The Dog's of Bird's Nest and Other Fun Anecdoes (Part 1)

I've been in Steelville for about 6 months now and I've learned some very interesting things about life in a small town. I haven't been blogging much despite the fact that my life has been plenty eventful so I thought I might try to compile some of my fun anecdotes into a few (possible too long to retain interest) posts.

The Tale of the Parking Lot Rock

It was 3:30pm, Friday afternoon and I was getting my stuff together to leave my job at the factory in time to start work on the Front Desk at Wildwood Springs Lodge. I had been a little distracted all day and was ready to get out of there so I walked out to my car after the end-of-day bell rang. I started old Giles up and pulled out of my parking spot right as a red truck pulled up behind me. For some strange reason I started to panic, thinking I was holding the truck up so I started moving forward before I was fully on the pavement. This was a mistake. While looking in my rearview mirror instead of in front of me, I heard a loud crunch/scrapping sound and my car stopped moving. I had obviously driven over something that was on the grass. I tried backing up and driving forward, thinking whatever it was I could drive over it and the red truck would no longer be stuck waiting on me. My efforts, as you can imagine, were futile.

 I started to draw a crowd as the cars started backing up behind Red Truck and a slew of engineers were unable to leave for the day. I got out of my car, told one of the engineers what happened and stood by Giles, helpless and embarrassed. The engineers that had assembled started evaluating the situation and planning on what could be done to free Giles from the large rock that had been placed at the edge of the grass to deter people from taking shortcuts through the grassy parts of the parking lot. I heard one engineer say "we could probably lift the car and have someone attach a chain to the rock to pull it free". Others agreed that this could work but they would need some car jacks, a chain, and possible a truck to pull the rock if it was too heavy. By now, Red Truck and the others stuck behind him had managed to drive around me so at least my anxiety about holding him up was put to rest. But now I had a chance to answer the tell tale question of "How many engineers does it take to dislodge a Buick from a bolder"? The answer is many.

"HEY MAN, YOU HAVE A CHAIN IN YOUR TRUCK, RIGHT?" yelled one of the engineers to his fellow employee who was getting in his truck to leave for the day. "YEAH, WHATS GOING ON?" he responded.

This happened a few more times, as different potential helpers came out of the building after their shift. In the end, I think there were at least 15 people gathered around Giles. I had a jack in my trunk and someone else provided a second one and Giles was lifted from the driver's side and the front. Another engineer had supplied a large chain which was secured around the rock once the jacks were in place. Then the majority of the group took hold of the chain, tug-of-war style, and started to pull the rock free. Victory! Giles was free! And I had gained a new reputation. Thus began my adventures in Steelville...And really, it was just the beginning...

The Tale of the Empty Gas Tank

Once in Florida, I had forgotten to put gas in my car. I had to call one of my pastors to take me to a meeting that we had and then have AAA put some gas in the tank so I could get home. I honestly thought that once was enough. Who forgets to tank up twice in one year? This girl, that's who.

The thing about Steelville is that everything is within a few miles of each other. It takes me 5 minutes to get from my house to the factory and if I don't leave town, it could be a whole month before I need to get gas. This fact is normally a great thing because I can save tons of money on gas. However, in this case, it also made it much easier for me to forget that I needed to gas up at all. I left work in the morning and made my way to the factory. I turned onto Perkins road and got about 50 feet from the factory when Giles puttered out and refused to move any more. It was then when I remembered to look at the gas gage and saw that of course, it was below E. I was already running late and was in walking distance of work so I got out of my car and started walking. Right as I began, a white car drove past, stopped and started backing up towards me. Through the passenger side window I could see that it was one of my supervisors, Chis. He asked if I would like a ride the rest of the way and dropped me off right at the factory entrance. Later that day I sent a text to a friend of mine who works at the factory telling him about what happened. He responded by telling me that he already knew, word had gotten around through out the day. Another thing to add to my reputation...

Stay tuned for the next installment of anecdotes which will include, The Dogs of Bird's Nest and Giles, Stranded on Thankgiving.

Toodles!
Stef

Silver linings

I've been so bad about blogging but I have a good reason: I have no internet at my house and I'm not sure where my computer is. I've had a bit if a rough time very recently. I'm not going to go into much detail but the gist of the situation is that I took a pretty big risk which didn't pay off causing me to lose something that I really valued and will dearly miss. I'm feeling hurt and sad but also hopeful for the future. I am feeling very blessed for the support of my family and friends. During a conversation with one such friend I came to realize that the pain I am feeling is actually a good thing because it proves that I'm capable of something that I have always been afraid I wasn't capable of. In order to be truly hurt by someone or something your heart has to open to then in the first place. I've always been good at closing myself off from things that I find harmful to me. In this case I was able to open my heart and I feel good about that. Sure it didn't pay off this time around but maybe it will the next time. Anyway, sorry this post is kind of a downer but life gets is down sometimes. Character isn't determined by how often you fall but by how well you pick yourself back up.  I'm in the process of getting back up now, and I think I'm handling it pretty well so I hope I will be back to my happy smiling self very soon,. I'll try to remember to blog again when I do.

Small Town Living

So I know I said that I was going to blog more and I absolutely have not followed through with that. But life has been a little crazy since I got to Steelville. My dad flew into Florida on Saturday, Oct 5th and we packed up the van with all of my belongings. Then we stayed with Janni and Brandon and on Sunday we were on our way to Missouri. We got here on Monday night and first thing Tuesday morning my mom put me to work. Our family owns a steel manufacturing company so that's where I'm working. I get to work at 6:00am and leave at 3:30pm which is not too bad except for 2 things: I hate the morning and there isnt very much to do in Steelville in the afternoon. But all things considered, it really hasn't been that hard to adjust to the mornings and I am managing to keep myself busy after work too.

Then on Friday afternoons and Saturdays I have been working on the front desk at Wildwood Springs Lodge during our concert season. My first week here we had the Marshall Tucker Band with Drew Womack opening for them (Which was suuuuuper fun!). Drew's band, Sons of the Desert, performed at the lodge over 10 years ago and Janneke was where waitress in the dining hall. We grew up listening to their CD and Janneke still tells the story of how they left her a $200 tip. I got Drew to sign a CD for me too :).

This past weekend we had POCO who has been playing at Wildwood for over 20 years. The lead singer, Rusty Young, met his wife when my grandmother introduced them at the front desk. Although, Uncle Bob said that he introduced them so I'm not sure how it actually went down. But it was a sweet love story :). That weekend was a lot of fun too! the music was great and everyone had a good time! I got home really late, which made for a rough Saturday, but then I had Sunday off so it wasnt too bad.

This weekend we will have America, which is pretty awesome but there is something even more amazing than that. My friends Natalie and Nathan Jacobson will be opening for them both Friday and Saturday evenings! They are incredible musicians who have been playing since they were like 12 or something. And Saturday night we are suppose to have over 300 people there for the concert so it will be a really great crowd for them to perform for. I'm really excited about that! I get to work the front desk for both concerts to I will get to cheer them on :)

I can't say how happy I am to be here! I feel like I'm in a new chapter of my life, but in some strange way it feels like a chapter that I skipped over when I was younger. I got a job and was out on my own right out of college thinking I knew what I wanted to do, but I feel like this is the chapter where I can really find myself and figure out what I want out of life.

I've written two songs since I moved here. I started practicing on my dad's baritone ukulele which is about the size of a traveling guitar (but of course much easier to play). I've also gotten to meets some really cool new people and spend more time with some old friends that I had made during my summers here over the years. So that's were I am right now. Living in up in this small Missouri Town. More to come...

From Daytona Beach, FL to Steelville, MO

I never know how to answer when someone asks me where I'm from. I was born in Germany, lived in California until I was 13, then moved to Michigan. In less than 3 years, I have spent a significant amount of time in 5 different communities in 3 states and one other country. That concept of home being where the heart is a little difficult for me to grasp. I feel like pieces of my heart are scattered literally all over the globe with all of the people who know and love. I am from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I figure its time to get back to documenting my adventures. 

To be honest, I am not always great at follow through. I like to set things up, pick out background pictures and come up with witty post titles but journaling consistently has never been my strong suit. But I'm going to keep it up this time around because I was sitting in my living room, reading old posts from my time in Guatemala and it brought back all of the amazing memories that I had of that time. So, if for no other reason, I want to be able to look back and remember my life as it is now. 

My life right now happens to be a little chaotic. I am about to leave my job in Daytona Beach, Florida to start a new job at the manufacturing company owned by my family in Steelville, Missouri. I will be coming from city life (such as it is) in Daytona to country life in Steelville. Steelville, where the closest movie theater is 40 minutes away. Steelville, where you can count the number of eateries on one hand. Steelville,where you can get from one end of the town to the other in about 5 minutes. and Steelville, where my parents, grandmother, and half of my aunts, uncles and cousins call home. 

I can't say anything very exciting will happen to me when I move but I'm excited for some of the little things that small town life can offer. I'm going to share every little detail that I can, and if you find that this blog becomes too boring for you I wont be offended if you stop reading. These are essentially just the ramblings of a girl who happens to be from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.