Grammar/English Pet Peeves

[Freija]

I only have one thing, and it doesn't really peeve me, but it does catch my attention. That is the word irregardless. I spent half my life having it drilled into my head that there was no such word as irregardless.

My mother used to use irregardless all the time and it drove me crazy. Every time I see or hear it it makes me think about her and cringe a little that I could never get her to stop saying it. She was also fond of talking in a British accent but that's another story entirely.

Sometimes I fancy myself a bit of a writer. Not that I can really write but it is something that I do a lot of as those poor email pen pal friends of mine can attest. In fact, even though I know nobody will read it, I have a 6,100 word post waiting in the wings for the right moment that may or may not ever come?

I wish I would have paid more attention in high school but I was distracted by personal issues and I never went to college. I get confused on how to do things the right way sometimes, don't know when to use a colon as opposed to a semi-colon or when using a quotation, if the punctuation should be inside or outside of the punctuation mark?

I'm pretty good with their/they're/there and your/you're/urine and it's/its but question whether who's and whose is right every time I write it even though I've looked it up a gazillion times.

I attribute half my writing problems to being old and half blind and not being able to proofread my own writing worth a damn.