This is an article my sister Kimmy wrote, check it out:

The word 'like' is, like, not pretty

When my 4-year-old unleashed it, I finally realized I need to stop this verbal tic.

By Kim Schmidt

from the May 23, 2008 edition

Champaign, ILL. - I say "like." Like, a lot.

I am a product of my times. I cut my teeth on John Hughes movies and lace gloves. Sometimes I notice it and try to remind myself that any self-respecting, college-educated adult should have some respect for the English language. Add to that the fact that I'm a writer, and a former speechwriter to boot, and you see how easy it is to beat myself up over my verbal tic.

The worst part is that I've passed it along to the next generation. Every parent knows that our children keep us in check, mirroring our best (and worst) behaviors. Luckily, my 4-year-old daughter has inherited my love of a story, my dedication to delivery.

At dinner, I watch her, my proud heart swelling, as she launches into a breathless recitation of the day's events. And then, like a cacophony in my ears, it's unleashed:

"And then, like, Erin and I jumped on her bed. Cuz, like, her mom said it was, like, OK."

Oh.

Her arms flail to provide emphasis. "We had, like, so much fun! And then, I was like, so tired." My ears burn and I can't hear anything but "like." "Blah blah blah blah, LIKE, blah! LIKE, blah blah."

And so it is revealed. People are right. The word "like" is, like, annoying.

I never knew.

But what was the world like (pardon me) before everyone said, "like?" I imagine it was similar to the world I envision before television: families sitting around listening to the sound of each other blink. Or perhaps they were engaged in chores. Or were furthering their mind through contemplative reading, or improving their dexterity through cross-stitch projects. Oh, how times have changed.

The other day, I was waiting for a drink in my local university town smoothie shop. It is almost summer, and things are slow and lazy and most of the undergrads have left town. In their place are the incoming freshmen who come to tour campus and sign up for classes.

These poor kids are easy to spot. The look on their face lacks the confidence, dare I say cockiness, of the returning students. These fresh faces are almost always accompanied by their parents: an aloof dad checking out the Big Ten sportswear, a mom holding plastic bags full of textbooks, head swiveling from side to side, making a mental note to review the legal drinking age with her darling offspring.

This day, in the smoothie shop, I'm joined by just such a trio. The mom, apparently worried about her daughter's class load, has solicited help from a an accommodating grad student who was innocently waiting for her fruity blend.

"Are you sure she can handle these classes?" the mom asks as she thrusts her daughter's freshman schedule into the grad student's hands. "It seems like too much! Three classes in one day?!"

The grad student was very patient with the woman, and as they went back and forth, the daughter, meanwhile, talked loudly on her cellphone (of course) telling a friend about her schedule and ignoring her mother completely.

"I have, like, three classes on Monday and, like, NO classes on Thursday. But then, like, I have three classes on Friday. I so totally, like, have a sucky schedule."

Amid the whirring of the smoothie blenders I hear my future.

Loudly again, into her phone, "Like, I know!" At that moment I vow to speak slowly and banish "like" from my vocabulary forever. I can't possibly continue to sound like this girl.

It's ridiculous. In so doing, I will save my daughter from this decidedly horrible fate. It stops here.

For the love of Pete, where is my 20-ounce Blueberry Heaven? I can't take much more.

She continued talking to her friend, and without skipping a beat, she said, "Well, my first class is Public Speaking."

• Despite her daily assaults on the English language, Kim Schmidt manages to eke out a living as a freelance writer.

What really pisses me off is that half of the flight tickets are being sold online...who are these people? why would I ever pay 150 for one ticket on the upper balcony? They have got to be crazy.

    This past year has whipped by, can you believe that next week is Thanksgiving? Well, I made my one year mark without smoking on Nov. 14, I never thought I could do it. This past year has been quite a roller coaster, but I think I will make it out alive...(as long as my cardiologist calls me back)
    I am ready for the new year. A new school (took the placement tests this morning), a new apartment in a much more urban area, and a new aura I hope.

    This new year I want to act like I am in twenties, not in my late thirties.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
-Henri Bergson

Kate's first day of kindergarten.

I am so happy she shares the same enthusiasm as her mother and aunts do about school.

I turn twenty and I literally fall apart, what's with that?

Maybe it's from the endless hours I work at a job that no longer seems to care about my well-being, yet all I do is care about other's...maybe it's being so worried about everything and never relaxing anymore...maybe it's the lack of "summer nights" and low-income jobs... I miss coming home and not having to worry about work, and the patient that I came in contact with...I hope it's not like this when I become a doctor, I will never sleep.

I am burning the candles I bought when nick and I moved into this apartment, the smell of it reminds me of how excited we were.

I just found this picture of my 3 month old nieces...they are chunkers but so adorable and have the most stunning eyes.

Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.
-Corita Kent

today was a really good day.

really.

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. -John Wesley

NIck and I got a gym membership. I am going to try and lose 25 pounds. I am having surgery August 1st, I hope that helps me lose the weight quicker. I cannot wait to be fit again, maybe I will have more energy.

My grandmother died this morning...
she woke up my father and told him it was time...
he called my aunt and uncle and her caregiver and they were praying with her...
...at the end of the prayer she died.
she was 78...and she was very very sick.

we are waiting till next week friday and saturday for the wake and funeral.

...i know she is in a way better place.

I am pretty happy about my grades....4 B's 1 A....not bad.

nick and I bought two dwarf hamsters, and I absolutely love them...but we do not know what to call them...help?

well today has already started off on an interest foot, let's see if it get better.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body… – Walt Whitman

Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up to the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor’s except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends…and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit. These are the little guideposts on the footpath to peace.– Henry Van Dyke

fall in love... or fall in hate. get inspired or get depressed. ace a test or flunk a class. make babies or make art. speak the truth or lie and cheat. dance on tables or sit in the corner. life is divine chaos. embrace it. forgive yourself. breathe. enjoy the ride....
-solbeam

So I bought two vinyls on ebay today... Heart--Dreamboat Annie and Bob Dylan--Greatest Hits--1972...i'm excited.

The more I look at these vinyls the more I feel an urge to purchase a rap record, I guess because I do not know of many people that expose themselves to rap played on a record player ha.

No one has come into the cardiac care center in about 2 hours...so I just stare at this screen and purchase more things I don't really need with money I do not really have...gotta love credit cards.

alright, I will go back to my coffee drinking habits and have me a ball buying music...and listening to denison witmers... :)

i never go to class yet I maintain pretty good grades and grade point average....that's neat...yay harper.

The word 'like' is, like, not pretty

When my 4-year-old unleashed it, I finally realized I need to stop this verbal tic.

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