Being Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon

Yes, that would be me. Miss Lazy. In my defense, I AM washing clothes and I DID cook lunch and I DID go to the store this morning. But right now, I'm in my room, light off, a Hershey Bliss in my mouth, squinty-eyed from sleepiness.

The past few nights I have gotten to where I lay down with the light off, play Scrabble on my phone and listen to my ipod. I got in the bed last night at 9:30 and before I knew it, it was three hours later! Jeffrey Steele is who I listen to the most, but Jim Croce, James Taylor, Darius Rucker (When he was Hootie) and a few others join him.

Traveling to work every day only takes three minutes. I can't even listen to one entire song! So there's really not a lot of time to enjoy my music. At work I try to turn it on sometimes but I always get interrupted so I don't even try most of the time.

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I remember when I was four and had the mumps my mother bought a 45 record of the Beatles I want to hold your hand with the flip side I saw her standing there. I laid there in the bed at my grandmother's house listening and trying to smile even though my neck was a big as a watermelon!

I collected hundreds of 45s and had some really, really good ones. When I was in third grade I was coming home from a friend's house and I dropped and broke most of them. Oh, I was sick!

By middle school I was listening to Carole King, Carly Simon, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin and all of the Top 40 songs. Steve Miller Band's The Joker was one of my favorites. I went to Birmingham to see the Shower of Stars, sponsored every year by WVOK. The Grass Roots were there the year I went. I can't remember anyone else right off the top of my head. Maybe I can look it up somewhere online. And like most girls at the time I loved Donny Osmond and the Osmond Brothers and also David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman. The walls of my bedroom were covered!

I went to see the Osmonds several times, as well as Chicago, The Carpenters, and the biggie...Three Dog Night!! Oh my, how I loved them! I had every album they ever put out. I was fifteen and saw them in Huntsville at Milton Frank Stadium.

When I started dating Jimmy, we went to see several concerts. We loved Willie Nelson and saw him a few times, as well as The Oak Ridge Boys. Over the years since then I have seen quite an eclectic collection of people. Wynonna, Clint Black, The Guess Who, Martina McBride, Billy Dean, Atlanta Rhythm Section, James Taylor, Vince Gill, Alabama, Kenny Rogers, Fleetwood Mac just to name a few. I didn't see many concerts during the years I was raising my children. But after they got older, I started following Bo Bice, and he has introduced me to some fantastic musicians!

I've become a fan of Gary Nichols, Kris Bell, LoCash Cowboys, Eliot Morris and countless other artists because of his introduction, influence or me being in a certain place because of him. Just because I went to the CMA Festival this year, I found somebody that I just love! Jeffrey Steele is amazing. Outstanding. Talented. Entertaining. I'm smitten. He's awesome!

Next Friday night I plan on going down to Bessemer to see Jimmy Wayne. Bo's former bassist now plays with him, and I love Luis and want to go see him. I'm even dragging Jimmy with me. I think he'll enjoy it and I hope he can meet Luis. Luis has answered many bass questions Jimmy had through me the past couple of years!

Someone Jimmy and I have been fans of for over twenty years is the fantastically talented Mr. John Cowan. We first learned of John when he was in the band Newgrass Revival. We finally made it to a couple of concerts and he is just as nice as can be and his voice is unbelievable. Check him out if you've never heard of him. That voice, man, that voice...is so powerful!

I really need to scan some of my old pictures that I took at concerts back in the day. I'll try and do that soon!

In the meanwhile, check out this website dedicated to the old WVOK. There are several pages of pictures from the Shower of Stars. I was there for the year they had The Grass Roots (as I said earlier) and now I remember seeing Climax, too. Pretty cool site! I think I was at the show in August of 1970 where Iron Butterfly played. Gosh, looks like I could remember!! I know for sure I was there in 1970. It was in 6th grade and I was 11. After looking at the advertisements I'm changing my mind. I may have been at the one with Paul Revere and the Raiders. There are pictures of Climax but it doesn't have them listed on any of the advertisements. I remember that vividly because my friend Susan's mom's eyes like to have popped out of her head when I told her I saw Climax! LOL LOL!!

http://wvok-memories.tripod.com/

Monday again...ALREADY!!!

Jeffrey Steele

Gavin DeGraw

Preston, LoCash Cowboys

Another weekend blazed by me. Whew, they seem to get faster and faster.

Friday night Jimmy and I went on a "date", something we rarely get to do. Date=going out by ourselves, FYI. We went to Red Lobster in Gadsden. I think I love seafood better than any kind of food. We got there and a couple from Albertville was sitting out front. I worked with the man and sat in meetings with him for years and I worked a few years on a charity thing with the woman, but I swear, they acted as if they couldn't quite place me. Rather than be offended, I got tickled about it. I told Jimmy that I must make one heck of an impression on people! They kept looking over at me surrepticiously, so I know they were thinking, "Where do I know her from??" I just ordered my drink and sat there and sipped it while we waited for our table, secretly relishing the fact that their minds were on overdrive trying to figure it out!

We were given the very back booth in the restaurant, which was nice. We ordered and Jimmy had not had any carbohydrates in quite a while, so he was stuffing in the cheese biscuits. Well, about the time I grabbed the basket and told him he was going to make himself sick, the waiter came, overheard me, and sat another full basket of biscuits in front of Jimmy, making some comment along the lines of he'd just put those there for him. He must have thought I was a Royal Bitch.

We were enjoying our crab legs and I swear, the kid in the booth across the aisle, one back from us, puked all over everything. Thank goodness I couldn't see anything, but Jimmy was giving me the play-by-play. ICK. Some poor guy dressed in a hazmat type suit came out and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. He earned his money that night! I heard the little boy, about 3 years old, say, "I yucked." I cracked up because that's what Seth or Layke used to say!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed down to Jamoka's and then went on to Trade Day. That's a flea market for those of you who may not know. There are always so many cute puppies there, and as usual, I saw some little English bulldogs that I just loved. They were absolutely adorable! We picked up a few odds and ends and then headed home to the sporting goods store.

Jimmy had told me about something that Frog Togs makes called a Chilly Pad. You wet it and it feels 20 degrees cooler than the air temperature. I was going to an outdoor concert on Sunday, so he wanted me to have one of them. After a few more errands, we landed at home where we stayed the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning I got up and headed for Huntsville where I met Debbie at the Cracker Barrel. I was sitting on the porch waiting for her when she called and told me she was getting pulled over. She got a ticket. What a way to start a trip!

After our lunch at Cracker Barrel, we parked her car in the airport parking and I drove us on to Franklin, TN. Debbie's GPS, "Bo-Bo", guided us right to the park where we were going. We drug our cooler and our chairs across the street and found a spot to sit. There was NO shade whatsoever. It was a jillion degrees. We didn't see anybody we knew, so we just settled in. Later on we would see Cheryl and we moved our chairs to the other side.

LoCash Cowboys came on first. They are such cuties. They do a fun show. After they finished, it was time for Jeffrey Steele. He sang a few songs, then introduced his surprise guest, Gavin DeGraw! He's awesome! He sang a few songs while playing the keyboard. Then Jeffrey came back and rocked out until about 9 o'clock. The man sang nearly THREE hours and I didn't see him take a sip of water and he did not take any kind of break. It was an incredible show. We're going back next year. Better take care of that Chilly Pad. Looks like I'll be needing it again!

I drove home this morning and got to work around 11:30. I had forgotten my round brush, so my hair is pitiful. My cooler, which was setting on top of my suitcase yesterday, leaked all into it and all over my clothes. So Debbie lended me some pants to wear on the trip home. Thankfully I had ironed and hung my work clothes, so I was able to change into them when I got to work. I used 50 sunblock yesterday, but you can still definitely tell I've been in the sun. That's an oddity for me. I'm a Southern Belle who believes in staying lily white. Not gonna happen this year! After my trip in August I'll be even browner!!

TGIF

Well, it's been a rather quick week. The cold/allergies I had sure took a toll, but I'm about over them. Tuesday afternoon I went home at lunch and slept the rest of the day. Exciting anniversary, huh? Ah, we can celebrate any time!

The most exciting thing to happen to me this week happened yesterday. I was at work, paying bills, and I had bb.com up on the computer. Well, Bo got online and was posting back and forth with people. Suddenly he posted that the first three persons to call his SayNow number would get to talk to him live! I had my iphone in my pocket and I just so happened to have SayNow saved as a contact. I pressed the button right quick and imagine how surprised I was to hear a recording say I was next in line to talk! I flew out the back door of the library, praying the connection would hold, and I heard Bo come on the line. I said hello and he did too, and I told him my screen name. He laughed and said, "Hey, Lisa" and something to the effect that I was fast!

My goodness, my heart was beating out of my body, but soon I calmed right down. Bo is so easy to talk to that he immediately put me at ease. He told me to make sure and spread the word that this was REAL, that it wasn't a recording! We talked about several things- his kids, last week, how he's always been "country" (he said he didn't know what the thing was with people, that he had always been country) and that he listened to country radio; he told me about how he wanted to stay connected with the fans and that he wasn't doing things on a huge scale, he was playing small venues. He said he wanted to be a good husband and daddy. I told him how much I admired him for that. He spoke of how sad it is that huge artists are in the news for beating their girlfriends/spouses and things such as that. Let's see...I told him I was at work and really shouldn't be on the internet, but oh well! We chit chatted a little more and were about to hang up and I told him that last week was my 30th anniversary gift from my husband, that I can always remember their anniversary on the 15th because mine is on the 16th. He told me he was glad I came and for me to be sure to thank Jimmy and give him love for letting me come up and spend last week with him. Then my stupid phone dropped the call!! I'm so glad I got that much time in, though. He went back on line and posted that he lost me, he didn't hang up, he promised! He's such a sweet person.

That's just one way my ordinary life is sometimes extraordinary! I usually keep my Bo posts to my Bo blog (http://www.boonthebrain.blogspot.com/), but this was something totally out of the ordinary for me! I also have recapped every day I spent in Nashville and posted pictures over there. I'm doing it every corresponding day this week, so I'm up to Friday. I've got to work on it, then I'll have two more days of CMA Fest to blog about! Check it out if you're so inclined.

Three days in a row?!

Left to right: Me, Karen, Terri, Pam, Janet and Cindy

Can you believe it? I must be in a chatty mood. Sometimes I just cannot shut myself up!

Things are awfully quiet at work today. I did my yearly employee evaluations and I've still got to pay some bills, but other than that nothing is pressing too much.

Jimmy asked me last night if I would like to go see Diamond Rio Saturday night. Well, yeah! He's going to see if he can score some tickets to the Alabama Poultry and Egg Festival. That's where they are performing. We've seen Lonestar there before, as well as Little Big Town. It's always held at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center and tickets are like $150 each. It's a fundraiser and usually Jimmy's company has some tickets floating around. We shall see.

Ya'll, I am addicted to Scrabble. I have it on my home computer and when I got my iphone that is the first app I bought!! I lay in the bed and night and play in the dark until I literally drop the phone. Am I sick or what?? Since I got my phone on Mother's Day, I have played 68 games with 1 Draw and 11 Losses. Not too bad. And what is so funny is that I typically win by playing three letter words! I'm just really picky to use triple letter, double letter, and double word placement. That helps a lot! So use that little bit of advice for whatever you think it's worth!

When I went home for lunch today I played two games while I was watching One Life To Live. Now that is my show! I think Todd Manning is sex on a stick. He is gorgeous. Today Jessica remembered everything surrounding the birth of her baby. Now the dilemma is...will Starr and Cole be willing to let Marcie have the baby as they had originally planned? Drama, drama! It's mindless entertainment, but I've done it for so long that I just can't abandon this group of people that I've known since I was like 17 years old!

Now that all of the regular TV shows are in reruns for the summer, I have not even been watching television at night. I've spent my time outside on the patio or on the computer or listening to music. It sure makes the evenings last longer, which is a good thing.

Tonight I have nothing planned. I really should get my clothes out and try on stuff to see what I want to take with me to the CMA Festival next week. My goodness, I'm going to be gone from Monday-Sunday, so I'll have to have a LOT of stuff! And I want to be comfortable, that's for sure. I hope I see some good stars. I know I'm seeing Bo at least four or five times. He's busy all week at charity events.

Ok, that'll do it for now. I'm not promising I won't come back and type more, though!

Oh yeah, I'm putting up the picture of me and the girls from work taken out at Santa Fe Tuesday night. We were celebrating Janet and Karen's birthdays. Funny how we always choose something that we enjoy ourselves to give as a gift! ;)