Welcome to Florida...

After a terrific weekend in Nashville, I flew down to Florida to visit my aunt and cousins. The weather is fantastic here. On Tuesday we hung out at the beach a little, and played in the clear water on the pretty, clean-looking, soft sand. In the evening, we sat outside in the mild night air, listening to the chirping of the crickets and the bellowing of the alligators.

That's right.

Bellowing of the alligators.

If you are ever in gator country, and hear a low growling sound, it is most likely an alligator defining his territory, so he probably won't bother you if you don't go any closer to him. Probably.

Nashville has some sort of hold on me

I spent a relaxing week in Huntsville, hanging out and going to the Space and Rocket Museum. It was all right, if you like that sort of thing, but it had this big open warehousy kind of feel that bugged me, because there was no real route through the place, so I felt like I was wandering back and forth, trying not to miss anything, and nitpicking the grammar and spelling on the signs. Before we left, we rode on the Mars Rover simulator (I won't give away what is actually located on Mars) and the Spaceshot, which sent us straight up in the air and then dropped, simulating weightlessness for a few milliseconds. Good times! Don't miss those two things if you ever go to the museum.

I was planning on returning to the road, I swear, but a combination of bad weather, last minute plan changes, and the presence of my new favorite band, DD/MM/YYYY, in Nashville on Saturday night caused me to once again board a Greyhound bus and head back up there for the weekend. Fortunately, it was a short, daytime ride, so I wasn't too cranky when I arrived.

DD/MM/YYYY's set was a little wacky because they were on a very small stage, and there are five guys in the band, who switch instruments, so things looked a bit tight. This led to antics that included singing while hanging upside down over a railing beside the stage, and an (intentional) fall from the stage at the end of the show. The first time they switched places, the girl next to me said "musical chairs!" Heh. Nice.

The show was the most random line-up I have ever seen. The first band was some Lillith Fair sounding girly rock. Then DD/MM/YYYY did their ridiculously talented thing, followed by a basic rock'n'roll kind of band that did a few covers of stuff like The Cars. There was a fourth act who cancelled at the last minute, who was apparently kinda bluesy, according to the cranky people who asked for their money back. The good thing about this line-up was that it gave us time to hang with some of the DD/MM/YYYY guys after their sweet sweet set, since we weren't missing anything inside the club. We bought them beers and thanked them profusely, and they gave us t-shirts.

Nashville report

I'm pretty sure Greyhound's practices violate the terms of the Geneva Conventions. I knew the overnight bus wouldn't be a hoot, but I thought if I picked the bus route with no transfers, it wouldn't be too bad. How wrong I was. Every couple of hours, when we stopped in a major city, they MADE everyone get off the bus for about an hour, and sit inside the uncomfortable, well-lit station while they cleaned the bus. Seriously, how clean does this thing have to be? I don't need to pee or smoke! Can't I sit out here in the dark? Blurg. And the Louisville station, though it had larger, cleaner bathrooms than the Indianapolis station, had barely any seating. What's that all about?

After a nap, some tea with the woman who works at Music City Hostel, and a shower, I felt much better. The place has a homey feel, like you're just hanging out in someone's dining room or living room, chatting with whoever happens by. I sat outside in the sun for a while, and one of the guests played his guitar and sang. In the evening, I got tired of hanging around, and left way too early for the show I wanted to see, so I had to kill some time and beers in a random sports bar. Meh. When I finally went to the show, I was the ONLY person there. It turns out the show I had planned to see was cancelled, and there was some lame free show happening that no one went to. Darn. I tried to chat up the oddball proprietor, but he made it a chore, so I spent a while outside chatting with the bouncer. Nothing else was happening in town that night drew my interest, so I ended up giving up and going back to the hostel early. I was tired, but I ended up staying up super late anyway, talking to a couple of hostel folk.

I spent all day Saturday urban hiking with another girl from the hostel. We went to the Frist Center for Visual Arts, where we saw a really fantastic collection of oil paintings of people. The styles were all over the place, so it was quite intriguing. After that we wandered around the city looking at apartments, because my companion is in the process of moving to the city, and I had nothing better to do than wander around seeing different neighborhoods and getting a bit of a sunburn. After a shower and food, we went to the same place I had attempted to go the night before, but this time the scheduled show was actually happening. The nice bouncer let us in for free, and we ended up passing much of the night chatting with him and whoever else passed through the door. The music was okay, but not really holding my interest like the people show that was happening in the outside smoking area. It was a really varied crowd, from hippies to everyday normal guys to frat guys to tattooed freaks to some guy in super tight clothes and a fantastic gold jacket. It was an 18+ show, so there were all kinds of shenanigans involving underage drinking and girls passing out on the men's room floor.

The first act was a "DJ" who was just up there with a laptop, pushing buttons and dancing. It was confusing. Was he actually doing anything? He could have just popped in a CD. The other acts had multiple members and instruments, but, as previously stated, seemed more like background music for the real show that was happening all around. At least it was worth the money I paid to get in. I would have still been happy if I had paid the five dollar cover.

On Sunday, a kindly local squired me about town to see the view from Love Circle, a park on a hill that overlooks the city. The view was so good I forgot to take a picture. We checked out the Cheekwood Botanical garden and sculpture park, and saw a dragon in a park.

On Monday my stepmum and her friend (the one with all of the animals) came up to Nashville to get me and her friend's son. We had some wacky adventures involving crossing the tracks to a squatter camp, copper wiring, and Mexican food, then we headed back to Huntsville.

That ain't science! Screw this, I'm outta here.

Saturday night we attended a fun architect party. Perhaps they were discussing their craft amongst themselves, but my cousin and I managed to get ourselves into many varied and interesting non- architecture conversations.

Sunday we got food from Ethiopian Diamond. Yum! It was as good as my favorite place back home, Enat, in North Seattle.

We've basically been playing Trivial Pursuit for three weeks straight, and I've become so cranky with the quality of the "Science and Nature" questions, I started taking pictures and decided I needed a cathartic online kvetch. I was fed up with the astrology questions, and then a question about a superstition nearly caused a fit. I really got vocal when I got a question that is actually not true, though widely believed by many. I didn't photograph this one, but it claimed Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet. It is almost forgivable, since he did actually exist, and was a plumber who improved upon the flush toilet and marketed indoor plumbing fixtures. This question is when I completely lost it. Come on! I thought that was as bad as it could get, but Trivial Pursuit managed to outdo themselves with this joke.

I am now on my way to Nashville, via overnight Greyhound bus (you gotta try everything once!) to spend a few days in a hostel taking in shows before heading back to Huntsville. Wish me luck, and if anyone has any recommendations that don't include country music, please comment!

What's that? I can't hear you!

I've gone temporarily deaf.

On Sunday we went to see "Slumdog Millionaire," which we quite enjoyed. We got home in time to see it win pretty much every Oscar.

I split the weekdays between convalescing with my about-to-be-a cold, and cooking more delicious food. Sweet red pepper soup with risotto dumplings! Olive lentil casserole! Quinoa, broccoli and cheese casserole! Barley chickpea pilaf! Mmm.

On Thursday I discovered that one of my favorite bands, Don Caballero, would be playing on Friday! What, what, what?! I would have bought a ticket even if I was bleeding out my eyes! Fortunately, the threatening cold did not fully materialize, so I was free to enjoy the show.

I could not convince my country music lovin' cousin to accompany me to the math/prog rock show, so I went alone. The place was a sausagefest-- a fresh sausagefest, it being a seventeen and up show. I kinda figured this band would draw more dudes than chicks, but dang! I managed to befriend a woman who I think may have been the only other woman who was there sans man. I believe the two of us were in the top five percent, age-wise, and sadly, she didn't make it past the third band to the real treat, Don Cab. The first band, White Devil, was tight three-piece prog rock with no vocals. The boys were quite skilled, and I enjoyed the set. The second band, Cougars, was... well... let's just say I composed the better parts of this blog entry in my head while they played. Like half of the audience went out for a smoke during their set. The very theatrical lead made a joke about it, and they handled it well. I felt a little bad for them, but not a lot bad, because they weren't that good. The third band, a five-man group out of Canada named DD/MM/YYYY (pronounced Day Month Year) friggin rocked my socks off. They were ridiculously talented and interesting, and the kids SWITCHED INSTRUMENTS several times during the set. Who does that?! At all times, they had a guitar, drums, bass, keyboards, and a front man who kinda switched off between singing, extra percussion, some keyboards, and a horn of some sort. Good times! But then... Then...

Don Cab. Kicked it hard. So awesome. The prima donna drummer is the only original member, and he knows he is the show. He wore a stripy shirt and red gym shorts, while the two other dudes wore all black and were a bit self-effacing. I felt a bit sad for them, but not too sad, since they are touring musicians who are probably making a living off of their music, so they're basically living the dream. I tried to pay attention to the guys in black, but it was next to impossible to take my eyes off of the drummer. He seemed like he might have OCD or Asperger Syndrome. You can't be normal and drum like that.

Many of the younger, skinny jeans wearing hipster kids left after DD/MM/YYYY, so the Don Cab crowd was a bit older and less interested in how pretty and trendy everyone thought they were. Someone yelled out a song request, and Don Cab said that this wasn't a democracy, and if we had paid to come in, we should just trust them. Heh.

Fortunately the show was just a single train ride away from my cousin's place. A really long train ride, but no transfers or anything, so it was all brainless. I heart the train. That is one thing Seattle is lacking. I mean, we're working on it, but...

Derby Mayhem!

For V-Day, my cousin and I were joined by a friend of hers for a chick flick ("He's Not That Into You"-- I was not that into it...) and more "Shekels and Swords." On Sunday I went to church with my cousin (well don't look so surprised, I'm capable of behaving for an hour at a time!) and then we shopped and chilled and what not.

The weekdays were a blur of five-bean chili, banana chocolate chip muffins, curried sweet potato soup, our grandma's baked beans, oatmeal peanut butter cookies, and of course, the new workout video we picked up at Target on Sunday. It is the Dancing With the Stars Latin Cardio Workout. I approve. The difficulty of the steps occupies your mind and distracts you from the sweating and burning.

On Friday night we went to see the Windy City Rollers. One of the matches was almost painful to watch, because the winning team quadrupled the losing team's score. They had really good Jammers. As it wasn't too exciting, and the Budweiser was $6.50, and there were only a few injuries, we used this time to come up with our rollernames: Andi Capper and Cher the Pain. (My cousin also suggested Turner Over, which is an extremely close second.) The other match up was much more exciting, with the teams rolling close for the entire bout. They took the lead from each other every few minutes, and had the best ending ever: during the last few minutes the song "Final Countdown" started playing, and the lagging team scored a series of dramatic points to finish as winners. It was a really fantastic finale.

Shekels and Soup

After a couple of sunny days off in Huntsville, we got back in the truck and headed north just as the weather in the eastern part of the country began to turn. We drove through some on again, off again rain that somehow managed to pour buckets every time I stepped out of the truck. Seriously, as soon as I had to pee, and had an opportunity to do so, the heavens opened, and I was soaked within seconds. Then it would literally stop raining right after I returned to the truck.

We were lucky enough to get an opportunity to stay at the Whitehaven rest stop near Paducah, KY. It is an old house that was preserved and converted into a really neat rest stop. Apparently they give free tours in the afternoon, but we couldn't stick around for that long. I couldn't even get a decent picture, first because of darkness, and then because of rain. Maybe next time...

It's interesting to see how connected the weather is out here, how the larger systems move through such large areas. When it was thirteen degrees in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, it was extra cold in the south. When it started to warm up in Florida and Alabama, it also got really nice in DC and Chicago. When it cooled down and got rainy, it happened all over. I suppose I pay more attention to the weather now than I did before, but I never really felt connected to the rest of the country in this way when living in Seattle. So much of our weather moves in from the water, and systems are blocked or changed by the mountains. It's tempting to extrapolate this disconnectedness to other areas of life.

When we got near Chicago, my dad dropped me off at a train station, and I rode a commuter train into the city, where my cousin picked me up. Before long, we fell back into our breadwinner/housewife routine, and I spent much of Friday cooking lentil soup and baking banana crumb muffins. Yum. We also played a game straight out of her childhood, a Christian children's game called "Shekels & Sword Game." One part of the game involves choosing a character from the bible, and there are fun little things that each character has to do. We discovered that the male characters are more likely to get financial rewards for their tasks than the female characters. Hmm. So if any of you ever run across this game, and decide to play it, it's best to be a male character. If you really must be a female, choose Martha.