addicted to colons

I’ve noticed a wierd thing about my writing / emailing lately: I can’t avoid using colons.  I try to stick to only using them to introduce lists (and indeed, they are appropriate for both lists and introducing related ideas), but I’m tempted to throw them in before every parenthetical thought that I feel is too important for parenthesis.  Or explanatory comments: this would be a good example.  I think em-dashes are more appropriate for that kind of aside or break, but I’m not brave enough to use them.

It might be related to the fact that I’m having a hard time concentrating on anything lately.  On the other hand, perhaps I’m just feeling free to write whatever, throwing in every added idea or parenthetical.  That’s an annoying habit.

So, if I’ve been sending you emails: sorry about that. 

Say, since this post is boring, I’ll include two unsolicited personal disclosures.  Feel free to jump in on the comments.

1. As a gradeschooler, I once wrote a note to my aunt Sally, and put a linebreak between my introductory sentence and its period.  I then wrote a sentence saying that I knew this was inappropriate, but that I was out of room.  Then I signed it.  That was the whole note.
2. In high school, as a big fan of Quartermann’s free-association gossip column in Electronic Gaming Monthly, I started throwing ellipses in everything I wrote.  Since that was mostly notes to friends, I don’t think much harm was done, but I must have come off as a teenage Larry King.