Mother Daughter Bonding, by Gunfire

Today my 15 1/2 year old daughter and I went to Clelands Indoor Pistol Range to target shoot. I told her I was going with a friend and she asked if she could come along. I was her age when I first learned how to shoot a gun so I had no problem. She had never shot a gun, held a gun or even seen one shot so it was quite the experience but a good one. I do not own a gun so we rented a Ruger .22 semi-automatic and I borrowed my father's Smith & Wesson 9mm. I believe she is now hooked and I think we will be going back once a month for Ladies Night! It had been 28 years since I had shot a gun but as you can see from my target I still have it!!

I am sure he was wondering what the heck

I consider myself fairly intelligent but I have moments when the synapse are not all firing! Yesterday, I had one of these moments. I had a 5 hour drive home and bought a blue tooth headset so that I could talk hands free while driving. I tried to call my daughter but I was not having much luck getting in touch with her, so I called her father, my ex-husband. John and I have a decent relationship but there are some issues. I would say they are more annoyances than anything. Anyway, I called John up and left the following message:
ME: Hi John, This is Janis. I am trying to find Claire, I want to know if she fed Grissom. Can you have her call me?
Call was over and I THOUGHT I hung up my headset, well I didn't. It was at this point a Semi-truck driver appeared as he was going to come into my lane and I have a tendency to voice my opinion, even though the driver can not hear me. So ... this is the rest of the message John heard:
ME: WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING! KEEP YOUR BUTT OVER THERE!! I AM NOT PLAYING THAT GAME!! I then heard the headset click.
Oh well, it will keep John on his feet!

Bathroom Extortion

I should have peed on her floor! I was driving home tonight from Buffalo and I made the mistake of having way too much coffee and pop (soda for all of you non-Ohio people)before I got on the road. I was on I-90 and my bladder and my gas tank dictated that I should stop at Chautauqua, NY. When I had visited Chautauqua in the past it had this very cool vibe, there are great old houses and it is the home of the Chautauqua Institute which holds open forums on public issues, international relations, literature and science. Chautauqua Institute was founded on the belief that everyone “has a right to be all that he can be -- to know all that he can know.” Well, back to my story. So I exit the toll road and headed towards the lake and I stopped at this little carry out/ gas station. The first thing I noticed, was that the gas was over $2.17 a gallon which was ridicules because every other gas station was around $1.76 a gallon. The second thing I noticed was a sign on the door that said "no public restroom"! I went in anyway because I wanted to ask where was the closest public bathroom. The only people in this place were the owner, a tattered old man buying bread and myself. When the old man left, I asked the owner where is the closet public bathroom and she said "I would guess closer towards town". She must had seen the look of exasperation in my face because she next said "I do have a bathroom for MY customers and if you buy something you can use it." Then she broke into this litany on how the beach was across the street and if she let everyone use the bathroom she would have people in all day long and she would not be able to pay for the toilet paper. I wanted to shake her and say "For God's sake lady it is February, there is not a soul within 100 yards of this place and I am in business attire not my frigging bikini ... but I didn't. I just grabbed the closet thing to me a can of pop and put it on the counter, threw down my money and said where is the bathroom PLEASE. When I came out my pop was on the counter with my change and the owner was no where to be seen! So much for the cool vibe in Chautauqua!

Message, lost in Translation

I was showing my daughter who is 15 1/2 years old the "World" Video by Five for Fighting which is on my blog. I was telling her how the lyrics and the video really moved me and I was pointing out people in the video, like Robert Kennedy and Gandhi. When I was done, she said let me show you one of my favorites songs. Well here it is, I am kinda at a lost for words. How did we go from Five for Fighting to Tenacious D?
Watch the "World" video first to get a good understanding of my ...huh moment.

What type of world do you want?

The song "World" by Five for Fighting touches my heart.
You probably have heard it on TV, it is used on a Sears Commercial


Here are the Lyrics:

Got a package full of wishes
A time machine, a magic wand
A globe made out of gold
No instructions or commandments,
Laws of gravity or indecisions to uphold
Printed on the box I see: ACME's Build a World to Be.
Take a chance, grab a piece
Help me to believe it

What kind of world do you want
Think anything
Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now

Should there be people or peoples
Money, funny pedestals
For fools who never pay
Raise your army, choose your steeple
Don’t be shy, the satellites can look the other way
Lose the earthquakes, keep the faults
Fill the oceans without the salt
Let every man own his own hand.
Can you dig it baby?

What kind of world do you want
Think anything
Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now

Sunlight’s on the bridge
Sunlight’s on the way
Tomorrow’s calling
There’s more to this than love

What kind of world do you want
Think anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece
History starts now
Starts now
Be careful what you wish for

Start now
Now...”
Here is my question: What type of world do you want?
What are you willing to do to get it?

My new principle

Principle #1
"You must not want* for others what they do not want for themselves." -Dan Rogers
*want=behavior, value or emotion.
Just chew on that for awhile and think of how liberating and emotionally releasing principle #1 could be if you lived with that as your guiding principle.

Check out my Facebook profile

Reminder: Be my friend on Facebook.

I invited you to join Facebook a while back
and wanted to remind you that once you join,
we'll be able to connect online,
share photos, organize groups and events, and more.

Thanks,
Janis

To sign up for Facebook, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1277923881&k=X3F5X5W3WXYM51LIUF3TT3&r