Follow-up

So, as an aside, I'm wondering if anybody knows the answer to a grammatical conundrum I've been struggling with. For about three years.

I work for a research group collectively referred to as the Follow-up Studies. Or is it Follow-Up Studies? And while the internet usually comes to my rescue, I wasn't getting much information applicable to my query, "do you capitalize the 'u' that follows a hyphen if you capitalized the first word, not because it started a sentence, but because it is a title?"

So do you?

Actually, now that I mention it, is "follow up" even hyphenated? "I'm going to follow up with him," looks okay, but "The Follow Up Studies" does not. Or maybe they both make it sound like we are walking around behind some guy named Up.

Let me know.

I'm not being rhetoric.

I need to order stationary.

So, to follow up on the below post where Sam was forlornly wondering why his dad never remembers anything, Sam did come to me the next day with some good news.

He was all excited and said, "MOM! Daddy remembered about when we went to Florida!"

Hooray! Chris remembered taking our annual two-week vacation to another state!

I feel like Sam needs to up his expectations.

Anyhow, I felt bad about that post for a couple of reasons. First, because I wondered if I had been making fun of Chris too much recently.

You should know that Chris does lots of things, and many of them with grace and aptitude.

But those aren't funny, so I don't write about them.

So I counted the percentage of my posts that reference Chris, and I think I'm okay. Also, if he wants to start a blog where he talks about ridiculous things that I do, he is free to do so.

But it would be very short.

The second reason I felt bad about that post is because I looked at it and realized that if someone who didn't know Chris read it, they might think that my husband has a legitimate problem. They might read that and think it was a poignant vignette about dealing with early-onset Alzheimer's or a Traumatic Brain Injury or something.

In that light, my remembering contest comment looks pretty harsh, doesn't it?

How to Take Care of Your Alzheimer Husband and Feel Good About Yourself, Too: Remembering Contests You Will Always Win!

I felt bad because if my husband DID have early-onset Alzheimer's that would be really hard, and there are families out there struggling with it, and here I am, basically MOCKING them.

Cosmos, I appreciate my husband. Despite his forgetfulness and the fact that he feeds the children rotten fruit and the dirty socks he puts on the kitchen counter and under the table and in the desk drawers and behind the couch, I am grateful he is around.

I just wanted to clear that up.