My dear friends (and Cash’s godparents) welcomed their first child, a baby girl, on Tuesday night. Abigail Mosi Swanson joined the party weighing in at 7lbs. Mother and baby are doing well and hope to be home tonight (father is presumably ecstatic). We’re all very excited to meet her, and thrilled everyone is doing so well.
Welcome, Abigail, and congrats Dan and Jenny!
This time last year, I had an INSANE crush on this guy. I’ve known him for years. We were friends of friends, before we actually became friends, and once I got to know him, I sincerely thought he was “perfect” for me. We had tons in common, always had interesting conversations, enough about us was different to contribute differing points of view on certain topics.
He wasn’t exactly available, though. Of course, I never mentioned my crush, I just acted as though friendship was all I wanted anyway. Well, of course in the mean time, as those of you that read here often, know, I fell in actual, real life, head over heals, end of the world, maddening, smitten love with someone.
I ran into him last weekend and he’s completely available now. We had a couple of beers, and after a bit of liquid courage, I confessed that I had had a crush on him. As it turns out, he had the same crush. Funny, huh? Two ships that passed in the night, I suppose. It was a weird moment for me, thinking of how different things are now, and how they might’ve turned out if things had gone a little bit differently.
And then B walked in and I lit up like a firecracker. I can’t put in words the butterflies, warm fuzzies, happy thoughts, sheer giddyness I feel about him. There’s nothing and no one that could pull me away from him or any risk I’d take because there’s nothing like this. Not for me.
There are certain people you know you can depend on in a pinch. You know the ones, they just know what to say, how to act, and in what ways to offer support. I’m so lucky for the ones I have in my life, I am certainly blessed. There are also some people, I’ve learned, that no matter HOW much you like ‘em or even LOVE ‘em, they are not the kind of person to call when you are in need.
I have a friend like this. She most always does the wrong thing. And she certainly always says the wrong thing. I feel badly for even noticing it, but its been going on for so many years, I couldn’t help but piece the instances together.
If I am feeling good about something, she will inevitably say something to, either make me aware of negativity around me or bad about myself, whichever works better. If I need advice, she will imply superiority immediately and then dispense horrible advice. Now, God forbid, if I’m in a bad spot she will say the absolute worst thing a person could say to someone feeling the way I might be feeling. Its really remarkable actually.
I can’t decide if she’s a “frenemy” or if she really has that bad of an intuition of what to do or say. She’s a super nice person otherwise. Really she is. And she seems to care about me. I think she is sincere in that, but she absolutely always hurts my feelings, makes me feel worse, or offends my sensibilities.
Can she possibly be doing this without any knowledge or do you think she subconsciously feels better about herself by making me feel worse? I do know other people like that, but I choose to not befriend them. I should add that I don’t have it in me to actually tell her that she is hurting me. I’m just not made that way. I’m a coward. That’s actually what got me thinking about it this time around because I was all set to say, “You know what, you said the absolute worst thing I could imagine someone saying and made me feel ten times worse than I did when we began our conversation”. But I’m a chicken and decided to write about it instead…
My good friend’s brother auditioned for a new reality t.v. contest, Tontine, hosted by Boston Rob. He got a call back(!) and they asked him to post a video on youtube. 20% of his overall score to determine if he should be a cast member will be based on # of hits and ratings for his video. PLEASE check out this link, tell all your friends, spread the word far and wide! Help a “good ole boy from Tennessee” for a chance at winning the (highest ever) $10 million Grand Prize.
We’ve got 6th (!) row tickets for Scott Miller on Saturday night at the Bijou Theatre. Scott always brings his “A” game, but this is most certainly my favorite place around here to see a concert. Its a solo show, but I hear there’s going to be some special guests. Chris Knight is opening and after seeing him at last year’s Americana conference, I’m on his bandwagon as well. Tickets are still available. What are you waiting for?
Here’s a trailer for his Mule Train thingy he did a few years ago:
So they are finally re-opening the Sunsphere to the public. 
I think its a great idea and something that should have been done a long time ago. Its been hard to explain why we have this odd structure right in the center of downtown and you couldn’t even go in it to enjoy the view.
For me, its a little bittersweet, though. See, until Monday, I worked for the guy who’s company has control of the Sunsphere. I had promised B. that I would take him up in it. He’s been here in Knoxville for nine years and it was something he had wanted to do for about nine years! I got permission from my boss and had all but made the appropriate arrangements to take him up. The last conversation I had with my boss about it, he insisted it was really hot up there so we decided to wait. Maybe the old boss man didn’t want me to go up, I don’t know. He never acted like it. He acted like it was no big deal for me to go. But I had NO idea they were re-opening it so soon.
So I’m glad it open, I really am. I just wish I had acted a little sooner because seeing my boyfriend’s friends bragging about going up in it before he had was such a bummer! (Especially the one that just moved here a couple of years ago!)
Check. Check.
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I really thought it was innovative in its hilariousness. I laughed out loud at MANY parts of the movie and, since Katie had warned me, I wasn’t at all off-put by the toilet humor. Judd Apatow’s humor is different than anyone else making movies.
I would agree that certain people wouldn’t find it so funny, but I did, and mainly because I could identify with it. I KNOW those guys in that movie. I KNOW women like the ones in the movie too. It could have happened to me (it could still, I guess!) and some of that stuff has happened to me. I’d recommend it to many people. I wouldn’t say all people.
Like my mom.
**Spoiler Alert**
*If you haven’t seen Knocked Up and don’t want to know something, STOP READING NOW!*
Okay, its not that much of a spoiler.
So they show the baby crowning in the movie. They. Show. It. Now, it doesn’t bother me, offend me, disgust me, or anything and I had already heard they did, but I was still a little surprised. I was telling my (MWC) friend about it this morning, and she said, “I don’t see what the big deal is.” I realized how different people can be, the kid-having, and the child-less. She has done and said things like this in the past, just a passing and nonchalant ever-so-slight dig. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to still be dating.”
Now, I’ve seen a birth before, a couple of home movies from friends. I truly felt she was almost insulting me because I had found that shocking. I am well aware of how babies are made, grown, and born, but, just like I asked her, “Name ONE R-rated movie that you actually see a woman’s VAGINA!” You can’t. I’d guess it doesn’t exist, because as soon as you show the, um, you know, for lack of a better term, money shot, I’d guess it becomes X-rated. But she was condescending in her tone, it was as if I shouldn’t be shocked at all by a pretty-realistic childbirth scene in a very popular movie.
On Friday I went to the World Grotto to see Tim Easton, of whom I am a long-time fan, and Carrie Rodriguez, who tops my significant other’s *cheat list. A group of us had planned to go, mainly a couple of B’s friends (who fought over Carrie’s affection the entire week prior) and us, but none of them were very interested in Tim Easton’s set, and, of course, that was the one I was anticipating.
As soon as Tim started, though, they were enthralled. 
It was just him with harmonica and guitar. It was such a phenomenal show After being frustrated by uninterested VERY-talkative (oddly enough seemingly all lesbian) attendees, he asked for requests and promptly played my favorite song (YAY!), Rewind, off his first album. His stage presence combined with the audience actually having requests finally caught the ear of the talkers and provided a few uninterrupted beautiful songs before his set was over!
I was less familiar with Carrie Rodriguez’s stuff, but she is a super-talented fiddle player with evidently a
huge lesbian following. (The guys credited it to her opening for Lucinda Williams a few months ago, but I’ve never noticed an sexuality-unbalanced audience at a Lucinda Williams show. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have noticed this time had they all not been screaming to talk OVER Tim Easton’s set.) I had seen her a few years ago when she performed with Chip Taylor, of Wild Thing and Angel of the Morning, fame. They made a few duet albums and now she’s got a solo album out. She really was outstanding. Towards the end of her set a couple of the guys from The Greencards, who had played the Bijou earlier that night, joined her on-stage for a few songs. When Tim Easton came back out they all joined in and played my other fave of his Don’t Walk Alone. (You can hear it here, with a weird Dr. Who video?!?) The sound was great, the music was great, and the company was great. Gotta love it when a plan comes together.
*It’s a joke, people.
When I told the beau about the Tony Rice/ Alison Krauss tickets, he was disappointed. He’d been looking forward to the baseball game for a week and had already invited friends. He would go, of course, but I hate to see him disappointed.
I called my best friend Betsy and asked her how easy it would be for her to get a sitter. “Impossible”, she said because they had a Mother’s Day picnic to go to with her mom and step-dad. She said she didn’t even want to know why because she knew it was probably something really good. “No”, she said, “tell me.” When I told her about the tickets, she screamed, hung up, called her mom, asked her to watch the kids after the picnic and called back to squeal about the show with me for a few minutes.
Betsy’s a mom with two kids and she doesn’t get to do things like go see Alison Krauss at the Tennessee Theatre that much anymore. She also doesn’t get to have enough “date nights” with her husband. I was so glad that so near Mother’s Day AND her anniversary, she got to have a nice night out, seeing music she loves with the person she loves. It made me happier than if I had gone myself.
And I got to eat $1 hot dogs on a beautiful, warm, summer evening watching baseball with mine.
How did I get here? Well besides my mom and dad making sure of it, that is. Well, I’ve been reading a message board, or one of its versions, for several years now. Its called KnoxBlab now. It used to be the MetroBlab and BubbaBlab, but now, its KnoxBlab. And there are all kinds of cool people on it. Some people aren’t so cool, but we won’t go into that here. At least, not now.
A few of the posters there have blogs of their own. And I read ‘em. Every day. Well not EVERY day, but when I have time. A couple of them have become my neighbors recently, and I’d even consider ‘em friends. KAG used to work for the paper I work for so I was familiar with her work. She blogs about her family, hew new husband, JAH, and just life in general.
They blogged last year about a husband who was struggling with a mysterious illness that eventually claimed the life of his beautiful wife, and soul-mate. I refreshed AT’s blog religiously every hour. It was captivating how such a sincere “everyman” could write so eloquently and unabashedly about love, losing, and life. He also writes a great Sunday Haiku series, which is why I wrote one of my own on Monday.
As it turns out, he’s a cool guy, great father, and has cool taste in music. I’d consider him a friend as well. Plus his brother has a killer Mohawk and I saw him a couple of times one day about a month before I met he and AT. I like coincidences that make you realize you’re supposed to notice things.
I really enjoy reading about them and their lives and I used to write a lot more than I do now, so I thought this might be a good way to vent and create. I’d like to get some comments sometimes, but I think you gotta type something risque or have a lot of blog-readers. I’ll have to wait for that I suppose.
