iPhone 1, Cell phone 0

Last night I was at Church and was sitting by Doug Clapp. If you remember from recent posts, Doug and I share a love of fine bluegrass music. Let me back up and explain that there was a concert last night at the Alys Stephens Center. Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer, and Jerry Douglas were playing together. For those of you not familiar with the bluegrass community, each one of these individuals is arguably the best international musician in their respective disciplines. It's a big deal when they play together. I had not bought tickets for the simple reason that they were expensive and I didn't have anyone to go with. So back to sitting in church...during the welcome time, Doug leans over and asks me if I had tickets to the show after church. I replied with the aforementioned excuses and he concurs that is the reason that he did not get them either. We sit in silence for about 5 seconds until he speaks up and says, "Well, do you want to go?" Ummm, yes!! We then wonder about tickets, how were we going to get tickets? The show selling out was a very real possibility, so I pulled out my iPhone and bought them online right there in the middle of church! Think about that for a second. I pulled out my phone in the middle of church and bought tickets online for a concert in an hour. It blew my mind that technology enabled us to complete our spontaneous act for the night. The concert was amazing. Words can't describe. If you have the opportunity to see any of these musicians individually or together, take advantage.

Weekend Update....

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend I met Katy and Laurie down in NOLA for Voodoo fest. Funny thing happened on my way down there. I called Katy to tell her I was leaving and to chat. I mentioned that I was going to leave to head back home early on Sunday, so I could hang out with Missy, Darren, Kayin, and the Carpenters. Well, apparently two weeks ago in the midst of my Clinton hysteria, Katy sent me an email stating that she was going to buy tix for Sunday instead of Saturday. I replied back "Great!" She could have told me that she was going to throw me into a pit of rabid wolves and I would have replied back "Great!" I was so wrapped up in things. But it was still a fun weekend none the less.

I got down to NOLA at 11pm on Friday night, seriously, it had not been 2 minutes since I turned off the interstate to go to Laurie's house when I saw my first drag queen. Not kidding. The largest gold sparkling dress I had ever seen in my life. Gotta love it! On Saturday, we slept in, went to lunch and then went to an art show. It hadn't been 15 minutes we had been at the art show when Katy realized that she didn't have her Blackberry. After retracing her steps for about 20 minutes, I called her phone and someone answered! Some lady seriously must have picked up her phone before it hit the ground, because she was already home in a suburb about 35 minutes away! We left, retrieved the phone, and came back just in time to catch the last 30 minutes of the show. I had not been back to NOLA post Katrina. It was crazy to still see such remnants of the storm. I talked to several local artists the show, it was sad to see how their lives are still upside down from it all and how refugee-esque their lives still are! It made me really thankful for the life I have been blessed with and was a reminder that, from everyone who has been given much, much will be required.


We then headed down to the French Market, checked out a body painting art studio, people watched at Cafe du Monde and then headed home. On the way home, Laurie kept saying that her steering wheel seemed tight. Well 15 miles later we stop for gas and had a flat tire. Awesome. In the middle of a bad part of town, 3 girls, and one flat tire. Luckily, we all knew how to change a flat and let me tell you, it was a good thing we knew because not one person out of the 15 that walked by offered to help. Let me take that back. One guy (completely metro-sexual and dressed up to go out) did take one look at us and said, "Oh Crap!" and this wasn't an, "Oh Crap, that stinks you have a flat tire!" this was an, "Oh Crap! I am obligated as a guy to help you out and I really don't want to!" Katy looked at him and said, "Don't worry, we've got it. I wouldn't want you to scuff up your shoes." Yes. She said it. I told her that I was going to make her a shirt that said "Katy Nowiczewski...Telling it like it is since 1980" We changed the tire, bid adieu to any chivalry thought to have existed in the south, and headed home.

We got home and Laurie had to go to a wedding shower. This left Katy and I at home, watching a movie (and the world series, we're not talking about that one, I'm subscribing to the theory, if we don't talk about it, it never happened). We had a dinner consisting of a greek salad, La Crema Chardonnay, chips and queso, sour watermelon candy, and candy covered almonds. That's right, the dinner of champs my friends.

Sunday, I left early to go and hang out with Missy, Darin, and Kayin. Here are a few shots of Kayin...

Everywhere is somewhere and nowhere is near...

Since I've been back in the 'Ham, the weeks have flown by. It seems every Thursday night rolls around and I can't believe how quickly the week has gone. Anyway, I'm meeting Katy Nowiczewski in New Orleans for the weekend for Voodoo Fest and I'm pretty excited about it. I have no idea who we're going to see, just looking forward to hanging out with a friend who knows me.
I've been missing friends lately. I, typically, am always on the phone. I never want to lose touch with friends that truly know me, where I've been, where I want to go, what I struggle with, what I love, you know. I feel that I'm at a point in life where I don't have many close friends in Birmingham and I want to be able to talk to someone and not have to explain myself. I've played some vicious games of phone tag lately. It's been frustrating to the point of being upsetting, especially the ones that I haven't heard from in a while. I guess I'm just missing Colorado these days...missing the mountains, the snow, the excitement of what the next season would hold. I've decided though, that I need to be content where I am in life, quit worrying about what I will do next, where I will go. I've lived that life long enough. With that said, I've tried to stay off the phone. So far I've done a good job, it's just made me pretty lonely.
I found a Patty Griffin song that I never knew existed, which is always exciting news. It was on the album, "It'll Come to You...The Songs of John Hiatt" I'm not sure how I missed this one as it came out in 2003! "Take it Down" is the name of it. It's pretty amazing, I'm addicted already.

What a fun weekend!!

I started off this weekend by attending a informal concert downtown at Bryan Johnson's studio loft. Bryan is a college friend that is now, in my humble opinion, the best photographer in the southeast and possibly the world! He had Katie Herzig, formerly of Newcomer's Home, play for about 50 people. It was one of those gatherings where I most definately did not feel cool enough to attend! The atmosphere was amazing. It was fun to hang out with people that I don't get to see everyday. I was able to chat with Katie after the concert. I had originally met Katie while I was working at Frontier Ranch, so it was fun to catch up with her and see what is new and exciting in her life. NCH broke up a few years back and she has since started her solo career and doing quite well. The past 18 months she has been on tour with The Fray and this coming Thursday her song, "Fools Gold" will be featured on Grey's Anatomy. Make sure you tune in to hear it!

After hanging out downtown, I then came back to the 'burbs and finally was able to see Into the Wild. Into the Wild is prolly my most favorite book of all time. I was VERY nervous to see the movie. Technically, it came out about 6 weeks ago, but with Birmingham being a little behind on the artsy scene, it just arrived here. Seriously, for the past 6 weeks, my Friday morning consisted of me jumping out of bed at the very first sound of my alarm going off (completely uncharacteristic of me), racing downstairs, furiously flipping to the City Scene section of the Birmingham News, and consistently being disappointed by not seeing Into the Wild listed. I would then go to fandango.com and see what the closest city would be for me to see it. Dallas, it was always, Dallas. And yes, then I would look at plane tickets and contemplate whether or not I should call a friend in Dallas and tell him I was coming. This went on for 6 weeks. But not this weekend!!! I went to the 10:20pm showing of the movie. I had avoided all reviews of this movie and went by myself. Amazing...never have I seen a movie that stayed so true to the book. It has instantly become my favorite movie. I have always seen a little part of myself in the main character. A friend of mine once wrote, "The romantic mind paints a picture that is far removed from reality." This is quote has always been a favorite of mine. It describes me so well. Who I want to be, where I want to live, how I want to live my life, but society isn't conducive to such a carefree, whimsical lifestyle. I can't stand the expectations and societal norms that are forced on all of us, that won't matter 100 years from now. This was the same moral dilemma that is faced in this movie. If you haven't read the book, I highly encourage you to pick it up and if you haven't seen the movie, go see it. It is well worth it.

Saturday, I drove over to Anniston to see a friend of mine, Lauren, from Vail that was visiting home in Atlanta. Lauren and I met less than a year ago, which is hard to believe. I feel like I have known her for years. She was hired to work at the Cascade as a Conference manager. She has become one of my best friends and I just love her! Every Friday when I lived in Vail, we would have "Dance Party Friday" (not to be confused with "Hip Hop Friday" that our friends at Vail Fire Station would have). Basically this consisted of us going into Karen's (our boss) office and dancing around for about five minutes. Lauren and I still have this tradition, only it's over the phone. So much fun! Here is a picture from Saturday...

Hi, Kettle? This is the Pot and you're black!

Please humor me and read the article below. A story ran in the Vail Daily on the rising expenses of Aspen, Colorado. Seriously? Vail is running stories about other ski towns becoming more expensive. I could go on for a while about this one, talk about the overpriced real estate market, the completely outrageous rental market, the 5 NEW hotels being built in the Vail Valley and the lack of housing for workers that will have to live in Vail to keep these up and running, but I will spare you.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20071015/NEWS/71004034

P.S. Just in case you missed it, the ROCKIES ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!

Glad the Weekend is Over!

Remember a few posts ago when I was suddenly stressed and couldn't talk about it...now I can. This past Saturday, the Alabama Democratic Committee, was on property at the hotel and while planning this conference I was told that Senator Hillary Clinton would be the keynote speaker for the lunch. Let me back up and give some history with this conference. When I was given this contract to plan, the luncheon on Saturday was to be for 250 people. With the announcement that Senator Clinton would be coming this quickly jumped to 700 people. This caused some major logistical/fire code/operational problems. I had heard of Secret Service horror stories by other hotel meeting planners. Having to feed 700 people and flip an entire hotel that had run at full occupancy the night before, I knew that it would be a crazy day. I arrived fairly early for a prayer breakfast (note: At this "prayer breakfast" no prayer happened, hmmm...).

I then met with the Secret Service Agent that I had been working with over the past 4 days. He was fantastic...really, he couldn't have been more accommodating throughout the week. We had the same opposing political views from the ADC, both had to do our jobs, and had get through the day. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one in the ballroom rolling my eyes through lunch. I was really glad I came out of this experience without a SS horror story.

The function itself went well, it could have gone better. We had to hire several temp servers for the meal and some how 3 tables were not touched the first 30 minutes of the lunch...never a good thing. I had to jump in and help with service, which was interesting considering I still don't know where everything is located back of house. Oh, and an entire tray of salad plates were dropped, outside the room, thankfully!

Regardless of my right wing and sometimes apathetic political views, it was a really cool experience. Senator Clinton is a dynamic speaker and knows how to spin her message to the audience she is addressing. It was fun to think that I was able to take part in a small part of history. I did not have time to take pictures of the function, like some of my star struck servers did (seriously, camera phones out in the middle of the lunch, ugh!). I don't like taking pictures of high profile individuals. They're just people! After living in a tourist town, I never ever want to be a gaper (a nice Colorado term for tourists). Sure, it would be cool to show others, but at work, HELLO...highly unprofessional. In lieu of my own, I have posted a few pictures, courtesy of the Birmingham News.

Ladies and Gentlemen...the Grandfather of Telluride!

It was brought to my attention that I hadn't blogged about the Sam Bush show at Workplay! Sam Bush is one of my favorite artists of all time. A friend of mine, Josh Flowers, turned me into a Sam Bush fan while I living in Buena Vista, Colorado. Sam plays each year at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and is known to the Telluride Bluegrass family as the "Grandfather of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival." He started playing the festival in 1975 and has come back each year since. Sam is constantly pulled up on stage with numerous performers and has been known to pull a few up on stage with him. My favorite performance has to be a few years back when he pulled up Jean Luc Ponty on stage and they performed Ponty's, "New Country" that now appears on Sam's newest CD "Lapse in Seven." His set is typically Saturday night of the festival. Every year, it seems that I have some sort of headache on Saturday of the Festival (probably from camping for 3 nights and getting NO rest, dang festivarians!), my motto for this ailment has become, "It's nothing that a little Sam can't take care of!"

Anyway, I was privileged enough to attend this concert with an old friend, Doug Clapp. Doug was a professor of mine in college and through Young Life connections, we have stayed good friends through the years. The Greencards (what a band!) opened for Sam. Doug and I noticed during the show that all of Sam's equipment still had "New Grass Revival" stenciled on it. I thought it was pretty dang cool that I was staring at the mixers and monitors that had helped shape the entire New Grass movement for the past 35 years! It was quite a moment for me. (Yes, I know I am a dork.) Sam played mostly songs from his new album and every so often would throw in a Bob Marley classic! The crowd was mixed with old school Revival fans and new school jam band types. It was quite a mix.

All in all, it was a fantastic night, seeing great music with a fun friend.

The Most Fantastic, Little Radio Station in Austin...

I was introduced to KGSR, when I first moved to Buena Vista, Colorado to work at Frontier Ranch. Caroline Davis (now McGlade) had the majority of the Broadcasts CDs. Each year the various performances from artists that stop by the studio are compiled into one (technically 2) CDs and sold around Christmas time. I now listen to this fantastic station everyday at work and now I have an itch to move to Austin! Anyway, I have found several artists as of lately that I adore (or have adored for years, just fell in love with again). Here is a list...

1. Jimmy Lafave-Makes me feel like I have missed out by just now finding him.
2. Loudon Wainwright, III
3. Reckless Kelly
4. Eliza Gilkyson
5. Iron and Wine
6. Lyle Lovett
7. Cowboy Junkies
8. John Hiatt
9. Lucinda Williams
10. The Greencards

P.S. How 'bout them Rockies? First time they've headed to a NL Championship game!! Go Rox!

Rockies Win!!!

Man alive, what a game!! Of course, I leave Colorado and the Rockies get some post season action! Who would have thought at the beginning of the baseball season, the Colorado Rockies would have pulled together to win 14 of their last 15 games and then win the tiebreaker for the NL wildcard in the 13th inning? I don't think I've seen a game like that in years!! I've loved Matt Holliday for a while, but I think that I may be a Troy Tulowitzki gal now. If he doesn't win Rookie of the Year, I will be upset. Also, keep your eye on Ian Stewart, he was called up from Colorado Springs in August of this year and is one to be reckoned with, he is from Long Beach, as our friend, Mr. Tulowitzki is. He's challenged Garrett Atkins for 3rd as of lately and wouldn't surprise me if he took over next year. Next stop, Philadelphia!