To find out your personality is super-interesting. Take any standard 70+ question M-B test and then read about yourself here:
http://www.personalitypage.com/portraits.html
Love it.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Sorry for the delay
It's been such a busy week at IC. Good old Nate Henn put it in perspective for us by taping a giant countdown to the door that we all walk in and out of every single day. At the time he taped up the countdown, we had 10 days left to book. Ten.
Now, we're down to Seven. In all reality, though, it's probably less than that. More like 5.
We have to book nearly our entire tour before we are even considered to go on the road. And with only 5 or 7 days left to do that, everyone is a bit on edge and incredibly apprehensive. At the same time, however, it's incredible how relaxed everyone can become once we return to the roadie house at night. Despite our late trainings and despite all the pressure from the staff, we can all come home and lounge around as if it's a high school Saturday night with no football game and no good movie at the theater. I love it.
But at Invisible Children we truly do play just as much as we work. Friday we were told no one should get to the office before 9am (the East Coast teams had been getting there at 7:30 every morning to call appropriate for the time zone difference). My alarm was still set for 7am, but at 6:50 I heard a dozen or so voices speaking very loud and very excitedly and the next thing I know we have a staff member or two barging into our room happily telling us all to wake up! Not exactly what I wanted to be doing at the time, but since I was going to be getting up in 10 minutes anyway what they heck.
Then it hit me. That was staff. That means that the people walking around our house before 7am were our bosses and we were all still sleeping. A few of us wandered out into the kitchen to see what on earth was going on and literally all of the Movement staff (Margie, Zach, and all the Regional Managers + Nate Henn, Natasha Bliss, and BWB rep Aaron King) were buzzing around the kitchen toasting Eggo waffles, slicing bagels, cooking scrambled eggs, pouring orange juice and setting out all the coffee additives. Heaven.
I knew this day was coming. I'd seen pictures of it from previous roadies. But I never thought it would be on a Friday. IC works too hard for that. Lo and behold, though, Friday it was.
We spent the rest of the day getting in touch with our inner selves--Meyers Briggs tests, marriage counseling questionnaire, gender differences and how to respond appropriately, etc. Essentially, they were preparing each of us for the three-month haul on the road. It's so awesome.
What wasn't awesome was the 102 degree heat and our house's lack of air conditioning. We ended up back at the office for the second half of training before we all broke off at the end of the day to visit cliffs and beaches and other fun locations like the infamous In-n-Out.
To back up to Thursday night, that's where all of this fun began. After work, Jedidiah got on a megaphone to announce that we had 20 minutes to get dinner and to figure out in our groups the riddle that he had handed out on cards. The riddle's answer would tell us our destination for the night.
Ultimately we went to Mt. Soledad where we played Running Charades--if you are unfamiliar with this game, I'll gladly play with you sometime. Bring friends. And from there we drove down to Mission Beach where the staff, including a lot of the art department, Jason, and Ben Keesey had built us a bonfire on the beach. The stars were gorgeous, the smores were lovely, the water was warm...and salty, and the sand is the SOFTEST in the world. I dare you to prove me wrong.
But better than all that, we had a special guest come to speak inspiring words to us. A man who has long loved Invisible Children and who does more for the organization than even the most dedicated fan could not possibly know. Hollywood director Tom Shadyac danced around the bonfire and told us his views on life and how we as roadies fall directly into his most revered category because we are donating our life and trusting that everything will be okay for five months. How do we return to the real world? A spirit of love and understanding. It sounds so textbook and cliché, but his delivery was sporadic and distracted and powerful all at the same time. I have a great new appreciation for this man, especially since I was unable to see him at Lobby Days.
I love my job.
Now, we're down to Seven. In all reality, though, it's probably less than that. More like 5.
We have to book nearly our entire tour before we are even considered to go on the road. And with only 5 or 7 days left to do that, everyone is a bit on edge and incredibly apprehensive. At the same time, however, it's incredible how relaxed everyone can become once we return to the roadie house at night. Despite our late trainings and despite all the pressure from the staff, we can all come home and lounge around as if it's a high school Saturday night with no football game and no good movie at the theater. I love it.
But at Invisible Children we truly do play just as much as we work. Friday we were told no one should get to the office before 9am (the East Coast teams had been getting there at 7:30 every morning to call appropriate for the time zone difference). My alarm was still set for 7am, but at 6:50 I heard a dozen or so voices speaking very loud and very excitedly and the next thing I know we have a staff member or two barging into our room happily telling us all to wake up! Not exactly what I wanted to be doing at the time, but since I was going to be getting up in 10 minutes anyway what they heck.
Then it hit me. That was staff. That means that the people walking around our house before 7am were our bosses and we were all still sleeping. A few of us wandered out into the kitchen to see what on earth was going on and literally all of the Movement staff (Margie, Zach, and all the Regional Managers + Nate Henn, Natasha Bliss, and BWB rep Aaron King) were buzzing around the kitchen toasting Eggo waffles, slicing bagels, cooking scrambled eggs, pouring orange juice and setting out all the coffee additives. Heaven.
I knew this day was coming. I'd seen pictures of it from previous roadies. But I never thought it would be on a Friday. IC works too hard for that. Lo and behold, though, Friday it was.
We spent the rest of the day getting in touch with our inner selves--Meyers Briggs tests, marriage counseling questionnaire, gender differences and how to respond appropriately, etc. Essentially, they were preparing each of us for the three-month haul on the road. It's so awesome.
What wasn't awesome was the 102 degree heat and our house's lack of air conditioning. We ended up back at the office for the second half of training before we all broke off at the end of the day to visit cliffs and beaches and other fun locations like the infamous In-n-Out.
To back up to Thursday night, that's where all of this fun began. After work, Jedidiah got on a megaphone to announce that we had 20 minutes to get dinner and to figure out in our groups the riddle that he had handed out on cards. The riddle's answer would tell us our destination for the night.
Ultimately we went to Mt. Soledad where we played Running Charades--if you are unfamiliar with this game, I'll gladly play with you sometime. Bring friends. And from there we drove down to Mission Beach where the staff, including a lot of the art department, Jason, and Ben Keesey had built us a bonfire on the beach. The stars were gorgeous, the smores were lovely, the water was warm...and salty, and the sand is the SOFTEST in the world. I dare you to prove me wrong.
But better than all that, we had a special guest come to speak inspiring words to us. A man who has long loved Invisible Children and who does more for the organization than even the most dedicated fan could not possibly know. Hollywood director Tom Shadyac danced around the bonfire and told us his views on life and how we as roadies fall directly into his most revered category because we are donating our life and trusting that everything will be okay for five months. How do we return to the real world? A spirit of love and understanding. It sounds so textbook and cliché, but his delivery was sporadic and distracted and powerful all at the same time. I have a great new appreciation for this man, especially since I was unable to see him at Lobby Days.
I love my job.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
We work hard. We play hard. Often simultaneously
So Wednesday was our movement director Margie's birthday (we're not sure which one). Since we as a staff love our hard-ass director, we went all out and gave her the best birthday present we could think of. True to IC style, here it is in all its glory:
Friday, August 21, 2009
Still no pictures
But if you are looking for a bit of reading, please read this:
http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2009/08/20/exchanging-for-change/#more-915
One of the more fascinating of Invisible Children's ground programs in Uganda. I can proudly say that I know a handful of people who have participated in this program. The effects are astounding. I only hope to meet the Ugandans while they are here in the States, when that comes to pass.
PS, the MEND bags are rad. Ask me about MEND if you are unfamiliar with the brand.
http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2009/08/20/exchanging-for-change/#more-915
One of the more fascinating of Invisible Children's ground programs in Uganda. I can proudly say that I know a handful of people who have participated in this program. The effects are astounding. I only hope to meet the Ugandans while they are here in the States, when that comes to pass.
PS, the MEND bags are rad. Ask me about MEND if you are unfamiliar with the brand.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Weekend Once Again
This week began our first few days of actual office work. We spend all day every day on the phones and on our computers trying to book screenings for our segments of fall tour. I have been assigned to the state of Washington, focusing mostly on Seattle--though I do have some screenings in Vancouver, WA and Spokane, WA.
It's so bizarre to be on the receiving end of these screening agreements. I'm always quick to send mine in--the office contacting me months ahead of time so the roadies don't have to. Now here I am booking for my own tour and people are very slow to get back. Now I know how frustrating this can be for people in the office as they wait to hear back from contacts who don't invest the time and energy into booking a screening. It'll all work out in the end, though.
I'm becoming such a stalker, too. Facebook, cell phone, email, SalesForce, school phone, work phone, you name it, I will find it. Those lessons about how people can find you on the internet? you know, the ones I had in sixth and seventh grade? Yeah, now I'm using them to figure out how best to contact people in as many ways possible.
On another note, I haven't taken pictures of the roadie house yet. Nor have I taken pictures of the coffee shop where I spend a lot of time. Nor have I taken pictures of the office where I spend the rest of my time. Nor have I taken pictures of my teammates. Basically, I haven't done anything to document my time in San Diego yet. I apologize to all who are waiting to see my life.
AAAAAAAAAND (drumroll) I'm going to Uganda in 3 weeks! I'm going to be traveling with one roadie from nearly every roadie team to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda where we'll see all of the Invisible Children operations and programs in action. It's going to be a fantastic experience, and a shocking one, but overall it will definitely help me on tour. To be able to give firsthand experience of the same things we're advertising on the road will strengthen our tour. I don't know what all to expect, but I do know that it's going to be as lifechanging as the rest of this internship if not more so.
It's so bizarre to be on the receiving end of these screening agreements. I'm always quick to send mine in--the office contacting me months ahead of time so the roadies don't have to. Now here I am booking for my own tour and people are very slow to get back. Now I know how frustrating this can be for people in the office as they wait to hear back from contacts who don't invest the time and energy into booking a screening. It'll all work out in the end, though.
I'm becoming such a stalker, too. Facebook, cell phone, email, SalesForce, school phone, work phone, you name it, I will find it. Those lessons about how people can find you on the internet? you know, the ones I had in sixth and seventh grade? Yeah, now I'm using them to figure out how best to contact people in as many ways possible.
On another note, I haven't taken pictures of the roadie house yet. Nor have I taken pictures of the coffee shop where I spend a lot of time. Nor have I taken pictures of the office where I spend the rest of my time. Nor have I taken pictures of my teammates. Basically, I haven't done anything to document my time in San Diego yet. I apologize to all who are waiting to see my life.
AAAAAAAAAND (drumroll) I'm going to Uganda in 3 weeks! I'm going to be traveling with one roadie from nearly every roadie team to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda where we'll see all of the Invisible Children operations and programs in action. It's going to be a fantastic experience, and a shocking one, but overall it will definitely help me on tour. To be able to give firsthand experience of the same things we're advertising on the road will strengthen our tour. I don't know what all to expect, but I do know that it's going to be as lifechanging as the rest of this internship if not more so.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Crazy Crazy
This has been a ridiculous weekend. I feel as though that word will be overused over the next five months and I'll need to find several replacements for it.
Last week was only 3 days long and it felt like a lifetime. The amount of information I have just crammed into my brain is unprecedented in any history class I've ever taken--and that includes everything that Ms. Neill has thrown at me in a single hour. Imagine 9 hours of Neill classes and you're more or less right. Then multiply it by 3 for the entire first week.
This weekend was a huge study time/break from work. Weird combination, I know. Friday night I read Blue Like Jazz. Yes, the whole thing.
We went to Pacific Beach on Saturday and stuck around until 8, but the entire time I was there, I was studying the history of the war in Uganda. Just before leaving, Forrest, Brian and I went to search for a GeoCache. Check it out sometime. Very cool concept. I came home that night more or less exhausted, and picked up The Irresistible Revolution at 11:00. At 11:30 I fell asleep.
I literally slept then until 9am on Sunday. If anyone knows me, that is an unheard of amount of sleep. I spent the entire day reading the rest of The Irresistible Revolution at a nearby coffee shop called Cosmos, finished it, and went to Vons to pick up coffee, creamer, and chai tea. It was a great day.
Today is Monday and we started real work today. Something's a-brewing in the offices and everyone knows it, but we don't know what that is. They're in the middle of working on a new piece of lovely merch to sell (get excited) but there's something else. Something bigger. We don't know what that might be or if it will even come out on our tour, but it's going to be epic--as only IC can do.
Bookings start Wednesday. Tomorrow we learn how to pitch Invisible Children to a contact. Today we learned the database system. Crazy crazy. I'm spending all night tonight pouring over my contacts in the Pacific Northwest and organizing information. The work here never ends.
SO READY for the rest of this week!!!
Last week was only 3 days long and it felt like a lifetime. The amount of information I have just crammed into my brain is unprecedented in any history class I've ever taken--and that includes everything that Ms. Neill has thrown at me in a single hour. Imagine 9 hours of Neill classes and you're more or less right. Then multiply it by 3 for the entire first week.
This weekend was a huge study time/break from work. Weird combination, I know. Friday night I read Blue Like Jazz. Yes, the whole thing.
We went to Pacific Beach on Saturday and stuck around until 8, but the entire time I was there, I was studying the history of the war in Uganda. Just before leaving, Forrest, Brian and I went to search for a GeoCache. Check it out sometime. Very cool concept. I came home that night more or less exhausted, and picked up The Irresistible Revolution at 11:00. At 11:30 I fell asleep.
I literally slept then until 9am on Sunday. If anyone knows me, that is an unheard of amount of sleep. I spent the entire day reading the rest of The Irresistible Revolution at a nearby coffee shop called Cosmos, finished it, and went to Vons to pick up coffee, creamer, and chai tea. It was a great day.
Today is Monday and we started real work today. Something's a-brewing in the offices and everyone knows it, but we don't know what that is. They're in the middle of working on a new piece of lovely merch to sell (get excited) but there's something else. Something bigger. We don't know what that might be or if it will even come out on our tour, but it's going to be epic--as only IC can do.
Bookings start Wednesday. Tomorrow we learn how to pitch Invisible Children to a contact. Today we learned the database system. Crazy crazy. I'm spending all night tonight pouring over my contacts in the Pacific Northwest and organizing information. The work here never ends.
SO READY for the rest of this week!!!
Friday, August 7, 2009
I love my team
It's a good thing, too. We're going to be spending 3 months on the road with each other living in a van, putting on screenings, talking with, laughing with, crying with, yelling at, etc.
Forrest, Claire, and Brian are three of the most incredible people you will probably ever come in contact with. And the reason they are so incredible is not what they've done to get here or why they are interested in the organization (although Brian's stories are pretty spellbinding), but rather that they get along well with me and each other. That is an accomplishment. There is nothing worse than dealing with people whom you don't like in the first place and then being forced into close proximity with them for an extended period of time. I look forward to our ridiculous times on the road.
To speak more generically, the house that we all live in is an absolute circus. If you've ever lived in community before, or tried anything similar to living with 59 other young people like yourself--not only living with them, but working with them, traveling with them, going out with them, cleaning with them, eating with them, and sleeping 8-12 per room--then you will have some idea what this is like. If not, let me tell you something:
Forrest, Claire, and Brian are three of the most incredible people you will probably ever come in contact with. And the reason they are so incredible is not what they've done to get here or why they are interested in the organization (although Brian's stories are pretty spellbinding), but rather that they get along well with me and each other. That is an accomplishment. There is nothing worse than dealing with people whom you don't like in the first place and then being forced into close proximity with them for an extended period of time. I look forward to our ridiculous times on the road.
To speak more generically, the house that we all live in is an absolute circus. If you've ever lived in community before, or tried anything similar to living with 59 other young people like yourself--not only living with them, but working with them, traveling with them, going out with them, cleaning with them, eating with them, and sleeping 8-12 per room--then you will have some idea what this is like. If not, let me tell you something:
- Get used to being dirty. There are only 4 bathrooms for 60 of us. If you thought sharing a bathroom with your sister who paints her face every morning was bad, try sharing one with on average 15 people
- Expect the unexpected. It sounds cliché, but none of us know each other yet and we have been constantly surprised by each other resulting in things like half-hour laughing fests in the grocery parking lot, dance parties to songs we've never heard, quoting our bosses for simple life matters like trying to touch a ceiling or going the wrong way on the highway, and even shaving teammates' heads at 1am on our balcony via extension cord wrapping to the side of the house. It's already been an adventure and I've only been here 3 days.
- Share everything early on. Nothing is worse than realizing, even after a couple days, how annoying something about a person is. Granted, we haven't yet discovered those things about anyone yet, but the time is coming.
- Label everything. It's not that we don't trust other people; it's that we just spent some of our good money on food and want to make sure that we get to eat it--that's all the money we have, really. We want to keep an eye on our possessions so we have them for the road. Sometimes we forget what is ours to begin with.
- and so, so much more.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
BNA >> SAN
That's right. This is a summary of my final days in Nashville and my flight to San Diego.
First off, I've arrived and all is well and I'm being overwhelmed by my fellow roadies. I'm really tired (Tyler and I haven't slept or eaten in about 28 hours), but otherwise so excited. Don't wake me up from this dream.
Sunday in Nashville was a great opportunity to see lots of people that I haven't and didn't expect to. Unfortunately there were others that I did expect to see that I never had the chance to. I guess that's how it happens sometimes.
Morning was church at The Anchor where we met up with Heather Dean and her lovely friend Rachel. We then went to lunch with Jennifer Allen, were met by Joshua Maisner and later by Tyler Jones.
Quite possibly one of the best parts of my weekend was when good old Daniel Trigg gave me a call to congratulate me and to just catch up and see what was going on. He lives in east Tennessee and, although he wanted to come that weekend, he couldn't afford to. I understand, but it would have been so great to see him again. The phone call was quite happy.
After running around with Tyler for a bit post-lunch to his apartments and such, I finally said goodbye to Emily and Brittany. It was sad to see them go after such a fabulous weekend, but honestly I was so ready to take that one step closer to SD.
Tyler and I went back to his parents' house to drop my stuff off before church (again) at a different place. Ethos was pretty rad. Lots of young people and lots of new music. It was beautiful. We spent the rest of the night and all of Monday hanging out with his friends, packing to leave, watching incredible movies, having deep conversations, you name it. It was great.
Tuesday morning, still not having slept from the night before mind you, we left for the airport at 4am and arrived, checked in, and wandered down to our gate before we even talked about how in x number of hours we'd be doing such-and-such. Crazy talk of the time. Now I can say I'm living it.
The flight was alright--not too long or too uncomfortable. We got off in Salt Lake City to wander the airport for 20 minutes or so before we were allowed to reboard the same plane. The flight to San Diego was so, so quick. I literally thought we had another hour to go when the pilot announced we had begun our descent into the San Diego area.
We met up with Brendon and Lauren (two other roadies on our flight from SLC) and the four of us were picked up by Sabrina, the girl who helped HR chair Tiffany Keesey in conducting our interviews. She's a lovely girl and it's going to be a rare sight to see her from here on out, so I'm glad I got the chance.
We drove the 30 minutes from the airport and now I find myself sitting in the garage, alone for the first and probably last time in a very long time. I'm enjoying it while I can. Everyone here is so wonderful and friendly and it'll be great to get to know them all better. Much better.
My teammate Claire is currently at the coffee shop down the road, so I may go hunt her down. For now, I'm off!
First off, I've arrived and all is well and I'm being overwhelmed by my fellow roadies. I'm really tired (Tyler and I haven't slept or eaten in about 28 hours), but otherwise so excited. Don't wake me up from this dream.
Sunday in Nashville was a great opportunity to see lots of people that I haven't and didn't expect to. Unfortunately there were others that I did expect to see that I never had the chance to. I guess that's how it happens sometimes.
Morning was church at The Anchor where we met up with Heather Dean and her lovely friend Rachel. We then went to lunch with Jennifer Allen, were met by Joshua Maisner and later by Tyler Jones.
Quite possibly one of the best parts of my weekend was when good old Daniel Trigg gave me a call to congratulate me and to just catch up and see what was going on. He lives in east Tennessee and, although he wanted to come that weekend, he couldn't afford to. I understand, but it would have been so great to see him again. The phone call was quite happy.
After running around with Tyler for a bit post-lunch to his apartments and such, I finally said goodbye to Emily and Brittany. It was sad to see them go after such a fabulous weekend, but honestly I was so ready to take that one step closer to SD.
Tyler and I went back to his parents' house to drop my stuff off before church (again) at a different place. Ethos was pretty rad. Lots of young people and lots of new music. It was beautiful. We spent the rest of the night and all of Monday hanging out with his friends, packing to leave, watching incredible movies, having deep conversations, you name it. It was great.
Tuesday morning, still not having slept from the night before mind you, we left for the airport at 4am and arrived, checked in, and wandered down to our gate before we even talked about how in x number of hours we'd be doing such-and-such. Crazy talk of the time. Now I can say I'm living it.
The flight was alright--not too long or too uncomfortable. We got off in Salt Lake City to wander the airport for 20 minutes or so before we were allowed to reboard the same plane. The flight to San Diego was so, so quick. I literally thought we had another hour to go when the pilot announced we had begun our descent into the San Diego area.
We met up with Brendon and Lauren (two other roadies on our flight from SLC) and the four of us were picked up by Sabrina, the girl who helped HR chair Tiffany Keesey in conducting our interviews. She's a lovely girl and it's going to be a rare sight to see her from here on out, so I'm glad I got the chance.
We drove the 30 minutes from the airport and now I find myself sitting in the garage, alone for the first and probably last time in a very long time. I'm enjoying it while I can. Everyone here is so wonderful and friendly and it'll be great to get to know them all better. Much better.
My teammate Claire is currently at the coffee shop down the road, so I may go hunt her down. For now, I'm off!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Nashville Love
I have officially left St. Louis. But I have not yet started work. This is my final road trip/vacation before heading down to San Diego (sounds weird, right?), and I am currently located in the beautiful city of Nashville, TN.
I have held a particularly strong love of Tennessee for several years now, but I'd never actually visited Nashville. The Rescue on April 25 brought with it a full day of heat and fun but also a disheartened view on the actual chances that we would have a celebrity/politician come to support us--the only thing left to accomplish before all 600 of us were allowed to go back home. Nashville, TN was "rescued" in the evening and 14 people then drove all night to come stand with the St. Louis group. They were our reinforcements, and the most uplifting sight in many hours by that point. Over the following week, we got to know them very well and were sad to leave them in Wichita. That Friday, Brittany and I were able to see them again.
Back in May, not long after coming home from Chicago and getting a small amount of time to spend with our friends from Nashville, Brittany, Emily and I coordinated a reunion among ourselves and the Nashville Rescue Riders. You're hearing about it now.
It's always a challenge to coordinate things with people in the summer. People like to say that if they're not on vacation, they're probably at home or at work, but that's simply not the case. It's even more complicated when you throw several states' distance into the mix, a couple IC roadie internships, mission trips ending just days before your scheduled dates, and a lack of communication thanks to not having anyone's phone number.
This weekend, the three of us are staying with our dear friend Ryan Smith and his amazing roommates. We've gotten the tour of his suburb, seen several celebrity homes, discovered the artsy shops and consumed a great amount of delicious Nashville staples--Pancake Pantry and Mafioza's Pizzeria to be precise.
It's interesting to know so many people in one city, to only be there for a weekend, and to not see them for two days.
I guess part of the dilemma could be our sitting in traffic for an extra 2 hours (reason #19234729 why I hate Illinois). We missed out on seeing the wonderful Brandon Palma before he left with his family for the beach. And arriving so late in Nashville we then had trouble making contact with people, so we wandered around ourselves. According to Ryan, we should not have been on that side of town, but we had a great time anyway!
And walking up and down Broadway is insane. I have never seen so many provocatively clad women, so many groups of very drunk people, or so many cowboy hats--and apart from the hats, I live on a college campus and should probably have seen that quite often. Maybe I just expect it back at Mizzou.
I want to say that I love Ryan Smith's roommates as well. There are six of them living in a $1,000,000 house in the middle of the nicest, most upscale neighborhood of Nashville. They can proudly say that Martina McBride lives down the street and the governor's mansion is just down from her. Crazy. We have spent many hours talking with Mark and Andrew. Another one, Landon, came home last night from Ireland but we haven't gotten to talk much with him yet.
And how random can you be in Nashville? Well you can pretty much be as random as you'd like and so we were random even by Nashville standards yesterday.
We woke up and went to Pancake Pantry (not random) with Ryan for breakfast. Go there. It's incredible. Then he toured us around the universities, the park, his neighborhood, etc. and we discovered a strip mall of cool shops in Hillsboro.
He went to his mom's house to do some cleaning and housework for her so we were on our own. We stayed in Hillsboro browsing those stores (particularly Anthropologie and Whole Foods, which we went in no less than 3 times spending at least an hour and a half in Whole Foods alone). We tested furniture and designed an apartment. We checked out kids toys that each cost around $30 and which the child would probably not play with. We passed by the really upscale clothing stores save for Anthropologie and we discovered the Provence bakery. We spent well over 3 hours in that strip mall without buying anything. We did get the furniture catalogs though.
Next we toured Lipscomb University. Every door that we tried happened to be open to us, so we more or less got to see any part of the school we wanted to, which was all of it. Toward the end it was raining and we found a dorm building thanks to the lovely Melissa Carter. We walked around both the old and the new dorms and ultimately found the lounge area where we sat for several hours watching VH1's Top 100 80's songs countdown. It was an 80s day, too. That music was in every store we went in and on every radio station.
Lipscomb is beautiful and so is Nashville. We have plans today to meet up with Tyler, Jennifer and Heather. Still working on getting Litchfield to drive in from Chattanooga and Trigg to come from Johnson City. I don't honestly see it happening, which breaks my heart. Only 2 more days here until I fly out to meet my family!
I have held a particularly strong love of Tennessee for several years now, but I'd never actually visited Nashville. The Rescue on April 25 brought with it a full day of heat and fun but also a disheartened view on the actual chances that we would have a celebrity/politician come to support us--the only thing left to accomplish before all 600 of us were allowed to go back home. Nashville, TN was "rescued" in the evening and 14 people then drove all night to come stand with the St. Louis group. They were our reinforcements, and the most uplifting sight in many hours by that point. Over the following week, we got to know them very well and were sad to leave them in Wichita. That Friday, Brittany and I were able to see them again.
Back in May, not long after coming home from Chicago and getting a small amount of time to spend with our friends from Nashville, Brittany, Emily and I coordinated a reunion among ourselves and the Nashville Rescue Riders. You're hearing about it now.
It's always a challenge to coordinate things with people in the summer. People like to say that if they're not on vacation, they're probably at home or at work, but that's simply not the case. It's even more complicated when you throw several states' distance into the mix, a couple IC roadie internships, mission trips ending just days before your scheduled dates, and a lack of communication thanks to not having anyone's phone number.
This weekend, the three of us are staying with our dear friend Ryan Smith and his amazing roommates. We've gotten the tour of his suburb, seen several celebrity homes, discovered the artsy shops and consumed a great amount of delicious Nashville staples--Pancake Pantry and Mafioza's Pizzeria to be precise.
It's interesting to know so many people in one city, to only be there for a weekend, and to not see them for two days.
I guess part of the dilemma could be our sitting in traffic for an extra 2 hours (reason #19234729 why I hate Illinois). We missed out on seeing the wonderful Brandon Palma before he left with his family for the beach. And arriving so late in Nashville we then had trouble making contact with people, so we wandered around ourselves. According to Ryan, we should not have been on that side of town, but we had a great time anyway!
And walking up and down Broadway is insane. I have never seen so many provocatively clad women, so many groups of very drunk people, or so many cowboy hats--and apart from the hats, I live on a college campus and should probably have seen that quite often. Maybe I just expect it back at Mizzou.
I want to say that I love Ryan Smith's roommates as well. There are six of them living in a $1,000,000 house in the middle of the nicest, most upscale neighborhood of Nashville. They can proudly say that Martina McBride lives down the street and the governor's mansion is just down from her. Crazy. We have spent many hours talking with Mark and Andrew. Another one, Landon, came home last night from Ireland but we haven't gotten to talk much with him yet.
And how random can you be in Nashville? Well you can pretty much be as random as you'd like and so we were random even by Nashville standards yesterday.
We woke up and went to Pancake Pantry (not random) with Ryan for breakfast. Go there. It's incredible. Then he toured us around the universities, the park, his neighborhood, etc. and we discovered a strip mall of cool shops in Hillsboro.
He went to his mom's house to do some cleaning and housework for her so we were on our own. We stayed in Hillsboro browsing those stores (particularly Anthropologie and Whole Foods, which we went in no less than 3 times spending at least an hour and a half in Whole Foods alone). We tested furniture and designed an apartment. We checked out kids toys that each cost around $30 and which the child would probably not play with. We passed by the really upscale clothing stores save for Anthropologie and we discovered the Provence bakery. We spent well over 3 hours in that strip mall without buying anything. We did get the furniture catalogs though.
Next we toured Lipscomb University. Every door that we tried happened to be open to us, so we more or less got to see any part of the school we wanted to, which was all of it. Toward the end it was raining and we found a dorm building thanks to the lovely Melissa Carter. We walked around both the old and the new dorms and ultimately found the lounge area where we sat for several hours watching VH1's Top 100 80's songs countdown. It was an 80s day, too. That music was in every store we went in and on every radio station.
Lipscomb is beautiful and so is Nashville. We have plans today to meet up with Tyler, Jennifer and Heather. Still working on getting Litchfield to drive in from Chattanooga and Trigg to come from Johnson City. I don't honestly see it happening, which breaks my heart. Only 2 more days here until I fly out to meet my family!
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