Live like you're dying

I'm a busy girl*. Family and friends comment on this often, and I can't disagree with them. Even when I look at my calendar and I have a few free days, by the time I actually get to them, they seem to be teeming with activity. Most of the stuff on my calendar is fun stuff though: dinner with friends, concerts, weddings, family gatherings, volunteer work, etc. All of these are things I love and choose to do. It's not like I'm adding "laundry" or "carpool to soccer practice" to the calendar, so I really can't complain. I try not to either, but I'm sure I do more than I should. I'm an extrovert by nature, but over the years I've become more introverted. As all the personality tests put it, I "get recharged" by taking time for myself alone.

(* Maybe I should start calling myself "lady" or "woman" since I am 28 now, but I prefer the term girl - the others just seem too old ;-))

That being said, however, I do like to stay busy. I feel like life is full of opportunities to take advantage of and to pass them up is hard for me to do. I also have a hard time saying "no." If someone invites me out, I tend to say yes, as long as my schedule allows. This has led to some amazing experiences and I believe is the reason I have such a wide network of friends. It's impossible to stay connected with everyone you befriend in life, but by golly, I'm going to try!

This past weekend took the cake for how much I can squeeze into a 4 days, however.

Thursday I already had plans to have dinner at Trinity House, "a residential transitional program designed to serve homeless men with issues regarding drug dependency." I have been involved with Trinity House for a little over 4 years now and serve twice a month. It's definitely one of the highlights of my month, and I look forward to seeing all the guys and staff every time it comes around. More on that another time.


Anyway, I already had plans for dinner when I got a text from a friend inviting me to the Falcons pre-season game against the Patriots. Was I interested? Heck yes I was interested! I love football, and I had only been to one Falcons game before. This was shaping up to be a pretty fantastic evening. So, after a wonderful time with my friends at Trinity House, I rushed down the road to the Georgia Dome for some Thursday night football. The seats were amazing! Field level, 50 yard line, 21 rows up:

The view from our amazing seats!

Too bad we lost. :-(  In reality though, I didn't mind too much because I had a fantastic time anyway.

Enjoying the game, despite the scoreboard.

That was a great way to kick off the weekend, but it was just getting started. Friday night I had a lawn ticket to see Jack Johnson at Aaron's Amphitheater. I was meeting my sister and a friend of hers, and it was something I had been looking forward to for months. Friday morning rolls around and I look at the weather report: scattered showers and a chance of rain throughout the day. OK, so not the best possible report for an outdoor concert, but I was confident that we would miss the rain, given that the skies have been threatening a lot lately, but not ever really opening up too much. Stupidity or arrogance, you decide, led me to leave my house without one item of preparation for rain. It had been somewhat overcast at my house all day, but nothing that suggested the deluge that was on its way.

As I drove the 30 miles to the venue, I began to realize that maybe I should have considered the possibility for rain a little more seriously. The clouds certainly began to look foreboding, and by the time I was a few miles away, the possibility for showers became a reality. I'm not talking about a light, summer rain, either. I'm talking, flood inducing downpour. When I got off the interstate (on which I had slowed to a 20 mph crawl due to limited visibility), I was greeted by a river of water on the road before me. I watched as a MARTA bus and several other vehicles waded through the water, seemingly unharmed and followed suit.

A few minutes later, thinking I could avoid the traffic, I ended up on an industrial road with no one in sight. Once again I found myself faced with a stream of water pouring across the road, and I began to cross it slowly. This time I wasn't granted the luxury of seeing others cross it before me, and therefore was unaware at how deep the water was. Halfway through it, the water rose halfway up the door on my CR-V and I had a bit of a freak out. All I could think about were the news stories from back in the South Georgia floods of 1994 when people were swept away in their cars. I pictured myself floating down the makeshift river, with no one around to help, and no one knowing where I had gone to. I have a bit of an overactive imagination, to say the least. I revved my engine and hurried across to the other side, and eventually made it back to the road I had gone to so much trouble to avoid. Wouldn't you know it, but there was hardly any traffic after all.

 I had finally arrived, in plenty of time to see the opening bands, ALO and G Love, and decided to wait the storm out in my car. After all, I had no rain coat, no poncho and no change of clothes or a towel for after the show in case I got wet. When the rain subsided, I made my way inside with blanket in hand. Just as I sat down the skies opened up again and soon I was dripping wet from head to toe. This happened once more during the next performer. By the time my sister and her friend arrived (two hours later due to traffic, weather and parking problems), I had dried considerably, but still felt awfully damp.

None of that really mattered once Jack Johnson came on stage because he was incredible! I was lucky enough to see him perform and meet him back in 2000 at the now-defunct Music Midtown. I was one of maybe 75-100 people who came out to see this new, acoustic artist play during one of the early sets of the day. This time around, there were a few more people, but what the show lacked in intimacy was completely made up for by how amazing it was. He played for two hours and totally rocked out my favorite songs. Of course, he doesn't have any songs I don't like, so that helps! :-) About halfway through the show, during "Banana Pancakes" the skies just opened up and we were hit with a deluge! I thought I was wet before, but that was nothing compared to this downpour. We complete embraced the rain and had so much fun dancing and singing along. If there is any performer more fitting for a downpour, I'm not sure who it would be.

Jack Johnson beckoning the rain with "Banana Pancakes"

Soaking wet and completely thrilled!

Jack and friends closing out the show with style

Afterward I walked my soaking wet self back to my car, carrying my blanket that now weighed about 20 pounds from the excess water, and headed home. I couldn't have asked for a better night.

So if that had been all I did this weekend, I would have been more than satisfied. Lucky for me though, there was more to come in the form of another concert on Saturday night: V.V. Brown (whose single "Shark in the Water" is one of my current faves), Kris Allen (of A.I. fame) and Maroon Five. I went with two of my sisters and then two of my other sisters got last minute tickets and came as well. Of course, we only saw the other two briefly, as we were sitting on opposite sides of the venue, but still...

It was another great show. V.V. Brown is someone I see definitely rising in the ranks soon. Her voice is beautiful and she played a couple of great covers including a Coldplay number. Kris Allen: what can I say? He's fantastic. I think he deserves far more credit than he is probably given due to his association with Idol, but his voice is flawless. His songwriting is great and his tunes are so catchy. That guy rocks!

Kris Allen

My sister and I saw a private radio station performance back in June, and I told her that I thought he has probably picked up a few moves from Adam Levine while touring with M5. His pants seem a bit tighter and there were definitely more pelvic thrusts on stage! His stage presence has certainly improved and he put on a great show.

Maroon 5 were total pros. I saw them years ago at The Georgia Theater in Athens (pre-fire, of course) and they were great then. The past 6 years have only improved and expanded their performance and repertoire and, like J.J., their audience.

Maroon 5

After the show, I headed over to stay the night at my friend Kristine's home. That thankfully saved me a LOT of driving at a late hour. As a bonus, she was also hosting our monthly book club meeting the next day. Sunday morning I had the pleasure of hanging with Kristine, her husband Matt and their completely charming and adorable girl Violet. Sunday also happened to be Violet's 6 month birthday! We played and laughed and she drooled...a lot...and I loved every minute of it.

Enjoying some playtime with Violet before Book Club

That afternoon, the rest of the book clubbers (minus our long-distance member Jen) showed up and we watched "The Blind Side." Our book club is slightly different than most in that we always watch the movie adaptation of each month's book at our meetings rather than bogging our get-togethers down with talk of themes and foreshadowery, etc. This brilliant idea came to Kristine, our founder and president, three years ago and we've been meeting every month since January 2008. It's been a raving success and I'm so glad we have been able to maintain the club despite distance and life-changes.

After another joyful meeting, we parted ways in the early evening and I trekked back home, exhausted, but completely thrilled at how fantastic the weekend was. Next weekend, I visit my cousin in Charlotte, NC. Life is good!