Grammar lesson

Mark's been slacking on his drums a bit lately. He practices regularly, but he plays the same two songs week after week.

Fearing I'll snap if I hear "Beat It" or "Billie Jean" one more time, I strongly encouraged him to pick two new songs. He balked, and said, "But I like those songs."

"I know," I said. "But it's time to learn something new. Go get your iPod--are you going to pick a new song, or am I?"

"I is," he answered, sending grammatical daggers through my heart.

"I am," I corrected. And thanked God school is starting again next week.

"I is," he repeated, so again, I corrected him and said, "I am. Seriously, you sound like an uneducated hick!"

He sighed, and said even more loudly, "No, IYAZ. I want to play the song 'Replay' by Iyaz."

I finally realized he was saying the singer's name, and not the grammatically incorrect "I is." I started laughing and what I said when I finally stopped was, "Oh, sorry! I couldn't understand what the heck you were saying! My apologies."

But what I thought was, "I is sorry..."