Day 172

My birthday is in October...for those of you who don't pay attention. ;P I had a FANTASTIC birthday. It started out with my awesome Psychology class bringing me birthday cookie cakes and having a party in class that day. ..yeah...I'm a good teacher, I let them watch an episode of Psych....c'mon it's my BIRTHDAY, I'm ALLOWED!!
On my actual birthday Jim took me to brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, The Black Eyed Pea....DELICIOUS!! And then when we were driving back, he stopped off and surprised me at a pumpkin patch! I've ALWAYS wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and never had, so it was awesome that on my 30th birthday...I did that for the first time! :)
YAY! Jim's so thoughtful!

Then I had a show that night (and some of my awesome friends came), and Jim surprised me with some awesome red velvet and snickerdoodle cupcakes that we all ate after the show. Rad. Day. Indeed!

The cookie cake my student brought in. :) Mmmmm...

The pun'kin patch! Yay! :)

Day 171

So I FINALLY got my BRACES OFF!!!! YAY!! My orthodontist is in Knoxville, TN (about 2 1/2 hours away from Nashville) so I had to get my braces off and get my retainer all in one day. SO, I was able to take a sick day from work, since it's a Dr. appointment, and I went out to Knoxville the night before since my appointment was in the morning. My mom got me a room at this awesome bed and breakfast, Maple Hurst Inn (if you ever got to Knoxville, STAY THERE!) It was a fabulous, much needed, retreat...and a FANTASTIC way to celebrate me getting my braces off...for the second time in my life! :P

So here's a pic of the view from the deck of the room.
The Cumberland River.

And here's is where we had an amazing Steak lunch on the river at Calhoun's.
It's days like this that I almost kick myself for being a vegetarian for 10 years!

The view from our table.

Day 170

Bethpage, TN
So one time Jim's awesome neighbors, Jake and Viola, got married. They asked us to sing while guests were arriving. We sat just to the right of this amazing arch that Jake built, he's pretty amazing. Jim played guitar and we both sang...sitting on the top of this mountain ...it was pretty cool. And then Jim smoothly transitioned into Canon in D from "Where Your Road Leads" just in time for Viola to walk down the aisle and meet her dude by the arch. ...awww...precious! :)
After they were officially a "Mr. and Mrs." we played more music until people made their way down the hill. Then we went and ate some AMAZING food!

...this was AFTER we played a show in the morning at Bost Harley Davidson in Nashville....and BEFORE we headed off for one of my dinner theater performances in Springfield. ....Crazy day of performing...but SUCH a fulfilling, beautiful day! :)
Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your day, Jake and Vi. You guys are the best! :)

Day 169

So a while back, Jim and I wanted to go on an adventure on our day off. So we just got in the truck and drove. We ended up in a small town called Red Boiling Springs, and drove across this teeny rickety bridge and found a random motorcycle museum! So, what the heck? We were feeling adventurous. We parked and went inside! It was SOOO much cooler than we thought it would be!

Here are pics of some of the coolest bikes we saw.

1942 WLA and 1944 Indian Army bike

This bike had a huge engine on it, I can't remember what the guy was telling us, but I remember how loud it was when he turned it on and revved it! I thought my ears were going to explode!!

Awe man!! A 1960 Harley Davidson Topper scooter! Yeah man!

This is the bike that started the whole collection. This is a 1936 El Knucklehead. The owner of the museum inherited this bike from his grandfather. Everything on it is original, nothing has been modified. ...Jim's obviously excited about hearing about it. :)

It was SUCH a fun day!! If you ever are bored or seeking some adventure...just get in the car and drive, no directions, no agenda, just drive, and you'll probably find something REALLY cool!!!

Day 168

So you know how you go to college, and you save papers and assignments that you've done, and scripts, and music that you think maybe you'll use for something? Well...that's what I did with all of my acting/directing and psychology classes. Turns out, I teach those things now, so alas, I wanted to dig through my files and see what I had to see what I could use for my own classes. SO I called my mom and she graciously went through my little filing cabinet and pulled out 13 files full of papers to send out to me. She also grabbed my big boots that I needed to wear for a play and sent those out too. My dad called me from the Post Office and told me he had to make the box and he was all stressed, and I felt terrible, but he finally got it all together and shipped off to me...for $19. I got my box about 4 days later, and much to my surprise, the only things in it were my boots and one empty file folder. I really shouldn't have been surprised as THIS is what the box looked like when I opened the door:


REALLY!?! Good work USPS!!!
Oh but don't you fret, they put this sticker on there, so that makes it all better!!!



So my papers are all lost, my music, my scripts, my projects.....whatever. I called the USPS and they said, "Oh, I can understand how that can be really frustrating, we'll look around for it and call you if we find anything." ...well they didn't. Ah well. I'm over it. But that day it felt like I lost my whole college education. ....maybe I was a little dramatic. Who, ME? ...NEVER!
USPS is lame! I wish I could say I'll never use them again, but that is pretty darn hard to avoid. :) I'll probably never send large packages through them, anyway.

Day 167

You know, this is about a month past due, but like I said before...I'm a bit busy so I'm playing catch-up. So Jim went without hot water at his house for almost 2 months, because he started the project a few weeks before he busted his knee. Woops! Soooo, with the awesome help of my awesome self (ha!) we finished it up and he now has hot water! Yay! Don't pass out, but yes, I helped with painting the closet, I cut baseboards, I put in baseboards, I caulked, annnd....wait for it...I even helped put the water heater itself in! Yes, that's right! You know, painting for the last year, helping with tile, painting some more, installing lights, tearing out carpet, being eaten alive by mosquitoes...I FINALLY feel like I helped a lot. :)

Ta-daaaa....a new water heater in a newly sheet rocked, tiled, painted, and piped water-heater closet! :)

And my job is done...haha....I'm sure THAT'S not true! Yay for progress!!!!

Day 166

To get the full effect of this post...you must click on the video and listen to the song while you read.
I have had my Buddy scooter for 3 years. I didn't ride it as much as I would have liked, but he was my Buddy. I bought him brand new and we drove all over Salt Lake Valley, Southern Utah, Gallatin, TN....we had some good times. But alas, it was time to sell it, and let go of our little friendship so he could be with someone that had more time for him. So that he felt like he could fulfill his purpose in life. SO, I sold it. It ended up going to a wonderfully artistic musician named Griffin House. He was so happy when he met Buddy. They were instant BFF's...so I was sad to see him go, but I knew he was in good, happy, hands. AND turns out Griffin House is actually pretty darn famous. He's been on The Craig Ferguson Show...AND I just heard a song of his on Sirius Channel 31....crazy! So now Buddy is famous. I couldn't have hoped for a better life for that little dude. I hope everyone is happy happy happy. ....maybe for my NEXT scooter, I'll get a Stella. STELLLLAAAA!!!