Of Grammar and Llamas

Finals are over. That also means that the only thing obstructing my view from summer is...well this silly Field Day that my guidance counselor set up. Personally I feel that days in fields should have been banned long ago when I, as a small child, did not see all the pressure around me. And honestly, who wants to sit around on the last day of school and actually do something?

Who does that?!

Nevertheless, I am wearing a dress to avoid it all. Not that you really wanted to know that. Looking at the combination of an exclamation point and a question mark takes me back...I remember in fifth grade telling my teacher that she was wrong to put them both together and when she told me that it was okay for them to do that...well I still didn't like that the question mark came before the exclamation point.

!? It looks balanced, or the question mark is a creeper, but that's alright. ?! makes me think that the question mark is a jerk and shoving the exclamation point out of the way. I guess in dialogue it makes sense to have the question before the exclamation because in a conversation you will always be asking a question, it just depends on how you say it.

"Why are these ice cubes melting?!"

Here we see that this person is asking a question but also saying it with force and maybe even going a little insane.

"You better wash that llama!?"
Now obviously no one needs to be told twice to wash their llama, it's just something everyone does, right? But maybe my fifth-grade-self was wrong. "!?" lends itself to sounding like you meant to be mad but your voice broke like a boy in puberty and made it sound like a question.

Punctuation is so helpful, it really is. Even after taking AP English Language and Composition and still being unable to identify comma splices like it was my super power, I am completely at peace with grammar, English critters that they are. After having a conversation with a friend of mine where we replaced all forms of punctuation with the words that represent them I realized that pauses and breaths in between words and sentences really are a beautiful thing [even if I rarely do it myself.]

On another note, I feel that when people talk about themselves and refuse to capitalize "I" they are disrespecting themselves. I don't want to sound up tight but if you are the subject of a sentence and you happen to be a pronoun or a name you better be capitalized!

My God, I'm a nerd. Here I am sitting at my laptop, Francis [see he is capitalized], and I am thinking about grammar and punctuation...also English ended over two months ago. I guess this is a good thing especially because I want to major in English, but I do worry about my mental heath when it comes to obsessing over things like this. I should get a social life...oh yeah.

I have a graduation party to go to. For the first time ever I have friends that are seniors and there is the possibility I will never see them again.

NOT.

With Facebook I feel like I never really lose touch with someone; it isn't until I "Remove from Friends" do I feel that I have lost touch with them, but usually I only "unfriend" people I no longer talk to.

I am still sad that they are leaving. The other day my friend broke down in tears in the middle of the hallway, I wanted to laugh at her silliness but I couldn't because I was just as upset as her. I never thought I would cry when I graduate, but now it seems like a definite possibility. I guess I'm scared of moving on from what I already know. Oh well. That's life.

I have no good way to end this post. Happy Last Day of School!

XDara