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.

Date Night

Last night Meghan spent the night with one of her friends, so Alan and I decided to go to a movie. Of course the one we wanted to see (Ghost Writers) started when I was getting off work. We had two other back ups ( Bounty Hunter and The Hot Tub Time Machine) that were dependent on how fast we go get to the theater after I was off work. Well we ended up with The Hot Tub Time Machine. Now to begin with this a R rated movie. that was the 1st clue that it might not be suitable for children. We walk into the theater and their is a mother with her three kids (Meghan's age and younger) sitting in the row in front of us. As we sit down, I think, "I hope she researched the movie thoroughly before coming with her kids to see this".

The movie starts and while it stupidly funny, you can tell within the 1st 10 - 15 minutes that this movie is grossly inappropriate for children. I expected that at any moment the mother and kids would get up and leave. Much to my surprise and horror, they stayed for the entire show. While Alan was in the restroom, the mother is walking by with the kids and telling them that was a movie they really should not have seen. Gee, you think?

After the movie, we went to eat dinner. It is now 11:55 so our choices were limited to say the least. So we went to Denny's because we do have a favorite waitress there who is really good. We get seated in a booth that is in between two other groups. The group at the table behind Alan was a group of four that were the age of our parents. The one wife in the group had obviously way too much to drink before she got to Denny's. She was exceedingly loud. She was telling stories about her grandchildren ages 12 and 7. She even gave sound effects that were even louder. When they ordered, her husband was concerned about how the ham was processed and tied the waitress up with this for about 10 minutes. Dude, you either want the ham or you don't want the ham. It is after midnight, does it really matter? The group seating behind me had been pretty quiet to this point and then there food arrived and the "woke up". Suddenly they f this, f that. I 'll kick your @**. They were just crude and obnoxious. As they spoke i was reminded that my grandmother used to say that people that spoke like that only showed how uneducated and limited their vocabulary really was. It makes you wonder how many of us manage to live such drama free lives.

Screaming for Attention

Some people seem to scream for attention but get offended when they get it. The other day we had a customer bring a monkey into the store to shop with her. Yes, you read right, a MONKEY. If you bring an exotic pet out in public, I think you are asking to for people to pay attention to you. From the moment this woman arrived in the store, she was hateful to everyone that expressed interest in the monkey. One employee asked about the monkey and was told not to touch that it would bite her. Hmmm...maybe you should not bring it out if it will bite people. Does not seem fair of her to expose her pet to the stress of the public if it is incline to bite.

I was to amused to see her try to shop with a monkey. It looked like it might be worse that trying to shop with a toddler on a bad day. The monkey was trying to get into and grab everything.

Finally!!!

Meghan has been a member of her schools string program for four years. Each year they send 4 members to county festival. It is the equivalent of the all county that many of my contemporaries are familiar with. This is suppose to be the top 2 violinist from each group within the school. Meghan has auditioned every year knowing that regardless of audition scores that she would be unable to go because she was too young. Last year they changed the requirement from 4th grade to 5th grade so she had to wait another year. Well this year she gets to go. Meghan is excited.

Tomorrow I will chaperon the rehearsal session which will run during school hours for about 5 hours. On Feb. 27 they will have another rehearsal followed by a concert. I am looking forward to seeing her reach this next step that she has yearned for for several years.

Meghan Wins the School Geo Bowl

Meghan won the 5th grade Geo bowl for her school. This may not be a surprise for most with Alan a history/social studies major and me a political science major. Now this means that we are currently involved in a deep study of the 5th grade social studies book because in Dec she will compete against 66 other 5th graders in the county. Meghan's school is usually done in by the Florida history questions so that is a focal point of our study at this point. Meghan is determined to be the best showing that her school has had at the county level. Wish her luck!!!

Pride In My Daughter

As a parent often times you agonize over whether your child is developing into the type of person that you dreamed of during those infant and toddler years. As your child begins to be exposed to experiences and values outside your home you question whether you have done enough to send the messages that instill in them the values that you hope that will take into the world from home. I believe that I can find comfort in the fact that Meghan appears to be moving in that direction.

A couple of weeks ago, Meghan was invited to attend a family celebration for the birthday for one of her best friends younger brothers. Even though Meghan was not able to attend the family celebration, she still wanted to take a gift to the brother. The pride I felt at the time she said that is hard to put into words. She was thinking of people other than herself and that really makes me proud. We have tried to instill in her that gifts are something that you give because you want to not because you want to or expect something in return. I think this was a sign that she is hearing our messages even when we are not sure.

We take tremendous pride Meghan's accomplishments, and we hope that she does not become one of those kids that lords her opportunities and accomplishments over others. So far she appears to be maintaining the appearance of following this trend.

Return to School

Well it is the end of summer here as we returned to school on the 10th. Meghan is now in 5th grade!! Wow... why can they not stay small forever. So far, Meghan is very pleased with her teacher. She has big plans for the year. She will be in the strings program at school and made it into the BSYO Strings Ensemble. Alan and I will be the manager for this group this year. Saves a little of the cost but increases our time spent. Meghan also will have dance classes on Tuesday and Friday nights. She is not sure if she will keep all 5 classes in which she has enrolled.

We spent a great summer traveling and being with family that we have not seen in a number of years. I will try to post pictures soon. I have been trying to post a video of Meghan playing the violin at the church my inl aws attend.; however, I am having issues getting it uploaded here and on facebook. Probably operator error or impatience.

Florida Sunsets II

Just love the sunsets around here. The ones at the bottom are taken over the river.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Those of you that read and enjoyed last years post abut watching the fireworks will be disappointed that I do not have similar post this year. We began our day planning our evening of sitting and waiting for the fireworks. About 3 hours before the scheduled start time for the fireworks, we had one of "scattered" Florida thunderstorms. Living in Florida in the summer thunderstorms are a DAILY occurrence so you take preventive measures like roll your car windows up, cover things that you do not want to get wet. Come on its Florida and that is what you should do - afternoon thunderstorms are not a surprise. Apparently the people in charge of our fireworks are "FLORIDIOTS" because along came our afternoon thunderstorm and they failed to cover up the fireworks. So we came home with our Arby's roast beefs and watched the fireworks in Washington DC on TV. Hope your towns were better at handling their fireworks than our towns was.

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!

Accomplishment or Just Archaic and Pathetic

Today marked what I once viewed as a milestone...an accomplishment if you will. Now I am not so sure. Today I reached the milestone of having worked for my company for 20 years. Yes that's right 20 years and that equals more than 1/2 my life that I have given to my employer. As I contemplate all that means, I am not sure what I think or even how I feel about this "accomplishment". Perhaps I am a little bit of a throwback to an era that has come and gone.

I feel a degree of pride... how many people my age can say they have been with their employer for two decades. I grew up with the stories of my grandfather having worked for his company for decades. I was always impressed by the loyalty that he had for his company. The loyalty trickled into all our lives. To this day, many of my shopping expeditions revolve around the company to which he dedicated his life. (my wedding gown and all my bridesmaids wore dresses from that company) Not unlike grandfather, I have a feeling of loyalty toward my company; however, I sometimes question whether my loyalty is misplaced. I think companies in general today view their employees as less than an investment and more as a replaceable commodity. The hierarchy in my company is always telling us to hire quality people; and I believe the issues for that lie with the expectations that everyone that comes through your front door will perform at the level of a seasoned employee within moments of starting the job. The true reality is that quality employees are created through development, training and coaching(ie. the investment).

My company does make a small effort to recognize our service and about a month ago they mailed my 20 year pin to the store. Well the pin was suppose to have diamond look chip in the upper left corner. That's right folks, my pin arrived with the little diamond looking chip missing and an obvious hole where the chip was supposed to be. Now I found that amusing but someone did call about the pin being defective (no not me - I was not that concerned). A new one is being mailed out and we can just "toss the defective one" in the trash while the person telling us that acted put out that we would even ask about such a thing. I think that probably sums up the corporate attitude about someone giving the company 20 years.

Pictures from the Dance Recital

Well I finally managed to get through the photos from Meghan's dance recital. There are 134 photos on my Facebook page for those that are interested. However, this is probably my favorite picture that we took between the dress rehearsal and the recital. Mamoo and Papoo made it to be here with us for the recital. Meghan has another BSYO performance tomorrow and they will be here to enjoy it.

The Stare Down

The Proud Papa!!!

I can eat this bird. Maybe?

Time to feed the babies.

"The Stare Down" The cat cannot see inside my nest today.

Nibbles and the bird who I have named Gloria had a stare down this morning. I really thought it was odd that she was not flitting around in the branches like she usually does, but I figured she was just trying to aggravate the cat. Later in the morning Meghan and I noticed that she was perched at the edge of the nest with something in her beak. As we watched something moved in the nest. There are at least two babies in the nest that were not there yesterday. We watched throughout the day and also managed to see the proud papa guarding the area in the afternoon. So now folks we need a name for two babies and the proud papa. Nibbles spent the afternoon playing with his toy bird.

The Bird

The bird is getting use to us and appears to becoming more comfortable. She does not go flying everytime we come out the door. She was in her nest when I left for work this morning and she was there when we came home this afternoon. We have bought bird feeders and bird seed, but we still do not have a name. So again please help provide suggestions for her name.

Name the Bird

Just a little while ago, I posted about a bird that built her nest just outside our front octagon window. Since we will begin "providing" for her, I feel we should have a name. So Internet, please help us find a name. Pictures are in the previous post. Meghan will choose from the suggestions. The choosen name will be posted in a week.

Have fun and be creative!!!