Sorry I left you hanging...HOW could I do that?

Apparently at least one of my readers was anxious to hear about my day the other day. Believe me, it's not that exciting...

I was asked to be a speaker for Administrative Professionals Day for the Archdiocese. The topic I chose was "transition," namely pastoral transition - when you end up getting a new pastor in a parish. Funny that I chose the topic since I HATE the word transition. But, for those of you who know me, I do not have to spend anytime to tell you that I also ought to be an EXPERT at pastoral transitions, with all of the ones I lived (through) to tell about it.

0; )

It was a good day, people really seemed to enjoy the day and got a lot out of it. So did I. As much other stuff and kinds of work I have ended up doing for the church, my heart lies with being a parish secretary.

Well, that is quite enough for right now.

Sneak preview

This will be short.

I am extremely tired, should have already been in bed, and I'm in a bad mood.

Tomorrow I will try to blog about the rest of my day earlier, when I gave a talk to a bunch of parish secretaries about their role, especially during pastoral transitions.

But I just want to post really quick this picture



from Molly and the family's visit to Chicago to get Kevin from the airport.
I love my Jack!

Weirdness Part II

Well, to finish up my 6 weird things about me, I will add these:

4) I have never flown on an airplane. We never took vacations as I was growing up and I have yet to go on a real vacation myself, nor have I had the need to travel anywhere any farther than Ohio in my life. But you better watch out - when I get the opportunity to get to Italy one day before I die I think that will be my travel method of choice!

5) I eat potato chips beginning with the smallest ones on my plate leaving the biggest ones for last. When this started I have no idea. But I do get some very strange sense of gratification doing it this way. And I eat my onion rings the same way - smallest to biggest.



To go along with that, I also enjoy when my potato chips are curled up (ending up looking like a taco shell) rather than the regular shape.

6) Don't know if it's weird or not, but when I go to get my hair done, I could have them shampoo it all day long. I love having my scalp massaged. Not an Herbal Essence thing - it just feels real good.



You know, I started out thinking how hard it would be for me to come up with 6 weird things about me. As I'm just about to finish writing I could think of at least 5 more things I could write about - and probably about 37 others that OTHER people could tell you.

But we'll save that for another day!

Me, Weird? Never.

Lost a Sock "tagged me" to answer a question going around on the blogs. (Apparently these "survey" things are called "memes.") Who knew?

Anyway, the thing to answer is:

Six weird things about me are...

(And WHY, may I ask did Molly so easily mark me as number one on her list when she thought of weird things about people? Hmm.....)

Anyway, here are 3 of them for today...I will save 3 for another day.

1) I break plastic forks. Not on purpose, just while I'm eating. I have no idea why I can do this so easily but I do. Several times while we used to eat take out lunches at work, somehow I would end up breaking my fork - either in half, or just breaking off one of the tines. I guess I do not realize my own strength. The most ironic thing is at a friend's birthday party last summer, I was in line to get food from the table. At the beginning of the line was the normal stack of plates and napkins and basket with plastic knives and forks. I just reached in for one, looked at it and it already had 2 tines missing. How appropriate for me. Breakage already done!

2) I have the habit of drinking out of other people's cups. Again, not on purpose, but by accident. And again, my tendency to do this was realized where I used to work. Especially at the dances we used to run, or dinners we would do, Annette, Oneida and I would be working together so much. We'd each have our cup of pop and inevitably I would end up picking up and drinking from one of their cups instead.

3) I'm not sure if it could really be considered weird, but I have an incredible eye for accuracy in people's writing. I am an excellent proofreader (for others - not always for myself - so don't be smart and coment that I speled somethnig wrongg). I notice misspellings, missing commas, uneven indentations, and even extra spaces in between words. It really can be quite annoying at times. I remember once seeing an ad in the newspaper for a proofreader...there was a spelling error in it. I was so tempted to write them to tell them. Maybe it was a test to see if people applying for the job would tell them about it.

More "weirdness" to follow soon...

A Little Hodge Podge of My Own

1) My eye infection seems to have cleared up. I went back to the eye doc yesterday and he says it looks much better. He said I will have a scar from now on however, due to the ulcerated cornea. When I asked him exactly where it was located in my eye, he said just under my eyelid. (AHA - apparently my afore-blogged STY might be the culprit!) He went on to further say that I was lucky because just another millimeter or 2 and I would have had permanent vision damage. Oh thanks for telling me now. But I am very grateful that it turned out that way.

He said I can go back to wearing my contacts, but I have to say I am a bit nervous. I will try tomorrow.

2) I forgot to mention that I went to the Chrism Mass on Tuesday. This is a Mass at the Cathedral each year on Tuesday of Holy Week to celebrate Priesthood, for priests to renew their commitment to ministry, and to bless the oils that will be used throughout the diocese throughout the year for baptisms, confirmations, anointing the sick, etc. The Mass was very good as usual. I love seeing people from throughout the entire diocese gathered.

After the Mass, as I was transfering trains, I emerged from the subway and there in front of me was the brand spanking new ABC7 news studio. It was about 5:10pm, so the 5pm news was going on. The new studio is basically a storefront and you can look in and see them doing the news live. The anchor desk faces the street, so they are looking right at you practically as they do the news. Ron Magers and Sheryl Burton were the anchors.

I looked a little further to right and there he was at the Weather Center - my man Jerry! He was not on the air at the moment, but he was looking in the camera and making faces. A few minutes later, during the commerical, he was standing up and really hamming it up for us onlookers, waving, making faces, and posing for pictures. I waited until he did his weather forecast and I walked away to catch my next train as the sports started. I commented to a woman I passed, "I NEED to get me a camera phone!!"

That's about it for now. Thanks for visiting - come back again real soon!

Maybe it's just me

After an experience I had today, I need to ask: Does anyone else have the terrible illness that goes something like this:

1) You need to talk to somebody about something or ask them a question which you are dreading.

2) You rehearse in your mind over and over about the best possible way you could say/ask what you need to and it sounds pretty damn good.

3) You FINALLY get up the guts to say the thing/ask the question, after squirming and nervous nailbiting.

4) You hear the words coming out of your mouth and there it is.

5) The person then asks for some clarifying comment or asks YOU a question, or just simply responds.

6) You are left bumbling your words, and all of your rehearsing of a terrific, ARTICULATE speech goes to hell forgetting everything you wanted to say leaving you sounding like a moron who has either gone mute or cannot complete a coherent sentence.

7) You leave the situation kicking yourself and again rehearsing what you SHOULD have said and consider writing it all to the person instead.



Has anyone else ever experienced these symptoms?

I'M BAAAAAACK!

Well, after such a long hiatus you would think that I would have some horror story to tell you as to why I haven't blogged in so long. Well, here goes...

I've been lazy.

That's it. That's the only reason I can give for why I have neglected this for so long.

But I figure I need to give a summary of what's been going on since we last chatted...

1) I am getting over an eye infection. Ever since my sty and cold of about 3 weeks ago, my left eye had been bothering me periodically. But Wednesday morning it actually woke me up, with the burning and watering. I stupidly went to work, barely able to see right to drive and suffered all day. And evening on the way back home. I really had no right driving in that condition. I had to drive with my window rolled all the way down, holding my left eye open with my left had and driving with the right, wiping my left eye about every 10 seconds.
Went to the eye doctor Thursday and turns out I have a bacterial infection in BOTH, a viral infection in the left, along with an ulcerated cornea. But the doc put some magic drop in my eye while I was in the office and it's felt better ever since. He also gave me a prescription for 2 eyedrops and I nearly passed out when the pharmacist told me the prices $55 for one and $66 for the other. For 2 bottles about the size of my thumbnail. What a sin! But I guess worth my eyesight, huh?

2) I had a dentist's appointment last week. I have too much plaque (even though I brush and floss faithfully) and my gums are receding. And the wannabe dentist dental hygenist that I had suggested I may want to think about braces. My beloved dentist pretty much told her she was wrong.

3) It is now officially Holy Week, with today being Palm Sunday. I am hoping I can really "enter into" the week and get something out of it, since I unfortunately haven't put a whole lot of effort into the rest of Lent. I am so looking forward to Holy Thursday, my favorite night of the year.

4) Since it IS Holy Week, we have been practicing a lot for choir in preparation. I love my choir!

5) Molly has finally come to her senses and agreed with me that going to our 10 year high school reunion is not necessary (or sane).

Well, I think that is all that is going on for now. Hope to talk to you all again real soon!