And what I say to that is, Amen

A little giving of thanks is lovely this time of year, but it's also wonderful if it's incorporated all throughout the year too. Think about it folks, we have many things to be thankful for. Even the miniscule, doesn't-seem-to-count-as-much stuff, matters.
Like many others, I have a large bird defrosting in my refrgerator right now, in preparation for the annual feast on Thursday. There are those that don't have that, some don't even have a refrigerator because they don't have a home of their own.

When I woke up this morning, I had coffee while I got ready for work, thinking about the fact that there are so many people looking for jobs right now. The woe-is-me Monday haters that post in social media about their lack of enjoyment for their current positions at work make me shake my head at times. It's okay to have a bad day every once in a while, I mean, I don't want to, but it's allowed, because life is not always perfection. But I will never complain that Monday arrived and I have to go to work. I'm grateful that I woke up today, and that I have a job to go to, I certainly don't wish for the alternative.

I really DO think the holidays are the "most wonderful time of the year", but I know that many don't agree with me. I always wonder, what has happened in their lives that made them lose the magic of it all?
I chuckle at this quote, because I love Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts gang;

"We've got ANOTHER holiday to worry about. It seems Thanksgiving Day is upon us" -Charlie Brown.

Of course I will be watching The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special this Wednesday night, I never miss it, and I HAVE the DVD. Aside from the humor in his statement, I think many people feel this way about the holidays. Another something to worry about. It makes me sad, but I know that everyone has their own story so I don't try to force my feelings about the subject on them.

The same way that I don't force any of my other beliefs on anyone (religious or otherwise). All I ask that I am treated the same way that others that don't share my beliefs, expect to be treated.

Linus tells the Thanksgiving story quite well I say:

"In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: 'We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice."

And what I say to that is,
Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving to you my friends,
Tiffany

PS I'm brining the turkey this year, should be quite delicious. But Thanksgiving Breakfast at Tiffany's shall be homemade cinnamon rolls, coffee and juice. I suppose I could add my moms mimosa recipe in there.....oh twist my arm why don't you.


 

A Day In the Work Life

During the workday a very dear friend (who happens to also be a coworker) and I have great conversation as we go about our days of ridding the world of all injustices, one internal customer at a time. We talk about everything under the sun. Humor is always involved, and we usually learn a few things along the way too.
Sharing an excerpt of todays conversation, you might like dill pickles and want to try these!

B: Say, have you tried these: 

T: uh, no and want!


B:: Quite tasty, at least the dill spears, haven't tried the other. And the bonus is that the jars are actually really pretty. I kept mine out on the counter for a bit before I actually got into them and had to refrigerate.

T: I rather like the packaging myself, it's very quaint

B: Those are carrots and red bell peppers at the bottom. Possibly the picked peppers that Peter Piper picked. (Yes, had to go there.)

B: dang it, pickLed

B: Can't even type out a dang nursery rhyme correctly.

T: ha!
T: did he really pick a peck of pickled peppers? how much is in a peck?

B: I could have told you that at one point in my life. Things have decayed since.

T: A peck equals 8 dry quarts. A bushel is 8 dry gallons (4pecks).

T: thank you google

T: he did some serious pickin of pecks there

B: So did I, back in the day. Although I was doing something else entirely.

T: mmm hmmm

T: you know, curds and whey is really just cottage cheese

T: but I guess little miss muffet sat on her tuffet eating her cottage cheese sort of takes away from it all

B:: lol

T: but they could have said along came a spider who sat down beside her to give her a little squeeze, I'm just sayin  

See you soon,

Tiffany  

PS Dill pickles could be eaten for breakfast at Tiffanys. So could curds and whey, but I prefer watermelon!

In which, I become "apiphanyone"

Ten years ago, I was attempting to be creative when coming up with a unique name for my email address, when a thought occurred to me; I love the word epiphany. Why not use this word, but make it my own with a different way of spelling it.
So Apiphany it was, and I became.
I used Apiphany for everything! Twitter, Facebook URL, emails, online bills, my blog,  you name it. I thought I was being as innovative as possible, so I loved my new ID.

Meanwhile, in 2006, a company called EastBanc Technologies was building and managing Web APIs for government, enterprise, and non-profit customers. With each implemented Web service and launched Web API, they refined their methodology and technical architecture. With this repeatable methodology and technical architecture in place, their product, APIphany, was launched and a company was born.

Great minds think alike, eh?

I think so.

What is an API?.... you ask.....because I did.

According to Programmableweb:

There’s a good chance that any app on your phone that does something interesting is using an API. It needs to communicate user details, send content to its servers or at the very least show you the latest information. The only way to do that is using an API…and every meaningful app needs an API.

The Google Maps API is a good example. So is Twitter and Facebook.

According to APIphany: We offer the industry’s most reliable API delivery platform. We help you launch, control, and scale your API. We help you monitor and gain insights into how your API is performing. And we help you gain developer adoption and establish community for your API.

In talking with the great people at APIphany, I found them to be very friendly and easy going. If you have an API, you should contact them. The Washington Post, Houston Metro, and Pew Center for the States did, and now they are customers.

So dear friends, today I have become "one" with my new friends at APIphany, and I've become @apiphanyone in Twitter. Still daring to be different, but meeting great people along the way.

See you soon,
Tiffany

PS APIphany can be found on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/apiphanyinc

Savoring October

I love the word, savory.

"That chicken and mushroom dish was so, savory." It just rolls off the tongue, this word. It means succulence. Not bland, but FULL of flavor. A dish you remember for days after eating it.

I decided yesterday that I was going to savor every second of October, my most favorite month of the year. I'm not going to let it disappear  before my eyes the way September did, I have no idea where it went by the way. I looked up and poof! it was gone for another eleven months.

No, October 2012 will be savored. I'm going to remember what happens each day as the temperature lowers into the 70 degree range. And the colors of fall leaves appear in the northern states way before they do in what I call, north southtown. We will see the beautiful fall foliage in North Texas too, but usually not until November. So please, friends and family, post as many pictures as you can in social media, of the rolling hills and the red and golds blending together, forming the autumn painting I love so much.


I know people say they are "drinking the day in" when they're out and about enjoying fabulous fall weather, and I so understand the phrase. I look forward to this time of year with such anticipation that the calendar can't change fast enough. Then, when it arrives, I want to slow the clock down. I want to DO something with these days, something memorable, even if it's just walking every morning or seeing pumpkin patches fill up with various sizes of soon-to-be-jack 'o lanterns at months end. Have you seen the SIZE of some of these?! They're huge, I always think I want a giant one but then wonder how I would get it into the car to drive it home.


Adding spices to each day of this month, making it savory, and memorable, is how I'll spend October. The football games and getting together with friends, and sitting around fire pits at night, roasting pumpkin seeds; these are the fall activities I love.

How will you spend this month?

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS Pumpkin breakfasts! so many different ways to add pumpkin to the meal, muffins.....pumpkin spice latte's, pumpkin bread.....or, how about pumpkin pancakes. That's it!

Live life out loud!

To thine own self be true
. 

My mom gave me this advice a long time ago, and years later I've found myself giving her that same advice. It's funny to see the shift in life, our parents teach us, and then we teach them. Rather cool.

I read a tweet the other day about a friend saying that his friends are always saying to him, get married, have kids, do the responsible thing. If I had caught it real time I would have just tweeted a response, but of as usual I was very late in the game. Oh twitter, I don't mean to forsake you. I actually love you, you are probably my favorite social media outlet. So easy and quick,  and gone are the fluff posts of anything-no-one-wants-to-hear or pictures of things-we-dont-want-to-see. Wellll maybe pictures we don't want to see, but I digress.....

So here's some of what my mom said to me, and what I now say to my friend and anyone else pondering this sort of thing:

First, your life is your own and I think you have the whole living it well, downpat. I think your friends say these things out of concern and love. Don't you? They equate happiness to the American dream. Two-car garage, two point five kids, white picket fence around the house.....you get my point. They want you to be "happy", and by their definition, that is where one finds the happy. I won't discount that these things, if you're with the right person, can in fact, bring the happy.

But if you want to kayak through Hawaii on a whim, or back pack through foreign countries on a moments notice, it might be easier if you're single and carefree. Actually, you don't have to be single per se, backpacking through Europe with a partner that you like or love would be awesome. But if you have kids and a mortgage, I'm not saying it's not attainable, but a little tougher to work out the details.

If you don't want kids, that is okay. You don't have to be apologetic for this decision. I actually applaud it, because I would rather someone speak the truth and then live it, instead of doing what they think that everyone else thinks they should do. Just because you don't have kids, and aren't married, in no way means that you are not a responsible person. Holding a job and living on your own and paying your bills speaks to this.

So back to the beginning. To thine own self be true.

And who knows, five years from now when you're married and have three kids, you'll think back to this discussion and marvel at the thought of it.

See what I did there? Ha! I kid.

Live life out loud! (I think you already are)

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS This also means that you can eat food for breakfast that isn't considered breakfast food. Break the rules! What rules? There aren't any rules, are there?

A Fairytale Vacation

Have you ever walked the grounds of nothing-short-of what would be called a Plantation, with spanish moss dripping from tree branches, butterflies billowing their wings all around you, and the smell of pine needles in the air?

If the answer is no, please, add this to your bucket list.

I had the fortunate experience of being a part of my sisters wedding at Jekyll Island, GA. last week. So excited to fly into Nashville, and then make the drive with my parents and other sister, I could barely sit still on that flight. Discussion was animated from the drive from Nashville to Chattanooga, as we caught up on our lives and the pending festivities. And let me give honorable mention to Tennessee, goodNESS do you have beautiful weather and scenery in September or what? It was lovely. We spent the night in Chattanooga and began the drive to Brunswick, GA the following day. When Sara (sister) and I get together, there's always a lot of laughing going on, to the point of tears. I'm not sure what it is, but we push each others buttons and hilarity always ensues. A very fun way to drive 7 hours I tell you.

When we crossed the causeway to get on to the island, I realized that this wasn't just me going to my sisters wedding. This, was vacation. A get-away to an island that I had never visited before, and I didn't even need my passport. Melissa was waiting for us, directing us where to park much like a stewardess shows you where the exits are on the plane. (She's hilarious by the way). As we followed her to the Crane Cottage where my family was staying........

I was enchanted. The air smelled so fresh, there were butterflies everywhere. I learned from a local that this is butterfly season. What? I've never heard of such a thing, and given that I absolutely love them you would think that I of all people would have the intel. I told Melissa that it was as if she had them flown in for the occasion, it really doesn't get more perfect than this. Oh, but really, it does.

So we make plans to spend Wednesday drinking in everything we possiby can that is Jekyll Island. I don't like to rise at the crack of dawn most days (but I aspire to like it) but when I am near an ocean, I can get up like I've had 12 hours of sleep like nobody's business.

 

Driftwood Beach is rated the 5th most romantic beach in the world.

I could sit on this bench for hours. No talking, I don't know that I would even read. It would just be a thinking spot. I found that while staying at Jekyll Club was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever done, there are other places to stay on the island. If I can be near this beach, the next time I visit, that's where I'll stay.

We had a pretty full schedule the day of the wedding, but there's always time for breakfast and walking the grounds too. The main goal was to get ourselves ready to be on hand for anything Melissa needed, everything went well, according to schedule. It was really an awesome thing to hang out with her, my Mom and Sara entow, to watch the makeup artist do her thing, transforming the bride for her big day.

I'm sure she felt like paparazzi was everywhere but I couldn't help it. When the actual photographer showed up, Sara and I tried to stay out of her way. The end result before we finally left the room to be seated was truly stunning, she was beautiful and I think the groom thought so too.

After the ceremony on the grounds of the Crane Cottage Courtyard, the guests gathered in the library for drinks and appetizers, to wait for the photographer to finish her outside photo ops. That took a while, so we did what normal people do. Drink wine and talk incessantly about every single detail. Normal, yes?

The library looked fabulous:

Suffice to say that it was rather sad that we had to leave Jekyll the very next day, so after breakfast we walked the grounds to see a few more cottages before we left for Nashville.

This is pretty much standard fare. Sara taking pictures of everything and Melissa posing for me while we waited. I should have such a summer home, agree? The cottages were amazing.

After bidding farewell to everyone, my parents and I, with Sara at the wheel, drove back over the causeway, wondering how long it would take to get back to Jekyll Island. One day, we will.

Seeing the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville was pretty cool. I wondered how Loretta Lynn felt when she stood on the steps outside, knowing that she would be performing in front of hundreds of people at the Grand Ole Opry. Dreams were made there.

It was a fairytale week for sure. The Newlyweds are enjoying a San Francisco honeymoon as I type this. It's always good to get back home and put things in order, back to reality so they say.

But Jekyll, with a view like this from the patio off my room, I can promise you this. I will be back someday.

See you soon friend,

Tiffany

PS Georgia is the peach state. A peach bellini served at breakfast makes one feel like celebrating every day.

 

It's not real, I say. Or, is it?

Last week I received an email from my sister with a link to an article and video about what I thought was just a book written by a museum director at the University she works at in North Missouri, Kirksville to be exact. I didn't have time to peruse when I received it, so I ear-tabbed it (is that a word?) for weekend down time. A few days went by. Finally Saturday morning dawns, one of my most favorite days, and I'm sipping coffee and going through emails. I found hers and clicked the link, and my expression changed from mild interest to an "oh my God" face.

"The dibbuk box is the inspiration behind the new horror movie 'The Possession.'"

My sister wrote: "He believes the box he has is possessed basically, and has done tons of research, and they made a scary looking movie. And there you have it."

The link: http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=794765#.UD-oX


I love scary movies. I have a few friends that join me in the hunt of the scariest movie ever. Most of the time, we are disappointed. Gone are the days of The Exorcist, and The Amityville Horror. Well, that's partially true anyway. The Ring didn't disappoint, and the Japanese version of the Grudge, "Ju-On" had me sleeping with the light on for a week. One sister shares the love of scary movies, the other stays so far away from them you can't find her if it's playing in the house. Melissa and I love Halloween, dubbing it our favorite probably because of the memories of watching it together being attached. There are more, but I digress......

We had just made plans the night before to go see The Possession, that very Saturday afternoon. As I delved into this article and watched the video, I was stunned to find that this movie is based on a book titled The Dibbuk Box, a very real item that exists in the home of Jason Haxton, the director I mentioned earlier.
Whaaaaat?

I immediately went to my Kindle app on my phone and downloaded the book. By the time I stopped reading I was four chapters in, and it was time to get ready to go meet my friends.

Now listen, here's the thing. Do I believe that a Jewish wine cabinet is haunted? Doubtful. I won't dig in too far about whether I believe that a young girl can be possessed by a spirit that is trapped inside a box, or if you watch a video and then answer a ringing telephone to hear "Seven Days" you will then die on that seventh day (the Ring) or that a young girl can become so possessed by a demon that she spews green slime and talks in tongues (the Exorcist). But I won't mock these stories either.

Jason talks about that very thing, in The Dibbuk Box, the mocking of it, and what ensues after, so they say.
I'm not one to invite any sort of bad karma or even idea that something like this can occur. I just politely read, watch, and go on my way.

Although I haven't finished the book yet, I have to say that Jason Haxton meticulously describes his experience with this box in vivid detail, including prior events to when he obtained "possession" (see what I did there) of the box. It's a fascinating story, and one I can't wait to finish.

From:  http://tsup.truman.edu/item.asp?itemId=453 ;

The Dibbuk Box is one of those head-scratching enigmas in the paranormal community. The box itself forces us to ponder big questions: Are curses real? Can spirits get attached to inanimate objects? Is there magic and mysticism left in the old religions of the world?

If this is not your thing, the horror film watching and telling scary stories about things going "bump" in the middle of the night, the movie is defintely not for you. I have somewhere along the line, developed a useful tool I will call disassociation. A movie will show you when it's going to have something jump out at you, come on people. If the screen is pitch black and it's silent, something wicked this way comes in about two point seven seconds. I won't say my heart doesn't pound or I don't flinch, but I remind myself that this is a movie set, and I picture the director yelling "Cut!" after the scene, and then the actors laughing. It's not real, I say. It isn't.

Or is it?

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS I seriously can't listen to Tubular Bells (The Exorcist soundtrack) and not get chills! Or really, the Halloween theme song for that matter, eek!