Back to Reality

Well Nashville was a great city and I would certainly go there again. I now know what a honky-tonk is and it is awesome! Free live music, great band playing after great band, playing only for tips. Dancing, singing and requesting songs all night long. Broadway and 2nd Ave. felt like Disney land to me! I am a huge music fan and love live bands so this was like heaven to me. I also enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nash Trash Tour is a must for anyone going to the music city, and the visit to Lynchburg was great also. Overall, the food was reasonably priced and yummy.

The only bad thing about vacation is that it has to end. Back to reality, and my reality isn’t very joyous right now. I am certainly learning a lot about the people around me and realizing the term ‘friend’ has been way too loosely applied to many, many people. It is really amazing how once I stopped being the one to make all the social plans, trying to get people together, going out of my way for other people to celebrate birthdays and special events, trying to reach out and make new friends, suddenly my social calendar is empty and no one is reaching out to me…hint taken!

Music City, Here I come!

Yee haw! I am headed to Nashville on Thursday, and you have no idea how badly I need a vacation. It will be a fun time; days filled with sightseeing and nights filled with live music, dancing and honky tonks. Bring on the fun and bring on the fried chicken and biscuits. I cannot wait to enjoy some southern cooking! Supposedly there are a whole lot of bars, clubs and honky tonks with live bands every night and no cover charge, perfect! Since the flood waters have receded, mostly everything is now open, with the exception of Opryland and The Wild Horse Saloon. I am not upset about missing Opryland, but I do hope Wild Horse opens by this weekend. Overall, it seems we lucked out and we will be able to have a great trip despite the recent devastation that the city endured. And in a way, we will also be helping the Tennessee economy by going. I am also looking forward to The Nash Trash Tour, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and visiting Lynchburg – home of Jack Daniels distillery and Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House. It should be a blast!

What Ever Happened to Edie Brickell?

Yeah, I know she married Paul Simon, who is about 30 years her senior and eww. According to Wikipedia, she has made a few albums over the years, none reached mainstream radio, but I will check them out on iTunes. However, the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars is on my top 10 list of favorite albums of all time. It is filled with brilliantly written lyrics and great melodies. On my drive to work this morning, my iPod played one of my favorite songs from the CD and one which I can certainly relate to.

CIRCLE
Me, I'm a part of your circle of friends
And we notice you don't come around
Me, I think it all depends
On you touching ground with us.
But, I quit. I give up.
Nothing's good enough for anybody else
It seems. And I quit. I give up.
Nothing's good enough for anybody else
It seems.

And being alone Is the best way to be.
When I'm by myself it's the best way to be.
When I'm all alone it's the best way to be.
When I'm by myself nobody else can say goodbye.

Everything is temporary anyway.
When the streets are wet --
The color slip into the sky.
But I don't know why that means you and I are-
that means you and....I quit -- I give up.
Nothin's good enough for anybody else it seems.
But I quit. I give up.
Nothing's good enough for anybody else it seems.

And being alone Is the best way to be.
When I'm by myself it's the best way to be.
When I'm all alone it's the best way to be.
When I'm by myself nobody else can say...

Me, I'm a part of your circle of friends
And we notice you don't come around.
Halalalalalala

Thought I was Outside My Comfort Zone

But as it turned out; I just didn’t give myself enough credit. Trying new things may seem scary and intimidating, but actually they don’t really have to be. This past weekend, I went away for the first time ever by myself. I have several friends who love to travel alone, golf alone and even go to movies and restaurants alone. The very thought of that frightens me. I even have a friend who frequently hikes alone. That is just dreadful to me, I would be so paranoid that I would break my ankle in the middle of the woods somewhere or be attacked by an animal and no one would be there to help and it would be days before I would ever be found. Although I did have a nice weekend away by myself, I still would not do any of those other things alone. I would travel alone again, but I would not make it a regular thing, as I am a very social person and I just need to have someone to talk to…

It felt nice to be in a place without tv, computers, radio, people that I know; no distractions. One thing I realized is that I am always rushing around to get to the next thing. I am very fast at everything I do, driving, thinking, reading, working, etc. Slow is just not a speed that I ever function in, but that may not always be a good thing. We live is a very fast-paced society and with technology, things keep getting faster. I never really stop and enjoy the moment, enjoy what is already here. I am always thinking about what I have to do next, where I need to be; how I will get there and how long it will take to get there. But what the hell am I rushing for and where the hell are any of us really going anyway? One of the things I know I need to work on is enjoying this moment, being more present in my own life. Because all we really have is this moment, the past is gone forever and tomorrow may just never come.

Be Happy!

Sounds like such a simple concept, doesn’t it? But for some of us it isn’t so simple. I admit I have not been the happiest of people through the years. I have been one to say, “I will be happy when I _____”; fill in the blank with almost anything: graduate, pass the exam, have a career, get married, get a puppy, and the list goes on and on. Happiness as a future concept won’t make today a very happy day. However, recently I have been reading some insightful books and taking some great seminars and have come to realize that it really is important to be happy today. We have only one life and except for the vampires of the world, we are all mortal, and unless you can predict the future, no one knows what will happen tomorrow.

I want to share something simple yet insightful from a seminar I recently attended. The stresses and problems in life are only ‘events’, and so far you have survived every ‘event’ that has been thrown at you. In fact, you will survive every single ‘event’ in your life, with only one exception, the final one (death). So, since we realize that we can and have survived everything, the key is realizing these ‘events’ aren’t as bad as we may first think they are. If you are like me, you tend to blow some things out of proportion – traffic, bad weather, change in plans, an argument, etc. Visualize a scale from 0% to 100%, this scale represents physical ‘events’: 2% is a bump, 5% a bruise, 7% a cut, 10% a sprained ankle, 15% a broken non-dominant arm, 20% broken dominant arm, 50% loss of a non-dominant limb, etc, all the way up to 100% being the worst physical pain possible. So if you equate the other events in life to this scale, you will find that you will never reach above a 10% let alone come close to 50%. For example, traffic would probably only equate to a bump (2%) on the physical event scale, but you may act like it is the end of the world when you are stuck in a jam. Putting events into perspective like this really helps you realize that things are not as bad as we make them out to be. So, be happy!

Mother Nature – Hell Hath no fury Like a Woman Scorned!

And boy is she pissed…as evidenced by all the recent floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes and tornadoes. I swear, I have been recycling! But I do understand why she may be pissed, many people abuse this planet and we all certainly take it for granted one way or another. And like the movie 2012, these could be precursors for the end of the world. Perhaps those ancient Mayans were right; the end may be coming on December 21, 2012. But that is a topic for another day.

The reason for this post today is that a few friends and I have a trip planned for the Music City in 2 weeks. Yep, that Music City, the one that is currently under water. Just my luck that my only vacation in 2 years, (other than trips to visit family which cannot really be considered a ‘vacation’) is to a destination that is flooded. What are the odds of that? Well these days, quite good actually. So please cross your fingers with me that the flood waters recede and the city gets mostly back to normal. I could certainly use a vacation away to a fun destination. Nashville may not seem like a destination on the top of your travel list, but there is actually a lot to do there. Hopefully I will get to experience that and then tell you all about it when I return. Let the flood waters recede!