Foggy Friday

It was a rather gloomy day today, much like the rest of the week. Luckily I had no traveling to do (not even to a job, unfortunately). But if I were to look for the bright side, at least the day lends itself to alliteration. Foggy Friday. I'm an alliteration aficionada. I'm a grammar groupie. I'm a language lover. And I'm learning to embrace it!

I suppose I was always this way. I did win (or was it place?) in a citywide spelling bee in middle school. I will always remember the word I missed somewhere along the line: flivver. Who knew there were words with two v's?! (Gotta find an interrobang shortcut.) But my inner red pen really started to emerge, naturally, when I was hired as a proofreader. Someone was actually paying me to make sure words were spelled correctly and sentences made sense! People would ask me how to spell things or for an opinion on phrasing. I felt like an expert, at least in my own little world. Then I discovered that there were other people who cared about the same things. I had friends who would cringe as much (almost) as I at an incorrect "its." And for those who didn't get it, at least they knew that it mattered to me and humored my borderline obsession.

Then...I met...Twitter. At first glance, I wouldn't have thought that I could learn much or say much in 140 characters. But lo and behold, there are grammar geeks who are geekier than I am! Editors and writers and people of all sorts who respect the language yet know how to have fun with it. People who celebrate Grammar Day (March 4) and Punctuation Day (September 24). People who can correctly use the words tautology and virgule. People who who "get" why apostrophes matter.

I am but a small fish in a very large pond. But I am tickled pink to be swimming in the same school.

Hmmm...seems to no longer be Friday. But there's nothing wrong with a showery, slushy, soggy Saturday.