How do you say....

I've always been somewhat of a grammar nerd. I loved doing my vocabulary and spelling homework in school. And there was this one time when I was in 8th grade, that I corrected my uncle's friend. He kept saying "ain't" and it was beginning to drive me nuts. So while we were all outside in front of his house, I looked at him dead in the eye and said, "Ain't isn't a word. It's improper English." Suffice it to say, my uncle took my side and told his friend, "You just got schooled by an 8th grader." And then proceeded to laugh at him.

To this day, I'm still that person. I hate it when people can't spell things correctly. It drives me nuts. Not to mention that the other day while I was downtown, an apartment complex on a very busy street actually hung a banner saying "Quite apartments! Inquire within!" Um. Quite? Really? No way I'd rent at a place where they can't spell quiet. That's like English 101. I bet my nine-year-old brother even knows what the difference between the words are. And why didn't they make the printer correct this error?

Stuff like that boggles my mind.

But I do have a confession to make.

While I may apart of the grammar police, I do not have the best pronunciation skills. Like, sure, I was voted best public speaker in 8th grade, and speak clearly and concisely, but when it comes to actually pronouncing words, I tend to make up my own.

Example 1: When I was at my friend's house for a sleepover, we got to talking about the Greek festival. Besides thinking of baklava, I remembered this. Normal people pronounce this "span-ah-co-pa-tah" but in my world, I say it like this: "spank-o-pedia."

Example 2: When I was in high school, I applied for this local scholarship from the Boettcher Foundation. The entire time I heard of this, I always thought to myself, it's called "Bo-cheddar," you know, like the cheese. Turns out it's called "Bech-ur." Clearly I was way off.

Example 3: There might have been this one time when I was with my family eating out at a restaurant and we had a really hot waiter. And I might have been flustered, and instead of saying I wanted the "guiltless chicken sandwich," I might have said "gutless."

I think I've embarrassed myself enough. Anyone else have this problem?