Back to School!

Well, it's official.  Both my boys are now of school age.  The oldest has been back for almost a week, and the youngest had his first day of kindergarten yesterday.  It's all rather bittersweet, but I think Hubby and I are secretly excited.

FOR THEM!  We're excited for them.  Honest!  O:-)

It's been a good summer, but the time has come to get back to the real world.  For my kids, this means bedtime has reverted back to 8 p.m.  You should have seen the looks on their faces last night, when the last remnants of daylight were still peeking in through the curtains.

"But Mom, it's not even dark outside yet!" they whined.

"That doesn't matter, it's still bedtime," I replied calmly.  (I wonder if parents up in the arctic circle and surrounding areas have this issue during the summer months?)

They didn't want to admit it, but they really were tired, and within 5 minutes of lights out, there wasn't a peep from their room save for their steady, sleep-induced deep breathing.

I found myself in the living room at 8:10 p.m. wondering what to do with myself.  I mean I had a whole 2 hours before I needed to think about bedtime for myself!  What to do, what to do??

So I put away the laundry I'd folded, set the coffee pot, and kicked back in the recliner with my crochet project.  It was time for some one-on-one with my DVR, baby!  You know what I mean, the shows I record to watch later because they're either too trashy or there's too much swearing to be able to watch when the kids are around.  And Hubby doesn't care for them either, so now's the time to indulge, before he gets home from work.

And then I proceeded to nod off.  :-\

I awoke about 11 p.m. and dragged myself out of the recliner and into bed, after stopping off at the bathroom along the way to brush my teeth.  (I can't stand going to bed without brushing my teeth.)

This morning, I got the boys up bright and early.  They were excited.  The oldest was going to ride the bus to school for the first time, and the youngest was going to spend the day at a friend's house because today is the phase-in day for Group B, and there's no childcare option at school until Thursday, which is just another way the school system likes to screw with your work week.

We stood at the corner of our yard and waited.  And waited.  Two other school buses went by, but the bus numbers are written so small that you can't see what they are until the bus is literally right beside you.  So I stood out there flagging down these buses, only to find the cranky old women driving them were just going to fly past us anyway with a "you're not on my route" look on their sour faces.

Huh.  Well, who pissed in your Wheaties this morning, darlin'?

A few minutes later though, our bus driver Mr. Ricky did finally show up.  It turned out he was much nicer than those other two...er..."ladies" were, and I think we're going to have smooth dealings with him.  He even said he'd pick the boys up by our mailbox in the morning!  Sweet!

On my way in to work, I thought about how most of our school bus drivers seem much older than city bus drivers, or at least the ones I've seen appear to be.  It makes me feel better knowing that our kids are being bussed to school by grandmas and grandpas.  I'd like to think they're much safer drivers than us young'uns with lead feet.  :)

Totally not talking about myself.

Tomorrow, they'll both ride the bus together.  Boy, that's gonna be interesting!  And knowing how much chatter and arguing and general ruckus goes on at my house early in the morning, I might need to bake Mr. Ricky some cookies or something after the first week, so that he doesn't "accidentally" bypass my house on the way out to school in the weeks that follow.

Fun times, fun times!

Grammatical Snob

OK, I'll admit it.  I'm a snob.  A grammatical snob.  People are going to read this and send me messages to my Inbox to attest to the fact that I've been a grammatical snob (towards them, no doubt) for a very long time.  I can't help it.  So sue me!

One place that I realize grammar (and spelling) are only suggestions loosely adhered to is the Internet.  This is one realm in which errors--and by that, I mean great, big, WHOPPING insults on the English language--are thrown about with reckless abandon and without so much as a second thought.  It's only gotten worse with the proliferation of social media.  We've all seen those memes floating around with clever, witty sayings.  Have you noticed how many of these aren't even spelled correctly or have the right form of "their," "there," or "they're" in them?

And yes, before you say anything, I still observe the Oxford comma when listing a series of three or more items because that's the way I was taught to do it.  So their.  :-P



Some of you would have picked up on that.  Others, well...



It's hard to appreciate the wittiness of these memes when the first thing through your mind (or at least my mind) is, "Idiot.  Haven't you heard of spell check?"

And what have people got against proof reading anyway?  You'd think they were either in too big of a hurry to care, or it takes way too much energy and effort to go back and re-read what you're typing.  Really, it's not that hard, people.

So why am I making such a big deal about this?  Everyone does it, right?  Everyone suddenly loses their ability to spell or properly punctuate when communicating online.  It's the NORM.  Well, I don't know about you, but I've got two young boys who will eventually be allowed to peruse the Internet and its plethora of useful information for the purpose of bettering their studies.  How on Earth are they going to be able to do that with so many errors floating about in Cyberspace?

It's not just that, but there's also the use of acronyms.  All.  The.  Freaking.  Time.  I'm even seeing "LOL" in work-related emails these days.  Granted, I use this, too, but in an informal setting.  I do have standards, you know.

Acronyms appear now for every dad-gum thing you can think of.  It took me forever to figure out that "SMH" meant "shaking my head."  Really.  Do I need to know that when you're talking about something, you are further illustrating your disapproval by SMH-ing at me?

WTF??

The first time you ask your child how his day was, and he responds to your question with "IDK, JAD," you'll know what I'm talking about.  That hasn't happened for me yet, but believe me, it's coming!

SMH.  (LOL!)

Yeah, so it seems things are moving on in a different direction.  The hallmark of the 2010's is this new lingo we have developed to communicate more efficiently and with slang that is really, truly making me feel past my prime.  I'm in my mid-30s, and already I feel left behind.  Way, way behind.  It's getting so bad that there are whole websites dedicated to deciphering this new language because some of us old fogies really don't know what you young-uns are talking about!

(Alright, feeling the generation gap right about now.  Hmm!)

In case you missed it, here's an example of the cra-cra slang we're hearing today, as illustrated in this fine commercial by Sprint, featuring James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell.

What the hell did they just say??  Totes my WHAT??  What is that?!!

I'm sure there are some of you out there who jumped onto Google after watching that the first time, just because you were curious about what in the hell conversation went on here that you somehow missed, not because you didn't hear them, but because you didn't have a f***ing clue what they just said.  Go on, admit it.

[Raising her hand]  Yep, that was me.

I know I'm fighting a losing battle here.  I re-post things on Facebook that poke fun at grammar and those of us who still actually use it by choice.  The truth is, this isn't going away.  I get that there's a time and place for everything, and the Cyber World has its own set of rules.  Grammar, sadly enough, just isn't one of them.

[Sigh!]

I'm taking my youngest boy in for his kindergarten screening this afternoon.  I'm sure he'll do just fine, but I can't help wondering how different things are going to be by the time he's in high school.  My entering 4th grader is on the verge of finding out a whole new set of vocabulary (can you tell I'm thrilled?), but like the rest of us, as our parents once did with us, we learn to adapt.

It's just so much fun learning to adapt to the way youngsters talk today...

...NOT!!