Friday after work a friend and I headed to the local fairgrounds to hear some good ol’ country music. If you see my updates on Twitter, you know that it was Rascal Flatts. I have actually seen them twice before, once at the same fairgrounds. However, last time I was sitting back there:
(see the lawn in the background – yup, way back there!)
And this time, I was sitting here:
It was an amazing show! When the bass was loud enough, I could actually feel it pounding in my chest. I have never had seats so close (about 15 rows back), and I don’t think I can go back to the nosebleeds again.
There were still some odd moments – like when two Barbie look-a-likes came and sat next to us. Being 5′3″ and not quite at my fighting weight made it hard for me to stand next to them. Thankfully, my friend agreed to switch seats with me (a good deal for him, KWIM?!) and they actually left after a few songs. Then there was this guy:
(stood there with his leg up on the seat like that for the whole time they were resetting the stage after opening act Darius Rucker)
I took a bunch of pictures on my point-and-shoot (cameras with detachable lenses not allowed) and a few short videos. You can click on the collage below to see the pictures full-sized in Flickr.
Next up is Sugarland in September and Brad Paisley in October – yeehaw!!
On Saturday morning I was at a local state park with some friends taking some pictures of them, when we sat down on a bench to take a break. It was a photo shoot to capture the last few weeks of her pregnancy so there were a lot of breaks.
While we were sitting there, I heard the leaves in the trees above us rustling. We were at the beach, so at first I thought it was just the ocean breeze. That is until I looked behind me…
Can you see it?
How about now?
At least it isn’t winter. Since these lovely creatures are not native to the area, it gets too cold for them and they end up falling out of the trees. I don’t think I’d recover if one of those things fell on me!
I am sitting in my apartment listening to the rain fall, which is exactly what I was doing a week ago at this time. And it has been raining the entire week in between. And it is supposed to rain all next week.
This weekend I went for a walk around town (a little more about it on my d-blog). Got a little exercise and noticed some interesting things around me that I had never seen before. For example, this tree is right outside my apartment.
Wait…
Look at that again….
How bad of a break-up does it have to be to go back to the tree that you professed your love on and attempt to cross out your name?
… here is what it looks like at sunrise.
(and by afternoon, I mean these pictures)
Now, these shots were from last Friday. Now we are in a cold snap like the rest of the country, and I wouldn’t be caught dead outside that early in the morning. Granted our ‘cold snap’ is about 45 degrees, but that’s cold for here!
Sometimes I think I miss experiencing the seasons, living in such a tropical climate. Then, I leave work, step outside, an enjoy an evening like this – in February.
Who worries about “the cow” when it is all about the “ice cream“?
The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest.
I decided we would have an election for a class president.
We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.
We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia’s mother.
The day arrived when they were to make their speeches Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best.
Everyone applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise.
She said, “If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream.” She sat down.
The class went wild. “Yes! Yes! We want ice cream.” She surely could say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn’t sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn’t know. The class really didn’t care. All they were thinking about was ice cream.
Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.
Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream.
The other forty-eight percent of us know we’re going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.
(see the lawn in the background – yup, way back there!)
