I've been tagged...

This series of questions has been floating around the blog world recently. I was tagged twice, but debated whether or not to answer. You know how I am about privacy. But being that I was tagged twice, I feel some obligation to answer so I'll do the best I can.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Babysitter
2. Office clerk
3. English tutor
4. Nag (my current job, lol)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The Sound of Music
2. Star Wars, episode IV
3. Holiday Inn
4. ?

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Western Caribbean
2. New York
3. Las Vegas
4. Korea

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Lifetime Moments
2. Two Peas
3. MSNBC
4. Slate

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Artichokes
2. Mushrooms
3. Fried chicken
4. Chinese food

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Hawaii
2. Japan
3. Australia
4. Hawaii :)

Four bloggers I am tagging:
Since I'm last one to do this, I think everyone gets a free ride on this one.

Inferiority complex

I recently went to a scrapbook weekend with several friends. It is a great deal. We rent out a B&B for a whole weekend (usually 3-4 days) and we scrap/talk/eat/laugh the whole time.

All of women are talented scrappers. A couple of them are on design teams. Some have taught classes. Most have been published. We all inspire and encourage each other, share from our respective stashes (we're all collectors, lol), and just have fun. This time was a bit different for me though. For some reason, I was (and still am) feeling inadequate about my scrapping. My pages just don't measure up. Measure up to what? I'm not sure. When I look at them by myself, they're okay, some are even nice, creative. But when I look at my friends' work, I feel inadequate. Their work is creative, inspiring, touching.

I couldn't post this on my usual scrapbook place because I didn't (and I still don't) want a bunch of "you need to scrap for yourself" and "your work is great" replies. This is just something I need to work through and get over.

Ah choo!

The good news is I'm hardly coughing at all. The bad news is I'm sneezing. Now I feel like I'm getting the flu or something. Grrrr. Maybe I need some more Airborne.

Hack, hack, ack

Yep, I'm still sick. I went to the doctor last week to make sure I didn't have bronchitis or walking pneumonia. Nope, doc said it was the same nagging cough everyone else had. She gave me some decongestants and sent me on my way.

It wasn't fun flying with a slightly stuffed head. My ears were plugged for hours afterwards and it was a bit painful.

At least I'm coughing less each day. Thank goodness because I strained a chest muscle, twice. Ouch! The first time it happened, I was at work. I went online to check out the symptoms and recommendations. Most sites recommended RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). Ummm, it was my chest muscle. I briefly debated whether or not to get some ice and hold it again my right breast, but decided that would elicit too many questions. So I suffered in silence, well not that much silence because I did do a bit of moaning and groaning. I'm still in a bit of pain, unfortunately.

Oh, so you're probably wondering what happened at the airport. Not much. I couldn't use the check-in kiosk. Actually, I tried to, but it said I needed to see an attendant, none of whom were paying attention. Well, one of them was, but she was on the phone so couldn't help me. No, I don't need assistance with the kiosk; it won't let me check in and it says I need to speak with an attendant. Oh, that's you and you finally want to help me? Thank you (finally)! She took my ID and spent almost five minutes on the computer. I was standing there for so long, I remember if she had fiven me back my ID or not. I have no idea what she was doing because she wouldn't talk to me. It was kind of weird.

I went to the TSA site and basically, you have to send them every form of ID you have and you still won't get off of the list. But you'll have been verified as being who you are so you should be able to check in faster. Right now, I've decided to just go with the flow and hope I don't have too many delays in the future.

I think I screwed myself

by changing my airline ticket at the last minute. Now I can't print my boarding pass online. Great, just great. Haven't airlines heard of business travelers? Or a normal change in plans? If you check my history, all my flights on this airline have been to/from the same airports. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? If I provide proof of why I'm visiting that city over and over again, will that help?

If I end up on the terrorist watch list, should I stop traveling? (That's a rhetorical question, thankyouverymuch.) Traveling is hassle enough as is. If it gets any worse, I'm not sure I can handle the stress.

I flew a few weeks after 9-11. That was one of the scariest things I've done. Have you ever seen LAX deserted? It was so eerie riding in the van to the airport. There wasn't any traffic. There was a police car parked at the on-ramp. The terminals, which are normally teeming with people, crowded with honking cars, and filled with general chaos, were quiet. QUIET at LAX? It was a huge shock. Then I saw the armed military...with big guns. I don't know what kind, but they were big, in sight, not hidden. Big guns. Did I mention the big guns? Did I mention how nervous everyone in the airport looked?

This was the start of my hating to fly. I used to love to fly. Now, never knowing how long the security lines are, not being able to carry my handy dandy Swiss army knife, having to check my bag because I'm carrying scissors all make traveling not fun.

Once, I accidentally carried a pair of decorative scissors (for scrapbooking) in my carry-on. I'm sure that my look of embarrassment/horror at being singled out of line helped convince TSA that I was not a terrorist. The TSA agent showed the scissors to his supervisor and I was allowed to keep them. Whew, I really didn't want to have to buy another pair of scissor. (They are deckle-edged scissors for all you SB snobs who are sneering at me right now.)

Anyway, back to original problem...I'll see what happens and blog about it when I get back.

Taking a break...

No, I'm not tired of blogging yet. But I've got lots of stuff to take care of and don't think I'll be online as much for the next week or so. So don't look for any new posts till next week.

This is work

I guess that keeping up a blog is a lot of work, lol. After posting four days in a row, there was a short dry spell. I wonder if anyone noticed? I certainly didn't.

I don't know how often my blog is read or by whom, unless someone leaves a comment. I need to get one of the post count thingies, but that would involve researching technology and you all know how I feel about that!

Regifting

Do you or don't you? I do, sort of. I received a couple of things this year and gave them to my sister. Well, I offered them to her first, but she couldn't use them. One item was a nice lotion set. I'm not into flowery lotions and I didn't think I would use them. My BIL spoke up and said his mom would like them. Perfect! So I gave my sister/BIL the gift to regift. While I appreciate the gift, I get much more joy out of giving it to someone else who will enjoy it.

I brought home a box of cookies that my mom won in a raffle. Talk about regifting, this tin must have been around for years. As soon as I tore the tape off the tin, I got a whiff of I wasn't sure what. The cookies looked okay (they were those Danish butter cookies). But I took one bite and spit it out. They were totally rancid. Yuck! Ah well, easy come, easy go.

This could be addicting

Blogging that is. Or checking other people's blogs. I have several friends who blog, plus I follow a few others that are better than a soap opera. You couldn't pay people to write some of this stuff.

My blog? Not very exciting. Just a few thoughts here and there. One reason I started this is because I'm not very comfortable posting some of my thoughts are my usual SB (scrapbook for those not in know) haunts. That is just a little too public for me. And this is less public you ask? Well, I assume it is because this blog is a little more difficult to find. If I post on a message board, I can assume my post will be read by tens if not hundreds of people.

I really enjoy reading my friends' blogs. It shows me another side of them; it shows me what is important to them. I hope this blog does the same.

Happy New Year!

A day late, well sort of. It feels like today is New Year's Day because I watched the Rose Parade this morning. Did you know that if New Year's Day is on a Sunday, the Rose Parade will be held on Monday? I heard it was an agreement made a long time ago so as not to interfere with church attendance.

It was pouring rain today--the first time in fifty years that it rained on the parade. I felt bad for all of the performers. It must have been miserable and cold. Or maybe the adrenaline of performing kept everyone going. I hope no one got sick.

I hope the rain isn't a harbinger of the year to come. Maybe I should look at the rain as washing away all the stress of the past year.

Spellcheck?

No, my blog title is not a typo. If you know what I do for a living and what my hobby is, you know that I wrote "wordz" on purpose. Plus it was a way for me in incorporate a bit of scrapbooking in my blog title. One of my favorite SB companies is Junkitz and they use z's everywhere in their product names. So there you have it, my wordz.

I survived Christmas (barely)

As usual, Christmas was mix of fun and stress and joy and sadness and of course, more stress. Due to Christmas being on the weekend this year, I felt like I had even less time to prepare. I did get all my shopping done in time and even got cards (with photos) out before we left for home. Someday (like next year, lol), I'd like to spend Christmas with DH, just the two of us. No one to visit, no cooking, no false smiles. But I just can't do that to our parents. Guilt, the gift that keeps on giving.

My Christmas card list was much shorter this year. I'm not sure why. Maybe not sending cards out two years ago was the trick. I was disappointed that there weren't more cards waiting for us when we got back home. I did get a card from someone that I've been missing (a lot). J had written to me about two-three years ago, but then we lost touch again. I'm so glad she wrote and hope we can rekindle our friendship.

Jumping on the bandwagon

Blogs seem to be all the rage now, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Here it is...my first blog and my first blog post. Go me!