A Little Less Rockin' Please

When I was studying to be a teacher, one of my friends asked how I was going to teach spelling in a misspelled world, "You know, like Dunkin' Donuts?"  That question was asked well before the Internet was widely used, before Facebook, before blogging, and way before texting.

Truth be told, I remember her question each time I need to write doughnut and find I have to stop to think of the right way to spell it.  No wonder so many folks are spelling challenged.

I am far from always grammatically correct.  I make typos and spelling errors all the time.  But there are still a few intentionally misspelled words and goofy phrases out there that drive me a little nuts.  I wish my friends (those over 35) would stop using them in writing (unless you are writing a fiction piece in which your aim is to create a dialect). I wish I'd stop using a particular one in speech.  I wish!

They include:

kewl (cool)

guhfriend (girlfriend--and there are other misspellings)

cray cray (crazy)

adorbz (adorable)

conversate (chat)

"love me some..."  (I love)

LOLZ  (shouldn't it be LzOL for laughs out loud?)

lightening (when one means lightning)

rock (as in, "I really rock my red heels.")

sista (sister)

mutha (mother)

awsum (awesome)
ahsum (see parenthesis above)
like (spoken, it would seem, instead of um--I am guilty of this too)
"I know, right?"  (spoken)
prolly (probably)
spose ta (supposed to)

True, I am a hypocrite as I am like a lazy speaker.  True, I went from my written peeves to my spoken peeves in the above list (I'm guilty of a lack of continuity). Feel free to, color me cantankerous.  Oh wait, that's not a color, I'll have to get the Cray Crayola people on that (see what I did there?)  Tell me I'm a curmudgeon, and I will agree.  Yes, slang happens, and sometimes it sticks.  I get that "groovy," was a made up word that caught on.  I've gotten used to, but still don't like, "ginormous."  (Arrggghhh, spell check didn't even underline that one.)  I've been accused of only caring about this kind of thing because I am a teacher, but that's not true!

Help me feel less alone.  Share your word peeves, would you?   And if you, like me, use some of these, please don't be offended.  I'm just venting, I'm not "hating."

Disclaimer:  If you use such terms, I will not unfriend you, stop speaking to you, or mock you.  Please avoid doing any of those things to me.  Thank you.

Match.com and...out

A few weeks ago, I started getting emails from match.com, and they weren't being sent to my spam.  Now, match.com is not garbage, through match I met my husband, but since I am married, I don't subscribe.  Or do I?

It seems like a young man from Springfield, Illinois used my email address, mistakenly I hope, to sign on.  I contacted "Match" through their site right away to let them know of this error, but the emails kept coming. Emails as in matches.  Each day, Evan, as I learned from my correspondence to him to me, was getting emails containing some photos and details of some very lovely young ladies.

To be honest, I did look at one email, but the rest I deleted.  I couldn't help think of him waiting, not realizing his error, thinking no one wanted him. So knowing his user name, I attempted to guess at his gmail address (not mine, but perhaps his actual address), and I sent him a very nice note explaining the mistake.

While no reply came from him, the matches kept coming.  Each day an email awaited me Evan.

Then, I received an email (I can't figure out why) with his password--"rumpustime."  That made me laugh, it reminded me of Mercer Mayer's Where the Wild Things Are, "Let the wild rumpus begin!"  But then, not a moment later, I was creeped out.  On what kind of rumpus was he thinking of embarking with the ladies who were filling my inbox each morning?

Ew.

So I searched the match.com customer support site again this time looking for a phone number. I could not one.  I googled them, finally came upon a contact phone number, and spoke to a very nice but perplexed representative.  I explained that while I once found Match to be very helpful (meaning Brad + Ellie kissing in a tree...), I no longer needed them nor was I Evan Stewart of Springfield, Illinois, no matter what email this misguided 24-year-old shared.

About 20 minutes later, after being on hold while he made sure this was done right, a block was placed on Evan's account.   The emails stopped.

Still, I can't help wonder about Evan, so tonight I used said password to see what was up.  The hold on the account is still there which means he hasn't tried to access it.  Which means he's getting charged for a service he's not taking advantage of.  Which means he's pretty clueless.

It makes me sad.  And, it makes me wish I had a blog back in my dating days because my dating life was much livelier (properly lively of course) than boring ol' Evan's.