I just read that Farrah Fawcett has died. Despite my looking askance the other day at the silliness of Ryan O'Neal saying they were going to marry as she lay on her death bed, I want to give the lady her due for a hard fight.
She was ill for a long time, and she fought very hard to beat her cancer. It would've been hard for anyone to go through that, but it must have been especially difficult for someone who based so much of her image on her looks to waste away like that. I'm sorry that it was such a tough road there at the end, and I hope she has peace now.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Man, I'm good.
When I tell you something is fishy, you may as well get out the tartar sauce. If there's one thing I know, it's when somethin' ain't right and man is a lyin'. Don't even try to spin a tale. Just admit what ya done did. Case in point:
The SC governor was not hiking the Appalachian Trail, incommunicado for a week. (Reeeeeeally???) Yes, really. I know it's shocking. That sounded so believable. But the truth is that the married father was in Argentina with his mistress...over Father's Day weekend.
What a guy.
The SC governor was not hiking the Appalachian Trail, incommunicado for a week. (Reeeeeeally???) Yes, really. I know it's shocking. That sounded so believable. But the truth is that the married father was in Argentina with his mistress...over Father's Day weekend.
What a guy.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A roundup
Lots going on today. Check it out:
1. Ed McMahon is dead. He was 86, and the last few years were pretty rough. What an interesting life, though.
2. The governor of South Carolina has been found after disappearing for several days. He was hiking. Sorry, but there's gotta be more to this story than the guy just wanted to go hiking. Even I wouldn't be able to just disappear for several days with no one knowing where I am (not even my family??), and I'm not the senior official for an entire state. Something ees fishy.
3. Jon and Kate (Plus 8) are divorcing. But...they seemed so in love.
4. On the other end of the marriage spectrum, Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal are getting married - if they can manage it before she dies. I don't mean to be insensitive here, but what exactly is the point? They wouldn't marry for all those years when they were actually sharing a life and raising kids together, then they went their separate ways, but now that she's on death's door, they're willing to take vows? I guess it's easier to commit when you're really not committing yourself to much or for long.
5. And a Belgian teen claimed last week that she fell asleep after asking a tattoo artist to tattoo three stars on her face, and when she awoke, he had mistakenly tattooed 56 stars. On her face. While she slept. This week, she admits that she lied, and that she had, in fact, asked for all 56 stars and did not, in fact, fall asleep and stay asleep as a man pierced her face with a needle and injected ink under flesh over and over and over and over. You don't say.
1. Ed McMahon is dead. He was 86, and the last few years were pretty rough. What an interesting life, though.
2. The governor of South Carolina has been found after disappearing for several days. He was hiking. Sorry, but there's gotta be more to this story than the guy just wanted to go hiking. Even I wouldn't be able to just disappear for several days with no one knowing where I am (not even my family??), and I'm not the senior official for an entire state. Something ees fishy.
3. Jon and Kate (Plus 8) are divorcing. But...they seemed so in love.
4. On the other end of the marriage spectrum, Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal are getting married - if they can manage it before she dies. I don't mean to be insensitive here, but what exactly is the point? They wouldn't marry for all those years when they were actually sharing a life and raising kids together, then they went their separate ways, but now that she's on death's door, they're willing to take vows? I guess it's easier to commit when you're really not committing yourself to much or for long.
5. And a Belgian teen claimed last week that she fell asleep after asking a tattoo artist to tattoo three stars on her face, and when she awoke, he had mistakenly tattooed 56 stars. On her face. While she slept. This week, she admits that she lied, and that she had, in fact, asked for all 56 stars and did not, in fact, fall asleep and stay asleep as a man pierced her face with a needle and injected ink under flesh over and over and over and over. You don't say.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Diet blogging
I posted a rant earlier today. But I decided later in the afternoon that I'd probably just piss off a bunch of people and I wasn't in the mood for that. So, I deleted it.
So, if you saw something in a blog tracker about a rant on my blog, but now that post isn't here, that's why.
I wish it were that easy to delete ingested calories.
So, if you saw something in a blog tracker about a rant on my blog, but now that post isn't here, that's why.
I wish it were that easy to delete ingested calories.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
And all is well.
David Banner went home yesterday. My parents came by on their way home from their vacation, and when David heard my mom's voice, he was happy again, and the world was right. They got him into his cage without having to wear protective gear, and J and I had our house back.
Aaaaaaaaaah.
Aaaaaaaaaah.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
NOW you love me!
Detente has definitely been achieved, because now every time I go into the bedroom or bathroom, David Banner comes out and wants me to pet him. This is much preferable to hissing, growling or batting at me, but geez Louise, why couldn't he have come to this place six days ago??
I'm glad we've achieved this new level of kumbaya, but I'm even happier to report that my folks on their way back and should be picking up David Banner tomorrow. Hallelujah! How nice it will be to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night!
On another note, good luck to the Longhorns tonight! Game 1 between Southern Miss and UT in the College World Series - 6 p.m. on ESPN 2. Hook 'em!!
I'm glad we've achieved this new level of kumbaya, but I'm even happier to report that my folks on their way back and should be picking up David Banner tomorrow. Hallelujah! How nice it will be to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night!
On another note, good luck to the Longhorns tonight! Game 1 between Southern Miss and UT in the College World Series - 6 p.m. on ESPN 2. Hook 'em!!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Detente?
Okay, we may have come upon a detente at the bunalow. After 36 hours of leaving Demon Cat alone, it appears that he may have calmed down. I liken it to The Hulk. He tried to tell us that we wouldn't like him if he got angry, but we pushed him anyway and created a monster. But he is now back to being David Banner - which is what I think I'll call him from now on.
When I went into the bedroom and bathroom this morning to get ready for work, David emerged from under the bed - not to attack me, but apparently to offer an olive branch. He meowed in little meek bursts, as if to say, "Are you still mad at me? Because I'm kind of lonely now, and I don't want you to be mad at me anymore. But I still want this room to myself. So, how about I just keep living in here, and you guys stop trying to grab at me, and I won't try to kill you anymore, and that's how our friendship will work? I'll even let you touch me...you know...when I feel like it."
I told him I could agree to that since it was only going to be for a few more days, and Murphy had started hanging out in his travel crate anyway. My mom will be back in town the first of next week, and I promised him he could go home with her and we would never speak of this week again.
On the upside, we now know that our airbed works really well if anyone wants to come visit and sleep in our living room.
When I went into the bedroom and bathroom this morning to get ready for work, David emerged from under the bed - not to attack me, but apparently to offer an olive branch. He meowed in little meek bursts, as if to say, "Are you still mad at me? Because I'm kind of lonely now, and I don't want you to be mad at me anymore. But I still want this room to myself. So, how about I just keep living in here, and you guys stop trying to grab at me, and I won't try to kill you anymore, and that's how our friendship will work? I'll even let you touch me...you know...when I feel like it."
I told him I could agree to that since it was only going to be for a few more days, and Murphy had started hanging out in his travel crate anyway. My mom will be back in town the first of next week, and I promised him he could go home with her and we would never speak of this week again.
On the upside, we now know that our airbed works really well if anyone wants to come visit and sleep in our living room.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
It ain't over
The cat is still in my house. He is a demon. I understand that in reality, he is just scared, and yesterday's events as we tried to wrangle him into the cat carrier just served to make things worse. But knowing that he is psychotic because he is scared does not change the fact that he is possessed.
When I got home yesterday, we put a plan into action. We put on protective gear (gloves and jackets), armed ourselves with brooms, and put the cat carrier at the ready. First we tried it J's way. We blocked him off (we thought) with the goal of shoving him out from under the bed with brooms so that he would run into the carrier. I was on the far side of the bed and was to push him toward the side with the cat carrier, and J was on the "action" side of the bed, ready to push him into the carrier and slam the door shut when he was inside.
I pushed at him with the broom, which served only to enrage him, and rather than running away from the broom, out from under the bed on J's side, where the carrier was waiting, he turned and ran toward MY side of the bed. I screamed and jumped backward as the screeching, fang-bearing angry bundle of terror ran at me. He veered, though, right at the end and scooted out from under the bed to the right of me and beelined under the clothes in our open closet.
Okay, we thought. Okay. We can actually get at him easier from there. Now, we do it my way. I have J upend the carrier so that the mouth is at the top. I will grab him by the scruff and drop him, butt-first, into the carrier. I approached. He warned. I grabbed. But my gloves made it difficult to get a good grip, and his warning became far more alarming, and I got scared (as did J) in short order that he still had the ability to turn around was about to rip my hand apart...through my gloves.
We tried a little longer to box him in, and we pushed at him with the brooms, hoping he'd run into the carrier to get away from us, but it was to no avail. He just got angrier and scarier, and we got more and more aware of our own vulnerability. J: "I think I should've worn jeans instead of shorts."
Right at the moment we gave up, my mom called. I said that was it - I was going to tell her what was going on and ask if she had any tricks. She didn't really, except she said that if he couldn't see, he'd calm down, so we should try putting a towel or bedspread over him if we could get him out in the open.
We elected not to try anything else last night since he was now on high alert and ready to kill us. So, we went for Plan B. We gave him the bedroom and slept on an air mattress in the living room. I WISH I were joking. But we couldn't spend another night with him in the bedroom, especially now that we were at war. I honestly think he would've slit our throats in the night.
We both slept okay, all things considered, and this morning, after J got back from his morning bike ride and swim, he spotted Demon Cat sleeping under the bedspread on top of the bed. He thought of my mom's advice and tried to grab him. Demon Cat not only did not calm down, he tried to bite J through the sheet and bedspread and succeeded in tearing the sheet - my 400-count, expensive sheet. And pissed himself.
Fan-friggin-tastic.
As a last ditch, I looked online today to see if there were over-the-counter sedatives available for cats, but apparently you have to get them from a vet and they actually have to see the cat, so unless a vet is willing to make a house call, I guess that's out.
So, for now, we are defeated. We will give up the fight and let him have the bedroom - either until he finally lets his guard down and we can get to him or my mom gets home. Someone is seriously going to get hurt - him or us - if this continues. And I don't want anything else damaged.
If only there were a Cat Whisperer out there.
When I got home yesterday, we put a plan into action. We put on protective gear (gloves and jackets), armed ourselves with brooms, and put the cat carrier at the ready. First we tried it J's way. We blocked him off (we thought) with the goal of shoving him out from under the bed with brooms so that he would run into the carrier. I was on the far side of the bed and was to push him toward the side with the cat carrier, and J was on the "action" side of the bed, ready to push him into the carrier and slam the door shut when he was inside.
I pushed at him with the broom, which served only to enrage him, and rather than running away from the broom, out from under the bed on J's side, where the carrier was waiting, he turned and ran toward MY side of the bed. I screamed and jumped backward as the screeching, fang-bearing angry bundle of terror ran at me. He veered, though, right at the end and scooted out from under the bed to the right of me and beelined under the clothes in our open closet.
Okay, we thought. Okay. We can actually get at him easier from there. Now, we do it my way. I have J upend the carrier so that the mouth is at the top. I will grab him by the scruff and drop him, butt-first, into the carrier. I approached. He warned. I grabbed. But my gloves made it difficult to get a good grip, and his warning became far more alarming, and I got scared (as did J) in short order that he still had the ability to turn around was about to rip my hand apart...through my gloves.
We tried a little longer to box him in, and we pushed at him with the brooms, hoping he'd run into the carrier to get away from us, but it was to no avail. He just got angrier and scarier, and we got more and more aware of our own vulnerability. J: "I think I should've worn jeans instead of shorts."
Right at the moment we gave up, my mom called. I said that was it - I was going to tell her what was going on and ask if she had any tricks. She didn't really, except she said that if he couldn't see, he'd calm down, so we should try putting a towel or bedspread over him if we could get him out in the open.
We elected not to try anything else last night since he was now on high alert and ready to kill us. So, we went for Plan B. We gave him the bedroom and slept on an air mattress in the living room. I WISH I were joking. But we couldn't spend another night with him in the bedroom, especially now that we were at war. I honestly think he would've slit our throats in the night.
We both slept okay, all things considered, and this morning, after J got back from his morning bike ride and swim, he spotted Demon Cat sleeping under the bedspread on top of the bed. He thought of my mom's advice and tried to grab him. Demon Cat not only did not calm down, he tried to bite J through the sheet and bedspread and succeeded in tearing the sheet - my 400-count, expensive sheet. And pissed himself.
Fan-friggin-tastic.
As a last ditch, I looked online today to see if there were over-the-counter sedatives available for cats, but apparently you have to get them from a vet and they actually have to see the cat, so unless a vet is willing to make a house call, I guess that's out.
So, for now, we are defeated. We will give up the fight and let him have the bedroom - either until he finally lets his guard down and we can get to him or my mom gets home. Someone is seriously going to get hurt - him or us - if this continues. And I don't want anything else damaged.
If only there were a Cat Whisperer out there.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I tried. I really tried.
My folks went on vacation this past weekend, and I agreed to cat-sit for their very large, very moody Siamese. Because they live about 45 minutes away, this meant that the cat would come to my house, and I'd look after him until they got back - somewhere around a 1.5 week, but possibly longer. Their timeline for this trip is fluid.
So, J and I went on Sunday and picked up the cat and brought him to the new bungalow. Those last three words are key. See, I've done this cat-sitting thing before for them, but I was in my old house - with 3 bedrooms and more than twice the square footage. I gave the cat the front bedroom all for himself. It takes this cat about a week of shunning you (sometimes forcefully, with spitting and warning growls and lashing out at you with a - thankfully - clawless front paw) to decide he's lonely enough for your companionship to give up the fight and behave at least somewhat normally. In the old house, I could wait out that week by just leaving him be in the front room until he eventually sought me out.
But the new house is a whole new ballgame. In order to keep my cat from terrorizing the demon houseguest cat, we have to keep them separated. My cat gets the front of the house, where she usually hangs out anyway, and demon houseguest gets the bedroom and bathroom. THE bedroom and bathroom - there are no "spares" in this house. That means that we're sleeping in the same room he is. And this is where this arrangement becomes a problem.
The cat is miserable and scared, and he keeps us up all night with intermittent howls, the occasional jump on the bed which ends with one or both of us being startled awake and him hissing and jumping back down, puking (that was night 2), and (starting last night) banging on the door somehow. We don't know if he's using his paw to try and jimmy the bedroom door open or if he's headbutting it, but he did it all night long and it woke us every time. On top of that, I got up with a flashlight to see what he was doing and saw him jet under the bed and when I kneeled down to see him and try to figure out what was up and maybe console him, he growled at me in what can only be described as a threatening and somewhat terrifying manner.
Well, I can't take it anymore. We've barely slept the last three nights, and the situation isn't getting the least bit better, and there's really no other arrangement considering our house and his personality, so I'm going to have to take him back home and just make the trek down there to feed and check on him every other day. There's just no other option. It's just not working out.
I thought about whether to tell my folks that I'm changing the arrangement, but I decided that if I tell them, they'll decide that the new arrangement is too much of an inconvenience for me and they'll cut their trip short. I don't want them to do that because they were much delayed in even making this trip, so I want them to enjoy themselves and not be worried about me or him. I'll tell them when they're on their way back, and we'll work something else out for future trips.
I don't look forward to trying to wrangle this cat back into his crate when I get home. I haven't even been able to touch him since we picked him up on Sunday. But if I can get through that part, the rest will be easy. And maybe tonight we can ALL sleep!
So, J and I went on Sunday and picked up the cat and brought him to the new bungalow. Those last three words are key. See, I've done this cat-sitting thing before for them, but I was in my old house - with 3 bedrooms and more than twice the square footage. I gave the cat the front bedroom all for himself. It takes this cat about a week of shunning you (sometimes forcefully, with spitting and warning growls and lashing out at you with a - thankfully - clawless front paw) to decide he's lonely enough for your companionship to give up the fight and behave at least somewhat normally. In the old house, I could wait out that week by just leaving him be in the front room until he eventually sought me out.
But the new house is a whole new ballgame. In order to keep my cat from terrorizing the demon houseguest cat, we have to keep them separated. My cat gets the front of the house, where she usually hangs out anyway, and demon houseguest gets the bedroom and bathroom. THE bedroom and bathroom - there are no "spares" in this house. That means that we're sleeping in the same room he is. And this is where this arrangement becomes a problem.
The cat is miserable and scared, and he keeps us up all night with intermittent howls, the occasional jump on the bed which ends with one or both of us being startled awake and him hissing and jumping back down, puking (that was night 2), and (starting last night) banging on the door somehow. We don't know if he's using his paw to try and jimmy the bedroom door open or if he's headbutting it, but he did it all night long and it woke us every time. On top of that, I got up with a flashlight to see what he was doing and saw him jet under the bed and when I kneeled down to see him and try to figure out what was up and maybe console him, he growled at me in what can only be described as a threatening and somewhat terrifying manner.
Well, I can't take it anymore. We've barely slept the last three nights, and the situation isn't getting the least bit better, and there's really no other arrangement considering our house and his personality, so I'm going to have to take him back home and just make the trek down there to feed and check on him every other day. There's just no other option. It's just not working out.
I thought about whether to tell my folks that I'm changing the arrangement, but I decided that if I tell them, they'll decide that the new arrangement is too much of an inconvenience for me and they'll cut their trip short. I don't want them to do that because they were much delayed in even making this trip, so I want them to enjoy themselves and not be worried about me or him. I'll tell them when they're on their way back, and we'll work something else out for future trips.
I don't look forward to trying to wrangle this cat back into his crate when I get home. I haven't even been able to touch him since we picked him up on Sunday. But if I can get through that part, the rest will be easy. And maybe tonight we can ALL sleep!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Thanks for your help?
When I changed my old house into a rental property, I had to change my homeowners insurance policy. I ended up changing companies, which means I got a refund for part of the preemium on the old policy that I cancelled. My mortgage company sent me a letter and told me to send that payment to them to put into my escrow account, but they didn't give me instructions on how to do so (how to endorse the check, etc.).
So, I called the customer service number on the letter. After bypassing as much of the phone tree as possible by pushing "0" at every available turn, I got a person pretty quickly on the line. I told her what I needed, and she proceeded to ask me a series of questions - my loan number and various security questions to verify who I am, etc. I patiently answered everything, and at the end of all that, she informed me that she couldn't actually answer my question. She would have to pass me to someone in a different department who actually handled that issue, and oh, by the way, I would have to answer all the same verification/security questions to that lady.
So....if you knew up front that you couldn't help me and that you would be transferring me, and you knew that whoever you transferred me to would put me through all those security questions, why did you just put me through them all yourself? Do you really need to know all of that information just to say the words, "I'll need to transfer you?" Because you knew you'd need to transfer me as soon as I told you what I needed. Efficiency at its finest.
Oh, and for the record, the letter was wrong. I'm not supposed to send the mortgage company the refund check. I'm supposed to deposit it and send them a personal check in the same amount, but made out to them, with a sticky note telling them to deposit it in my escrow account. Now, that sounds official, doesn't it?
I quake for the financial future of this country.
So, I called the customer service number on the letter. After bypassing as much of the phone tree as possible by pushing "0" at every available turn, I got a person pretty quickly on the line. I told her what I needed, and she proceeded to ask me a series of questions - my loan number and various security questions to verify who I am, etc. I patiently answered everything, and at the end of all that, she informed me that she couldn't actually answer my question. She would have to pass me to someone in a different department who actually handled that issue, and oh, by the way, I would have to answer all the same verification/security questions to that lady.
So....if you knew up front that you couldn't help me and that you would be transferring me, and you knew that whoever you transferred me to would put me through all those security questions, why did you just put me through them all yourself? Do you really need to know all of that information just to say the words, "I'll need to transfer you?" Because you knew you'd need to transfer me as soon as I told you what I needed. Efficiency at its finest.
Oh, and for the record, the letter was wrong. I'm not supposed to send the mortgage company the refund check. I'm supposed to deposit it and send them a personal check in the same amount, but made out to them, with a sticky note telling them to deposit it in my escrow account. Now, that sounds official, doesn't it?
I quake for the financial future of this country.
Monday, June 08, 2009
I'm back. Honest.
Man, life has been crazy the last couple of weeks. I've been MIA here on Blogger, but it couldn't be avoided. I'll try to catch up this week. I'll start with the vacation that J and I took at the end of May/first of June.
Originally, it was supposed to just be a road trip anywhere. I just wanted to get away for a bit - have no real set agenda and be able to stop and look and historical markers, eat at roadside diners - just hit the road. I asked J which direction he wanted to go, and he said East. He asked if we could make Nashville part of the trip. I said sure!
He proceeded to find a showcase he wanted to attend and to set up meetings with three of his contacts there so that before I knew it, we were on a schedule. We had to be there by a certain date and we had appointments the whole time, and on top of that, we ended up landing a gig the weekend before we left, and it cost a day or two of road time, so we ended up on a tight schedule to get to Nashville.
Not that But the visit there was a lot of fun. We had a chance to play a set while we were there, which was great, and I really enjoyed the folks I met. But I've decided that our next vacation will involve no work, no schedules and relaxing downtime only!
I did get validation of one thing that I learned last year when we took our vacation to Utah, though - J and I really travel well together! We can spend surprising amounts of time together, even couped up in a car, and not want to kill each other. I honestly never get tired of spending time with that man. It must be love. ;)
Anyway, here's how the week played out:
Day 1: Drive to Dallas. Visit Dealey Plaza, find a bathroom, get back on the road. Have dinner at Wendy's in Texarkana. See the most amazing sunset ever. Get back on the road. Arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas and spend the night.
Day 2: Drive through Arkansas to Memphis on really bad roads but with really pretty scenery. Stop in Memphis and enjoy several hours exploring Beale Street. Lunch at the Hard Rock, which had a big Elvis theme and was quite inspiring as a musician. We find out Lil Rounds is supposed to perform at the Hard Rock at 3:30. We stick around, but by 4:15, still no Lil, and we had to get on the road to Nashville to make the showcase J wanted to see, so we leave, just in time to see Lil coming down the road in a convertible, escorted by a marching band. Seriously.
We manage a quick stop at Graceland before leaving Memphis. We found it quite depressing, though, because the entire rock fence and sidewalk outside are covered with graffiti from "fans." If you're a real fan, I'm not sure you vandalize the man's home. Why not just piss on his grave while you're at it? Back on the road and off to Nashville.
Arrive in Nashville in time to find a hotel room, get changed and get to showcase. The showcase was cool. We saw three bands before deciding we were tired and ready to go to bed.
Day 3: Get up in time for the free breakfast at the hotel. Discover that "breakfast" is a relative term, since the Indian proprieters of our hotel defined it as 2 ripe bananas, 2 overripe bananas, powdered sugar donuts, apple and orange juices and saltines. You read that right. Saltines. For breakfast.
Lunch with an old friend of J's, who was quite fun. A visit to a guitar store in downtown Nashville, which had some really cool instruments. An afternoon meeting with his old entertainment lawyer. Back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours, then out for an evening visit with another old friend of his - a fascinating musician and sculptor. Then on to the lunch friend's gig and an open mike where we got to play a set.
Day 4: Don't bother with breakfast at hotel (see Day 3's entry about breakfast). Check out and head to lunch friend's house for a last visit before we head east for Asheville, NC. After the visit, get back on road. An hour out of town, remember that we left our tempurpedic pillows at hotel. Return to Nashville. Now starving. Eat lunch and decide that to scrap Asheville from plans. Maybe Savannah? Visit Charlie Daniel's Museum, then discover that Savannah is 8 hours away. Scrap Savannah. Atlanta? Sure, let's go to Atlanta! I book room, and we head out on highway.
1.5 hours later, we see a sign that says, "Welcome to Alabama!" J cautiously asks, "Why are we in Alabama?" Umm...I don't know. Answer: we have taken wrong highway out of Nashville. We replot course for Atlanta, but 3 hours later, we abandon Atlanta. I eat the cost of the Atlanta hotel and we stop in Oxford, Alabama. We're just too tired to keep driving.
Day 5: We start heading back west. We stop in Birmingham, AL for lunch and I have my second taste of sweet tea (the first was in Nashville). I feel myself become momentarily diabetic and decide I will avoid sweet tea for the rest of my life. We make it to Jackson, Mississippi (commence singing Johnny Cash/June Carter song).
Day 6: We leave Jackson and continue west. We dance a little jig in the car when we see the "Welcome to Texas" sign. We are home! We stop in Tyler for the night and have a nice visit in the hotel pool with some guys from Houston. They're in Tyler for a croquet tournament. Who knew there even WERE croquet tournaments, much less in Tyler, Texas?
Day 7: We visit the Tyler Rose Garden before leaving town. It's spectactular, and I declare that if I'm ever forced to live in Tyler, I will spend all my time at the garden. We get on the road to head for Austin. J has plotted a course, and two hours in we discover that yet again, we have taken the wrong highway out of town. Fortunately, this time it works to our advantage. It's actually going to save us time, and the drive is much prettier than our original course would have been. I personally think these little unexepected routes make things more interesting. :)
We make it home, happy to have had our adventure and happy to be home! I luckily had another day before I had to go back to work so I could unpack and decompress before starting back to the grind. All in all, a great trip!
Originally, it was supposed to just be a road trip anywhere. I just wanted to get away for a bit - have no real set agenda and be able to stop and look and historical markers, eat at roadside diners - just hit the road. I asked J which direction he wanted to go, and he said East. He asked if we could make Nashville part of the trip. I said sure!
He proceeded to find a showcase he wanted to attend and to set up meetings with three of his contacts there so that before I knew it, we were on a schedule. We had to be there by a certain date and we had appointments the whole time, and on top of that, we ended up landing a gig the weekend before we left, and it cost a day or two of road time, so we ended up on a tight schedule to get to Nashville.
Not that But the visit there was a lot of fun. We had a chance to play a set while we were there, which was great, and I really enjoyed the folks I met. But I've decided that our next vacation will involve no work, no schedules and relaxing downtime only!
I did get validation of one thing that I learned last year when we took our vacation to Utah, though - J and I really travel well together! We can spend surprising amounts of time together, even couped up in a car, and not want to kill each other. I honestly never get tired of spending time with that man. It must be love. ;)
Anyway, here's how the week played out:
Day 1: Drive to Dallas. Visit Dealey Plaza, find a bathroom, get back on the road. Have dinner at Wendy's in Texarkana. See the most amazing sunset ever. Get back on the road. Arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas and spend the night.
Day 2: Drive through Arkansas to Memphis on really bad roads but with really pretty scenery. Stop in Memphis and enjoy several hours exploring Beale Street. Lunch at the Hard Rock, which had a big Elvis theme and was quite inspiring as a musician. We find out Lil Rounds is supposed to perform at the Hard Rock at 3:30. We stick around, but by 4:15, still no Lil, and we had to get on the road to Nashville to make the showcase J wanted to see, so we leave, just in time to see Lil coming down the road in a convertible, escorted by a marching band. Seriously.
We manage a quick stop at Graceland before leaving Memphis. We found it quite depressing, though, because the entire rock fence and sidewalk outside are covered with graffiti from "fans." If you're a real fan, I'm not sure you vandalize the man's home. Why not just piss on his grave while you're at it? Back on the road and off to Nashville.
Arrive in Nashville in time to find a hotel room, get changed and get to showcase. The showcase was cool. We saw three bands before deciding we were tired and ready to go to bed.
Day 3: Get up in time for the free breakfast at the hotel. Discover that "breakfast" is a relative term, since the Indian proprieters of our hotel defined it as 2 ripe bananas, 2 overripe bananas, powdered sugar donuts, apple and orange juices and saltines. You read that right. Saltines. For breakfast.
Lunch with an old friend of J's, who was quite fun. A visit to a guitar store in downtown Nashville, which had some really cool instruments. An afternoon meeting with his old entertainment lawyer. Back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours, then out for an evening visit with another old friend of his - a fascinating musician and sculptor. Then on to the lunch friend's gig and an open mike where we got to play a set.
Day 4: Don't bother with breakfast at hotel (see Day 3's entry about breakfast). Check out and head to lunch friend's house for a last visit before we head east for Asheville, NC. After the visit, get back on road. An hour out of town, remember that we left our tempurpedic pillows at hotel. Return to Nashville. Now starving. Eat lunch and decide that to scrap Asheville from plans. Maybe Savannah? Visit Charlie Daniel's Museum, then discover that Savannah is 8 hours away. Scrap Savannah. Atlanta? Sure, let's go to Atlanta! I book room, and we head out on highway.
1.5 hours later, we see a sign that says, "Welcome to Alabama!" J cautiously asks, "Why are we in Alabama?" Umm...I don't know. Answer: we have taken wrong highway out of Nashville. We replot course for Atlanta, but 3 hours later, we abandon Atlanta. I eat the cost of the Atlanta hotel and we stop in Oxford, Alabama. We're just too tired to keep driving.
Day 5: We start heading back west. We stop in Birmingham, AL for lunch and I have my second taste of sweet tea (the first was in Nashville). I feel myself become momentarily diabetic and decide I will avoid sweet tea for the rest of my life. We make it to Jackson, Mississippi (commence singing Johnny Cash/June Carter song).
Day 6: We leave Jackson and continue west. We dance a little jig in the car when we see the "Welcome to Texas" sign. We are home! We stop in Tyler for the night and have a nice visit in the hotel pool with some guys from Houston. They're in Tyler for a croquet tournament. Who knew there even WERE croquet tournaments, much less in Tyler, Texas?
Day 7: We visit the Tyler Rose Garden before leaving town. It's spectactular, and I declare that if I'm ever forced to live in Tyler, I will spend all my time at the garden. We get on the road to head for Austin. J has plotted a course, and two hours in we discover that yet again, we have taken the wrong highway out of town. Fortunately, this time it works to our advantage. It's actually going to save us time, and the drive is much prettier than our original course would have been. I personally think these little unexepected routes make things more interesting. :)
We make it home, happy to have had our adventure and happy to be home! I luckily had another day before I had to go back to work so I could unpack and decompress before starting back to the grind. All in all, a great trip!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)