Chagrin vs. Chargin

In procrastination in studying for my GRE, I've decided to write a belated blog post instead.

This one has been in my mind for a while just cause its kind of funny.  Up until two years ago, whenever I saw the word chagrin I automatically switched the "r" around and changed it to chargin (pronounced char and gin put together if you couldn't figure that out :p).  Mixing up my r's or putting r's in where there are none as been a problem with me for the longest time.  I remember sitting reading the "See Jane Run" type books with my mom and she would get really frustrated with me because I would always add in r's.  I would be in tears and she would be too because I couldn't figure it out.  I would sound the word slowly and say it correctly but as soon as I tried reading it over again quickly the r would pop back in.  It turned into a pointless cycle of frustration.

Well back to the story, I was talking to my sister about the Twilight books and she was complaining about how Stephenie Meyers always uses the word chagrin.  I couldn't remember one time when it was used in the book, and in actuality, I couldn't ever remember reading or hearing that word before...ever.  So I had to skim back through to see if I could ever find it.  Nope, never found chagrin.  Not until a year or so later after this conversation did I reread the books and stopped at what I thought was chargin.  At that moment a light bulb clicked and I realized that for the past 5 some odd years, I had always read the word wrong.  Thankfully, I never read out loud to someone and mispronounced it or used it in a paper.  I knew the meaning but never sounded it out correctly.  Now whenever I read, I still have to catch myself with it when it pops up and I now hate the word.  I notice it to much so it seems to stick out like a sore thumb to me.  I don't think I will ever use it in my own writing because of this deep seeded animosity towards a word I once could not pronounce correctly.

Scraping By

So a mentally handicapped boy at work this past week asked if I would help him with a text.  He asked if I could spell general conference and without hesitation I said yes.  As I was typing it out, I realized I forgot how to spell "general."  I spelled it "generle," "generel," and on the third time I finally got it right.  How depressing.  I'm just glad I finally got it right in the end cause that would have been embarrassing if I hadn't. :)