The End of an Era

It's official.  A week or so late but official.  This is the last post to be written AND published at this site.  The site will remain.  The words will remain.  They will actually be part of some weird cool dual life thing.  All posts are here...and there.  Of course if you are reading this there then WELCOME!  Today's the day that the new site officially launches.

I can't wait for you to check it out!  Please join me as I continue bringing you random bits of Fizziness, more reviews than seem humanly possible and eventually the relaunch of my shop (the entire reason this all began). 

fizzypopcollection.com

It felt like there was a million years when I took the first step of this journey (beyond months of talking about it) back on July 1st.  There was all the time in the world.  Heck I even took Jammication and still had all the time in the world.  Then all the sudden there was a week left, a day left, and then just over a week later it's finally coming to fruition.  Life was happening in all those intervening days.  My life, my partner in crime Kristin's life, your life.  All life.  It's still a work in progress.  There's almost 200 'old' posts from the intervening years to update and correct to the new format.  Pardon Our Mess as the saying goes.  However, I can't wait to share the next step on this journey with you, my readers and friends.

Fizzy~

A New Direction

Today marks the start down a new path.  The end of an era and the beginning of a new one.  It's like Y2K or the difference between AD and BC on our dates.  Today is symbolic for a couple of reasons.  This years is exactly (month wise not necessarily day wise) halfway over.  It's an easy date to remember.  It's also the birthday of a pretty special friend who is no longer with us.  All of that plays into the changes I'm instigating, today.

Today, I bought my domain name.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, fizzypopcollection.com is in the process of becoming a legitimate thing.  No .blogspot no .facebook no dot anything.  You could type it in but it doesn't lead anywhere yet.  That is the next step in the process.  The important thing is that after all these years I own it.  No one else can lay claim to who I am. No one else can try to share ownership of what I say.  And it's also a merging of the blog and the store.  Yup, my candles will also be back up and running during this time period of change and once the dot com goes live I will be in one space.  Oh, the Book of Faces, the Tweeter, the Insta-thing, the Pin Boards will all still be but they will lead to one place.  The place that is all of me!

I chose today to make this happen for a couple of reasons mentioned above.  I've been with Blogger since May of 2012, over 5 years.  I started my store in November of 2011, almost 6 years ago.  It's time to move forward.  But through it all, I had a lot of support.  A LOT of support from friends, family, strangers.  One of my biggest supporters was a launching mark for the direction I'm choosing to take today.  Unfortunately, while she started this journey to here she isn't here to see it happen.  She never told me I was crazy (though I know she thought it!).  She had bright ideas, encouraging words and actually named several different candle scents that I continue to carry.  Today is her birthday.  I personally can't think of a better tribute to the friend she was, the framily she was, than to take this next step in her honor and memory.

So, keep watching for more updates.  Once the link is live I'll share it here first so you can migrate all you bookmarks and toolbars and follow clicks to where it will be bigger and better and more meaningful on this journey!  And thank you to every single person who has loved and encouraged and supported me on this journey of candles and books and blogs!

Happy Birthday Karen!

Get to Know Me

I was tagged in this fun post by Kristin at A Simply Enchanted Life and with a little peer pressure decided, why not.  It was a cute idea, even though I really didn't learn anything new about her I thought it would be fun and perhaps interesting for my blog readers to get to know a little bit more about the me behind the screen.

ABOUT

NAME:Janet (Fizzy)

NICKNAMES: Meme, Fizzy, Jan (online), Janabel (at Kristin's house)

BIRTHDAY: August 18th

STAR SIGN:Leo

OCCUPATION: Member Services Representative (for USAA banking)

LIVING IN: Missouri

APPEARANCE

HAIR COLOR: depending on the season light brown/dark blonde to medium brown

HAIR LENGTH: Currently,mid-back

EYE COLOR:Hazel green/brown

BEST FEATURE: Random personality 

BRACES: Never had 'em

PIERCINGS: Each earlobes (one each - I have freakishly small ears), previously have had upper ear (same spot twice but...well) and navel (previously)

TATTOOS: One

RIGHT OR LEFT:Left

PICTURE: My weekend reality with The Minions of Mayhem.

FIRSTS

REAL HOLIDAY: If you mean vacation in the European sense, Alaska in 1992 right before my senior year of high school.  Spent some time in and around Anchorage and then flew out to a small island off of Kodiak to visit family

BEST FRIEND: I went to kindergarten and 1st grade in Springfield, before we moved, and Janie Raye lived on the corner and her grandparents across the street from me.

AWARD:Gaa, that's a hard one when you get as old as I am.  Possibly 5th grade Knowledge Bowl winner, including trophy!

SPORT: Softball.  I played 6th grade and was/and remain horrible at it but it's still fun.  Being a leftie I should have an advantage right?  If I actually had good depth perception and peripheral vision perhaps.  Or even the ability to recognize the strike zone as a batter.  The easiest way to get me out is to throw high, the higher the better because I'll go for that before a ball in the strike zone. Every. Single. Time.

CONCERT: Again, age is a drawback.  Perhaps um maybe Ray Stevens?

FAVORITES

TV SHOWS: Law and Order: SVU, Iron Chef and Chopped, House

COLOR:Slate Blue

SONGS:There are so many for different reasons.

RESTAURANT: TGIFridays, China Pearl (local and sadly closed), Chipotle 

SHOPS:Since Fashion Bug closed on me I now frequent Cato, Shoe Carnival, and Amazon

BOOKS:Gone With the Wind (seriously, I own the movie but refuse to watch it because I don't want to hate it...yes I've never seen the movie), Forever Amber, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Summer Sisters

SHOES:Flip Flops, I'd wear them year round but for like snow and cold.  In the winter I love my ankle boots.

BOOK GENRES: Mystery, Christian, Amish, Sci-Fi, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Picture Books, Award Winners, Cereal boxes, almost anything but directions to put something together or a technical manual

CURRENTLY

FEELING:headachy

SINGLE OR TAKEN: Singlish.

EATING: Leftover Kathy's Pasta chicken alfredo

THINKING ABOUT: If it would stop being so stormy then maybe my head wouldn't hurt?

WATCHING: Netflix screensaver 

WEARING: Mario PJ pants, a gray tank top and a cream holey comfy oversized sweater

Future

HAVE KIDS: Minions of Mayhem already, don't need no more!

WANT TO TRAVEL: Only missing 13 of the states and I'd love to go overseas as well.

Do you believe

In Yourself: Yes, however the level of belief depends on the topic.  

God: Yes! 

Miracles: Yes! 

Love at first sight: Lust yes, attraction yes, Love no.

Ghosts: Maybe.

 

Aliens: Perhaps.

Soul Mates: I believe that you can have more than one 'soul mate' and that soul mates are so much more than just love.  Many people in my life speak to my soul but it's not just about marriage.

Heaven: Absolutely!

Hell: Yes.

TAG TIME
Tag yourself and please link back your post!

For the Love of Books

In case you, perhaps maybe, live under a rock at the back of a cave on a deserted island, didn't know, I love books.  I love reading them, holding them, the way the smell.  I love collecting them, organizing them, and talking about them.  I love book stores and libraries.  I even love eBooks as they are easier to read in bed - no having to move to turn off the light.  I've always loved books.  It was instilled in my for basically my entire life.  For this...I blame my Mother.

From the time I can remember, books were part of my life.  Every birthday and holiday simply added to our book collections.  Every week a library visit to find even more new worlds and friends and stories.  I can't remember a time in my life that I was surrounded by books.  There have been times where reading has taken a backseat to other things but the books have always been there.  From my earliest memories, books have been there.  And from about the age of 4 I've been reading them myself.  Of course, had there been internet and blogs and book reviews when I was a kid, perhaps I wouldn't have procrastinated and despised book reports so much.  (Though my Mom occasionally refers to my reviews as book reports!)  And all of this...I blame my Mother.

How my sister and I grew up in the same house, so close in age, with the same influences and have such opposite relationships with books I will never understand.  Growing up with a Mom who read, read to us, and encouraged reading gave my entire life such dimension.  The places I've visited, the people I've met, all in pages of books.  As life tends to do, things get busy and time gets short and Mom's interests moved away from reading and into other hobbies.  Counted cross stitch (something we all share), genealogy (seriously driving halfway cross the country to visit a courthouse is really a thing), the computer and general life.  But then, she discovered the Kindle app.  OK, well truth is I downloaded it for her, hooked her up with my Kindle library, and the fire was rekindled.  Before long, she was totally over my library (she didn't get too far into mine before realizing what she was missing) and wanted her own.  Mom's first Amazon account was created.  Which was a short hop to convincing her to join Goodreads, to a peer pressure hop to actually rating books there.  She even posted a review!  One, and she did it grudgingly but proof that peer pressure works!  It wasn't long before I needed a book from the library as I had received the sequel to it but wanted to read the first one.  Mom had read the book before I picked it up from her.  All my review books are mailed to her house (you know so they don't get stolen while I'm at work) and I think she gets more excited about a package coming than I do now.  It always seems to come back to books.

Mom is the reason I love books.  I like to think that I'm the reason she's rekindled her love of books.  As I thought about Mother's Day coming up and what I wanted to say about my Mom it always came back to books.  Mom is the reason this blog exists, if you really thing about it.  Who knew all those years ago that there would be this thing called the internet and world wide web.  Who knew that we'd have computers that sat on our laps and we could take them with us.  Who knew that book reports could actually be a good thing!  I have attempted to try to take a picture of Ma over the last couple of weeks with her books (computer or real) but wasn't able to pull it off while still keeping my life.  So instead I'm pulling one of my favorites from the collection I was able to get, only because there was witnesses to prevent murder!

I love you Ma!  💕

Fasten Your Seatbelts

So, I've been procrastinating since last I graced these hallowed pages.  I was so behind on everything, so overwhelmed with trying to figure out where to start with all the behindness.  So I did nothing.  And guess what...got further behind.

New Year, New Plan!

So, in the procrastinating for really just over a year now I've had to let a lot of things slide.  With kiddos in and out of the house and job changes and life changes something had to give and this was the thing that was easiest to 'give'.  And I'm finding myself pouring a lot of myself into other passions for a while.  I have a moderately successful Sims blog right now.  If you don't know what Sims is I'm not sure we can be friends.  Or I can explain it to you at request and then you will understand and be part of the magic as well!

Once I had the computer back, which required for them to reset the hard drive completely therefore removing operating system which caused me a few extra days of panic once it was back in my loving arms.  I digress, I was so deep in books that I had read all year that I was having trouble settling in and starting reviews.  Too many books, too much time had passed and I just kept devouring books.  So, I had to make some hard decisions.  I've decided to set this year aside, it wasn't that great anyway, and start fresh.  New year, new blog, new plans, new candles, just lots of new.  Mixed in with the old favorites of course.

Having said that, I feel as though it's only fair to you to also offer a few disclaimers and a few things to bear in mind.  I'm going to be posting book reviews pretty prolifically I hope.  And when it comes to books I'm an anything goes kinda gal.  Mystery, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action, Amish, Christian, Young Adult, Supernatural.  Pretty much, if it has words and is not a technical manual or how to put something together I'll read it.  That being said there will be lots of different books reviewed here.  Not all will be your cuppa and that's OK.  However, please don't go after me when I choose to review something that you don't care for, wouldn't read or for some other reason find 'inappropriate'.  You may see conflicting genre's reviewed one after the other.  That's OK, I promise!  There will certainly be something for everyone.  Don't see a book you like, that's OK another will be coming.  Offended by books about witches and paranormal?  Don't read the review.  Don't like mysteries?  Don't read the review.  Don't like... you get the idea.

There will be other things too, don't worry.  This blog isn't going to ever be just any one 'thing'.  Just give me time to reconfigure life for a minute.  Give me time to figure out a schedule that will work for me and allow me to encompass most areas of my life.  I realize I can't do it all but I want to find a way to do the things I am really passionate about.  Journey with me.  When I space out and you see nothing for a while?  That's OK.  Something else is taking it's focus on this journey.  I'll always be back.

So, It's Been a Minute

It's been a while since I graced this page with anything resembling typed words.  However, I have TONS of really good excuses why.  I promised they are good.  And I swear there are tons.  And they all are excuses. 

As many of you know last fall my computer had a bit of a disaster.  It was purely an accident.  And purely a child doing something they knew better than to do.  And it was a disaster.  My laptop screen was cracked.  While in and of itself that is not the be all end all of a computer since it wasn't blacked out or totally broken.  However, when said laptop is a touch screen it changes everything.  When a touch screen is cracked it triggers the sensors for touch.  Making the computer think you are doings things on the screen that is hard to try and override with the mouse or the keypad.  Which kinda, sorta, maybe inhibits use.

However, all was not lost as it was still under after market warranty.  Somewhere, somewhere very special I had all the paperwork for the warranty.  Somewhere.  And with lots of digging and calling Ma (as I typically send that stuff with her) and some digging on both our parts the warranty information was located.  Woo Hoo I'm getting my computer fixed!  Get the process started, they warrenty place sends me a box to ship it back in.  And computer is gone.  Not just the computer but Ma's old computer, several of the kids' tablets, cash.  Which leads to a police report, my own officer, my own detective. The works.  Felony gets thrown around a bit.  The hardest part, we know who did it but absolutely cannot prove it. 

A 'friend' offers to help try and locate the stuff.  Said 'friend' manages to find out who had purchased my laptop from someone else but wished to not get involved due to it being stolen.  Said person is willing to let it go for the price said person paid for it.  Part of the money up front to confirm the serial number.  The rest to get the computer.  'Friend' goes to confirm with person with cash.  Oddly enough when it comes time to get the computer it's not in town.  Secretly I'm trying to figure out who cash confirmed serial number with said person if it wasn't even in town?  Couple of calls to my officer and we go ahead with it.  Computer never makes it here.  With some strong arming and a few other tactics manage to get computer from 'friend'.  But only mine, which now has damage to the casing where it was attempted to be taken apart and no longer loads due to a magnet being taken to it as a simple password is apparently really great security that can't be bypassed. 

Meanwhile I could use my old computer but wait, I need parts from Ma's old computer (they were the same make/model/bought the exact same day/you get the picture/etc in order to make it functional for daily use again.  So while waiting out some investigative stuffs I'm still without computer.  And now it's basically summer.  3 seasons down without consistent online access.  I've borrowed Ma's a few times for a few days but it's never enough time to do it all.  I guess all of these excuses to say that MY computer is now on it's way to the warranty repair facility and hopefully I'll have a computer again in 7-10 days-ish.  And then maybe, just maybe, I'll slowly get caught up.  I have a ton of books to review.  Tons of blogs to write.  Tons of well just tons.  But there is an end is sight.  I'll probably never see the remaining stolen items.  I'll probably never see justice regarding the stolen items.

So, some excuses shared, a few promises made, a few minutes taken.  It will be  few more minutes before I'm back in business.  But it's minutes now. Months possibly of minutes but it's closer than it was yesterday.  I have missed being in this space.  I have missed sharing stuffs.  I have missed ya'll.  But minutes, we can make it just a few more minutes.  Right?

Moments of Clarity

I write a lot about being blonde.  Sometimes I worry about perpetuating the stereotype.  A large part of me identifies with the stereotypical blonde that everyone tells the jokes about.  Not because of my hair color, which has darkened with age, but because they fit who I am.  At heart I am a stereotypical blonde.  I’m slightly dingy and always good for a laugh, usually with a snort or two thrown in for good measure.  I’m slightly ditzy and not always able to articulate my thoughts when actually speaking.  I’m slightly klutzy, as in yes I have tripped over color changes in the carpet.  And fallen up the stairs, as well as the traditional down.  I don’t just have deep thought provoking thoughts, they come about in a slightly off centered way.  I can get more meaning from life out of song lyrics, children's books, and conversations with friends than by being philosophical.  That’s not to say I don’t have deep thought provoking thoughts.  I just arrive at the true meaning of things from a different direction than others.  I’m more a detour through the countryside kind of thinker.  If you have read any of my blogs you surely know that by now.

I guess I could write about being a single middle aged woman.  I’m almost crossing out of the thirty-somethings in the next year.  Wait, I’ve done that also.  I could write about existing in a plane of chaos that seems to intrigue the universe into handing out more chaos just to sit back and watch the juggling act.  Wait, I’ve done that also.  I have written about the everyday things in life and added my own personal spin to them.  I’m known for arriving at deep thought provoking thoughts through laundry, toilet paper, children and animals.  And then spinning them into something that rings more true to me than philosophy.  I’ve written about lots of things.  I’ve pondered about lots of things.  I’ve shared about lots of things.  But I always come back to blonde.

Of all the categories I fit in Blonde is the one I identify with the most.  I feel as though I fit that stereotype more than any other I also fit in.  Sometimes I wonder if I can make more impact on the way others view the world by filtering this direction.  Sometimes I wonder if my thoughts caring more meaning when filtered this way.  Holy cow the blonde say what?!?  And because it comes from the ‘blonde’ perspective it carries more weight and makes people really think about it more.  As a global society, I’ve noticed that we think for ourselves less and rely on those whom we believe to be somehow ‘better’ than us to to think for us. Or we go the polar opposite and disagree with what anyone more educated than us, having more perceived power than us, have to say because it wasn’t our idea first.   I don’t ever want to be one of those people.  I want to be someone that never stops trying to figure out the world.  I want to be someone that never stops trying to figure out other people.  I want to be someone that never lets others take my thoughts, my ideas, and my power away from me.  And if I have to approach it from the ‘blonde perspective’ to really hear myself and have others hear me then that’s what I’ll do.   

Why, Hello Summer

I've been encouraged/challenged by my good friend over at A Simply Enchanted Life to write a week in review post.  However a title about week in review just doesn't 'fit' for how I tend to write stuff.  I meant to sit down and write this last night but I was exhausted.  Summer has arrived here in Bolivar and I hope it sticks around while keeping the temperatures manageable.  Probably too much wishful thinking in that last sentence!

As most of you know I live in an apartment though not really a 'complex'.  There are a total of 8 apartments in two buildings.  The one I am in is actually the downstairs of the old house that was converted then added on to.  In the summer I am blessed with concrete walls which keeps my place cooler without having to run the air conditioning constantly.  In the winter I am cursed to have concrete walls as it takes so much to ever not be a block of ice.  I am blessed with amazing neighbors (except for the apartments next door as no one lives there currently but I have high hopes that whomever moves in will fit with the rest of our group.)  Yesterday the back neighbors and I met outside with all the neighborhood kids to play sidewalk chalk, ride bikes and scooters, and of course water balloons.  Summer can't arrive without some sort of water fight.

 The rules were simple...I thought.  Kids can only throw at kids.  Adults could only throw at kids.  In theory the adults were saved from getting wet.  Somehow it really didn't work that way.  The girl child and I made cupcakes and it was her first time using the mixer by herself - and she did amazing!  And then I made two of my special pizza's for everyone.  (Chicken Spinach (fresh only) Alfredo Pizza.  I realized once it was too late that I had some bacon in the freezer I could have added.  It was yummy anyway :D  I forgot to grab a picture at the time but I did get a picture of the aftermath. . .

All in all, a little bit of sunburn and total exhuastion later it was an amazing start to summer!  The week leading up to this was busy with late nights at The Day Job and some situations that will take time to figure out.  The normal running back and forth to Stockton and paperwork. . . the reason for my existence. And today I must add a shout out to my parents as they celebrate their 40th Wedding Anniversary.  Love ya Ma and Pa!

Stormy Weather

One of my most popular blogs is Driving Into the Storm where I talk about driving into a tornado warned county and watching the storm brew and build.  And of course parallel it to life.  We are currently waiting for the first real round of spring storms to hit my hometown right now.  This system has been predicted to be worse than the 2009 outbreak of tornadoes.  They've already started hitting in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Joplin.  The current line is two counties away where the 'dry line' (a term meteorologist like to throw around) is.  I'm fairly confident they won't make it here but as always there are no guarantees.  We didn't get all that warm today and right now it's pretty chilly here.  Always a bonus as these storms need that warm air to come to full intensity.  All my neighbors know to come to my place.  I'm ground level with concrete walls and a massive bathroom.  And I like them, call me crazy.

We've been hearing about these storms for days on end.  People have posted the outlooks on Facebook and the weather guys have reminded us at every news cast.  And just like everyone else, I've tried to ensure I'm prepared for every contingency.  Bathroom clean...check.  I mean there could possibly be people in there and I don't need them judging my bathroom floor.  Wine and milk...check.  OK, perhaps frivolous but still I have it.  I have food, the neighbors have several grills.  IF disaster strikes we could potentially eat.  I even changed my typically parking spot based on coverage and potential blocking of debris type issues.  I think I'm prepared.  I hope?

You can prepare for every congencincy that you can think of.  But there are millions more you can't think of.  It's that other million that concerns me.  I've been extremely lucky with near misses when it comes to severe weather.  I've seen it up close and personal but I've never been actually impacted.  So I don't really know what to expect if it happens or how I will react either.  Back in 2002 when Stockton was hit hard I was at work in the next town over.  And I watched as all our local boys set out with chainsaws and pickups to clear the roads so emergency crews could get in.  I watched in 2011 as Joplin was wiped by a EF5 tornado, the biggest the come by the way.  And I watched last year as Moore, Oklahoma was wiped by an equally strong tornado.  I've watched.  I've observed.  I've never experienced.

My Dad does not have a fear nor a respect for tornadoes.  I guess that goes with growing up in Southeast Oklahoma with a dad who was was terrified of them.  To hear Daddy tell it the sky got dark Pa would shuttle them to the cellar. (I always wondered as a kid if they slept there every night since it was dark...weird I know.)  And they never had a tornado.  So Daddy likes to watch the storms.  He likes to watch them come in and move across.  And if he happens to be out and about when the storm moves in and in the right position he follows behind it just watching.  Growing up with his mindset as an example and living in a pretty storm tornado prone area of the country I have mixed feelings about storms.  I respect them.  I have a huge respect for them.  I have first hand seen the damage they can do.  I have watched them take over the sky and seen the damage they leave on the ground below.  I am also in awe of them.  I have watched them take over the sky and seen the damage they leave on the ground below.  Given the opportunity I would watch each and every storm that moves through.  I don't know how many pictures I've taken through the years of the changing sky.  And how many blank pictures I have trying desperately to catch the distant lightning on film.  But, I also fear them.  I fear personally being in the center of that storm and dealing with the aftermath personally.

This round of storms fills me with awe, curiosity, and fear.  But, just like everything in life, I've done what I can to prepare.  I've tried to think of each contingency that could pop up and prepare for it.  Plans look great on paper (or in my head) but plans cannot be reality.  There's that million other things I didn't think of.  And of course I can't tell you a story without paralleling life somehow.  It's what I do.  So...here goes.  You can plan for life but that's not actually living life.  Life does not follow a plan.  Plans are great and provide amazing opportunities for growth, enlightenment and sheer enjoyment.  However, just likes storms there is still the need to live with spontaneity.  If things don't go as planned not all is lost.  It's a new opportunity to learn something or be amazed or grow.  It's an opportunity to start over.  That whole calm after the storm kind of thing.  Be prepared but also be open.  I respect storms and I'm awed by them.  I'm as prepared as I can be.  But I can't plan for everything, with the storms and with life. 

Ready

Spring just sorta happened over the weekend.  I left the office to greenish brown grass, the jonquils green but no buds yet, the lilac bush just a bunch of sticks.  I spent the weekend organizing, trying to figure out this new computer (and still have not one positive thing to say about Windows 8), cleaning, enjoying the warm sunshine, and plotting.  Yesterday I returned to grass covered with purple clovers, buds (not yet open) on the jonquils, and leaf buds on the lilac.  And a return to the Missouri hallmark of spring, thunderstorms and rain. 

Today, April woke with the promise of pranks and practical jokes.  Thank goodness I was not 'gotten' ... yet.  The day isn't completely over.  The anticipation of spring blew in with the wind and grew with the rain.  Knowing that flowers will soon be blooming all around us.  Knowing that Easter is weeks away.  That crops and shorts and tank tops and of course flip flop season is here.

This winter was horrendous.  Personally I hibernated in the bedroom with my blankets and space heater.  Having the windows open periodically the last few weeks has been a godsend.  Let the stale out and the fresh in.  I'm ready for spring.  I'm ready to wear flip flops every day.  I'm ready for more wardrobe options.  I'm even ready for the first sunburn of the season.  I'm ready for more energy.  I'm ready to emerge from the bedroom, not just to the rest of the house but to the outside.  An outside that is welcoming.  I'm ready to put my plots and plans into action.  I'm ready!

What are you ready for?

Blonde Moments

Unless you live in a news-less cave, or possibly internationally, you have heard about the 'wrong airport' saga.  Sunday night a pilot on a 737 was flying from Chicago to Branson.  Cleared for landing the pilot landed at the Downtown Airport near College of the Ozarks instead of at the Branson Airport where Southwest currently has a flight schedule.  The smaller airport has a runway half the size of the bigger hub.  And had the pilot not pretty much slammed on the brakes, they were within 500 feet of going over the drop of at the end of the runway and onto the highway.  How does this happen?  That is the first question most people have.  Why did this happen is another question I've seen floating around.  Last night there were a lot more questions than answers.  The biggest in my mind was how the heck are they going to get that behemoth out of there!?!  I get that cargo plans land and take off from aircraft carriers all the time.  I've been on some pretty interesting runways myself.  When we went to Alaska way back in the day we flew Ouzinkie, a tiny town on a tiny island where we have family.  The runway was grass.  And if you missed at all you landed in the bay.  But we were on a 6 seat charter, with a jump seat thrown in as we were a group of 6 and still needed a pilot.  It was pretty awesome.  But we weren't in a jumbo 737 on that runway.   It was first announced that the plane would take off about 11 am, then 1 pm.  Finally just after 3 pm the jet took to the air without incident.  There were a lot of logistics to figure out, none of which I can pretend to begin to understand.  I know that the jet technically needed more runway than was available.  I've watched the news, watched the takeoff videos, and even done some reading.  A local news station was streaming live video, for hours starting when it was supposed to take off.  There were a lot of numbered yellow trucks (Hi number 6 and 7 I've seen you drive around aimlessly a lot today :D) and SUV's on the scene.  I watched a lot of small groups talking and watching and pointing.  Getting back in their vehicle, drive off somewhere and then come back and conference some more.  Fuel load, wind speed and direction, everything had to be considered for this take off to successfully end this entire fiasco.  And in all my reading about this event I've read some negative comments.  To be expected I know, but still.  One stuck in my heart a little and rubbed me a bit the wrong way.  They had made the comment, something along the lines of, is this plane plated in gold and craps diamonds.  The poster believed that this was not newsworthy and that everyone that was following it avidly (like me) was a sheeple.  And as those comments rubbed the wrong way and I watched the take off of the plane (and I am loathe to admit this that someone might think I'm cheesy) I got a little emotional.  Like near tears emotional.  But in a good way.

This pilot had a blonde moment that right now trumps all blonde moments.  He was six miles, yes 6 or maybe 7, away from an uneventful night.  He was six miles from delivering his 124 passengers to their intended destination.  He had talked to the tower.  He was cleared for landing...six miles away.  But in that one moment he blundered and did the unscheduled and unplanned thing.  He landed at the wrong airport.  He landed at an airport that was not equipped to land such a plane.  The outcome could have been vastly different than it was.  One more wrong moment and the entire plane would have not been on the runway but over the cliff at the end.  (I've read that even in a small airplane that airport can be tricky.  If you aren't familiar with Branson, it's hills and valleys.  There's a reason it's called the Ozark Mountains.  It might not be a Rocky Mountain but it's still interesting terrain.)  There was 500 feet between a blonde moment and a tragedy.  How many times in our lives had we had blonde moments.  Ok, I doubt any of us (unless said pilot is reading this by some miracle) have had a blonde moment to this magnitude.  But, we all do it.  A split second decision, or lack of decision, puts us in a situation that was unplanned and unscheduled.  We all make mistakes, big and little.  We all goof up.  Every. Last. One. Of. Us.  To me, that's the ultimate lesson in what this story is all about.  Mistakes and redemption.

I admit, I mess up something on a daily basis.  I say the wrong thing at the wrong time.  I do the wrong thing.  I meant to say/do one thing and do another.  Or I say/do something without thinking.  I get so focused on driving that I drive by my intended destination.  Recently I passed it twice.  Because my brain was on auto focus and where I was going was not part of my normal route.  I'm easily distracted sometimes and forget to do something until it's too late to do it.  I mess up.  I have blonde moments. At least I've never landed a plane at the wrong airport?  Any mistake, any lapse in judgement can have tragic consequences.  Driving home this afternoon I watched someone almost miss a stop sign.  Had they not caught themselves and stopped part way into the street I was traveling it's entirely possible I would have t-boned them in the drivers side.  But they stopped, I saw them, and tragedy was avoided.  This pilot Sunday night did something similar on a much grander scale.  But it did all turn out alright.  A little frustrating for the passengers, those meeting them, and the people expecting to board the plane for the last leg of the journey on to Dallas, Texas.  Alive.  Every last one of them are still alive to talk about their experiences.  They are alive to vilify the pilot or praise him for slamming on the brakes.

I'm having a hard time communicating what is in my brain into words.  I don't always actually think in words.  I think in thoughts.  We all screw up.  We all have blonde moments.  But not all screw ups end in disaster.  But every screw up is a chance to redeem ourselves.  A chance to learn about ourselves and possibly even change the course of our lives.  How we handle our screw ups, our blonde moments, is just as important if not more than the actual outcome of those moments.  I had joked today that the pilot who had the blonde moments of all blonde moments should be the one to take on the task of getting that plane back in the air.  In my opinion, he should have been the one to see the situation to the very end.  That way, if things went wrong, he was there to see his moment through.  And if things went well, which they did, he got a bit of redemption for himself.  Seeing the plane successfully take off today was emotional.  And to the person who didn't understand the news value of this story, I feel sorry for you.  It's not about the big stories all the time. The news is about things that affect our lives.  And our lives are not all about war, and politics, and murder.  Our lives are not all about tragedy.  It's about humanity.  It's about being a living, breathing, occasionally screwing up human being.  This story is, in my opinion, about being human.  And all the mistakes, and successes, and happy endings, and missed tragedies, and learning experiences that being human entails.  The 'wrong airport' story is a national story of one human being that had a blonde moment of epic proportions.  And about 129 people on an airplane that walked away from it. And a world of people that can learn something about themselves in the process. 

Happy New Year

I thought long and hard about the 2014 blog I wanted to write.  I've written many times through the years how I feel about the tradition of New Year's Resolutions.  Not a fan, in case you missed any of those.  It's not that I'm against making choices and proactively working toward improving yourself and your life.  I think when you stop working toward moving forward you stop...period.  However, I don't see the point in waiting for a magical turn of the calendar to start working at making those changes.  Birthday resolutions, Valentine's resolutions, Easter resolutions, Halloween resolutions could all carry just as much importance.  The most important thing is to set your goals for something and then make a plan to achieve them.  I feel like the majority of people don't fulfill their resolutions.  I believe the main reason they don't fulfill them is because they are vowed because of the calendar and not because of actual forethought and planning.  (That is the condensed version :S)

But as I thought all this through this year and the fact that I do love New Year's Day.  I really do!  The calendar kept coming back to me.  For years I have kept a planner.  An actual paper planner.  And I write everything down.  Mostly work stuff but the other important things too.  Today we get to open a new book.  A new planner.  Twelve months worth of events and memories to record.  And what we record on those calendars are our stories.  Our memories.  Things that help to shape the person we will become through the year.  The person we will be a year fom now as we begin another journey through the days.  I love calendars.  I love planners.  And today is a blank slate.  Well, ok I've already starting filling mine in with meetings and birthdays and appointments.  But it's a blank page.  Another set of stories to be written in the journey.  For her entire adult life my Grandma kept a diary.  She wrote every day even it was just the weather or who visited or what they did with the animals.  I tried the whole diary thing and kinda epic fail.  I couldn't find a way to be consistent.  I'd do ok for a while and then slack off for months.  And who wants to take the time to 'back track' life just in case someone reads it down the road.  A planner though, a calendar, easy to fill in the important things.

Today, really appreciate that blank slate.  Twelve months of empty days waiting to be filled with life, with living.  There are events to record, memories to be made, and stories to be written over that time.  Today is the day to reflect on who you became in 2013 and anticipate the potential of 2014.  Make it the best collection yet!

Merry Christmas

Christmas.  In the stores, magazines, and commercials you see perfectly decorated designer trees surrounded by beautifully wrapped presents with ribbons Martha Stewart can show you how to make, amazing looking food, and well behaved children.  Do Not believe the magazines.  Christmas is not a commercial.  It is not airbrushed food.  And it definitely is not perfectly behaved children.  Christmas is about having a heart of awe and wonderment.  Whether Santa visits your home or you have an elf sitting on your shelf Christmas is about so much more.  Try really hard to remember your amazement as a child looking at the tree for the first time after the lights and decorations were added.  The thrill of anticipation.  For some of us it’s more difficult to remember back that far but really try.  You beat on your sister a little less.  You complained a little less.  You didn’t care if the gravy was lumpy or the turkey was dry.  Because Christmas was about more than that.  Christmas is still about more than that.   This time of year is magical.  Here in Missouri it’s cold and you always hope there will be snow.  There usually isn’t, though this year there is still ice clinging to the trees and grass.  And in the sunlight it’s magical.   Christmas isn’t about filling the malls and spending your entire paycheck.  Though the gifts are an awesome bonus!  Christmas is about love, peace, and harmony.  With each other but also with ourselves.  Love yourself.  Love your family and friends.  If the gravy is lumpy don’t sweat it, just pick around them.  Whether you took gift wrapping classes from Martha Stewart or like me it looks like a monkey wrapped the gifts, so what.  The paper gets ripped off and tossed anyway.  Wrapping is just window dressing for the real gift that is inside.  Celebrate Christmas from the heart.  Even with the difficult people, you know who I mean, try to see them with your heart.  Be content.  Try to find time to actually enjoy Christmas and soak in the magic.  Watch the lights twinkle on the tree. Sing a Christmas song just for yourself.  Sit in the floor and play a board game with someone.  Smile.  Celebrate Christmas with your heart.  From My home to yours Merry Christmas!

Grateful Traditions

Thanksgiving Day.  Today is the day that we, as American's, have set aside to take time to be with family, eat Turkey, and be thankful for all that we have.  It is a day to travel.  A day to eat.  A day to plan your major shopping plan of attack for the sales.  It is the least commercial (or has been traditionally at least) of American major holidays.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite of holiday as well.  

Thanksgiving doesn't care what your budget is or how many presents you can bring to the party.  Though the ability to make something off the charts awesome in the kitchen is respected.  Thanksgiving doesn't care whether you are gathered with two people or twenty.  Thanksgiving doesn't care if you are eating a turkey sandwich by yourself watching movies.  Thanksgiving cares about what is in your heart.  Hope beats bitterness.  Love beats apathy.  Peace beats revenge.  Rich, poor, hopeful, apathetic, alone, or with many; Thanksgiving doesn't care.

Right now, to be perfectly honest, I'm suffering for something akin to ADHD on crack.  That really makes it hard to develop and type coherent thoughts.  My coffee limit is about 2 cups a day, preferably in the morning.  However, I had about 3 cups in 20ish minutes after lunch.  I have so many things I would like to convey to you but they are sorta jumbled in the attention deficit that is happening in my brain right now.   

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday.  Just the premise of a holiday that is, at the foundation, about gratitude and giving.  It's quite cliche to say this, however despite how bad we feel about our lives are they could always be worse.  Regardless of what we feel we don't have but want/need we could have even less than we do.  I told you it was cliche and possibly even trite.  There are times in all of our lives that we think it can't get any worse.  There are times in all of our lives where we feel like everything is falling into place.  Most of the time we live somewhere in the middle.  The key to contentment, in my opinion, is to be grateful right where you are.  We don't need a holiday to be grateful for what we have.  It helps.  Many have started participating in the 30 days of thankful on social media.  Gratefulness for 30 days is a step up from 1 day.  But that leaves 11 months for us to remember to stop periodically and just be.  Be in our moment, grateful for what we have, thankful we have the opportunities we have.  Even if they aren't what we want, where we want, they are still better than the other options out there.  

Eight years ago Ma and I made our first Thanksgiving Day trip to Backroads Pizza and Grill in Hawk Point Missouri (outside Troy...near St. Louis).  Just the two of us.  A cousin owns the restaurant and that side of the family all chose to meet there for the day.  That was the year that Grandma had passed away and it was Ma's first holiday as an orphan.  I don't think it matters your age, the first holiday's without a parent is a big deal.  I personally actually like this particular branch of the family.  I enjoy spending time with them listening to the chatter and just absorbing the ambiance.  Eight years ago Ma and I started a new holiday tradition.  Traditions become traditions because they just feel right.  I had no grandparents to spend the day with anymore.  And going to visit this branch of the family, specifically Great Aunt Gladys who feels more like another grandma than anything else.  Hawk Point and Thanksgiving go together like pumpkin pie and hotel rooms :D  (Remind me to tell you about hotel pie one day.)  Thanksgiving and Hawk Point is a tradition I hope continues for many more years.  It just feels right.

Today I am grateful for coffee.  Even if it helped to create a disjointed soup of a blog that I'm not even sure I can follow along.  I am grateful for my car which gets me where I need and want to go, most of the time.  I am grateful for my day job that I love.  I may not always be the best or even close to right but I enjoy my job and the people I get to spend time with every day.  I am grateful for the Fizzy Pop Collection.  The FPC gives me opportunities to engage in different social arenas and outlets that I might not otherwise engage in.  It allows me to be as creative as I want to be when I want to be creative.  I am ever so grateful for my family, ok most of it :D  My family, past, present, and future play a role in who I am in this moment and at any moment in my life.  I'm Granny, Grandma, Ma, and many others all wrapped into one.  All of that makes me who I am for better or worse.  I am grateful for my friends.  My chosen family.  Every person I have allowed in my life through the years has helped to shape who I am. I am thankful for those friends I can connect with randomly or consistently and always know where I am like it was moments since we last connected.  I am grateful that I can write about my gratefulness and share my gratefulness.  

And you know what, I'm grateful for coffee :D  If you actually made it this far and aren't really sure what the message was have some coffee and try again.  I swear it makes sense when you are on caffeine overload!  I am grateful for each person who has the opportunity to do anything they desire on the internet and they chose to read this. Whether you see this today or three months from now share with my your grateful.  What are YOU thankful for?

~~Jan~~

Driving into the Storm

A week ago the Oklahoma City area was getting hit, again, but severe weather and tornadoes.  Most anything that hits Oklahoma goes through here as well.  And as I left Bolivar to head to work in Stockton, Cedar County became warned.  Around here ‘warned’ only means one thing, tornado warning.  Severe Storm warnings don’t hold near the weight as the big T does.  I didn’t really have any choices; I had to go to Stockton.  And it’s not like that storm wouldn’t be in Bolivar soon enough anyway.  As I was driving I watched the sky, not for fear of a tornado dropping on my head out of now where ala ‘Twister’, but because it was so interesting.  On either side of storm the sky was dark and murky like you expect a storm to look like.  However, in the middle the sky was a robin’s egg blue.  Oddly enough, that is where the storm was, right over Stockton.  I hit the wind before I hit the wall.  Once I reached the storm edge it was as if I was driving into a wall of wind and rain, cutting my speed literally in half.  Did I have a choice about going that night?  I guess that depends on who you ask.  Working that night was my responsibility.  I know that the individual I was replacing at work believed it was my responsibility too, and was grateful to get to go home.  But, of course, that got me thinking.

How often do we drive ourselves into the storm when we don’t have to?  And I don’t mean a weather storm.  How often do we put ourselves into situations that blow up around us or spin out of control?  How often do we choose to be in those situations as opposed to not having a choice?  I don’t mean the drama queens of the world who are the ones that seem to always be the center of the storm.  Not every choice puts us into the storm, and not every storm is by choice.  They vary for simple rain storms to severe weather to the big T.  As I look back over the multitude of storms I’ve driven into throughout my life I see storms that I knew were brewing and I chose to go into them anyway.  Convincing myself it was just some rain, nothing major.  While in reality, they were major enough to change life gears for a while.  I remember storms that seemed to come out of now where, unexpected, unforecast.  They too changed the course of my life.  Some storms clear the skies and create a positive after impact, but most don’t.  I know for a fact I would not be sitting here right now, in the life I have today had it not been for the storms I drove into.  And while so many times I wish I could change things I have or have not done I don’t know that I would.  And sometimes I wonder if it would have made a difference at all. 

We end up where we are in life for a reason.  Our lives are based on our choices, the choices of others, and to some degree the storms we weather.  I firmly believe that while not everything is set, some things are meant to happen.  And if we avoid it once it will eventually catch up to us.  Once I drove into the storm last week the sky changed, my perception of my environment changed, and of course my mind was working overtime.  Everything was dark, murky gray.  There were no dark storm clouds or robin’s egg blue sky.  There was gray, rain slashed gray.  And slowly but surely I made it to my destination once the warning was over and the rain had slacked off.  I drove into the storm but the heart of the storm missed me.  We don’t always get so lucky.  And sometimes, when the timing falls perfectly, we miss the storm all together.