sunlight on a city bus stop

The pedantic H would have been even more irate if I'd said I was LIKE sat down inside.

"Usage Note: Writers since Chaucer's time have used 'like' as a conjunction, but 19th-century and 20th-century critics have been so vehement in their condemnations of this usage that a writer who uses the construction in formal style risks being accused of illiteracy or worse...

"Prudence requires 'The dogs howled as (not like) we expected them to'. 'Like' is more acceptably used as a conjunction in informal style with verbs such as 'feel', 'look', 'seem', 'sound', and 'taste', as in 'It looks like we are in for a rough winter'. But here too 'as if' is to be preferred in formal writing.

"There can be no objection to the use of 'like' as a conjunction when the following verb is not expressed, as in 'He took to politics like a duck to water'.

"Our Living Language: Along with 'be', 'all' and 'go', the construction combining 'be' and 'like' has become a common way of introducing quotations in informal conversation, especially among younger people: "So I'm like, 'Let's get out of here!'" As with 'go', this use of 'like' can also announce a brief imitation of another person's behavior, often elaborated with facial expressions and gestures.

"It can also summarize a past attitude or reaction (instead of presenting direct speech). If a woman says "I'm like, 'Get lost buddy!'" she may or may not have used those actual words to tell the offending man off. In fact, she may not have said anything to him but instead may be summarizing her attitude at the time by stating what she might have said, had she chosen to speak."

What (largely illiterate) young people may use in informal conversation among themselves has no place in an article or discussion about what is grammatical or acceptable English.