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Punctuation!

A while back, I had dinner with a friend. This was someone I've known for a while, so we were both pretty comfortable around each other. That meant that no one had to pull any punches, and we both heard the raw truth when it came to telling our stories. Of course, that also meant that the conversation was infinitely more hilarious as a result.

To begin with, I knew that she was dealing with some drama in her life at the moment (she claimed that it followed her around). I didn't quite know the source of all the drama, but I knew something was up. So, I asked her what was going on. I won't go in to the gory details, but she was dealing with someone who had once been a friend. Things had gotten messy for a while, and she had ultimately cut her ties with this person.

Things didn't stay that way. The ex-friend had made something of a half-hearted attempt to reconnect, in the form of an email. Without being a gossip, suffice it to say that my friend did not think it was genuine. She had plenty of reason to be doubtful, and the content of the email certainly didn't help matters any.

Regardless, my friend met this all with a fair amount of skepticism. The best part, though, was that she objected that this person, "used proper punctuation and everything!" I burst out laughing on the spot. I couldn't help myself from cracking a few jokes about commas and semicolons. The thought of someone getting angry over periods and the like just made me laugh.

Now, to be fair, my friend had a point. The formal punctuation made the whole thing seem far more formal and manufactured, in a way. The original objection that this wasn't a genuine attempt to smooth things over still stood. Still, I've been a smart aleck way too long not to find said objection just a little amusing. Luckily, my laughter was infectious, and the extra chuckles helped to calm my friend down.

I'm calling that my good deed for that week. I successfully averted the War of the Commas with naught but a laugh. How do you spend your Thursday nights, hm?

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