day 252 Baswellesque

It’s time to describe the glorious weekend my parents were here. Friday, I pulled into my parking lot and there they were standing next to their camper that they dragged up here on the back of their car. It was a camper straight out of the 50s and my Dad had spent the pasts several months restoring it. The inside looked great; he put in new floors and ceilings, made a homemade table and several other Baswellesque homemade items. The table was made out of a sign that he has toted around since the Olympics were in town. It was a sign that says Parking $10 for the 1996 Olympics. It had a comfy bed and a cozy kitchen. He did a really a good job restoring it; he put in a toilet all by himself, which is not surprising him being a retired plumber and all. I was really impressed with his toilet installing skills. It must have taken forever to find that bucket and the time he took to pick just the right kitty litter for humans was well worth it. Yep, the bathroom was for emergencies only, just in case, for whatever reason, the outdoors was out of order and couldn't use it for a bathroom; we have an orange bucket with kitty litter. Bumpabunuh. Thanks to Sanford and Son, I will always know what beat to bop to in situations like these …..bumpabunah

After my tour, we went upstairs and my Mom and Dad were all excited to tell me about the 400 mile long garage sale in Indiana and the bed in breakfast they stayed in in Kentucky. They had a ball and the trunk full of antique nuts and bolts proved it to be a success!

This is the first time my mom has been on a trip since she got sick 3 years ago, so my Dad's mission was to make it extra special. She is off of Chemo for at least 6 weeks and they aren’t gonna waste a minute! They had never been to a bed and breakfast together and it was a total surprise, aaaaawww good job Dad!

Ok this is gonna be a 3 parter because Saturday was a 3 parter as we ventured into downtown.

day 251 pokemon

Why am I now waking up at 5am to blog? It doesn’t make any sense. I had all evening to do so, I had nothing to do and I chose to set the alarm instead. Oh, I know, I spent the evening trying to get the layout of my blog to look how it used to look, I need some IT assistance! I have tried 100 times and can’t figure it out. I hate rocket science.

My Iowan Ginger (he has red hair in case you missed that connotation) emailed me! Ha! I was shocked! He sent me an email at like 8am Monday morning! He said he had a great time with me and he couldn't stop thinking about me. Wow, nice, so we exchanged a few emails, I guess I now have a corn-fed ginger pen pal; hopefully it will provide some good material.

NOW, Meredith has been slowly pushing me to meet her musician friend who she knows from UGA and now lives in Nashville. She claims that he is funny, cute, and a musician who writes funny songs. She has put on the pressure lately seeing as my POF method literally went down in flames...again. I do get the whole concept of needing outside influences when it comes to my decision making process and that might be the biggest reason I say to Meredith, book it Dano!

I stalked him on Facebook and he is laughing a lot, so what the heck. I gave the green light and he has since poked me on Facebook. How very 3rd grade of him :) So I poked him back. What happens after you poke someone? Do we get to kick each other next?

Day 250 stalk, hover, and pounce

CMA Country Fest was a trip! They set up a stage on the river (not sure why they don't have a permanent one there cause it was perfect). Boats floating behind the stage, tons and tons of people filled up the hill leading down to the stage. This was only one part of the fest, it flowed all through the rest of Broadway, and a sea of country fans equals the best people watching ever!!! People from all over wearing cowboy hats, wife beaters, boots, and every girl had a dress on with boots. Attention ladies, not every dress goes with cowboy boots!!

Kelly and I went into what used to be called Cadillac Ranch for some eats. We did the whole stalk, hover and pounce for a place to sit cause of course any place was with AC was packed. I did my whole once over/ loop around to locate my victims. My eyes are searching for two people signing a credit card slip with almost empty drinks. We found the perfect seats and started to hover, it was obvious what we are doing, so I let the couple in on what our intentions were. We continue to hover and the instant they showed movement we pretty much helped them out of the way and went in for a landing. Victory! Perfect seats for our lunch break! Seconds after we are sitting, the couple next to us gets up and two other people casually walk in and ask if those seats were taken. DAMN YOU!

After we finish off a big plate of nachos, the band cranks up and we meet a few boys from a 35 person bachelor party from Chicago. I don't know why I instantly start mocking Northern accents but I do and that’s just the way it is. These guys were fun, so fun we went honky Tonkin with them at Honky Tonk Central and ended up somehow inviting several of them back to my pool at my apartment! This reminds me of the time in Atlanta when I lived in the Highlands. I was at a bar and it was getting close to closing time, so naturally, I stood up on the stool and yelled POOL PARTY! Somehow the entire bar ended up at my pool at 3am, it was hilarious.(actually there is more to that story that will have to be better explained later).

So now we have Yankee boys at my pool, sitting with our feet in the water chit chattin and taking a break from the crowds. The boys stayed for a bit, we called them a cab so they could get back to their bachelor party and continue their night since it was only like 6pm.

I gave the one boy who lived in Iowa my email address, I figured that he needed a pen pal living in Iowa and all.

day 249 music city bound

I almost got stood up but I persevered! I did not sit at home for the 3rd Friday in a row. His car had to be put in the shop so it was a huge possibility. He was gonna have to pick me up in his mother's minivan with her "I love hand bells" bumper sticker on the back. Hahahaha, needless to say I volunteered to make the 30 minute drive to Murfreesboro and pick him up for some Sushi.

We had a nice time, he looked a bit different than his pics but wasn't gonna hold that against him since he made me laugh. He let me do all the talking which was a nice change of pace. He gave me all kinds of compliments, which was another nice change of pace. Here comes the moment of my inner struggle, do I spit out the truth about my observations of him knowing that he may stumble upon my blog? Or do I keep my mouth shut cause I know I am going to see him again? I guess I will keep the fact that he has a fruity undertone to his voice similar to the Fem Soldier to myself. Why is this a common occurrence in TN? He is an only child and a huge Momma's boy, maybe that’s the reason…red flag? Not sure yet. We have plans to go to the ZZ Top concert so I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Now I must get ready for a day of CMA Fest and pool with Kelly. Gonna walk downtown just to say we were there and then going jump in the pool. That is the plan anyway, we’ll see what actually happens, who knows!

dat 248 what is the question?

The stand-up bandit strikes again! Well I don't know if he technically stood me up since he called, but since he is the one that has established this pattern by technically standing me up, I am calling it a stand up on a technicality.

Whatever, I am over Tim; he cancelled yesterday because he had to play football. He was gonna get out of playing but I guess the team couldn't live without him. I was actually relieved, I was stone cold exhausted and it would have been the equivalent to going on a date with Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s.

Last Friday my date with Hank was ripped out from under me an hour prior to walking out the door. That is 2 Fridays in a row by two different guys if anyone is keeping track. Friday nights are turning into the low point of my week and that ain't right. Instead of going on a date, I went shopping at the dollar store and found myself standing in line with toilet paper and a plunger. That is not really how I pictured my Friday night.

So I have decided that I am not going to talk about the dates that I have on the books, because it just jinxes it. I refuse to tell you about the date that I have tonight. I am not going to tell you that I am finally meeting Hank for the first time. I will not say one word about the fact that after texting, talking and emailing for a couple of months I finally get to put a face with the name. My expectations are higher than they should be so I will spend the day tricking my mind to lower them to the ground.

Tonight is the THIRD Friday in a row I have had a date scheduled. WILL I or WON'T I get stood up? That is the question.

day 247 yeehaw! country fest!

I am just gonna welcome myself back now! It’s good to be back! I missed you all, hope everyone is doing well! J I have been on hiatus. My parents were town from Friday to Tuesday. Enough said.

We had a glorious time! We did so many fun things and really enjoyed each other's company. I am going to go into all that later. Last night I needed to decompress! Let the air out of my tires and chill! I arranged myself in a total Den of Zen and crashed hard. Love you Mom and Dad, but as you know, visitors of any kind can wear a girl out!

I need to first backtrack to a few things that lead up to this whirlwind extended remix parental weekend.

Tonight I am letting Tim take me out again. After we went out the last time we had fun, but after the date I really wasn’t feeling it. This guy is super-hot, really funny, has got a good job, tall, drives a truck, listens to country/rap and loves sports. That’s like my perfect list of stuff I like! I always said that I just need a guy to make me laugh and that would be enough, turns out it is not. During the 2 dates that we went on, it was a combined total of about 15 hours and somehow he managed to not ask me one single question about myself, not one! How is that possible? Wait! He did ask me one, when we were on the way home he asked me why I live where I live, he said it was off the beating path and he doesn’t even know how I even found it.  Ok, I don't think that I mentioned that he lives with his parents. He had a situation where he was leasing a house and the owner of the house let it go to foreclosure all the while letting him pay rent. So he is now staying with his parents looking for a new place and I have only made fun of him a little bit, not a lot.  After he asks me the one and only question, I turn to him and say "Well I was going to live with my parents, but they live in Georgia" He chuckled and called me an ass, jokingly of course.

So in my mind this guy has zero interest in getting to know me and that was a turn off. So I stopped talking to him. Earlier that week, he told me that hates the fact that I am busy dating other guys and I told him that he needs to focus on making me not want to date other guys. When I am with him the brutal honest side comes shining through and I just say whatever I want and don’t think twice. So me ignoring him..well it drove him CRAZY! 

He texted me at least once a day for the next few days and I just ignored it like I do any other guy I am trying to fade out. Now let’s be clear, if a girl texts a guy once a day after being ignored we are considered psychotic, if a guy does it, he is considered persistent. That is just the way it is and I have accepted it. This guy wasn't gonna settle for being ignored. He wanted to know why I stopped talking to him. I told him the truth of why I wasn't feeling it via text. He called me and left me this loooonnnnngggggg voicemail explaining that he does want to get to know me. That he didn't realize that he wasn't engaging like he should, that all he knew was, he was having fun with me and wanted another chance.

FINE 3rd times a charm. I guess persistence is going to be added to my list of stuff I like. Long story short, we are going out tonight. I insisted that we go romping around downtown for the CMA Country Fest! It’s in town and its 5 days of non-stop concerts and festivities and I must check this out! It started yesterday and the traffic is horrific so we are gonna give it our best shot. I figure that would be a fun date with plenty of distractions just in case it goes south, plus I wouldn’t  mind walking through the crowds holding hands with a tall strapping young fella (he’s 31). He better step it up! If it were me and someone called me out for not asking questions, I would show up with an obnoxious list of questions on actually paper. So we shall see!

day 246 dive bomb!

Ok, I let Tim take me out for Sunday Funday. He totally got a second chance, I was pretty impressed when he left his “all guy” camping trip to take me out. We went to lunch and then boiled in the heat at Sounds game. We had fun, laughed a lot, mostly at my feet. They looked like I had been rolling around in the Georgia red clay. I had to wear pants it looks so bad. Pants in 96 degree weather! Usually I don't care if I look a little off, but this was that bad. I felt that sock and shoes would have been a little drastic and I left my poor feet exposed. It didn't take him long to call me out on my dirty feet. I gave him a heads up the night before so he wouldn’t think that I had some horrible skin disease. I told him that my spray tan and I had a fight and it was not cooperating. This all made me flash back 7 years when Gary and I had our first date at a Braves game. I was called out for the same exact think and my nickname quickly became leather foot. I can't believe I still haven't learned my lesson.

The date was fun, I kept thinking that during this marathon date he would ask me at least one question about myself. Um nope, not a one. This bothered me. We can go back in forth with snappy, witty banter all day long, litterly, because that is all we did. I need someone to at least ask me what my favorite color is and no it is not Burnt Sienna. Oh and he is addicted to his phone like the rest of the world. Put the phone away! You are on a date! Know you audience! Biggest pet peeve ever!

AH! I have to cut this short. My parents just called and are dive-bombing me! They are out on a road trip in KY or South Carolina or something and they are going to be here tomorrow when I get off work. I am excited to see them but I gotta clean!!!