Pick or Choose

I can't talk about the book today because I have to go back to work tomorrow. Real work. The kind where you have to set the alarm and get up and get ready while it's still dark and everyone else in the world is still in bed or maybe just having coffee and working the crossword at the kitchen table.

There are timelines to be met at work. Lots of people will be depending on me to be there at 8:00 SHARP. That makes me feel anxious. What if I fall down the stairs on my way? What if I forget my lesson plans? Told students to buy the wrong book in my syllabus? Fall all over my own words? All this makes me anxious. I think the anxiety is also part of why I'm still working this job at age 63. I'm anxious, yes, but it still feels right to be doing what I'm doing.

Let me review a couple of word usage problems. Bear with me, please, and you'll help ease my anxiety and get me warmed up for my show tomorrow. Many word usages vex me terribly. I'll only present a few here just to get things rolling and I'm sure we'll return to this subject from time to time. Let's begin with pick and choose. I'd really like to research this differentiation but I'll rely on my knowledge for now. You'd freak out if I started in with etymology. I sure did when I learned about it college. Anyway. You pick apples or berries; you choose partners for volleyball or you choose to eat apples or berries. Get it? The difference is a subtle one but it is one that helps your language use seem polished.

Here's another one: Use of me or I. Now this one kind of scares me. Use of standard English calls for us to place reference to ourselves at the end of the phrase, e.g., my sister and I rather than me and my sister. Make reference to other people first. Whether to use I or me gets really tricky but you can train yourself to "hear" the right way. For example, does give the change to I "sound" right? No. It's give the change to me. And if the two of you are splitting the cost of the fabulous lunch you just shared, you say Give the check to her and me. Then when the server returns and asks who gets the check, you say She and I do. The little trick is to always refer to yourself in the singular and see if it sounds right. For example: Give the check to my friend and I. Take out my friend and and you're left with I as in give the check to I. Sounds funny. It should be me.

So now I feel warmed up for tomorrow. I think I better keep working on it, though. The above explanation seems crystal clear to me (not I), but I have this feeling that you're shaking your head. That's okay. Remember: you're letting me practice.

There you are then. I am warming up for tomorrow. I will smooth out my papers a few more times and call it good. I hope I don't have too many teacher dreams tonight.

(We pick up the books tomorrow!)