Exactly Where is Home??

For Some Reason, I never posted this.  So here it is now.


This post is for a very good friend of mine that recently posted about the surreal experience of your parents moving from the place you call "home".  This brought to mind  how do you to define "home".

As a child that grows up and leaves "home", you  end up creating a home with your own family, but on some level  mom and dad still live in the place you grew up.  They are the roots that even as an adult you sometimes need to be rooted to a place.  They are the sense of belonging that we all seem to search for and need behind us.  This might be doubly important to those of us that move away from the area that is home.  Once we move away and then our "roots" move away, we do not have anything drawing us back.  While many our friends still live there, our roots have uprooted and moved on. 

Maybe friends should be enough to bring us back, but the reality is that our lives grow in different directions especially those of us that have completely moved from the area that we were "rooted" to.  Intentions are good but sometimes they are hard to follow through.  I mean to go visit friends that still live in the Atlanta area when we visit with my in laws but somehow it is just hard to do. I know that my mom has classified Florida as home for many years even when we lived in Georgia, but she was born in Connecticut started school in Vermont and finished in New York.  Most times she classifies herself  as being from New York.  She has not been back "home" but 2 times that I remember in my lifetime. And the person that showed me her "hometown" was my Aunt.  My dad is from Ohio and has been back one time in my lifetime.  I visited there as a very young child but not at an age that I can remember,  In both situations, their parents moved from their respective "hometowns".

Now my friend stated that she adopted a place as home, but I suspect like me it is home because that is where she and her family now reside.  I have lived in central Florida in the same house for 10 years and yes it home but it is not the same feeling  I get when we drive into Atlanta.  I feel the "roots" pulling me as we drive into the city and many times I feel the pull to follow  I-75 as we drive in and to go "home".  As time goes, I am sure that pull will lessen since it has only been 8 years since my parents left "home".  I am in many ways fortunate in that my parents followed me to Central Florida.  I suppose in a way the roots followed me, but is not the same.

Day3: Write about your Family

My husband, Alan and I met in my second quarter of college in Dr Richardson's political science class.  On the second day of class, Alan turned in his first of 3 papers we were required to do.  After class, he asked if I wanted to go get a coke and as they say, the rest is history.  A few months shy of 5 years, Alan and I got married and have now been happily married for 16 years.  While I am a pretty strong willed individual, Alan completes me and is truly my rock.  There have been times that his presence is all that have held me together  and kept me moving forward.  Even after all these years, I enjoy just being in the same room with him.  We do not need to fill the quiet with dialogue, we can just sit together and enjoy the being together.

I have one child, Meghan.  Meghan is the source of great pride for both Alan and myself.   Meghan has played violin since the summer between kindergarten and 1st grade, so we are rapidly coming up on 7 years.  She has been actively involved in the school strings programs since 2nd grade and the youth orchestra since 3rd grade.  This year she is a 7th grader sitting in 1st chair 2nd violin.  With the start of 7th grade, she took up clarinet and is getting ready to perform her first clarinet solo in a few weeks.  She has proven herself to be dedicated to music and is currently interested in attending FSU and pursing a degree in music.  Until 7th grade, Meghan danced from 1st grade through 6th grade.  Unfortunately with the onset of 7th grade and the taking up of clarinet, she was forced to choose between dance and music, and music won.  The flip side,  she was able to start taking lessons on clarinet and sits in 1st chair for beginning band.  This year was her first opportunity to audition for All County Orchestra and she made it.  Today was here all county performance.  Next year she stands a chance to make All County Band and Orchestra.  In addition, Meghan is an honor roll student and is taking Algebra as a 7th grader.  This class will be the start of her high school GPA.  Kinda crazy that they do that to the kids now.  So of course, we watch the grades in this class particularly close because it is the start of her GPA.  I enjoy watching Meghan and all her accomplishments.  She is an extremely bright young lady with an equally bright future ahead.


There are so many more family members that I would love to go on about from parents, to in laws and favorite cousins and friends that I consider family, but I am tired of typing and you are probably tired of reading.

Day 2: Where would you like to be in 10 years

Where would I like to be in 10 years?  That is a tough question to answer.  I have learned that while you make plans, life often happens and changes those plans along the way.  Thus life changes your plans as you go.  That whole making plans/goals for certain time periods is probably a lot of why turning 30 was so painful for me.  I made "plans" and life happened and changed them along the way.  But in the spirit of the question, I expect that Meghan will be in college.  I will probably still be working for the same employer.  Hopefully, Alan will be in a better job.  I hope that as a person, I will have evolved to be a little less type A and a little more accepting of everyone's less than perfect traits.  I would like to learn to worry less abut what I cannot control.  I am sure life in general would be less stressful then.  I would like to have traveled more and seen some of the places on my list. I would also like to be more financially secure.
But again, the journey to the next 10 years I realize will be filled with many twist and turns and life will happen while I am busy making plans, so the best thing is to learn to be able to sort of  role with the direction that life sends me. 

Introduce yourself

Okay so Day 1 is to introduce yourself...where to begin....

My name is Jini (pronounced Jenna).  Odd I know but it is what it is.  I am rapidly approaching 40 and am completely undecided as to how I feel about it.  Hopefully I will handle it much better than I did 30.  My 30s have been a voyage of self discovering that was totally unexpected.  I think I am more laid back and accepting of things as I leave my 30s behind.  I see the gray shades in life much more clearly and have learned that not every battle is worth fighting or winning.  Sometimes you should save yourself the exhaustion and move on.

I am very happily married to the love of my life.  We meet in Jan. 1991 in a political science class in college.  We married in Oct. 1995 and so we have been happily married for 16 years.  Alan and I welcomed our daughter to our family in Jan.  1999.  She has been and continues to be a great source of pride to us.  She is exceedingly talented and smart.  I take exceptional pride in my husband and my daughter.  My universe revolves completely around them.  Because our work schedules are crazy, we tend to avoid doing things that take away from family time.  It is very precious to us and we always feel short changed in that we do not get enough of it. 

We have now two cats in our home.  Nibbles, whom many previous post have been written, and now Jasper.  Jasper came to us just before Christmas.  Jasper along with 2 other cats were dumped in the parking lot at work,  the other 2 found homes by the end of the night and Jasper was left.  I could not leave him so I took him home and placed him on the back porch hoping to find him a home.  Had many people claim an interest but none came through. A couple of weeks back it became really cold and Jasper made his way from the porch into the house.  So Jasper now has a forever home.  (yes I am a sucker and will probably be THE CAT lady when I am old)  Jasper was named by Meghan and yes after the Twilight character, because I mentioned that he looked like he had vampire teeth.

The older I get the more important family becomes.  Not just the biological but the friends that become so important in our lives that they to become our family.  I have never favored the party scene and am quite content to spend quiet time with close friends and family.

I am also an avid reader which is probably not a surprise to anyone that has known me any length of time.  I can happily read for hours.  The unfortunate problem is I read entirely too fast.  The upside is I read a lot of different genres and have lots of favorite authors.  My favorite gift is gift cards to buy books for my nook:)

That sums up the basics.

30 day Blog Challenge

Thought I would copy this from my cousin:) I used to write often, but then other things started to get in the way. Facebook became the outlet because I could pick up with some old friendships that I found I really missed. Okay, below follows the challenge so all my fellow bloggers that want to join in, have a go:)


30 Day Blog Challenge

1. introduce yourself
2. where you would like to be in 10 years
3. write about your family
4. a list of things you’re good and bad at
5. your horoscope for today and whether you think it’s accurate
6. write 30 interesting facts about yourself
7. your favorite 10 people right now and why
8. write about something you believe in, anything at all
9. a list of things hanging on your walls
10. places you want to visit, and why
11. the best advice you’ve ever heard, or ever been given
12. bullet point your whole day.
13. write about your earliest childhood memory
14. what gives you every day inspiration?
15. things that make you really sad
16. things that make you really angry
17. your highs and lows of this past year
18. write about what’s most often on your mind
19. a passage from a book that has touched you
20. 5 things you’re looking forward to
21. your favorite subject to study
22. how have you changed in the past 2 years?
23. something you would like to change about yourself
24. something you would change about the world
25. things you do on a rainy day
26. is it easy for you to trust others?
27. what are features you get complimented on a lot?
28. something that you miss
29. what you think your reason for being here is
30. what is the difference between living and existing

Happy Fourth Of July

Over the past week somethings have happened that make me sorta of sad leading into the 4th of July. The other day at work, I was contacted by the American Legion post looking for donations for some homeless veterans that had been misplaced in one of the local cities in our county. I was struck by how sad that is that this group had been displaced. This afternoon as Meghan and I were returning home, there were veterans standing on the corners taking donations for the homeless veterans. Again, I am struck by how sad that is. I find it sad and depressing that there are groups out there taking donations for these individuals. These men and women return from the sojourns around the world defending our liberty and beliefs with disabilities that make it difficult for them to re-assimilate into our society. Many of us will not look at them or act like they are "beneath" our notice. Regardless of your political affiliation, this group of individuals around our country deserves better than we have given them. Why we allow our veterans to live like this or slip through the cracks without the help they need does not speak well for us as a nation and possibly points a finger of failure to us a people. They deserve our compassion, generosity and most of all our respect.

What A Long TIme

It has been a very long time since I have posted here. I apologize to the many lurkers that have commented to me about my lack of postings. It has been a very eventful and difficult year.

Meghan started 6th grade this year and this the last year that she will be in elementary school. They are being called "upperclassmen" by the school administration and teachers. They even have a dance planned for the end of the year. To say Meghan is excited is like claiming the sky is blue:) She is beginning to look into which middle schools she would like to apply for and is currently leaning toward a Jr/Sr high school that is ranked in the top 100 schools in the United States. To get into the school is a lottery type situation.

As she finishes up elementary school this year, she is involved a plethora of activities. Due to financial constraints on us, she is only taking 3 dance classes this year. In addition to the dance, she is still playing violin and moved up one level in the local youth orchestra. She still has strings at school as well as OM. She added Art club and Beta Club to the mix this year.