I think I have become COMMA HAPPY

So, I've been learning how to use proper punctuation all over again.  It has been a long time since the days of memorizing my prepositions in alphabetical order.  It seems it's the only thing I've retained from my 6th grade English class...THANKS Mrs. Hague!  We used to call her Miss Hag...poor lady.  Children can be so mean.

Every now and then, while I'm driving, I cannot help myself.  They pop into my head and I have to say them...

"aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, but, by, down, during, except, for, from...with, within, without."

Okaaaay, so I can't remember the ones in the middle.  I do remember one other thing from my psychology 101 class...when memorizing a list, we tend to remember the beginning and end, but not so much the middle.  Which is cool 'cause no one wants to hear me list ALL the preps.  It's a snooze-fest.

When someone ends a sentence with a preposition (which is often), it puts the ball in motion and I have to recite them.  I usually don't do this aloud, thank the Lordy.  Sometimes I can exercise a little self restraint.

In most modern forms of communication, e.g. blogging, texting, IMing, emaling, tweeting, etc., we have replaced punctuation with the ellipses.  In some serious cases, we have nixed punctuation entirely.  I am trying my hardest not to use the "..."  all the time.  It's almost as hard as quitting smoking.

To quit this nasty habit, I have had to look into the use of the semicolon.  For those of you who are saying,  "Crap, how DOES one use a semicolon?!", the answer is here.  If you don't care about how to use it or think you already know (but probably don't), please go here anyway, 'cause semicolon make uh me SMILE.

To the judgmental reader:  Yes, I am aware of all the mistakes I've made writing this particular blog.