I Love Scraping

Before Christmas a couple of years ago, my sibling, Alison, called to ask if I'd go in on a gift with her for our mother. I had already purchased a present, but I was willing to hear her out. Evidently, Alison wanted to buy a bag of M&Ms. In most cases, splitting the cost of M&Ms would be the cheapest gift ever, but Alison had her eye on customized M&Ms. Rather than simply reading "M," the candy would say something about my mom's favorite hobby, scrapbooking. I asked how a word like "scrapbooking" could even fit on such a tiny piece of candy, and Alison admitted that the number of letters was a concern, so she settled for saying, "I love scrapping."

Knowing my sibling, I decided to check her spelling. She read aloud the message letter by letter, concluding with "S-C-R-A-P-I-N-G." With just one "P," the word she spelled is technically scrape-ing, not scrap-ing. I pointed this error out to her and she laughed from embarrassment, proceeding to fix it on the form.

Alison followed through with the corrected gift without my financial contribution and my mom appreciated it. Darn my helpful nature: if I could do it again, I'd keep my editing to myself. The only thing funnier than buying the world's most expensive bag of inexpensive candy would be if that candy came complete with a spelling error. Besides, you know how my mom just loves to scrape. Why, she scrapes things every day, I reckon.