Bringing the Drama

so earlier today i thought i was going to have two fantastically awkward carpool stories. unfortunately i only have one, while the other never came to fruition. this kind of stuff keeps happening, and i keep writing it down for the inevitable tv show.

first of all, one of the team members, Bryce, told us a couple of weeks ago that he was going to have to start leaving later, about half an hour, and wanted to know whether or not we’d consider moving back the leave time from 6:20 to 6:45. he said he was going to have to start bringing his kids to a daycare and the earliest he could drop them off would be 6:45. the rest of us talked about this in the car last week on a day when Bryce was not riding. Chad was the only one with “kids at daycare” experience, and he said while Bryce says 6:45, it will be almost impossible for him to actually drop the kids off at 6:45 everyday….maybe one of the workers will be late, the kids will be late, etc. i agreed, saying it would be adding another variable to the equation with now we would have to have the daycare worker be on time so Bryce could drop the kids off right on time. the vote was two NO’s and two abstentions (which were copouts). then we all talked about who was going to tell bryce.

yesterday, we’re riding to work, and Chad is driving with Bryce in the passenger seat. i’m in the back middle because i was RIGHT ON TIME but also the last one to arrive. Bryce asks the question about his proposal, and what we had decided. dead silence in the car for a few seconds. it had already been a lull in the conversation, so immediately the silence turned awkward. Chad then says his wife likes the time he gets home now, and wouldn’t want to have him getting home any later. i don’t remember if he said about how the new time wouldn’t really be the time. he then brought up how Ryan has a 7:30 meeting, and he had to be on time for that. dead silence. no one was saying anything. Bryce offers up the meager ‘okay’. i notice Ryan sitting next to me trying not to laugh at what is going on. then i think about it, and it’s the most awkward moment in all my days of riding in the carpool. so i start trying not to laugh, but i don’t do a very good job, and my laugh was audible. whoops. i feel bad for him, because carpooling is awesome. I’m sure he’ll be able to find another ride though.

the other story involved carpool team member Thomas and the 500 lb saw. he purchased it off some government website where they basically liquidate stuff they seize. he had bought an industrial saw. it was going to be shipped from wherever in the US it was to NOLA at a location near work. the plan was Thomas was going to have Ryan drive his truck today and then after work stop by and pick up the saw. it was a big deal yesterday trying to figure out if the bed was going to be wide enough, etc. the saw was thought to be near 500 lbs while coming on a 4′ x 4′ pallet. then someone asked “how are you going to get the saw out of the truck?” awkward silence. then we started coming up with theories….”you could just push it out and hope it lands upright”, “throw the truck in reverse real quick and then stop short”, etc. none of these really were going to be viable solutions. so today i was ready to get a picture of this giant saw. sadly this afternoon, Thomas decided to have it delivered (for a fee of $119 [a pittance if you ask me!]) by people with a real truck used to deliver 500 lbs pieces of industrial equipment.

i have two stories about the carpool coming up later tonight. one from yesterday, and one from later today. yes, i think a future story is going to be worth telling you about. for now though, here are some random Olympic thoughts….

i watched the mens’ 4x100m freestyle relay 7 times since it happened Sunday night. i was at the concert Sunday, so i didn’t get to see it live, but i watched it a few times Monday morning, then yesterday i watched it again rewinding it again and again to see Lezak out touch the French dude. i read an NYT article that was really good too all about the race. it was incredible, and the swimming is not over!

so my blog friend Mandy has a crush on Michael Phelps, and this week i have developed a crush on Natalie Coughlin. however, when i told Kari i’d like to lead the NC Fan Club, she said Mike has led the club since 2004. i am willing to take the VP slot.

the online coverage is awesome. no commentators, not even on stuff like basketball and baseball. all you can hear is the crowd, so it’s more like you’re actually there than having a commentator tell you something that doesn’t really matter.

i have become a fan of team handball. it seems to be a combination of basketball, ultimate frisbee, and soccer. how is it not a big sport here? the US National teams don’t even make the Olympics! hopefully that will change soon.

i’ve seen plenty of commercials for some new show with Christian Slater. my first thought was “Corey Feldman wasn’t available?”

one of the most awkward parts was watching the US/Nigeria soccer game on Telemundo yesterday morning while i was getting ready for work. the US looked bad, and when they finally scored on a penalty, the commentator goes GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! but the US team was pretty much out of it, and they’re looking dejected. it seemed weird for the announcer to seem excited about a goal in that situation.

last night i skipped out on being a youth counselor to take in another show. i had heard Brooke Fraser was supposed to be super great, and opening for her was William Fitzsimmons, who i had also heard good things about. tickets were pretty cheap, so i had it on my radar. Sunday afternoon, i realized i should go since i’ve been into a few female vocalists lately and would kick myself if i didn’t go see BF when she was playing the small Parish Room at the HOB. i called up a couple of people and away i went.

Blind Melon was playing the main room last night, so there was a mixed crowd milling around outside. as we walked by the BM tour bus, we saw a girl dressed in a bee costume sitting outside the door. at first i thought she might be with the band in some capacity, but as i looked back to make sure of what i saw, the Chinese symbol tattoos on the back of both of her thighs made me think she was just a super fan, and she is stuck in 1993.

I know BF was headlining, but I think I liked WF better. He was pretty funny, and made good comments between songs. He was telling the story about he had just shaved his head, because the long hair was bothering him, and he was thinking of shaving his beard (he has a long beard). He started talking about how he hates eating Ramen with it, he gets stopped in airports all the time, then kind of stopped himself with “Get the terrorist off the stage!” anyway, I thought he was funny. He had a vibe of a guy who should have been on the Garden State soundtrack, which i thought was an amazing soundtrack.

BF on the other hand, I really liked her voice, and her songs were great, but when she started talking she sounded trippy. she made Ryan Adams sound like a member of MENSA (i love RA of course). she blamed the heat and humidity of New Orleans for her strange tangents. Before she played “Albertine”, she told the story about her writing it and her trip to Rwanda. It was pretty cool to hear, and it kind of made up for the previous nonsensical banter.

The one thing that maybe started me off not liking her was someone up front [about 5 songs in] asked her to play a song (I couldn’t hear it, it was a small venue so the guy was literally a couple of feet away I think) and she went off about how she wouldn’t play it and she “doesn’t go to your church and sit in your pews and expect you to play a song”. the BF crazy reaction just kind of went against the vibe of the show. It seemed most people knew she was with Hillsong, so you have most of the crowd who’s normal, then you have parts of it who are the Christians at a club for the first time, so they’re trying to act cool…..then you have the people who are there because it’s the HOB and they didn’t have the money for Blind Melon. Anyway, after WF, everyone was in a good mood, and BF comes out with her sultry voice and is crooning. Her reaction to the song request was like when a record stops suddenly, you know? I thought she could have handled it a little better considering the show.

(sorry, no pictures yet cause my phone sucks at taking pictures, but i’m supposed to get a couple emailed to me)

so a few months ago my friend Brandon introduced me to the band Paramore. i really liked their sound, and when they scheduled a show for NOLA, Brandon and i made plans to go. my friend Chet was also going with a couple of people, so Wednesday night we all met up at a bbq place near the venue then walked over.

none of us had been to The Sugar Mill before, so it was a new experience for everyone. i thought it was really great, NOLA needs to have a venue like that, because the HOB seems too restrictive and other clubs are too small. The Sugar Mill was just the right size for a theatre sized band. hopefully in the future, they will host more shows, because i think they could snag a bunch of different bands if they really wanted to.

anyway, there were three openers led off by Paper Route. i first heard about Paper Route from my internet friend Jeff after he took in one of their shows in ATL. i thought they were fantastic. after listening to some of their songs online, i thought they reminded me of Death Cab, but after seeing them live, i thought they were more like a lovechild band of Death Cab and Mute Math. i thought they were the best opener of the night.

i had not heard much from Phantom Planet in years, and i was probably one of the few in the place who had seen them live multiple times (ie twice in 2004). they were good, but they played mostly new songs that i didn’t know, and then of course they had to play California. they only played 30 minutes, same as PR, but the lead singer had enough time to walk across the crowd to a post, then jump off and crowd surf back to the stage. that was pretty cool. [i remember him doing a similar thing when i had seen them in 2004, only this time he didn't have to avoid light fixtures from a low ceiling.] oh, and he dropped a few f-bombs in an all ages show with a bunch of parents standing near the back, so it was pretty funny to hear the crowd reaction to that. it sounded awkward and excited at the same time, and we wondered how many parents would not let their kids buy any PP stuff.

the third band, Jack’s Mannequin, was alright, but i didn’t really get into them. the lead singer’s voice kind of bothered me.

Paramore came out and immediately the crowd went ballistic. i thought they had a great stage presence, and that chick can sing and has an endless amount of energy. she moved from the time they hit the stage all the way through, with only a couple of songs where she was stationary to play the keyboards. they played every song i wanted to hear except for “Miracle”, but that was only a minor thing. i thought they sounded great, and the music was LOUD and intense. the highlights were “Crushcrushcrush”, “That’s What You Get”, “Pressure”, and the stripped down acoustic version of “My Heart”. i would definitely go see them again.

so yesterday one of my readers from the DC metro area sent me this picture of the aforementioned Seth from 1994. observe him as he plays the guitar on the right side of the picture. the man in the white tshirt was our old associate pastor from the mid 90s, while the rest of the band members remain unidentified. obviously you can see how Seth has changed over the years.

in other news, i went to a show last night with Paramore, Phantom Planet, Paper Route, and Jack’s Mannequin with a few people last night. i got home around 12:15 and didn’t set an alarm. the result is that i woke up at 8:49 am and arrived at work at 10:25 am. as comparison, i usually wake up about 5:30 am and get to work by 6:45 am. oh well, guess i won’t be leaving early today, but hopefully i’ll get home in time to clean up in case people come over to watch the saints game tonight.

(the show was pretty fantastic btw, and i’ll post about it later.)

this past weekend i went on my first excursion as a youth counselor. it was a back to school retreat in panama city beach, FL, to a place that the junior high group goes to every year, noah’s ark. i didn’t really get involved until high school, so i had never been. it’s basically a retreat center on the beach, which operates year round i think. my sister had been in 1994, and she had a blast. it was her first youth group trip, so of course those are always the BEST TRIPS EVER!

anyway, i rode over there after work with one of the other adults and a couple of the kids, and we made it there around 10:30 on friday night. we stayed up playing rock band since my friend brett had brought his 360. i got to sing ‘Gimme Shelter’, which apparently was foreign to every kid there. i used to really dig rock band and think it was impossible to say something bad about, but then when you’re trying to go to sleep at 3:00 am and all you can hear is the tap tap of someone playing the drums, you realize how annoying it can be. EVERY song sounded the same, and it was like water dripping into a faucet. (tap tap, tap tap, tap tap). the dorm we were staying in wasn’t that great, but that’s what youth retreats are all about. the thermostat in the guys’ room was up around 78 apparently the first night, so it was ridiculously hot. i fixed that for saturday night by turning it down to 70. the beds were rusty old bunk beds, but thankfully no one fell off of any and no top bunk came crashing down to the bottom. everyone got ‘enough’ sleep, which is really all you can ask for.

saturDAY a couple of the other ‘counselors’ and i went and rented motorbikes. i didn’t bring any shoes, and i didn’t really want to wear a helmet, so i got a moped. plus i kind of saved $30. the other two got motorcycles, but they didn’t go much faster than my moped, in fact, i passed brett on the beach road on my moped. we had fun riding those around, and i actually went faster saturday then i had when i rode a moped for the first time in Fairview, TN. i had it up to 42, and it kind of started shaking, so i slowed down. i about crashed into a parked truck, and almost hit a car that was stopping at a light, but hey, it was fun. i did get to ride one of the motorcycles, and it was really hard to shift with flip flops on, but i did get the hang of it.

saturday night there was a reunion concert for all of the old praise band members at noah’s ark. they have college kids come every summer to play in the band for all the youth kids that come, so there were a lot of people from various years there. mostly the 1981 band played, which was interesting. a couple of the guys who led the 1991 band kind of MC’d the event, and a band from the mid-90′s played too. the mid-90′s band sounded great, very full and loud. i texted my sister to find out if there was anyone she wanted me to get a picture with, and she suggested two people, Seth and Karen. so i patiently waited until one of them was announced to be playing on stage. finally i heard Seth’s name, and figured out he was playing bass. after the show was over, i went over and told him he was my sister’s favorite and got a picture with him. funny how one guy playing for only one summer at a retreat center can be remembered years later, and he said me telling him that made his night. awesome. don’t mind the hair, it was after a day of riding on a moped, wearing a helmet, and general beach effect.

Sunday we got up and threw the frisbee around on the beach. there was no swimming because of the strong current, but the frisbee was good enough. it was the first time i had been to the beach in a while. it was gorgeous to be out there. we drove back to the church and then i was able to hitch a ride home. i didn’t meet all the kids this weekend, and i’m terrible with names, but i did get a couple of facebook friend requests as a result, so i figure i’m making strides.

i keep wondering how this stuff keeps happening to me at work. today at work i walked into a baby shower thrown at lunch for a guy in my group, and BO guy is sitting there eating a red bell pepper raw, kind of like one would eat a peach. then later he took a phone call on his cell and it was like he was a spy…”hello? this is {his name}. why yes…(talking very quietly)” [leaving room]. i’m not saying he is a spy, but he could be! you know, a few months ago there were a couple of people arrested in NOLA for being spies for China. less than a week later, the kooky older Chinese man who used to sit near me and always complained about how we used inferior computer programs left to find another job. i’m not saying he was connected, but he could have been!

of course, that was not the most exciting part of the day. i drove the carpool today, and after we got back, i’m pulling into the grocery store parking lot (where we all meet up and park) to drop everyone off. this older lady, on her cell phone, was pulling out of the nearby KFC, not paying attention that there might be cars turning into the parking lot. my pulling into the parking lot caused her to slam on her brakes so i didn’t crash into her. as i passed her, i looked straight at her to see the phone, but also a bible verse front license plate. i also stared at her, and noticed she was staring at us. i pull up to the cars, and everyone starts getting out, then i hear someone go “uh oh, here she comes!” i look in the rearview, and the lady has followed us and is proceeding to pull along side of my car. i looked for her to look at me and start fussing, preparing to roll down my passenger window so we could “talk”, but she didn’t, she started ranting and raving at the 3 guys who just got out of my car. also, i must mention, she was STILL ON THE PHONE but had it down so she could get full volume on my passengers. my first thought was “is this for real?” i didn’t hear what was said, but she drove off rather quickly. she also drove off ON THE PHONE, she had never hung up. i rolled down my window and asked chad “what the hell was that?” and he told me she was fussing, and that he told her she was the one on the phone. i asked if they had used profanity, but they said no. i have no idea why she didn’t try to confront me….the driver, but she chose to go with my passengers. i think it might have been my new glasses, she was totally intimidated. also, i have been wearing the official scent of confidence, so i’ve been feeling pretty good lately. i hope next time the stupid driver confronts me, so i can tell them to their face how stupid they are and how i hate people who treat other drivers like they are dirt….bible verse front license plate or not!

here’s a picture…