Did I Mess Up?

OK everyone, just have to vent a little. So please excuse my little rant here. As I've mentioned before I like to visit Kristin Armstrong's blog, Mile Markers. She's a creative writer, and I can relate to so many of her posts. Well, several weeks ago she had a great post Orange Shorts. As I was reading through the comments that readers had left, I was particularly annoyed by one reader, CGT, who had commented several times on a grammatical mistake in Kristin's post. Mind you, this blog is written by a mom and runner and gives readers a little inspiration when it comes to balancing all the stuff that comes with being a parent who has interests and a life. Well, I thought it was a little odd that someone would take the time to be fairly "ugly" in her comments when they really had nothing to do with the spirit of the post. (Thanks to all of you for never pointing out any of my writing errors...I try to use spellcheck when I remember and double check my posts before I publish...stuff surely slips by...blogging, for many of us, is like a journal or that quick note you would jot to a friend...all things that we don't worry about being scrutinized for grammatical errors) Anyway, it just irked me to see all of the real negative comments that this particular blogger continued to make about this post.

Fast forward to yesterday evening, when I was reading Kristin's latest post Some Like It Hot, Hot, Hot, all about running in this awful Texas heat and humidity. As usual, I browsed through the comments and found it quite ironic that the infamous CGT had posted not once but twice with the very common grammatical mistake of writing "alot" as one word instead of the correct "a lot." Since she had done it in two different posts, I figured it wasn't just a typo and since it was midnight and I was a bit tired and perhaps not thinking straight, I typed a comment on Kristin's blog addressing the mistake. I thought if CGT was going to take the time to point out the grammatical errors of others (and not in a very kind way) I thought I would inform her of the mistake. Since I had just reviewed this with the sixth-grade students I had volunteered to tutor, the lesson was fresh in my mind.

Well, she didn't seem to take the helpful information very well and decided to poke a little fun at my blog and question what I was doing teaching sixth-grade students in Houston during the middle of June. I had actually volunteered to work with a group of students who had struggled in the writing portion of our state assessment (TAKS). These kids have a lot going on in their lives that isn't so great, so I felt this was a way I might be able to help. I'm having a blast working with them, and I'm probably learning as much from them as I hope they are learning from me.

In a way, I'm mad at myself for even writing the comment to CGT. It's just that she was so unkind in her comments. The comments weren't just about the grammatical error in Kristin's post but about Kristin herself. While I didn't make a comment during her initial criticisms, I couldn't help myself yesterday. Did I mess up? Should I just let stuff like that go? Now, CGT seems to have decided to make a little fun of me. This has just really irked me so I had to vent. Thanks for letting me let it out. I promise my next post will be much lighter and fun.

(No doubt, this post probably has some grammatical errors...let's make a pact that our posts don't have to be grammatically perfect and that if we can't say anything kind in our blog comments, we won't say anything at all.)