idk my bff rose
Over the last couple of months I’ve been writing. A lot. A lot lot. So a lot, in fact, that I haven't even been reading. I try, but the characters in the books start interacting with the voices in my head and it’s all rather confusing. And loud.
You know in A Beautiful Mind when Russell Crowe refuses to take his meds because being paranoid and delusional is better than being crap at math? It’s like that. Except I hate math. Math makes me paranoid and delusional.
So, anyway, I’ve been writing. I like writing. Which is why I was torn out of the frame this weekend when I asked a twelve-year-old what her least favorite subject was, and she said, "Writing! Ugh!"
I was all, “Why?! Writing is fun!”
And she said, “No! There are too many rules. Indent here and punctuate there. It’s just so strict.”
“Oh, but you’re just learning now,” I told her. “Once you get the rules down, you can totally break them.”
“Yeah?” she asked. “No rules?”
I nodded. “E.E. Cummings is a brilliant poet, and he never used capital letters. I have a friend named Kat. She is a writer; she doesn’t capitalize a lot of things, and she's kind of a genius.”
“What about indenting, do you have to do that?”
“Not on your blog.”
“And punctuation. Do you have to use exclamation marks?”
“Absolutely not!”
“What about spelling?”
I paused. “What about spelling?”
“Can you abbreviate? Like use text message words in your writing?”
“No.”
“What?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
She frowned. "You always have to spell words out?"
"Always," I answered. "Always with one exception."
She looked at me hopefully. "What is the exception?"
"When you're capping cat pictures."
"I don't know what that means," she said.
I smiled and patted her on the head. "You will, my child. You will"
Comments
OK, I haven't read this yet, but I just wanted to say that just last night I decided to use "idk, my bff Rose" as a title because . . . um, it's hilarious? Only today I forgot I decided that. Anyway. I'm going to go read your post now. BRB.
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It would be even funnier if the grandma said, "stfu, yo."
Posted by: Jennie! | October 10, 2007 01:11 PM
I love that movie - and I love math. I just did an art presentation on a math artist and I was all excited and talking to the class and they looked like I was insane.
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You can take the kid out of the magnet school, but you can't take the magnet school out of the kid.
Posted by: Candice aka Cousin | October 10, 2007 01:12 PM
I don't even like using text message words in text messages. For serious OMG LOL.
I'm gonna go now.
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i luvs dis comment.
Posted by: Jennie! | October 10, 2007 01:13 PM
I love this post. Because there are rules, and rules are made to be broken (once you understand the rules that you are breaking and are Master Over the Rules), except for the rule of n0t wRiTiNg LiKe u r in sEvEnTh gRaDe.
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Master of the Rules! Oh, can I please have that title?
Posted by: srah | October 10, 2007 01:33 PM
All of the voices in my head and I agree, "u rok!"
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u 2, mw!
Posted by: Mad William | October 10, 2007 02:48 PM
i don't capitalize because i'm lazy. LAZINESS RULZ.
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let there be jazz!
Posted by: kat! | October 10, 2007 03:21 PM
She may not capitalize much, but she IS pretty much a genius. I M CERE S
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Yeps. Iz cere s 2.
Posted by: shari | October 10, 2007 04:09 PM
nuh uh.
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Don't fight it. You'll go crazy like Russell Crowe.
Posted by: kat! | October 10, 2007 04:31 PM
The great thing about living in the future is that you can have your internet browser spell check for you! It makes it, like, totally easy to be on point about these things whilst blogging.
PS, I love the title!
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Exactly! When Firefox included the spell check feature, I felt like my whole life was complete. (And thank you. I love that commercial so much.)
Posted by: Noelle | October 10, 2007 04:31 PM
Yep, spell check definitely rocks--especially for those bleary-eyed, one a.m. type posts.
THANK YOU for educating at least once pre-teen about the importance of spelling words out.
Only about 3 billion more to go...
Posted by: Talena | October 11, 2007 12:19 AM
eye ewes spill chuck awl he thyme!
Posted by: ~Tim | October 11, 2007 12:44 AM
I give my daughters such a hard time for writing in text message speak. It drives me crazy.
Posted by: churlita | October 11, 2007 11:22 AM