Where Are You?

Notice the title of my post has no dangling modifier at the end of it. With the disappearance of grammar, and kids and even adults my age and older speaking so horribly, it scares me to think how Lyla will speak and write when she is older. Hopefully my Journalism degree will be good for something.

My worst complaint lately is this commonly misused phrase: “Where are you at” or even worse, "Where you at"
“Where are you” is no more difficult to say, has no more syllables, and is correct. To me, ending a sentence with the word at is painful to my ears. It screams ignorance. It is one of the worst offenders in terms of speech in my opinion.

Shall I explain further?

The word where means at what location. Therefore, Where are you at is the equivalent of At what location are you at? Never use where and at in the same question; just ask Where are you instead.

At my job this is almost exclusively used by my co-workers and clients alike.
"Where are we at with this project?"
"This is where we're at in terms of making our deadline..."
"Can you tell me where you're at (with this task)?"
I want to correct it so much, but I don't want to be the corrector (all the time--hee). Even though I tend to be a harsh editor with copy for work, since I'm tasked to correct it.

Other favorites in my office and beyond include:
"Let's touch basis next week on this issue." Instead of let's touch base (as in baseball).
"Whatevers, we'll just leave without her." This pluralization drives me mad, even though it's clearly slang.
"Do whatever is more easier." Umm, easier is more easy. Enough said.
"Supposebly or supposively, the project is going to be done next week." I'm not going to even go into this one. I can only recount that great Friends episode with Ross and Joey, where Joey says, "Supposebly. They went to the zoo, supposebly."

Last week Ali and I were discussing the Duke Senior English major (a broadcaster during the pitiful Duke/Maryland basketball game) who said more better during her broadcast. Could she have misspoke, or is it possible this soon-to-be graduate of a very respectable university thought that sounded correct went it left her lips?

Listen, I'm no expert of the spoken word, I say like and you know, but that's nothing compared to kids today. They say like so much you don't even know what they're trying to say in between. Shamefully, Trent and I watch the Real Housewives of Orange County. Not only are all the kids on that show the most spoiled, disgusting children, but none of them can speak. The new lady's kids literally talk like the old school 80s valley girls. It sounds like a joke. They're also drunk all the time, lazy, stupid, and ungrateful. Talking is probably the least of their problems.

Now, in an age where email, texts and quick communication are more dominant, I can let a lot of things go, but when it comes to formal writing or speaking, you have to get on the stick.

While I'm on my rant, can you please stop sending mail addressed to us as The Walter's
There is no apostrophe. You have pluralized our names, not given possession of anything to us. If your own address labels from Lillian Vernon say this, they are also wrong. Next year, when I send Christmas cards, you'll see all of this flawless grammar in action. Until then, I'll edit all of yours in red pen.

Back in Business Baby

The Rosedale Library, located close to our house has this amazing installation that includes a full town with houses, a supermarket, planetarium, garden, playground, etc. all for kids under 5. Lyla of course spent most of her time in the kitchen. What can I say, the kid loves the kitchen. Every morning after breakfast she yells, "Cook! Cook!" She can and does spend hours down there. The video here is us enticing her to do something other than cook, but she eventually made her way back to the kitchen.

Now that the holidays are over, Lyla is finally over her two months of sniffles, and the fever she had for about a week on and off. She really is a trooper, and barely acts sick when she's sick. One night, she was just burning up, and we called the doctor since it lasted over 24 hours, and she got a little sick that morning. Well, he said she was fine, and to wait it out for other symptoms or sleepless nights. The funny thing that ended up happening was the night she had a really high fever and was pretty listless, I jokingly offered her a Dum Dum lollipop. She was really clingy, and wanted to rest on mine or Trent's shoulders for about an hour and a half. We finally decided to take her to bed, and suddenly like a switch of a light, she snapped out of it. She started ripping around the living room, and bounced all over the sofa. She then found the lolli, and began sucking it while reminding us how yummy it was. She was so funny, I started videotaping her. This is the tail end of that night. We stripped her down because she was so hot and sweaty, which makes the video that much more amusing. Lyla loves to be free of clothing anyway, so this has become her new nightly attire anyway!