I've done a lot of driving lately. And I'm about to do about 12-14 hours more in 3 days to see my lovely sister while she's home from China. (run-on and I started with a conjunction...sue me.) I must admit, I have to bite my tongue quite often when I complain about below-freezing temperatures in Tennessee, considering Megan loves days that are above zero degrees. brr.
However, in order to pass my time in the car, I've resorted to books on tape [cd]. Sadly, I didn't think of this idea until I was about to head back to Nashville on Sunday afternoon, which meant that the library wasn't open and my only option was Cracker Barrel's book/exchange deal. Let us all take a moment to remember the typical patron of your local Cracker Barrel. Needless to say, I didn't recognize the names of any of the books or authors. I'm not too well-read (<--harassment freebie) in the romance/mystery genre. I did find an A Series of Unfortunate Events book, which I am enjoying quite thoroughly, Tim Curry narration and all. And never fear, if he uses a word or phrase that is particularly tricky or obscure, he'll fill you right in with the meaning.
That's right: educational and fun.
(can we also admire how nicely this book matches my blog?)
So this past Tuesday, Rachel and I braved the sketchy neighborhood of Third & Lindsley for a little concert with Brett Dennen and Meiko. Both were great. Meiko is slightly crazy and Brett Dennen is precious. Seriously.
Tonight is the big Dave Ramsey Christmas party hoopla. I'm way excited.
Also, a tacky sweater Merry Christmas from the Live Events team:
(ps. I can't claim the design; it was one of my coworkers.)
Obviously, our office was designed by men (who love IKEA).
We had a creatives Christmas tree decorating contest. This is the print graphics Christmas tree. Made out of chicken wire, pvc pipe, tissue paper, and cartoons of the entire company. Just like high school float-building all over again! We better win!
me! If you want to make your own cartoon, go here.
...you've altered reality for an entire generation.
Last night I watched Baby Mama with a group of friends, including a 4-year-old girl named Hollis. About 10 minutes into the movie, as Tina Fey walks across the screen, Hollis yells out: "It's Sarah Palin!"
Tonight I watched The Visitor. I was decently excited about watching it: I thought it looked at least slightly interesting. At any rate, the cover reminded me a ton of one of Tim's photos from our Spain fine art exhibit. All that to say: it was depressing and gave me a healthy fear of loneliness...whatever that means.
For lunch today, I ate at Buca di Beppo to celebrate a year-spent-with-the-company anniversary for one of my bosses, and it reminded me of some good (and equally cold) KC COAST trips.
I went home for Thanksgiving, which was fun. Got to spend some quality time with the fam and got one nice hastings visit in. Also, decided that I hate driving (and drivers) and hereby plan to live somewhere in the future where I don't have to be involved with either.
Last Weekend:
(I shamelessly stole this from the internet, but it's totally worth it.)
So this past weekend I took full advantage of the Nashville. That's right, count them--4 concerts, and a brief visit to a tattoo parlor, which was by far my favorite Nashville experience to date.
Friday night I went with one of my roommates and her friend to see Hey Penny (lovely video here.) It was absolutely frigid, so we stopped for some coffee at Cafe Coco, which never has seating, which meant that we sat in the 'live music area' and had to endure some middle-aged rock band. After we couldn't stand it any more, we headed down the street to the show, which still hadn't started. We hopped into a tattoo place across the street so one of the girls I was with could ask a question about fixing a tattoo. This resulted in a 30-minute conversation with the self-proclaimed "desk boy," which started with him taking off his shirt to show us that "you shouldn't be ashamed of your tattoos" and ended up involving many wonderful quotes which I will now post with absolutely no context:
"I lived off the grid in a tent in the Catskill Mountains." (Off the grid?) "You know---you flip a switch and the lights come on, turn the facet, water comes out." (So where do you live now?) "Oh, just up the street. I'm metropolis now, but I might go back to the forest." "I was adopted when I was 15 by this nun in the midwest, so I know all about that." "I'm what you call a professional go-for. I can go for cleaning supplies, hold babies, or you know, whatever." "I'm all about sharing and giving. That's what I do. I've had houses and cars. I just gave them away." "I don't do technology. No radio, no tv, none of that sh--. Well, actually someone just gave me a tv, so I turned it on its face and put a plant on it and plugged the cord into the dirt." "You're like 10 for 10. I like to play devil's advocate and you're doing great. I'm about to fall platonically in lust with you."
After dragging ourselves away from Bryan-with-a-'y', we went to the concert, listened to stephaniesid, then decided we didn't want to wait around until 1am to hear the actual band we came to see, and left.
Saturday, my church had a concert/showcase/potluck type thing with about 15 or so musicians from the church, which was really cool.
Sunday, I decided to establish my independence and went to see Iron & Wine by myself at the Ryman because 1] I love Iron & Wine and 2] going to my first concert at the Ryman was way overdue. I still think I like going with other people, but it wasn't terrible. The concert itself was great, aside from the drunk, middle-aged, post-Titans game woman behind me and the pda couple in front of me. Sam Bean was sick, so he was greeted after every song with "drink your tea!", "I'm sorry your guitars keep going out of tune!" and the occasional "I love your beard!" from the audience.
If you made it that far, you deserve a treat... that's right---the new Harry Potter trailer.
