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September 11, 2010

Nashville, Tennessee

At the home of Matt Ralston and Erin Reeve

Hey! That means next year, in two months, it’ll be 11/11/11! How exciting! Somebody should get married or something. 

Well, here I be, in Nashville. I’m sitting at a wooden table across from Matt, my sister’s FIANCE, drinking a Yuengling from a can. So far, some VERY interesting things have happened this day. Let me explain: no, there is too much, let me sum up:

Last night as I was leaving Anna Laura’s house, Natalie tossed a quick, “Blog!” off the porch after me, and it landed in my cranium. I started thinking things like, “Why the heck don’t I blog ever anymore?” and, “Why is it I only seem to blog when I’m on adventures?” oh, and the humdinger, “Why isn’t my LIFE an adventure?”

And I just turned on Mumford and Sons, so I can’t pay attention to what I’m writing anymore. BLasted good band.

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Time has passed, but it’s still the 11th. I’m now at Cafe Coco with my dear seester, Erin Elizabeth. She is reading what looks, from the cover, like a supremely boring book. 

So, this morning, after about two and a half hours of sleep, I got up and grabbed everything except my passport, and walked out the door. Met Josh Casada at Rankin’s – wide awake – and started the day with great joy in my step. Josh Casada, man. The best way to start any day.

After that, Anna Laura and I set out into the wild blue yonder. Except that it was gray, and “yonder” wasn’t even visible, due to the great deluge coming out of the murk. But!– it was cool, and crisp, and CHARGED. About twenty minutes down the road, we decided to stop in for some gasoline at “the next exit,” which turned out to be….. a weigh station!! It was awesome and hilarious. We had two more interesting things occur along 40; we saw a double-trailer eighteen-wheeler (thirty-two-wheeler?) jack-knifed in the median. Very sobering. Then several miles later, we saw a little sedan just chillin’ in valley of the median. Person inside, no visible damage to car or driver.. just pokin’ its little head out of the grassy crevice. It was funny.

So THEN, we arrived in Nashville and I went to sleep.

And I had this crazy dream where I was a janitor at some school dormitory or something, and this other girl and I were cleaning the bathroom. She was totally annoyingly fond of me, and prattling on and on about how great I was. Rosa was there, and giving us a tour of the place, way too excited about it. She flipped a light on in a dark corner of bathroom and there were HUNDreds of tiny little snakes and camel crickets ALL OVER IT. She showed us that if you simply threw a stick into the middle of them, they scattered. And then she left. Then two girls in basketball jerseys walked in and commented that the floor was wet. The other girl janitor had irritated me so much that I spat out something to the effect of, “Well, that’s what happens when you mop it!” When I realized how rude I had been, I had a panic attack. My chest suddenly SEIZED up and I could. not. breathe. Then my body collapsed onto the snake-infested floor, and I couldn’t do a cussed thing about it.

And then Matt got home and I woke up.

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And back to the present: I have sunglasses on, so I can look around at all the people here at this coffee shop without them knowing. I can also type at the same time, which is a convenient alibi. So many interesting-looking people here. HA! RIGHT when I said that, someone at the next table said, “Which girl? They all look the same to me.” What a cuss.

Oh they’re playing Daft Punk, and it is making me very happy. I think I will tag Mary Glass and see if she remembers our Daft Punk phase……..

So something else interesting has happened around this trip!  [OH MY GOSH THIS SONG IS SO GOOD!!] I’ve recently been applying to my life the revelation of accepting mistakes, accepting consequences, and moving the cuss on. That said, I have not been following my budget very well the past few weeks. So I did an exhaustive examination of my financial predicament, and found that I was going to have a very small amount of money to spend on this trip. It was going to work, but it was going to be uncomfortably tight. But I know the voice of God was directing me to be an adult about my mistakes, and not beat myself up about it (that always leads to more stupid behavior anyway), so I was prepared to simply stick by the frugal budget I’d prepared for the trip. 

I was feeling a little bummed. Nothing serious, but just a teensy bit sad. I prayed that if it was God’s will for me to trust Him, that He would bless my decision to do so.

THEN a direct deposit went through to my checking account for way more than I thought it was going to be, and Erin deposited a $100 bill on the table in front of me (which was payment for something I had long forgotten about).

And it was very nice.

And I think this post is getting a little rambly.