For your information

When I married Kurt, my vocabulary expanded. Kurt knows a lot of sophisticated words (which he uses to beat me at Scrabble), but the following words do not fall into that category.

Ever heard of a "dither"? How about a "tiz"? I know you've heard the word "stew," but perhaps you haven't heard this definition.

Each time I hear those words, Kurt is using them in reference to his mom...and it is always when she is upset about something. "Mom's in a dither about what outfit to wear." "Mom's in a stew over getting dinner fixed by 7:00 for the Baxters to come over." "Mom's in a tiz. She tried to order some books off of Amazon.com, but she ended up ordering triple the amount she needed."

You get the idea. I have often wondered if the words are interchangeable. They are not. Allow me to define them.

Dither: This is the calmest stage of being upset. It's a state of agitation, but also being able to keep your cool. If you are "in a dither," you're just annoyed. You'd rather not have to deal with the nuisance, but you can handle it. Think short-term annoyance.

Stew: This is mid-worry -- a step up from a dither on the "bothered" ladder. If you get "in a stew" about something, you're dealing with a perpetual or long-term annoyance. It lasts more than an hour.

Tiz: Being "in a tiz" is the worst. This is the top of the upset scale -- worry to the point of paralysis. It is possible to be "in a tiz" for days at a time. (Not to be confused with being "in a funk,"the more laid back version of being upset for a long period of time.) A tiz combines annoyance, worry, and likely other issues that are particular to your problem.

Kurt says my constant and natural state is in a stew. When I am asleep, he says I only calm down enough to be in a dither. So, it doesn't take me long to get in a tiz when I get really upset. Make sense?

What gets you in a dither, stew, or tiz?