).
It was then that I realised it was not the black graffiti on the case that was bothering me – it was the apostrophe! “DVD’s” indeed!
I showed it to DH and with my best innocent and quizzical expression I said, “I didn’t realise that DVDs was spelt with an apostrophe.” DH was not fooled. He didn’t even the good grace to look sheepish (as I did that time I so proudly labelled all my jars of preserved “nectrines”).
Now I just keep wondering how I will manage looking at it all the way home to a bottle of eucalyptus oil…
