A lot has happened to me in the past three years, since I started this little diary/journal/blog thing. For example, the week that I started writing, I was all sad and mopey and stupid and I let this dreadful stilted mournful voice have free rein over what I was writing. Do not get me wrong, on occasion I still come off as stilted and depressing, but I try to keep these tendencies to a minimum, and also strive to ensure a certain joke-per-paragraph ratio, so that in later months I can look back and say, "Damn, I was funny then."
There is one remaining vestige of that initial foray: apostrophes. Or rather, the lack of them. I do not use contractions. At the beginning, saying "I do not" instead of the contracted version, seemed to lend my words a little extra gravity, and then I just kept on with what I liked to call my "stylistic choice." I have used contractions in quotes only, and in perhaps one or two entries where I got a little emotional and felt it was more important to be clear than stylized.
This is the thing. I am over it. I do not need this particular affectation any more, this extra gravity, this additional worry.
So I am going to do it.
I am going to reclaim my punctuation.
And you
can't
stop me.
You can't shan't won't shouldn't wouldn't couldn't stop me! EEEEEE hee hee heee!! I'm going to use apostrophes with wild abandon! Foot-loose and fancy-free, I don't have to edit each entry, scanning for unauthorized contractions! And I had no idea this was going to be quite so...liberating...until I actually started writing it! I've thrown off a three-year long straitjacket! No self-imposed restrictions!
I'm at liberty to elide as I damn well please, and I'm feeling pretty damn good about it!