What day is it? No, seriously.

I lost a day.


I got off work at 6am Sunday morning, went to bed, and was woken at 3pm by my hubby. Then came the exhilarating, if not tiresome, task of packing the whole family into the minivan and driving us all down to Myrtle Beach. We left the house at 2am. Already being up almost 12 hours did not stop me from driving the whole way down. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a trooper. I finally past out at 8pm.


Driving down 77 south I came up with a great post titled High Beams. I'm sure I'll write it soon. Unfortunately due to the exhaustion I suffered from a horrible affliction called "Stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm-done".


At dinner my 12 years old asked me a question I normally would have the answer for. She said, "Mom, why do we have words like discomfort and uncomfortable? Why have so many prefixes?"


"I don't know, sweetie. I didn't make up the English language. I just use it." Doh! I left a red palm mark on my forehead with how hard I hit myself.


Thus leading me to my advise of the day.


1) Always make sure you get plenty of rest. It is vitally important. Hard to string words together if you can't remember what they mean, let alone why.


2) Never stop learning. I knew the answer to my daughters question. More than likely you do to, but rules change, they grow with society. It's what makes language so interesting. It grows with us. We may not have been around when it was invented but we sure as heck will make it our own.


How can we grow with it outside of the classroom? Read. Read good books. Read crappy books. It is easier to learn grammar from a poorly written book than a good one. Why? Because if a book is well composed you won't notice the nuances of the author's p's and q's. With a book still in need of an editor's touch they'll jump out at you.


Also, if you have an analytical way of thinking pick up the newest book on grammar and read that. Either way you're using your eyeballs to absorb new information.


Word of caution: Don't use moving pictures to help with grammar. Dialogue, sure. But not sentence structure.


Now that I have blurted some words of wisdom I am turning off my brain and heading to the beach. The ocean is calling my name. Kind of creepy and exciting. Till next time. Take care.