The Mr. and I go out to dinner three or four nights a week.
Don’t be hatin’. It’s just our lifestyle now that we have adult children.
We haven’t been out much the last couple of weeks because the Mr.’s job has been keeping him extremely busy, so it was a treat to run to Chili’s for a quick bite last night.
We chatted about this and that, and at one point, the Mr. and I began a grammar discussion. Apparently, there had been an issue with periods and quotation marks at his job.
Somewhere in the conversation, I told him that the period almost always goes inside quotation marks.
He told me that no they don’t.
Thus, we began a debate about this punctuation rule. I insisted that nearly always (there are exceptions to every rule), periods go inside.
He told me that I had told him not too long ago that they went outside and that he had told his office that I had said so.
Oh boy. Now, not only only was his information incorrect, but my reputation was on the line.
I promised him that I would never have told him such a thing…that he must have misunderstood me.
Being funny and sarcastic, as we usually are, I told him that I didn’t realize I had to differentiate instruction for him.
If you’re a teacher, you understand what I mean. If you’re not, I’ll explain. Differentiation is where a teacher instructs students according to their learning styles, presenting information in different formats.
We also have an “I do,” “We do,” You do” thing in teaching, releasing responsibility slowly to students.
The Mr. gave me the stank eye to my comment.
heehee
We have a rule in our family that when we are eating, we stay off of our phones. Well, my guy reached for his phone.
“Whatcha doing?” I asked. “Looking up grammar rules?”
He nodded.
I got out my phone and did the same thing.
Turns out that I was right.
Let me just pause and explain that this RARELY happens. My guys are usually much smarter than me…or at least they think quicker on their feet, so I usually lose arguments.
THUS, it was well within my right to gloat.
A lot.
Plus, we still had the issue of him giving his co-workers erroneous information.
I laughingly told him that he was an idiot but that I loved him. I stressed that last point.
To his credit, he composed a text message to his guys admitting he was wrong…was in fact an idiot…and that the period goes inside the quotation mark.
Bless his heart.
Still, I laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
He was not amused and “magically” was ready to leave the restaurant.
On the way home, he stewed before finally saying, “I don’t like to be wrong.”
Now hold on a second. Did you catch that? Let me type it again…
“I don’t like to be wrong.”
And then the conversation stopped…
Until I said, “That’s been it the whole time, hasn’t it?”
And then he realized what he’d said.
He’d been busted and tried at amend what he’d said by adding, “I don’t like to be wrong when you’ve told me something.”
Oh no, buddy. Too late now.
I’m telling you that I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. It was the best ab workout I’d had all summer.
I thought my dinner was going to come back up because I was laughing so hard. Tears were flowing.
My poor guy.
As I told him when we got home, before he bolted to his man cave, “It’s so rare that I’m right about something, I need to revel in it a while.”
I guess when you’re married to a teacher…especially an English teacher…you’re bound to get busted now and then for grammar.
Last night was my guy’s turn.
Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: grammar, marriage, teaching | 1 Comment »
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