How important is spelling to you?

I'll admit I have issues.

Lately I am really into creative punctuation. (I am sure I am driving some of you nuts with it!) But I like it. fragments, phrases, ellipses galore... it all feels so stream of consciousness...so realistic, that I find it irresistible sometimes!

Many of my friends are into the non-capitalization thing as well...probably brought on by the hassle of capitalizing while texting. It is so much easier to skip it...aren't we all in a hurry? I know I am!

Maybe it is a sign of my age (I learned to type on an actual typewriter!) or maybe I am just too stuffy, but I cannot stop capitalizing. Even when I try to stop, I catch my self hitting the shift button! At the same time, though, I GET it. I can see why you might skip it and it doesn't really bother me either way.

But what about spelling? I saw an ad this morning that said

• I am having a rummage sale. Lot of stuff. cheep cheep cheep!

My thoughts were like this: idiot! then to myself: oh that's terrible. Anyone can make a mistake.

This is how it goes...me judging people who cannot spell. I admit it. I do. Every email I get when a person uses there for their makes me want to bust out my red pen and return to sender all marked up.

Actually I am pretty forgiving on the spelling of words that do not have homonyms. So if you misspell surprise (like I do all the time)...it doesn't faze me. But if it PHASES you. I am annoyed. If you accidentally insert European spelling when listing the colours in your crayon box, no prob! You probably don't even realise you are doing it.

So maybe it is the grammarian in me. (at least I think there must be a tiny bit of her left in there somewhere between the top 10 reasons to breastfeed and the phone number for the pediatrician!)

Still, it is a tricky position to be in...putting yourself so high and mighty above the writing skills (or whatever) of others. Now I have to watch my every step or I look like a hypocritical idiot. I know. Once I said out loud how disgusted I was that the sign at Wal-Mart said HARDY MUMS instead of HEARTY MUMS. Later I found out I was the dummy. Ooops! How foolish I must have looked! So while I am still annoyed, I guess the lesson is to keep my mouth shut. Or... I could take the position that the person having that rummage sale might not be so smart and therefore may have drastically under-priced items... LOL

I will try to control my urges to edit and face the facts that I, too am a little rusty. Goodness knows it has been a while since I have written a paper for a grade or *gasp* a JOB!!! I would not be surprised to learn that some day when I am bloging I end up typing in the lines from the Dora theme songs which runs on a never-ending loop in our house.

All this leaves me curious: am I the only one? Do spelling and grammar errors bother you? Which ones really get to you? Or are you afraid to admit it? :)