Packing for a trip

I was enjoying dinner with a friend the other day.  We were discussing traveling.  I love traveling and we occasionally share stories about our travels.

I come from a family of travelers, and they have been teaching me tips and tricks for years.  

Some of the things I have learned it to:

• Decorate my checked luggage so it can be easily identified on the airport carousel.
• Decorate the back, as many times they dump them on the carousel back-side up.
• Print a copy of your passport/important papers and put them in a different bag than your actual documents.  That will help if you lose anything.
• Pack an extra garment in your carry-on in case your trip is delayed, and your luggage is not.

Then, my friend and I got to discussing a trick I really appreciate ... divide the packing between both checked bags, when possible.  She had never thought of this and was tickled to learn of the concept.

Basically - when traveling in pairs - I have been taught to:

• Lay everything out on the bed that needs to go into luggage
• Remove all the items that go into the carry-ons
• Split each person's items into two piles
• Try and ensure that each bag gets undergarments, pants/shorts, chargers, umbrellas, shoes, etc.  
• We try and split liquids, medications, and anything else that can easily be split.  
• We also try and split items in our carry-ons, just in case.  Things like money, lotions, snacks, etc.  

On the way back home - we do this for souvenirs and important things.  

We do our best to try and ensure that if the worst happens, it will not be a total loss.

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Political Ads & Things I Didn't Know

I saw a video news article on TV the other day. The station was explaining that they could not fact check political ads if the candidate was legally qualified to run for office and the ad was candidate sponsored. They could not refuse to sell ad space to a candidate, or a committee-to-elect even if they knew the ad was false or went against their station's policies.  

The gentleman who managed ads for the station stated that they are allowed to fact check medications, company claims, groups, etc.  They can refuse to air an ad if it goes against the station's policies or is deemed untrue. But the ability to manage political ads in the same manner is not allowed. He stated that the station is also required to give political ads the lowest price for the ad time.

I found this so surprising.  I had never realized this before. I did some research and found that this is true (FCC Political Programming and FEC Advertising and Disclaimers).

This made me wonder how we ever really know what is true and not true in any political ad we see on TV.  I figured I would try and put my google searching skills to work.  I fell down a deep rabbit hole trying to find a non-bias place to determine facts from fiction.

I hoped to find a few websites that would fact check political ads and quickly ran into issues.  Most received ratings of about 3 out of 5 stars. You really had to deep dive to figure out how they were funded and who was doing the fact checking.    

I switched gears and tried to find an easy-to-follow voting record list for politicians.  Again, I admit that I was not as lucky as I had hoped to be.  The sites that show this are somewhat convoluted.

I discerned that there was no perfect way to scientifically fact-check politicians using data or finding a non-bias source.  It takes a concerted effort to find the truth and determine what a politician is doing to help their constituents.  

While this blog did not pan out the way I had hoped it would when I started it, I now truly understand how easily voters get misinformed and confused. I comprehend that making a truly unbiased/informed decision was harder now than I ever expected, given the ads/website/blogs/tweets/etc.

Even though I didn't find a magic answer to share with you all, this fact-finding search did remind me (as I read through articles on politics) that no matter what your political views - all citizens should appreciate the right to vote and take the responsibility seriously.  Politicians can control our personal lives more than I think many of us appreciate. Doing some legwork to ensure you have investigated your candidates to the best of your ability is worth the effort.

Listed below are a few of the sites that I dug into, just as a reference for this blog. (I do not support the use of them or verify their information.)

• Senate Votes
• Congress Votes
• BallotPedia
• PoliticFact
• FactCheck.org
• AP News
• AllSides News

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Lessons Learned - Reorgs and Layoffs

I have been through various reorganizations and layoffs. I have been laid off.  I have been moved into new areas without getting a say-so in the change.  I have had executives laid off and had to report to new executives.  I have had to watch friends get moved around to teams they were not crazy about, and some were laid off.  I have had to listen to the calls while supervisors told people they were laid off or changing roles.  I have had to work on the HR reports during the reorgs, knowing how the checks in a column would change people's lives.  I have had to work with executives to determine where the checks should go.

Trust me, there is nothing easy about any of it.  Through all the different phases I have experienced, I have learned a lot.

• It is very hard being the one affected. You feel you have done something wrong and are being punished. It is hard to understand how the "higher ups" could do this to you. 
• It is equally as hard to be the one checking the columns that change people's lives. The "higher ups" know that humans with families, bills and responsibilities are behind each change. They realize that some people really love what they do and took the job because they wanted to work with so-n-so, but that is no longer an option.  The people making decisions feel guilt, frustration and anger along with the affected people.  
  
• If you are "lucky" enough to stay where you are, you suffer from survivor's guilt. You wonder why good people were let go or moved to other areas and you are staying where you are.  You worry they will despise you.
• The uncertainty and stress of it all is unbearable at times. It is hard to stay positive and not get dragged down by overthinking the possibilities.
• There is never a good time or way to process these changes.  If they happen too fast, you feel unprepared.  You feel they rushed the process, and it won't have been truly thought out correctly.  If the changes happen too slowly, you feel the company is hiding something or leaving you in limbo. If they let you know the change in the morning, it hurts because you just started working that day.  If they contact you at the end of the day, you wonder why they made you work all day.  If they immediately let you go, you wonder why they didn't trust you to finish up important work.  If they ask you to stay to complete work, you wonder why they are making you stay.  If it is before a holiday, it ruins your holiday.  If it is after, you feel they should have done it before so you could have known going into the holiday.  It is truly a no-win situation.

I have also learned some positive and helpful lessons - that I use to survive all kinds of life's "tragedies", not just work changes.

• Stay positive. People will notice and respect you for it.
• Don't get involved in the gossip.  It will add extra stress to your world that will not help you.
• Don't create a horrible story in your head to fill the void of information.
• Make a game plan. You will feel better having a plan A, B, and C.
• Take stock of what is important.  If staying is a goal, then work to make that happen. If changing teams would help, try and position yourself to get to that new team.  If leaving would give you peace, ensure that people realize you wish to go. 
• Keep busy. Look for other projects, people or teams to help.  Keeping busy makes the waiting a lot less burdensome.  
• If you forced to change in some manner, realize that the new adventure coming your way will probably be better than where you were.  Embrace the change and learn from it.  
• Have a rainy-day fund.  The peace of mind knowing that money will not be an extra burden during trying times is a godsend.
• Engage your social circle to help keep you grounded.  The distraction of their lives also helps remind you that other things are going on around you and it is not all about the change you are experiencing.
• Keep your ego out of it.  Change is not a personal attack.

Business is business and change is change.  Almost all businesses will reorg and do layoffs at some time or another. Everyone's life faces unexpected changes.  There is no way to escape change, but there is a way to come out the other side in a better place.

I have really only had one change that I felt was truly "wrong". So, I used my plan B and C and made a change that suited me better.  It worked out beautifully. The others changes all seemed hard or somewhat wrong at the time but ended up being positive new adventures. I have been very blessed and I plan to continue to be blessed when the next change comes my way.

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Enjoying Life

Be a tourist in your own town

I enjoy vacations and traveling.  I love getting to see new sites and get my passport stamped. John and I find it thrilling to explore new cities and engage in new adventures.  

Honestly though, we seldom really play tourist in our own town.  Shame on us.  

St Louis and the surrounding area has so much to offer.  We do the occasional zoo day, see a play, walk around Main Street St Charles or visit a new restaurant. But overall, we don't really do all the great touristy things available in our area.  We haven't been the aquarium, some of the wineries, the History Museum, etc.

This year, John suggested that we try and do more tourist things in our town. I am pleased to share that we have already made some progress.  We walked around the Central West End, saw the Van Gogh exhibit, strolled the Delmar Loop and visited the Art Museum. 

We plan to continue the trend and see a lot more of what our city/county has to offer. It is exciting and we are enjoying not only time together but seeing and learning new things.

Added bonus: spending money, locally, can only help the town I call home.

I hope that you are finding a way to enjoy the town you live in.  If you are not taking advantage of your local attractions and helping support the place you call home, I hope this makes you think of doing more around your town.

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Lessons learned from my broken wrist

At the end of March, I fell getting out of the hotel shower while on vacation. I broke my wrist. Luckily, it was my left wrist, as I am right-handed. I always sort of figured my left hand was not as "important". I have been amazed at how many things in this life require two hands.  

I have learned so much during the start of this process.

• Clothing has way too many buttons, zippers, snaps, hooks and laces.  Thank God yoga pants are acceptable these days.
• Laundry is hard to hang up, fold and put away. And laundry baskets are impossible to carry down the stairs. Though dropping the basket down the stairs is easy (but freaks out the cats).
• Tucking socks together to put them in the drawer is tough, but unrolling them and putting them on is even tougher.
• Touch typing is really slow and requires a lot of thought. Apparently as a touch typist, I let my mind/hands just do their job without really thinking of capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Just typing this blog has taken about ten times the amount of time I would normally spend crafting a post.
• The car's turn signal should be an Alexa option ("Alexa turn on right blinker").
• Lunch salads are impossible. Restaurants serve a ton of food that requires a knife and fork combo. Luckily, the appetizer menus have finger foods. My diet is suffering.
• Short hair is much easier to care for than long hair. But, still tough to color.
• Clipping and filing my fingernails seems so scary I am avoiding it for now and just letting my nails get longer and longer.
• Twisting off beverage lids/caps has me either begging for help, or drinking just water.
• And, last but not least, don't even get me started with going to the bathroom.

Overall, I am finding creative ways to do a lot of things. My husband, friends and family are all super supportive and help when I need it.  Yes, this sucks, but it could have been so much worse.  I feel blessed in ways I never thought of.

I truly have taken my left hand totally for granted.  I will never do that again!

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