Grammar Rocks

"Don't they teach grammar in school anymore?" I think I can safely say that my grandma has made that comment about 14,000 times in my life. Is usually follows the following dialogue:

"Me and Robin are going to the mall."
"You and WHO???"
"Me and Robin."
"You are WHO???"
"Oh, Robin and I."

I do not think that they omit grammar altogether, but I would not be surprised if it is given only a quarter of the attention that my grandmother, and even my mother, had in school. I vaguely remember our 7th and 8th grade writing teacher making us grammatically correct a sentence every once in a while in Writing class, but that is as much as I can recollect.

My mom has said in the past that grammar and writing fascinate her. It was not until very recently that I understood what she was talking about. Isn't it fascinating when you watch the Discovery Channel and learn something new about a frog in the Amazon? Isn't it exciting when you learn about a war that your grandfather has been referring to for years? Don't you even get a little gitty when you find a new button on your cars dashboard or a new function that a computer program can do? Then why, oh why, could we not care less about the mechanics and functions of the language that we use every second of our waking lives?

I may be getting slightly too emotional about all of this, but it is still a new thought in my head. I wouldn't say that trying to decide whether a sentence needs a comma, semi-colon, or dash is as exhilarating as picking out a new piece of jewelry, but it really is pretty exciting when you realize that you picked the right one.

I think everyone will agree that you can definitely tell when you are reading a well-written document. Sadly enough, it is the sight of the appropriate dashes and semi-colons in the work that makes us think the person really knew what they were doing. It should make us want to mimic the act and appropriately use them in our writing! I think that it more frequently just makes us think that their talent it more than we are capable of.

In any event, personally, I am going to make an effort to understand and use those flashy little semi-colons when I can!

Did you know that "gitty" is not a real word?? Spell-checker caught it and when I searched on Google, it came up in Urban Dictionary (where you would be lucky enough to find "junk in the trunk" and "shizzle.")

Stupid HTML

Why in the world would the two spaces that you put after a period mysteriously turn into out space when it is posted in HTML? Way to go programmers.

Cell Phone Etiquette

1. Do not walk and text. The people behind you are likely to step on your heels or flat out run you over.

2. Do not walk up to the counter at a store on your cell phone. It is just plain rude.

3. Do not keep your cell phone on vibrate in a quiet setting. Vibrate does not mean silent, we all know what the brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr means.

4. Do not take a call when you are in the middle of a conversation with someone. You might as well just tell them that they are not worth your time.

5. Do not send a text message when you are in the middle of a conversation with someone. Again, have some courtesy.

6. Do not whisper on your cell phone about someone or something that is within 5 feet of you. THEY CAN HEAR YOU.

7. Do not answer your cell phone on at work. If it is important enough to discuss at work, chances are the person has your work number. Better yet, turn it off! You are supposed to be working!

8. Do not shop and talk on your cell phone. You may think that you are acting no differently, but you are standing in the way of other people while you mosey up and down the isles.

9. Do not choose a new ringtone in public. No one else needs to hear you go through every single sound in your phone while you decide which best illustrates your mood at the moment.

10. Do not use a ringtone that has obscenities in it. Does a child really need to hear that array of four-letter words?

Really? 16 Minutes?

On my way to clas yesterday afternoon, the bedliner of a full-sized pick-up truck flew out of the truck, and onto my car. Luckily, it only breifly hooked onto my bumper and covered my windshield before it flew up and over the top of my car. Although those 2 seconds before it blew off were TERRIFYING.

There isn't much damage done: a dent, some scratches, a missing license plate. The part of the ordeal that REALLY got to me was reporting the accident.

I immediately pulled over, got my cell phone, and called 911. They picked up, after 3 rings, asked my emergency, which I told them, and transferred my to another department. After 2 ring, they answered, asked for my emergency, which I again told them, tey asked if there were injuries, I said no, they said someone would be there shortly.

So we waited.

We were torn between whether we should stay in the car or get out and stand to the side. The shoulder that we were pulled over onto was no wider than a parking spot and the cars behind me were all over the road trying to avoid the giant bedliner, which at this point was hanging out in the middle lane. We decided, probably incorrectly, to stay in the car because it was cooler than being in the direct sun.

We talked about whether or not the driver of the pick-up was going to come back (which she did, thank goodness). I went through my backpack, found my syllabus, and called my professor to tell him that I wasn't going to make class. I sent a text mesage to my mother. Essentially, I had a LOT of time to sit dangerously on the side of the higway and there was a lot of time spent with the cars swerving all over the highway to avoid the bedliner. By the time I realized that it had been a long time, it had already been 12 minutes! And another 4 minutes went by before the police officer showed up!

I can understand that there were no injuries, but I made it clear to BOTH of the 911 operators that I had to speak to that there was blockage on the highway that was causing problems. That alone should have been a rush.

I have only been in one accident prior to this, and it was 8 years ago, so I can't say that I can really remember how long I waited before the police officer showed up, but I can tell you now, that 16 minutes sitting in a car on the side of a 65 mph highway seemed way too long.

Summer Vacation

I took a very atypical vacation this year. The idea came out of desperation. I had not been on a vacation in 5 years and Tom had not been on vacation for 7 or 8 years. When we began discussing the vacation, we had the typical thoughts: beach, Carribbean, The Outer Banks, Hilton Head, etc. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. After we discovered that the cheapest flight to Hilton Head, which was NOT direct, and we would still require a car when we got there was over $400 round trip, per person, we elimiated the idea of airfare altogether.

Growing up, when we went on a weeks long vacation, we rented a house: you ate most of your meals at home, it had more amenities than a hotel room, and it was actually a place that you could spend some time, not just to sleep.

We decided on Ashville, NC as our vacation destination. Ashville is a modestly-sized city with a nice downtown area and was central to all of the activities that we had planned. It is right on the edge of the Smokey Mountains.

The house that we rented was about 20 miles south of Ashville in a town called Tuxedo. Well, I'm not exactly sure you can call it a town. There was a library, althought it looked more like a shed, a gas station/grocery store/hardware store/clothing store, and a stop sign.

The house was amazing. It was a small cottage, tucked away on the top of a hill, surrounded by woods. It had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom that had only a clawfoot tub... and no shower. It was essentially forced relaxation time and no one was complaining about that. It had a hot tub and a porch too. Everyday I would wake up, hours before everyone else, and jump in the hot tub with a book and a cup of coffee. Perfection.

Instead of flying, we drove. We were going to want to explore the area, so it made more sense to just bring our own car. We divided the trip into 2 days each way. We spend the night outside of Washington DC on the way down and in West Virginia on the way up. The days of driving were long, but once we stopped at Cracker Barrel and rented a book-on-tape, the time flew by.

While in North Carolina, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, took a boat tour of Lake Lure (where Dirty Dancing was filmed), went 2 different places gem-mining, spent time in downtown Asheville and downtown Hendersonville, went to Hot Springs, NC and spent an hour in a natural hot spring hot tub on the French Broad River, and relaxed...

I could not had asked for a better week away and between renting the cottage, gas money, grocery shopping, and activities, we spent less than we would have spent on only the airfare and rental car anywhere else!

I would highly recommend it!

The McNamara Method

This semester is the opening credits to the sequel of my college career. Although most sequels are unquestionably worse then the original, I am hoping that mine will be grouped with the likes of Rocky 2, The Godfather 2, and Kill Bill 2. The past few months of shaping my life to fit the semesters ahead made me stop and think. The path that we all know as "the right way" to get our education - high school, college, career - seems to be lacking practically. I think if we take a few steps back, we will all be able to see what is missing: maturity, responsibility and dedication.

In chronological order, my past career goals are as follows: princess (of course), stock broker (because my Dad was), orthodontist, obstetrician, financial advisor, pharmacist, physicians assistant, engineer, entrepreneur, science teacher, and horticulturist. If these were laid out on a timeline, choosing a major in college occurred just before financial advisor and graduation fell after entrepreneur. I could tell you the story behind every one of them. The reason they changed, and continue to change, is because I live and continue to live. The most changes in the list have occurred between the ages of 18 and 26 (only because I haven't gotten any older than that yet). That being said, why oh why do we commit to a career, to a life, when we are at the very beginning of learning about the world, the careers and the options that have? This is the first thing that changes in the McNamara Method.

I pride myself at being able to deal with just about anything that is thrown at me. I have common sense, I have been paying attention to all the life lessons, I handle my responsibilities, and I even keep track of my finances in the Wall Street Journal's Personal Finance Workbook (the companion to the Wall Street Journal's Personal Finance Guide), but I have never encountered anything as complicated and confusing as applying, enrolling, and paying for college. The amount of time and effort that goes into completing every step correctly and in sequence is mind-boggling. Had my mother not done it all for me the first time, this college career would not be a sequel, it would be the original. The McNamara Method will address this as well.

The McNamara Method is the method I wish I had used, and I hope others consider, when planning for education. The steps are as follows:

1. Graduate high school
2. Get a job in what you think you would like to do
3. Get a new job after you realize it's not all it appeared to be
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you start thinking about the education you would need to get there permanently - You need to know, not think you know, about the field you wish to enter. When it comes down to it, the description you read online, or in the classified ads of what the career entails, was only telling half-truths.
5. Plan your education through your Master's Degree at least - Observing people's educational paths, I have found that only the one's who planned their education PAST their bachelors degrees have been successful. Getting a bachelors degree should only be a step in the road.
6. Go to college - Do it yourself. You can never understand what goes in to making your education possible until you go thought that process; most importantly the amount an individual class costs, especially when you're thinking of taking it twice.
7. EXCEL IN COLLEGE - You never know when you will want to go back for some more education. A poor GPA will haunt you.
8. Go to graduate school

At first glance, the method sounds risky. "You will start earning money and never go back to school." That is a real concern. In order for the method to work, you would need to make the decision for yourself that you are going to follow through.

Had I done this, I never would have majored in Business Administration my first time around, I never would have taken out $30,000 in student loans, and I never would have spent time in a cubicle talking on the phone and staring at a computer all day.

I have now decided that what I really want to be when I grow up, is a pharmacist. Unfortunately, the grades that I got in school the first time around will not be overshadowed by the coursework I take now, even if that coursework in stellar.

There is something to be said for living the college life, learning from your mistakes and growing and maturing along the way, but I would trade it all back in a heartbeat to have a transcript that does not hold me back.

I have not only gathered this information from my own experience, but those of people around me as well. Just today, 2 other students in my Chemistry class had gone back to school for a new career (one had a bachelors in finance, one in engineering). Another friend of mine just enrolled in a biology program after abandoning her bachelors in finance.

If we thought a little bit more about the next step ahead of us in our education or career, I think we might all approach the present a little more cautiously and much more seriously.

Rereading this makes me notice that it was really more of a rant than an organized thought. That feels acceptable to me for my first blog, but I know in the future it should probably be more organized and less frantic! See? I'm learning something already!