Bringing the Drama

A couple of weeks ago my sister emailed me to tell me Paul McCartney was playing in Atlanta and Dallas, and how much fun would be to go to the show with our dad. My dad was a fan of The Beatles growing up, in fact he still has a couple of original vinyls. When the Anthology was coming on the TV, my dad watched it and my sister became a hardcore fan. She owes loving The Beatles to my dad, and she asked me in her email “how cool would it be to go with dad?” I told her I’d go, and she should ask our parents if they wanted to go. She emailed them and by lunchtime my parents were in. The plan was set to go to the Dallas show (my sister didn’t want to go to a GA show which ATL is) in mid August. It would be the first family vacation together since we all went to Dollywood back in 1998 I think. My sister told me when she went to ask for the vacation days off she almost started crying because this trip is that important to her. And I guess it is, to do something you’ve always wanted to do with the person you’ve always wanted to do it with. I get that, it’s cool.

I was tasked to get tickets since I have an AMEX and there was a presale. Before I bought the tickets, I called my parents to make sure my dad’s email compliance with my sister’s request was not my dad’s instantaneous response to something he had not thoroughly considered, because the tickets were a bit pricey. My mom assured me they were for real, so I went and bought tickets. They were EXPENSIVE! Double the most expensive ticket I had ever bought, but like that expensive ticket to Coldplay in 2006, there was more to going to this show than to see a show, it’s more like a quest. This was PAUL MCCARTNEY, this was in the new Cowboys Stadium (an epic example of extravagance in America), and it was going to be a family event. I was told money was no object and get the best ones I could of the cheapest price level. The presale had started a couple of days before, so that is probably why we are further back, but I think we’ll be fine. We’re in the club level on the sideline, so we’ll be able to see that GIANT HD screen like Jerry intended. The plan will be to drive up the morning of the show (Jen and I are going to a show the night before on the 18th) and then come home a couple of days later after seeing where the assassins killed JFK and a Rangers game. It should be awesome, and the magnitude of seeing Sir Paul hit me a couple of days after I bought the tickets. I’m going to see the guy who wrote Paperback Writer. He’s going to sing it (well maybe, I mean, PW is my favorite Beatles song so I hope he does). I’m going to be able to sway arm in arm with strangers and sing the chorus of Hey Jude. YES!

My dad and my sister had gone to see this show called Beatlemania a while back, where it’s a bunch of guys dressed up and covered Beatles songs. So last night my dad’s telling me “it’ll be better than Beatlemania!” and I told him “It won’t be Beatlemania, it’ll just be Beatle, and it will be a lot better.”

(The whole idea of blogging kind of got put on hold the past week or so because all I could think about was how some people just shouldn’t be parents. There was a local story here that was on my mind almost every time I thought of blogging, but it’s so frustrating and sad, that I didn’t want to put any of that on here.)

On Monday afternoon I had an appointment with my eye doctor, the same doctor who has in the past called me to just hang out. Allow me to explain…

He was recommended to me by my old eye doctor when I realized that doctor was not on my insurance. Anyway, my current doctor is cool, and I think about 3 or 4 years ago we were making small talk at some point and he told me he was a volunteer fireman. The next year when I saw him, I asked him how that was going. We talk about it every time I go now, which is not awkward itself. He’s tried to recruit me too, but I’ve turned him down. The problem is the calls after I leave the office, to numbers that are in my file that I did not actually give him when I saw him. Two years ago he called my cell phone and left a couple of voice mails. I wasn’t screening my calls, just not able to answer the phone. He was calling to see if I wanted to meet up with him and his fellow firemen for karaoke at a local bar. Last year he called me on my work phone to see if I needed my contacts polished, and also if I wanted to go hang out. I had been out of town, so when I got back I listened to my messages. The first voice mail was about how he could polish my contacts if I needed them polished, the 2nd was the same thing, but he was leaving at a certain time, the 3rd was that I could come later if I wanted because he was staying longer than he thought. I don’t find this anywhere near as creepy as the run-ins with CGG, but it’s odd. He’s a pretty decent guy, just looking for another guy friend to go hang out with (he has pictures of his grandkids in his office), and I guess he sees me as awesome, and wants to hang out with me. I guess I feel like I want to keep our relationship professional, so I’ve never called him back. I did see him in the local bar doing karaoke one night when I had gone out with a couple of work friends, but that was totally accidental.

So Monday was my yearly checkup. It was a little weird because I was the only patient under 70 it seemed like. The nurse did her pre doctor visit thing and then the doctor came in. The conversation wasn’t too awkward, although he did tell me about a fireman who was getting fired and how his friend he used to go sing karaoke with had moved or something. On the way out, he told me how his wife was now changing shifts so he was going to need something to do on Friday nights or something. I told him good luck. I know he was fishing, but I was not biting. I haven’t gotten any phone calls since either….another win.

The main thing about the visit was that my prescription isn’t changing (go gas permeable contacts!) so I won’t have to buy new contacts or glasses. I like my new glasses, so I was glad I won’t have to worry about updating them. They even said I’m seeing at 20/15!

I walked out with my eyes still a little dialated and made it to the grocery store to pick up some bread. While there I managed to find what must be the last sixer of Abita Strawberry for 2009. I had not seen any in stores since the beginning of summer! I found it inside the walk in cooler for the beer. That particular store has the walk in cooler where they keep some of the higher end stuff, and I walk in there mostly just to look around and see if there’s anything interesting. Monday I saw the Abita Strawberry sitting on a shelf and couldn’t believe my luck. I quickly picked it up and brought it home. It is THE BEST ABITA THEY MAKE and I’m sure my friends will be happy when we have our Saints party in a couple of weeks.

The picture below is the crape myrtle tree in my front yard. It was one of the left over yard improvements from the previous owners that until this year really didn’t seem to flourish at all.

One morning last weekend I went outside to water the plants in the new flowerbeds about 9 am. It was later than when I water during the week, but one of my plants has been contemplating giving up on life, so I’ve been adamant about watering. So I’m out there and I notice a lot of activity around the crape myrtle tree. It’s an audible buzzing sound and I notice the tree’s flowers are covered in bees. Both bumblebees and regular bees just going about their business gathering nectar. I maintained my cool and kept watering my plants, but kept an eye on the bees. I’m not allergic to bees, but I figured being stung by over 100 bees would probably not be good. I thought about how I’d have to drive myself to the hospital and how long I’d have, etc. I remembered though the golden rules of wild animals “if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you” and “they are more afraid of you than you are of them.” I kept watering and was only a few feet from all the nectar drinking with my bright yellow hose, but nobody bothered anyone. I tried to take pictures but bees apparently are tough to capture on film. I did catch one of my new yard friends though for a closeup.

The bee activity has been going on for a week now. I get up to water the plants at 6 am, and there are no bees, but maybe one or two early risers. The majority of them get there about 8 or 9. The first time I noticed a bee in my yard was when a big bumblebee appeared to check out my oleander plant. I had no idea the crape myrtle tree would be such a hotspot.

I keep a list of every concert I’ve ever been to, and one of the first few concerts I had ever gone to see was ZZ Top with my dad when I was in high school (or maybe junior high). I don’t know because I don’t remember the date, and what I’ve found via google is either 1991 or 1996, but I thought it was 1994. Anyway, I remember my dad and I sitting up left of the stage at UNO surrounded by a bunch of tough biker type people. I really don’t remember at the time knowing many of their songs except for the songs that were made into videos, so when they scheduled a show for Biloxi I was excited to get the chance to see them knowing more of their songs. I still don’t know a lot of their stuff, but I do know my favorite song is “La Grange”. I LOVE playing the song on GHIII (and have since gotten 5 stars on medium).

So on Friday night, I picked up my dad and we went to this BBQ place he had found out about that has a location in Gulfport. It’s been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (according to the magazine article posted at the door), which means it’s probably the first time I’ve eaten at a DDD blessed place. The food was good, and by that I mean the pulled pork and the banana pudding. I love homemade banana pudding….also sweet tea. Winner.

The ZZ Top show was at a casino, which I generally do not like going to. They seem cool on TV, but actually going to one and seeing people who probably should not be dropping money into slot machines sitting there entranced doesn’t make me feel good. To get to the theatre, we had to walk through 2 levels of casino, which I guess was a planned thing. The theatre was pretty small, and I would estimate about 1250….maybe 1500….people could fit in there. There were three bars that I saw, and all of them were full up with people in line buying drinks about 15 minutes before show time. I thought about getting a drink, but by the time I wanted to go there were too many people in line. Also, the people on our row didn’t really seem to realize it’s easier for people to walk past you if you stand up and make an effort, than just sitting there and hoping no one trips on your knees.

The show started and the sound wasn’t very good. Billy’s mic was all messed up, and Dusty had to sing a few verses, but they eventually got things situated. I knew judging from recent setlists that they saved most of their hits for the 2nd half of the set, and that’s just what they did. Since they were in Mississippi, they did some blues covers, which was cool. People were still yelling out for songs in between though, as if they weren’t going to play “Sharp Dressed Man”.

They had guitars that had gold glitter on the front, and were bright purple on the back. They even still had the synchronized steps and sways going, which was awesome. Billy showed off by playing one handed, which I’m still not sure how he pulled that off. I tried to take some pictures, but unfortunately there was a stage light directly pointed in my direction, so sometimes it was like watching the band play directly in front of the sun.

“Just Got Paid” was amazing, as were the fur covered guitars they used for “Legs”. They saved “La Grange” for the encore, which was alright with me. The last song they did was “Tush” which had about half the theatre standing up. People didn’t stand up much at all except for some people down in the pit section, and even they didn’t stand up until the end. I thought the show was great, but the venue kind of sucked. The sound was just okay, the seats were crowded together (at least there were cupholders), and we had to walk through a lot of casino to get to the theatre. Despite all that, we saw ZZ Top live again and if they came back to the same place, I’d probably want to go again. On the way out my dad and I posed with show posters.

A few months ago my small group friends and I were at the Abita Brew Pub and discussed Twitter since it had been in the news. We all laughed about it as something that was beneath us, and we didn’t really see the point of it. My friend Sam said that he’d just have a constant update of “I’m twittering”. I had gotten emails from a couple of people for me to join Twitter because they wanted to follow me. Follow me? It just seemed a little too creepy. Then a week or so later I read an article about Shaq’s twitter, and how he tweets all the time, and people have actually met up with him because of Twitter. So I softened a bit on the “Twitter is stupid” stance. Then someone on the Ryan Adams board I read posted his new Twitter page, so I read that. I found John Mayer’s too and thought maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. Then I started keeping track of the upcoming Voodoo Fest lineup, and the way they put out information was Twitter. The stupid way they would post bands is irrelevant really, but I thought it was very lame and frustrating to jumble up band names for some game. Anyway, then I was checking information on the upcoming new album from Mute Math, and again, they used Twitter to get out information. I was also trying to find out if the album release show in NOLA would be open to the public (it is). Basically I was keeping track of Twitters without being on Twitter.

I had told my friend Whitney about Twitter because she had never heard of it, then she joined. So when we were at that Brandi Carlile show a while back, she was keeping track of tweets on her Blackberry. Then I started to find out that my friends who were not really hard core tech people had twitter. So then I thought, when weird stuff would happen at work with BO Guy, I would think “I would so twitter that.” Sometimes ridiculous things happen to me, and I don’t always remember to blog about it, so I think twitter could be a good thing. I could twitter from concerts to share things like pictures, or at sporting events where crazy things are happening (like the Hornets being blown out). The possibilities seem to be endless.

In April when I went up to North Carolina, I noticed my friend Mike had gotten a Blackberry. I used to HATE Blackberrys, because they were the symbol that work would always have their hook in your mouth and could email you at any time. Managers at my job are assigned them just for this purpose. I never really liked the idea of being connected all the time. My phone does the job it needs to do and I’ve had the same model phone for 4 years. I liked it so much that I bought a replacement off of ebay when it died instead of going to get a new phone. As I started to get more and more interested in Twitter, I thought I should get a Blackberry. I didn’t really want to pay the data plan fee though. I still don’t know if that’d be a good thing. Of course it would be nice to have all that ability, but for $30 extra a month? I realized it was a WANT more than a NEED. I emailed friends with Blackberrys though and asked if they were worth it. All of them pretty much confirmed that they were.

Then last week Carla told me she twitters just fine with a regular phone like I have. Of course, her’s is more fancy with a keyboard and all, but it’s still a basic phone. Now I’m still resisting because it’s technology. My friend Trey didn’t have a cell phone for the longest time and I thought that was so cool. He was like a backwards pioneer! Then he got one a year or two ago, so he was no longer the backwards pioneer he once was. I was slow to succumb to myspace, facebook, and iPods, so this should not come as a surprise to anyone.

I feel joining Twitter is inevitable. I have decided when that day comes, that I’ll be even more snobby than I am about Facebook. I am very picky when it comes to facebook friends, and right now I have 6 people who have requested alliances (that’s what the pirate translation calls FRs) who I’m letting sit there. it’s not that I want to be a jerk about it, but I guess I like to have FB friends count. If I wasn’t friends with you in HS, then why should I be your FB friend? Same with people I’m on a message board with, who I’m not really friends with, that doesn’t count either. So maybe Twitter just lets anyone follow you, but I’m not going to be following all of them. I kind of want to be like a celebrity and have way more people following me than I follow. Isn’t that the sign that you’re cool now? (Btw, I think the only cool white person was Fonzie)

Now I just need to come up with a username.

(this actually happened 3 weeks ago, so pardon the tense it was written in, i just never got around to publishing it)

so last night i stayed up way too late playing around on the internet. nothing special, but i got caught up watching videos on youtube and reading about soccer. about 1 am, i turned off the computer and was turning off all the lights to go to bed. i decided to have a look at the hibiscus along the sidewalk in front of my house. it is one of the remaining plants from the flower bed renovation of 2006, and i’ve noticed the past couple of days since the more recent renovation, that it is starting to look like it’ll bloom for the first time since the summer of 2006. it was late, and i thought i’d turn on the front light and have a look. so i turn on the light and look out the window by my front door and look at the hibiscus, then i looked up and noticed a car parked across the street with people just hanging out. i turned off the light and the rest of the lights, but i found ways to keep an eye on these people. they were parked across the street along the windowless side of the house directly across the street from my house.

my street’s relatively quiet at night, because it’s not along the main road in the neighborhood. it’s really nice actually, unless there’s a mysterious car parked on it. i went into the front bedroom of my house and peered out the holes in the blinds, because obviously they knew i was awake, or had been, and besides, i didn’t want them to KNOW i was watching them. i didn’t call the cops for the same reason, they’d know who called the cops because i turned on the freaking front light to look at my hibiscus. i was just making sure they weren’t doing anything illegal. it just seemed really really odd. after about 10 minutes, i got tired of watching and went and brushed my teeth. i heard the car drive off right before i went to bed. i have no idea what those 3 (who i could see) people were doing, but next time that happens i’m calling the cops….unless i turn on the front light to look at the hibiscus again.

1 – Clemson advanced to a Super Regional, while south carolina blew a 3 run lead in the 9th and lost in 10 innings
2 – saw a dancing drink cup outside Sonic
3 – rode my bike down to Sonic for the free root beer float
4 – sweet relief at work
5 – hang out time with the folks watching the LSU game
6 – slept late, watered the new plants, and grilled salmon, also watched the US beat Honduras
7 – mowed my lawn, relaxed the rest of the day
8 – bought sweet potato chips at the store
9 – set out to run 4 miles and made it
10 – made some good progress on something at work
11 – hang out time with the Taylors, and a Zephyrs game was going on in the background
12 – had a great salad for dinner at La Madeleine
13 – went to and from BR safely to take defensive driving class and the class went better than i expected; LSU won their first CWS game
14 – early church, breakfast with my mom, finally saw the cover for the new Mute Math album and LOVED IT
15 – LSU won their 2nd CWS game!
16 – dinner with my family for my mom’s birthday; RUM RAMSEYS!
17 – did two sets of exercises at the gym in less than 45 minutes!
18 – grilled salmon and broccoli….and beer
19 – grilled burgers and made sweet potato fries
20 – nice relaxing Saturday watching the US Open
21 – great Father’s Day lunch with my family
22 – Lucas Glover, fellow Clemson alum of ‘01, won the US Open, and I got to watch the last few holes
23 – fun dinner with my sister and aunt
24 – the USA beat Spain! LSU won the CWS!
25 – after a pretty terrible day all around, i got to have a long talk with a fellow counselor about youth group and church that pretty much made up for all the crappy stuff from before
26 – peach milkshake at CFA!
27 – figured out issue with something at work while being paid OT
28 – had parents over to watch the USA/Brazil game…..i think i may have converted them
29 – saw a Mastercard commercial that features a guy i’ve played poker with
30 – bought new sunglasses at Target on the way home (i was stopping there anyway)