My olest daughter Heather is flying in on the 21 Nov. from Phoenix Arizona for a week long visit. I am so excited. I can’t wait to see her. We have all missed her tremendously. I am going to book her plane tickets today.
Category: Marsha Loftis
How I start my day
I have mentioned this before….I like to blog surf. I have an addiction. I admit it. It’s not unusual for me to wake at 4am on my day off and spend two or more hours reading blogs. Yes, I said “hours” This drives my husband insane. But he has an addiction too! Touch his newspaper before he gets to read it and see what happens. Want to make him really peeved? Mess up the sections. We won’t go into that today!
I occasionally leave comments. I’m not good at leaving comments so I don’t do it a lot. I mostly leaves comments on frequently visited blogs to let people know I have been there.
My day just doesn’t feel right if I can’t read a blog or two(dozen). It kind of feels like the feeling you get when you are forced to leave the house without taking a shower first or when the coffee pot decides to die before you get that first cup of coffee. The headache sets in and then the grumpiness. I enjoy reading what other people have to say. It doesn’t really matter what the topic of the blog post is about. If you have something to say I am willing to read. People fascinate me. Their opinions, concerns and family issues peak my interest. One of my favorite things to run across in a blog is photos. I love photos especially when family is involved. It doesn’t matter what part of the world a blogger is from. Show me a photo. The world is a wondrous place with lots of wonderful people with fascinating lives.
Oops! It’s Wednesday
Heather, my oldest daughter and I carpool two days a week. Monday and Thursday. This allows my second daughter, Stephanie to take my car to college.
I woke up at my regular time this morning…0200am. I showered. I drank a cup of coffee. I checked my email. I read a couple of blogs. Heather is usually stumbling down the stairs by the time I finish my coffee. She looks half asleep on most days. 
It is afterall, O’dark thirty.
Where was “The Heather”? Why wasn’t she up yet? I waited a few more minutes and then snuck up stairs to see if she was awake yet. She wasn’t in the bathroom. I quietly sneak over to her bedroom and look to see if I can see light coming out from under the door. Nope no light.
I knock on her bedroom door. “Heather, are you awake? We have to leave for work.”
Heather sleepily opens the door. “Mom, today is Wednesday.”
Oops!! Sorry!! I said most apologetically.
I run downstairs, gather my things and head for work.
The mind of a child “Have you been naughty or nice?”
Those of you with children out there will probably find this amusing. Those of you who don’t have children……well, this will be a little picture into the brain of a 7 year old child.
Let me set up the scene.
I was wrapping Christmas presents in my bedroom. I brought out my second load of wrapped presents.
Morgan(7 year old daughter) likes to put the bows on the presents. Then she puts the presents under the tree. She does this well and it makes her feel as if she is contributing.
Any way, Morgan was reading all the tags and none of the presents had her name on them. She was looking a little sad…really, really sad.
Daddy- “Morgan, Whats wrong?”
Morgan- {head hanging low} none of the presents have my name on them.
Daddy-{smiling} “Don’t worry, You have a couple under the tree.”
Morgan- {head still hanging low} “yeah! but we just learned about respect in school.”
Daddy- {Suddenly Confused}
Mommy- {confused}
Stephanie (big sister)- {confused}
Daddy-{trying to wrap brain around where this conversation was going} “What does that have to do with presents?”
Morgan- {in all seriousness} “Jonathan (fellow student) and I fight in school all the time. My teacher just taught us about respecting each other.”
Mommy- {looks at the Stephanie}
Stephanie- {looks at the Mommy} Steph whispers “She thinks she isn’t getting presents because she’s been bad in school.”
Mommy and Stephanie- {Looking at the daddy with giant smiles, hoping he gets what is happening}
Daddy- { light goes on!} “Oh,…. I see…well you still have time to be good. Christmas is still a couple of weeks away.”
Morgan -{still a little sad } “I’m not fighting with Jonathan any more”
This is so funny cause the Morgan is 7 years old and still believes in Santa. I wish I had gotten this on tape cause it was truly funny.
Apparently, I suck
I wake at 1:50 am, this gives me 40 minutes to get ready for work. I shower, get dressed, make coffee, fix my lunch and then sit down for a moment and check my email. My oldest daughter usually walks down the stairs a few minutes later and we leave for work together. We carpool. Anyway, you probably didn’t need to know all of that, but I couldn’t figure out how to start this post so I thought I would give a little background of my morning.
I opened my email and had three new messages. The first was spam so I deleted it. the second and third caught my attention because they were comments on my blog. Most people who blog enjoy comments. I enjoy comments. I occasionally leave comments on other people blogs especially when I find something interesting or if I am just in the mood to say “HI”.
I believe these two comments were unnecessary (they were from the same person). I honestly don’t see the point in leaving a message on someone’s blog that says, “You suck…don’t leave your day job.” There is no point in leaving messages like that. Unless of course you have a political blog and you truly do suck! I’m just kidding. I’m all for voicing opinions. If you have an opinion, please share it (constructively). I deleted the comments because this is a happy place.
Now back to regularly scheduled programing.
Stephanie put in 8 hours of volunteer time yesterday for a class project at school. Apparently, she worked really hard because she said she was exhausted and going to be sore today.
Ms Dewey
I have discovered a new search engine. Brought to my attention by Leon Robinson. It’s a virtual search engine that has personality. Her name is Ms Dewey. She cute. She has spunk. I like her attitude. It’s very fun to play with but not for the dial-up user. It takes a bit to load. Go check her out.
Link below.
I can procrastinate with the best of them
I have too many things to do and too little time to do it. My days off fly by…I’m left standing in the middle of the floor saying “Please, tell me it’s not time to go to work again!” My second day off is always a short one because I have to go to bed by 7pm at the latest. I have to wake at 1:50 so that I can leave the house by 2:30am.
My car needs a tune-up and desperately needs four new tires.
I need to vacuum my house.
Last nights dishes are still in the sink.
I need to do the laundry. I have nothing to wear to work in the morning.
With that said.
Instead of doing what I should be doing I sat down and watched three hours of NBC’s “Life” on the internet. I would have TIVO’d the show but I can only record two shows at a time and the hour this particular show comes on I am recording other things. So if you have a little free time on your hands I would suggest you jump over to NBC.com and watch “LIFE” I don’t think you will be disappointed. I wasn’t.
Torchwood or “Kiss the boy …or the girl”
The fall season has turned out to be an interesting television viewing experience. One of my favorites is “Torchwood“. This show is definitely not for children. This is an adult science fiction series. It’s well written and entertaining. I’m thinking nothing is going to be taboo. I’m almost certain the writers sat around and tried to squeeze as much controversial issues into each episode as possible. So far this season I have seen girls kissing girls, boys kissing boys, adultry, cannibalism and for the sake of humanity letting little girls fall into the hands of evil fairies.
The Laptop
My lap top computer is being very very bad. My husband has taken the thing a part and reinstalled everything…a couple of times. He has added a new keyboard and a new cooling fan…and still it randomly shuts off for no apparent reason. It’s driving me crazy. I have started the same web project a couple of times, right as I get ready to save the computer goes black. {{{grrrrrr}}}}}
The Phone Call – TSA
About a month ago I applied for a position at the SOC (Security operations center) at the Airport. There were two positions available. My friend Liz and I both applied hoping we would both get hired. My friend Liz did get hired I was so happy for her and a little disappointed I didn’t get hired too. I went back to doing my job at terminal C.
Day before yesterday I was at the ticket checker point at the front of the checkpoint checking tickets and IDs. My supervisor walks up behind me and says that I have a phone call……On my gosh!!! My heart was filled with panic. The first thought in my head was that something was horrible wrong at home…because no one calls me at work unless someone is dying. I said a dirty word and asked if they said who was hurt….my supervisor looked at me as if I was crazy..No one was hurt at home…..Apparently it was Roy, one of the three people that conducted the interview for the job at the SOC. He wanted to know if I still wanted the job….My answer was “Yes!!!!” when do I start?”
Then I started thinking….Whats up with the random phone call? because as far as I know my friend Liz still works at the SOC….did the other person not work out or did someone else vacate a position?…I’ll let you know…In the mean time, everyone say woot!!! because Marsha shall here by be known as Watch officer at the SOC.….starting on the 8th of July. 
(T + A #13) Technology and the Arts
{cough, cough} A couple of weeks ago I was unexpectantly sent a myspace email….
Marsha,
I have been meaning to do this for some time, but I kept on getting sidetracked by one thing or another. {This so happens to me ie Marsha all the time }
Anyway, this is Brian from the Technology and the Arts podcast and I was wondering if you would be interested in doing an interview with us at some point in the future to discuss your podcast and your obvious interest in sci-fi. {ever see a grown 40 42 year old woman jump around excitedly}
(I see you are a Battlestar Galactica fan…out of curiosity, have you ever watched Doctor Who–either the “classic” series or the post-2005 version?) {I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of DR WHO but watch BSG everyweek}
Anyway, if you choose to do the interview, we can then figure out how to do it. The easiest way might be for me to send you the questions via a regular e-mail and then you can record your answers and save them as an mp3 file you can send back. I can “splice” in the audio for my questions later in the finished product. {I’m technically saavy…I could comply}
That’s how we did it when we had Gregg Taylor of Decoder Ring Theatre as a guest, and that seemed to work out rather well (although I let the fanboy in me get the better of my editing instincts on that one and let the interview go too long).
You can reply to me either through MySpace
Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Brian Kelley,
Technology and the Arts
I was excited about being asked to do an interview. No one has ever asked before…After the excitement wore off I started to feel a little worried about sounding stupid. I didn’t want the world to think I was strange or weird. I recorded my answers, and rerecorded and then recorded again. I had a slight head cold that day and every time I listened to what I had recorded all I could think about was that I sounded nasally. It was a little hard to breath and talk at the same time. My nose wasn’t cooperating. And also my headphones and audacity software were being bad. Things weren’t sounding as clear as they should on the recording and I couldn’t get the volume to increase. Ever wonder why things fall apart technically when you are trying to do something fun?
So….Here is the interview. My segment is at the end of the podcast. I hope you enjoy.
Brian and John, Thanks so much for inviting me to be on your show.
Can we film tomorrow
When I got home from work last night around 9:30pm Morgan my 7 year old asked if we could film today. I think she has acquired the acting bug… I have a couple of ideas in mind. One of which is the Heinz Ketchup commercial I have been meaning to make, the other is a story book. I will let you know. I have a ton of things to do today and I am not sure if I can fit it all in.
marsha
EDIT:
Today I have; a major headache, started the laundry, cleaned #4 daughter’s bedroom, attempted to fix vacuum cleaner, called every vaccum cleaner salesman in town to find a new belt for my vacuflow vacuum cleaner, ordered a new belt over the phone, Taken #2 daughter to college, picked up #2 daughter from college, took #2 daughter to talk to her academic advisor about graduating in the spring, and went grocery shopping for fruit.
I still have to: finish the laundery, pick up KFC and take my son to get a haircut.
I can’t find: the ac adapter for my sony camcorder. I am not happy because I had it just the other day. Why is it not with the camera? 
I’m thinkin gremlins) UPDATE: I found it.
I need: extra strength Tylenol and a couple more hours in this day.
Question: If this is my day off why am I working so dang hard?
And the conversation went
This is just going to be a quick synopisis of what happened. I can’t write all the dialog, well because it was just vulgar and lengthy.
TSO trainee and ME: ” You alarmed…please go back out and remove anything metal from your pockets. It might be your belt.
Man: {Much vulgarity and rudeness} “I’m taking my daughter to her plane….I’ve seen other people pass through after alarming. [no he hadn’t] “Not removing my belt…..get out of the way….my daughter is going to miss her plane.”
Me: {called for supervisor} passenger and father denied access until father decides to remove belt and be screened.
I swear some people have no clue!!!!!!!!! It was a belt, all he had to do was walk back out, remove the belt, put the belt in the xray machine and be on his way with his daughter. This man had major attitude issues. His daughter was crying because he was being rude and out of control. I felt sorry for her because all she wanted to do was catch her plane.
I had a dream
Ever have one of those dreams when you wake up and think “What the h*ll was that about?”
The Dream
Apparently in my dream I was employed and looking for another job. I was on the phone talking to someone that wanted me to fax over a copy of the keys. I didn’t know what keys I was suppose to be faxing but I was trying to be quiet about it and not draw attention to myself. I couldn’t understand the fax number and kept asking the woman on the other end of the phone to repeat the number. I could only understand 453 and then garbble, garbble garbble. It was frustrating.
Also, the job I was working at required me to tie people up. I don’t know why I was tying people up. I was attempting to tie up this teenage girl and not doing a very good job at it. A coworker comes into the room and asks me if I put on the sweetbands because I forgot to do that the last time I tied someone up. I didn’t know what she was talking about and besides I couldn’t find the rope I was suppose to be using. The coworker then tells me to be careful because I left cuts on the last person I tied up. I asked the girl I was tying up if her parents knew she was being tied up. The girls looks at me as if I am crazy and says “NO”. Why would she want to tell her parents? I didn’t know but I couldn’t help think that maybe she should tell them.
Anyway, the new job keeps calling still needing those keys faxed over. I still can’t understand the fax number. I didn’t know what keys they were talking about but apparently they had sent the keys to me and needed them back. I couldn’t figure out how to fax keys.
I woke with a slight headache.
Someone please tell me I’m not going insane.
And the conversation went
It’s time for another “And the conversation went”
The following customer is hugely pregnant and obviously smokes because cigarettes and a lighter were in her purse. She also smelled as if she had just recently lit up. Not that it matters but it helps knowing a little background.
Mag operator: “Female additional, no alarm”
Me: “Hello, ma’am, you have been selected for additional screening. Have you ever done this process before?”
customer: “No, I am just picking up a friend. I’m not getting on the plane”
Me: “Let me explain what we are going to do. I’m going to give you a limited patdown of your arms, sides, stomach, back and legs. We do the patdowns right here out in the open. Do you want a more private screening?
customer: “NO, what ever”
Me: “and then I’m going to run a quick test on your purse and shoes. “
customer: “OK”
Me: {the passenger was given a quick patdown} There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
customer: {doesn’t seem traumatized by the experience} “Nope”
Me: {looks into the passenger’s purse and finds a lighter} “I’m sorry ma’am but you can’t take this lighter into the checkpoint”
customer: {suddenly, irrate and not happy} “Why not? I’m not getting on the plane. I’m just picking up my friend.”
Me: {attempting to be polite} “I’m sorry but lighters are not allowed. Would you like me to walk you back out of the checkpoint so that you can put the lighter in your car or hand it off to someone else?”
customer: {more mad} “NO!! There is no one here with me. It’s a long walk back to my car….”
Me: {still practicing patience} “The lighter is not allowed in the checkpoint. You can surrender the lighter to me or go back out and put the lighter in your car”
customer: {yelling} “this is degrading…It’s a f*cking lighter…not a gun!!!! I am being harrassed. “
Me: {was going to call supervisor but he was already standing behind me}
Supervisor: {very stern} “Ma’am if you don’t calm down. I’m having you escorted out of the checkpoint. THE LIGHTER IS PROHIBITED!”
customer: {calm but still irritated} ” Fine, keep the….lighter…I just want to pick-up my friend and get out of this place…Can you hold the lighter for me until I get my friend?”
Supervisor and Me: {in unison} “NO!”
Of Little Girls and cylons
My second Battlestar Galactica fan video 
“Of Little Girls and Cylons” is up on the scifi.com website. Yeah!!!!
Actually, I was really hoping it wouldn’t make the cut because I wanted to re-edit the thing differently and display it here. I am still going to edit the video. Actually, I am nearly done I need Morgan to film a scene for me next week but the scifi channel rules say I can not display my videos anywhere but on the scifi site. Which means I can’t display it here. I will figure something out.
..And leave me a comment on the video…You know Marsha thrives on comments.