Live and Learn New Mexico!

You would think that with my background and education, I would be a stickler for correct grammar and punctuation. Quite the opposite. I studied the English language and its history for my BA, and I have come to realize over the years that language changes and we need to stop holding on to what doesn't serve us anymore. Punctuation for example. Let's start with the apostrophe. There are actually two reasons we use apostrophes. The first is to take the place of a missing letter or letters. Contractions are a good example.  When we smoosh two words together to make one word, or when we shorten a single word, a letter or two are dropped and the apostrophe takes their place. "Do not" becomes "don't", "cannot" becomes "can't", and "we are" becomes "we're." Sometimes we drop the last letter of a word to make its tone more casual. "I'm just thinkin'," again, a missing letter. Another u...

1036517156700455div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Yesterday was hell on wheels. Everything went wrong all at once. I found out I didn't win the gymbird 10,000 step contest. I could handle that...no expectations.  Then I got an email saying I didn't make it past the first interview for a job I think I'd love. Sniffle Then, at the local grocery, my card was declined. Thank goddess for Jason, the guy behind me. He paid my tab. You rock, Jason!! You are a kind person. At some point late in the day,  I thought about my pocket rock. I knew when I reached into my pocket, it wouldn't be there. It wasn't. What I didn't know is when I lost it. I checked my bathrobe pocket...my bedside table, the floor...no luck. I had had that rock for quite a while. Losing it when everything was wrong made sense. It's a sign of transition...time to move on somehow. I needed to pick out a new one.  Just days b...