"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."
-- Unknown
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Monday, December 22, 2008

A weekend in review

I got my first real six string, bought at the Five and Dime… played it til my fingers bled. It was the summer of ’69.

Okay, so I didn’t buy it at the Five and Dime. It was a Christmas present and I think it came from Guitar Gallery in Birmingham. And my fingers didn’t bleed, but they are sore… and I guess we’ve come a long way since ’69, and it’s actually winter.

BUT… I did get a guitar this weekend!! And while I’ve already exhausted the one song I can play, I will hopefully be learning more soon. (And by “the one song I can play,” don’t think I mean that I play it well. I mean it’s recognizable and that’s about it.)

My weekend, as a whole, was pretty fantastic.

Friday night we did the duel birthday dinner for me and my step-dad. I was very pleased when I learned that the waiters at the restaurant weren’t allowed to sing or make a big deal out your birthday. We did get free dessert though. And I think it was easier to enjoy without the off-key shouting and clapping that I’ve come to expect.

After dinner, I went down to Red Bones – the one bar in the Montevallo area. One of my best friends works there and she wanted to celebrate my birthday with me. The bar happened to be closed for repair, so it wound up being the two of us, the owner and about 10 other people having a VIP party, small-town style. (Basically just sitting around, goofing off and dancing to really bad juke-box songs.) It wound up being a lot of fun. I stayed out WAY too late, but it was definitely worth it.

Saturday, Mama and I went shopping and I got some more work clothes that were badly needed. I even got a dress! I’m SO not the dress type, but I guess I should have at least one in my closet. So now I do. I might just wear it grocery shopping later because it’s so pretty.

I also made a trip to Books-A-Million to spend my birthday gift cards (people know I’m a nerd, so I’m easy to shop for!) I spent about $95 on six new books. I’m pretty stoked. I picked up The Host by Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight books), The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, and the three Chuck Palahniuk books that I haven’t read: Invisible Monsters, Lullaby and Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey. I can’t wait to get started. The hard part is figuring out which one to read first.

THEN, it was off to the MOST amazing Christmas concert EVER. Trans-Siberian Orchestra. One word: Amazing. No… that doesn’t do it justice. Even though this was the fifth time I’ve seen them, they never get old. They went bigger and better than ever with the pyrotechnics and lasers this year. And the snow. OH MY GOSH… they blew so much snow over the civic center floor. (For those of you who live in areas where it actually snows, SHUT UP. I know you’re thinking, “Ooooh, snow. Who cares?” But for a girl in south Alabama, it was magic!)

Yesterday was Chase’s birthday party at the bowling alley. I can’t believe he’s 11!! When did that happen? He’s almost as tall as me. (I know… it doesn’t take much.) He and his friends had a great time. I wish I had their energy!! If you’ve never seen a group of 11 year old boys hopped up on sweet tea and birthday cake, you don’t know what you’re missing.

After the party, I hit the road and headed back to my new home-town for a couple days of work. My new Mitch Hedberg CD, Do You Believe in Gosh, really made the ride home enjoyable. I laughed until my face hurt.

Kevin came by for a quick dinner and some football (my Alma Mater, Troy, lost in over time to Southern Miss. Booooo.)

Then it was off to bed to rest up for the week ahead.

So there you have it – my busy, yet super-fun weekend.

What about y’all? Did you do anything fun this weekend? I’d love to hear about it! (Especially since I made you suffer through a play-by-play of mine!)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed our time together - me too. Grandma is expecting to hear silent night on the guitar Christmas day...

M

Anonymous said...

I can beileve im 11 and we wern't hiped up on tea.We were hiped up on bowling.
LB

Diane said...

Sounds like you had a GREAT weekend! I'm so glad. Happy Birthday again :)

Diane said...

Hey Chicky-doo... who had the baked ziti recipe you mentioned on your blog a while ago? I emailed Jen L., thinking it was her, but it wasn't. Oops! I need it... can't find it... and forgot to copy it when I saw it the first time! Thanks!

PS... like your new background! If I can ever figure out how to do it, I'll have a new one, too!

Heather said...

Diane - it was Jessica at SouthernYankee, but her blog is on private now. I'll see if I can find it for you, or you can send me your e-mail address and I will ask her to add you to her readers.
Jen L. is my cousin. I'm sure she didn't mind you e-mailing her! :)

Jessica said...

Good thing I'm nosy and read everyone else's comments. If you want to send me Diane's email address I'd be more than happy to email her the recipe. And add her to my list if she'd like :)
I know I've said this 1000 times, but your comments literally make me life. I really do appreciate them.. especially that last one. That meant a lot. If Trey has his way, we'll at some point end up in the Birmingham area, so we're going to have to keep in contact. It's your dad that lives there right?
I think it's great that you just went out there and bought a guitar to learn. My youngest brother (12) went through a phase last year when he wanted to learn, but I'm not sure what ever happened with that. I would love to learn how to play the piano!
Sounds like you were in hog heaven in BAM (I would be too) I have The Host waiting to read, but haven't started it yet. I'm about 1/2 through with The Shack which I strongly suggest.. then I'll start The Host.
How far is Montevallo away from where you live? Trey's grandmother and father graduated from that university!
Sorry for such the long comment!! There was so much I wanted to say, I had to make little notes.. teehee

Jenners said...

Wow! I'd be sleeping instead of blogging if I had your weekend! Sounds really awesome! You must tell what song you can play on the guitar. And now you are going to have to consider podcasts and amaze us with your guitar wizardry!

The books sound great...isn't it the best to be cut loose in a bookstore? If I ever get to leave the house by myself, that is where I head.

I just discovered Mitch Hedberg a few months ago when I saw a special of his on Comedy Central. I'm like "This guy is hilarious" and went to find out more and found out that he had died not too long ago. Bummer. I might have to check out that CD.

Glad the TSO didn't disappoint you! Your going to become like one of the Deadheads or something!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year (in case I don't talk to you before then...seems like everyone in our house might be getting sick.)

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica, Santa got the guitar for her, and it's her M that's here in B'ham, not dad...

Heather's M

hebba said...

sounds like a fun weekend. One of my resolutions is to dust off my guitar and start playing again. We can play together thru the magic of blogland!

Melanie Gillispie said...

I'm so glad you had a good weekend! I'm glad Santa brought your guitar, too!

I meant to tell you that I kept hearing this song on the radio that I really liked and one morning when I was getting ready for work I saw the video on VH1 and it was David Cook. I was very pleasantly surprised and I've been thinking about either getting his album or downloading some of the songs.

Jen L. said...

OOH! Is the one song you know Kum-Ba-Ya? Or Old MacDonald? Perhaps you could be the entertainment at Dean's party. Our band is well on it's way, what with a guitarist now!

I love that LB is leaving comments on here now. CRACKS ME UP.