Motherly Tendencies

As I was driving home at lunch today, I was doing what I do best. I was multi-tasking like crazy. This is not uncommon for me. I am often doing many things at once. But don't be scared. I am fully capable. I know that's what everyone says, but, really, I'm one of those people that really is capable. So don't worry about me while I text, eat, check my makeup, and observe the scenery around me all while driving. Seriously it's no problem for me.

I was being extra careful today while following through with my driving habits because it was also raining. This created an additional element to my driving scenario described above. The rain was coming down pretty good but sometimes it would turn to a heavy mist so I kept switching my windshield wipers back and forth from the low setting to a little faster setting. To the low setting. To a little lower setting (because when I would stop the car at a stoplight, the sky would just kind of spit on my windshield). So I'm going along, flipping, switching, texting, and changing lanes when all of a sudden, something catches my eye. There were some kids, they were high school age, walking along side the road and what first caught my eye is the fact that one of the girls was wearing no coat and had no umbrella. And then, I noticed that not only was this the same for a boy in the group but he was also walking. on. the road. I instantly yelled out, "Crazy children! You're going to get yourselves killed!" as if they could hear me with my rolled up windows driving by at 40 miles per hour. I shook my head disapprovingly and thought about what their mothers would think if she saw them right now.

Then it hit me. I was one of them. No, no, not the kids. No, I was one of those ad-ults who seems like they just don't know how to have a good time. I have never forgotten one time, many years ago, when I was probably 11 or 12 years old, this lady stopped me just after I had finished crossing the road on my bike. I had a drink in one hand that I had just purchased from Common Cents. I was with a friend and we were both going along feeling good about summertime and yummy drinks and riding bikes when all of a sudden someone rolls up in a car next to me and starts talking to me out her window. She told me that it was dangerous to ride my bike across the intersection, let alone with a drink in one of my hands and next time I should walk my bike across the street. I probably looked at her like she was crazy, because, frankly, that's what I was thinking. I mean, I never felt an inkling of danger, well, maybe I did a little bit, as I was trying to hold on to my drink and not fall off my bike all while not run into any of the cars stopped at the stoplight, but really, I never felt like I was doing something dangerous. So when she told me that, I just said ok and she drove off and off we went juggling our drinks in one hand and riding our bikes home.

The funny thing is that scene has replayed itself in my head a few times over the years, for no particular reason really, other than something will trigger the memory, and I'll just think how weird that lady was that she felt the need to follow us off the main road to discipline us. But today was the first day where that memory was triggered and I was a little horrified to feel a sort of kinship with that lady. I suddenly understood her desire to keep us safe even though she didn't know who the heck we were but she knew we were someone's kids and she probably hoped that if someone saw her daughter doing what I had done, they would tell her how wrong it was too. And all of a sudden I realized, I was old. I wasn't thinking about how fun it is to walk in the rain or the attention I would receive from other people who saw that I had been "caught" in the rain or the bonding I was experiencing with my friends who were also "caught" in the rain that day. No, my instantaneous thought was "You kids are going to catch your death of cold, you fools! And get out of the road. You're going to get yourself killed!" The horror. I felt like a mom. I will never again relive that memory and wonder why that lady acted so rashly. No. I will think how there should be more people in the world like her. That care. So much. But I'm not ready to join that club quite yet. I need time to mourn the loss of the child in me.

A Day in Nashville

I mentioned earlier last week that DJ would have this Sunday off and we planned on making the very most of it. Boy, did we. We woke up at 6 am Sunday morning and didn't get home till the wee hours of Monday morning. 2:09 a.m. to be exact. It was exhausting but so. much. fun. It's amazing what you can pack into one day when you really want to.

We started out the day by dropping Maia off at the vet to be boarded. This allowed us to enjoy the day that much more because we didn't have to worry about how long we were going to gone or taking her out when we got home super late. And let me tell you it was a nice break from that little rascal. She has developed a new "thing".

She picks up her bowl of water - her full bowl of water, mind you - and tries to carry it over to me. And obviously because she does not realize (or care) that her bowl is full, proceeds to dump it all over the floor. This is especially not nice because we had a scare with a broken bowl this past Saturday when a bowl was chipped and she ate a piece (we think) and had to be taken to the vet for an x-ray. Not nice.

She's claims she's sorry. Ha. Heard that one before.

But I digress, back to our Sunday adventures. We went to Mass after dropping Maia off and then we were off to Nashville. DJ found out that his buddy Hank Baskett that used to play for the Lobos and now plays for the Indianapolis Colts was going to be in Nashville since the Colts were playing the Tennessee Titans. DJ called him to see if we would be able to get some tickets for the game and sure enough, Hank was able to hook us up. So our decision was made for us and we headed off to Nashville for the day.

We got into the city a little before 11 a.m. and headed straight to the hotel to say "Hey Hank!" and get the tickets. I was excited to meet Hank since I hadn't met him before and well, he's sort of a celebrity. I mean, there's the football thing and then the fact that he married a Playboy bunny this past year and has been in the tabloids recently so, I hate to say it, but I was a little fascinated. It turns out he's very non-celebrity-ish which is a good thing and very friendly. I was surprised at how nice he was. I mean, I didn't expect him not to be but he was like, verry friendly. He hugged DJ for like 5 minutes (not really, but it wasn't just one of those half-hug, side shoulder kind of things. It was a "hey buddy! Great to see you ol' pal!" kind of hug and I thought that was nice.) and then after he hugged DJ again to tell him good bye, he hugged me and said how great it was to meet me. So yeah, very friendly and I can say it was very unexpected. (Oh, and as for the lacking picture, I had fully intended to take one and had a whole scenario planned out on how I was going to work it and then when he was so nice, I just couldn't be the obnoxious person who asks for a picture. It just felt so wrong. So, no picture of Hank but here are the tickets.)

After that, we started driving towards downtown not really having a plan and passed by Opry Land. Well of course, we had to stop there. I mean Nashville = Grand Ol' Opry.

That place was a lot cooler than I expected it to be. (I guess you could say this little day trip was turning out to be a trip of exceeding expectations.) I found out that Keith Urban will be at the Grand Ol' Opry at the end of the month. Any takers?? I reeeally want to go. DJ and I both agreed that if somehow, we had missed the fact that Carrie Underwood was, in fact, performing that night, we would have passed on the game, and went to her concert instead. We're big fans.

The grounds were beautiful outside the building. All decorated for fall.

Ahhh, fall. I love this time of year.

We continued walking and headed into Opry Mills, a shopping mall. They had all sorts of stuff to do there other than shopping but we mostly just window-shopped. Other than when we didn't. We just couldn't resist some of the stores so DJ ended up with a brand-spanking new suit. I'm going to have to plan things that require him to wear a suit now because it's one good-looking suit! Hopefully he'll get to wear it in a couple of weeks for the next away game, and I'll be able to show you pictures.

We also found this great country store called Apple Barn which I loved.

They had apples. And apple butter. And apple cider. And apple fritters. And other things not associated with apples. But I was most excited about the apple butter. Did you know, there is also such a thing as pumpkin butter, cherry butter and peach butter? I didn't, and next time I have to try some of that. For now, I stuck with good ol' traditional apple butter. Mmm. I could have spent a lot more time in that store but DJ's eyes were glazing over and not because of the caramel glazing the Red Delicious Apples.

After we made it through the mall, we were starving and were determined to seek out some traditional Tennessee BBQ. We found this.

Here.

Jack's Bar-B-Que. I know I've had me some good B-B-Q when I have found the place where pigs fly. It was amazing.

We drove around downtown a little bit, and I attempted to capture every gorgeous building with my camera. These are a few.

Pardon the obnoxious street lights and construction cones. We were taking our tour "drive-by style" and I had only seconds to capture each image. Not too bad if I may say so myself.

We ended up parking and heading to the stadium early because we thought they may have some fun tailgating activities going on. They didn't. But I do feel like I got the very most out of my free tickets. We saw all there was to see outside the stadium, including a modeling shoot.

We thought maybe it was America's Next Top Model (I've gotten DJ into that show lately) but with no tv cameras around, we decided they were just regular ol' models.

And then there was this great concert going on across the river with all sorts of big name country artists. Thank goodness, none of my most favorite artists were there otherwise I would have died since I only had a backwards view and really couldn't enjoy it that well. That would have ruined DJ's day. If I would have died. But instead we enjoyed, as much as we could, Darius Rucker, Billy Currington and Eric Church who were all warbling their tid bits across the river. And by we, I mean me. DJ hates country music. A crying shame. That's some good stuff. It was nice to have something to listen to while we waited for the gates to open. Even if it did sound like they were singing into the Grand Canyon.

When it was finally time to head into the stadium, we went in search of our seats. Little did we know that we would get to sit with the birds. Actually we watched the birds from above. We were that high. Here's a little glimpse. (Ha, the way the video freezes, DJ doesn't look too good.)

Yes, it was amusing that we were literally 6 rows from the very tip-top of the stadium. I actually, for the first time in my life, was a little scared of heights. I felt like any sudden movements, would send me catapulting across the seats in front of me. I moved very. carefully.

It was actually kind of surreal because it was hard to feel a part of the game being that far removed. We literally watched birds fly lower than us all night. Plus the surreal feeling was magnified by the fact that we were sitting amidst the minority in the stadium - Colts fans. Hank's seats were obviously with the other Colts fans and actually it was with some of the other Colts family members. We met the second string QB's parents and grandparents (who were very friendly - we talked with them for quite a bit since they got there really early too) and saw the punter's parents and a couple of the star players' parents (Saturday and Freeney). It was a different experience overall but it wasn't bad. And we were very grateful for the tickets for sure. It was our first time in a very long time to get to watch a game together since he's always on the field.

A few memorable highlights of the game for me:

It was the Sunday Night game on NBC. It didn't really do much for the game other than cause a lot of commercial break time-outs (and there were some fireworks but they were directly behind us and not quite high enough so we couldn't see them. We were higher than the fireworks.) but just the fact that I knew we were at the game that I normally see on tv was a highlight.

Trace Adkins sang the national anthem. From our birds eye view, we were able to see him arrive to the stadium with his police escort. And that's him on the screen because if I tried taking a picture of the "real" him, he'd look even less like a person. More like an ant.

We got to see Peyton Manning, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, play a great game. We also got to see Adam Vinateiri (sp?), a native Rapid Citian and Central High School graduate, play.

Again, from our birds eye view, we were able to see the bridge lit up in blue for the game.

And lastly, I can now say that, although the actual game itself was better because the skill displayed on the field is the best of the best, the game experience as a whole pales in comparison to college football. I am now a true college football fan.

Zoo News

DJ and I love the zoo. We have been to the Denver Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo, the Rio Grande Zoo, and now the Knoxville Zoo. We now know, although we had somewhat of an idea while we lived there, that we were spoiled with our Albuquerque zoo. The Rio Grande Zoo was fantastic. Depending on what you value most in a zoo, your opinion may differ. However, for us, we value good exhibits of exotic animals like lions, tigers, and the large primates, a reasonable entrance fee, and a good variety of animals that you wouldn't normally see in your local neighborhoods. A lot of you would probably agree with these criteria. So you would also probably agree that the Knoxville zoo is a one-time visit only. Now, if you have kids, which we do not and thus not a part of our criteria as mentioned above, you might disagree, because there are some cool exhibits and kids probably love it but as adults we have more (*nose in air*) sophisticated interests. (Please read all the following comments with a sophisticated stuffiness in the voice.) Such sophistications as observing animals' grazing habits,

Intriguing how he (he?) carefully munches the food with his head positioned close to the ground most likely for easier digestion.


their social interactions with other animals,
Notice the angle by which the lighter color giraffe and thus less dominant breed of giraffus maximus approaches the darker, more masculine breed of giraffus maximus.

their scavenging techniques,

I really like how the far left prairie canine is allowing the other prairie canines to do the work for him. Most likely he is the male and the others are females, thus following the instinctive tradition of gender stereotypes (what???). The prairie creature, back right, has obviously given up his desire to live.

and learning about all those educational tidbits they write on all those signs.

So interesting.

We also took a picture for Maia's benefit.

I am sometimes concerned that our poor Maia is having an identity crisis because we treat her like our child -- talking to her, cuddling her, introducing her to people -- so we thought it important for her to know who her relatives are and were she came from. I don't think she quite understood when I tried to discuss the advantages of knowing her family line.

But the most important thing of all is to understand the habits of the offspring. I believe this little chimp is learning how to associate with other chimps when interacting with this round sphere. It was very apparent. You'll just have to trust me.

It was an informational time had by all. And we did enjoy ourselves. But we won't be going back simply because it was $17/person, there were not near as many animals as there should be for that price (they don't even have polar bears or hippos, gosh) and their largest exhibit was for the black bear. Woo. Hoo. You could barely even see the more exotic animals. You had to squint through thick foliage to sort of make out the shape of lion-like figures. A bit disappointing to say the least.

But I will say this for the Knoxville Zoo. It is beautiful. Long windy paths flanked by flowers, vines and tall bamboo stalks and some of the less interesting animals like the turtles had huge grand spaces that were pretty impressive. You could get up close and personal with the reptiles. If you know me, this is the least favorite part of any zoo for me. In fact, I often skip it entirely. But this little guy is cute.

They also have a very nice Red Panda exhibit.

So I guess if you really love Red Pandas and turtles, then it is so worth the $17/person. Totally go for it.

A Day of Questions

One of the very first things I noticed when I drove into Knoxville had to do with the stoplights. Our big yellow Penske truck was stopped at the light of the exit that would take me to my new home and I noticed that the stoplight in front of me appeared to be dying. It was flashing some white intermittently with the red and I assumed it was needing to be fixed. No big deal. But then I noticed this phenomenon again. At a different light. Hm, that couldn't be mere coincidence, could it? My question was answered when I saw this happen again at another stop light. My mind started trying to work this mystery out. Why would there be a spastic blinking red light at certain intersections? It was always just one of the lights and it was always one of the end lights. I thought it had to do with the whole "turning right on red" thing but someone, I think my brother, said they had also seen the blinking light on the left side, not always the right side. So my question to you all is, what the heck is the red blinking light all about? Please solve this mystery for me.

My next question comes from the audience. One of my readers has asked me to conduct a poll to see whether a bright idea has any grounds to turn into the next "big thing." I'm all about entrepreneurial (wow, that took some brain power, but what do you know, the spell check says it's right) endeavors so here goes...

When you open a bag of chips (such as Doritos or Tostitos), do you immediately look inside to pick out your favorites and eat those first?

Think about what your "favorite" looks like. Briefly describe it.

Would you be interested in buying a whole bag of your "favorites?"

When I get some answers, I'll share a little more about what the study is researching. (ha, it sounds like I know what I'm talking about.)

And the last question of the day comes from good news on the home front. DJ gets two days off!! The next two Sundays he is free as a bird. We are making big plans. Well, trying to anyway. We can't make up our minds on what to do. So I'm going to list some of the things we have considered, and I would like to know what you think we should do. Ok? Thanks.

• Outlet Mall shopping
• Drive to the Smoky Mountains and go to a corn maze and pumpkin patch
• Tour downtown Knoxville, including some key attractions like the Sunsphere and the World's Fair Park
• Go to another state, just cause we can. I'm not sure what we would do when we got there.
• Cruise the Tennessee River on a riverboat and eat lunch or dinner.

I look forward to your suggestions!

Yesterday I attempted to start a "tradition" on this blog. I was going to end each post with information about the celebration that day is designated for. However, and this is quite funny, I didn't even give you the right day's celebrations! I gave you Monday's and it was Tuesday. I'm not quite sure how I confused my days; I guess I was just more excited than I thought. So today which is (and I doublechecked) October 7. Today is Balloons Around the World day. I don't even know what to say about that because that tells me nothing so I will just show you some pretty pictures of the Balloon Fiesta that is happening right now in Albuquerque. I miss it.

Special Days and Celebrations

I have made an interesting, and yet unsettling, discovery. I have discovered that there is a celebration/holiday/observance for every single day of the year. Some days even have multiple celebrations/holidays/observances. What's a party-loving girl to do with this wealth of information? I mean, I almost feel like, if someone went to such great lengths to designate a special day for a specific reason, it should be celebrated, dang it. Or at least acknowledged. Some days aren't celebration days, some are just "days to remember..." or stuff like that. If I had known that my simple search for a special "friend" day would cause such a burden, I definitely would have thought twice before searching, trust me. I don't need this kind of pressure.

I was curious though. I found that not only is there something to celebrate or recognize every day but you can spend whole months or even the whole year on celebrating. Oh, what I've been missing. I took a quick glance at some of the months, and I think they are worth mentioning. You can decide if you want to celebrate. Today, for instance, October 5, 2009, can be the day to recognize your Child's Health or perhaps you are lacking children, and you would like to recognize ways to Improve Your Office or if you don't work in an office, you can find methods of improving the World Habitat. See? A little something for everyone. Typical USA. None of those fancy your celebratory instincts? Well surely you have a teacher worth celebrating, because it is, in fact, World Teachers Day. So, go. Go celebrate! Make this a special day! I'm going to make sure you stay properly informed of each day's special significance. I wouldn't want to share this burden alone. You won't go another day without knowing how you can celebrate every single day of the year. Aren't you glad?

Of course, I am writing this post with some slight hints of "tongue in cheek", but seriously, some of the days are kind of interesting and I am all about making the most of each day, so who knows, maybe one day it will jump out at you and it will cause you to do something nice for someone in your life. Just consider it my teeny tiny way of making the world a better place. (Cue music)

A Little Bird

I am learning there are many great things about blogging. It's a great creative outlet, for one, which for me, is essential because, and you already know this because you spent a day with me at my office, my day job is boring, sans creativity, dull as a knife that's been sitting in a black hole for 15 years, lacking spark, no... well, you get the picture.

Blogs are also a great way to keep in touch, at least, in a one-way sort of way. As in, I tell you stories, I show you pictures, I vent my frustrations, I share my joys. It's all about me and things that relate to me. Which is great. For you. (At least if you like me. If you don't, well then why are you reading all about me??) But the question lies herein, how do I know what I'm writing about and telling you about is something you enjoy? Here I sit, everyday, ok, every other day, ok, ok, once in awhile, spilling my soul but then I don't even know if it really hits the mark, ya know? I need to knoooow. I'm the type that needs reassurance people. Because otherwise I just write when I need to release some creativity which isn't necessarily every day. So you have to tell me when you like what you are reading and perhaps, just maybe, I can find it in my heart to indulge you with more because right now, my only method of reassurance is a little bird that whispers in my ear that so and so said they want to read more blogging. Now how's that for reassurance? You know who you are. ahem Now, remember, I love you all. Feel the looove.

Now that business has been taken care of, I can share the most recent happenings around these parts. First of all, can I just say that I have a fantastic husband? Yes, I think I can.

Actually I can say whatever I want.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...ummm, I don't know the rest, but if I did I could say it. And I would. (Does anyone notice the effect that caffeine has on me?? Sugar also does this.)

Annnyways, back to the topic.

My husband is fantastic. We had the best weekend together because we actually got to spend more of it together than usual. Friday night, he got off early. We got ice cream. Correction, I got ice cream. DJ watched me eat it. Saturday, my magnificent man didn't have to be to work till 3:30 p.m. That's right, that's not a typo. 3:30 in the afternoon. So we made the most of it, got up early (ish), and went to the zoo (I will be posting some of these pictures later) and then ate lunch downtown at a very delicious grill and brewery. The day was gorgeous and we couldn't have planned it better. Sunday, a weird twilight zone sort of thing happened. We both slept till 10:45. We didn't get home till really late the night before because of the game (see pictures below) but we fully intended on still getting up bright and early to go to church. I should also state that I never sleep late. Usually I don't even want to sleep that late because that's half the day gone, but even if I did, Maia wakes me up 8 a.m., sharp. I guess DJ and I were both so out of it, Maia couldn't even wake the dead. So you can imagine my surprise when I finally awakened from my coma-like state, to find that we had missed not just the first church service but the second and third one also. It was weird. By that time, DJ had to hurry to work, which gave me time to get some stuff done. And then we had Cody over and had some delicious pot roast and veggies and those boys ate it all up and made me feel like I was a good little housewife. Then those men put together some furniture and watched some football and we had pie. Fun huh? It was. I wish every Sunday could be like that. Best weekend in a long time.

And now to end with some pictures of football, because this wouldn't be a Tennessee-inspired blog without some Tennessee football. I was particularly fascinated with the band and baton twirlers that night.

We had a beautiful full moon to watch rise over the side of the stadium.

I sort of wish I had taken a picture of the Auburn band to show you the enormity of their band but I felt like I would be betraying UT if I showed any awe of how cool the Auburn band was so you will see no pictures of their band. But now that I'm safe here in the bosom of my blog, I will say that the Auburn band was really cool and big and impressive. But they didn't have any fire so ours is still cooler.Your eyes do not fool you. Those baton twirlers are twirling batons of fire. It was so Miss Congeniality.

A New Blogger Program

When I first started my blog, I didn't know where to start so I started using Typepad. However that costs me a small amount each month and since I'm not making money on my blog as some people do, I have decided to change to Blogger, which is run by Google. Blogger is free and is used by one of my favorite bloggers (Clover Lane) whose blog I love. She is able to do so much with her blog and since she writes about it on her blog, I am able to learn from her and make my blog that much better! SO bear with me on this change and hopefully I can make it as smooth of a change as possible.