Monday, May 17, 2010

5000 tweets, 450+ days, and what it all means.

well. i just reached my 5000th tweet. and some things cannot be summarized in 140 characters.

that's right, 5000 tweets in 456 days. that averages to 10.78 tweets a day, and that doesn't include those i have deleted. or my journal twitter account. yes, i realize i maaaaay be a little obsessed with twitter. but what i have i learned over the past 16 months?

-music. i have discovered many of my new favorite musicians thanks to twitter. just by following people and looking at who they follow or who they tweet about. to name a few: andrew ripp, jake ousley, rob blackledge, seth philpott. (p.s., jake's ep, times like these was just released on itunes last week. go.get.it.now. $6. seriously.) not only did i discover artists, i also have attended a lot of concerts over the past year+, and many of those were thanks to twitter - i wouldn't have known about them otherwise. and for free! i've won tickets to a mocha club event, tin pan south, dave barnes, and will hoge.

-friends. twitter has helped me to stay in touch with, and even make, friends. crazy, but true. though i guess that's the original idea behind "social networking" anyway.

-news. twitter has been my main source of news, especially since i've been cable-less. it's how i learned there was a car bomb while i was in times square, my friends and i paid close attention to nashvillest's tweets for news on the nashville flood as we traveled back into town, etc.

i think i'll end this post with some of my "favorited" tweets. first, the funny:

@donmilleris: Table next to me: Like, I don't know, cause like, he's like, you know. So like, I don't know. -Yeah, like, that makes sense. It's like, um..

@davebarnesmusic: i "love" the confusion that quotation "marks" do to a "sentence". I should "use" them more to "throw" "people" off my "scent" more often "."
@davebarnesmusic: For example - watch and learn. Will "you" meet me "today" at "Red Lobster" so i can "borrow" your "His"tory book? "Thanks!" (Confused yet?
@davebarnesmusic: Now, imagine the person who typed that is a large badly tanned barely mustached man named Toe-Nee. Gets more interesting, doesn't it?


the thought-provoking:

@LucasBoto: Leaving a vision undone often feels safer than following thru & risking failure. I think the best life decisions are tough sometimes.

@bobgoff: I want a noteworthy life. A life so engaged that I would find myself leaning forward and taking notes, while looking for evidence of Jesus.

@erwinmcmanus: ...You can protect your dreams by never attempting to make them a reality. To achieve your dreams you must be willing to lose them- to risk.

Monday, May 10, 2010

buses, music, bombs, and floodwaters (part 4)

i guess this is better late than never.

if you are reading this, chances are you have already heard of the flood that hit nashville on may 1st & 2nd, 2010.

my friends and i were still in nyc when the rain first started falling saturday. we went to dinner that night, and then we saw nashville on cnn. and we saw this school room floating down the interstate. i was speechless. up until just over a year ago, i lived less than half a mile off that exit.

sunday we drove back from new york to nashville. we didn't know what to expect upon returning. in fact, we weren't even sure if we would be able to make it all the way home or not. as we took turns driving, we also took turns frantically checking nashvillest and other local twitter accounts for road closers and weather reports.

i can't imagine that i will ever forget that feeling of driving into the city. it was midnight, and as we approached the skyline, we noticed fewer and fewer cars on the road. and no water, which surprised us. it was such an eerie feeling though, having seen countless pictures of what was happening on the internet. and the smell. the smell was overwhelming. river mixed with rain mixed with sewage.

and all three of us made it safely home.

i suffered some damage due to the rain. there was about a foot and a half of water in my basement. i still haven't pulled my belongings out of there. most of it should be okay, though i know the luggage set i had just received for christmas, and possibly my christmas tree, are ruined. we didn't have hot water for a week. and we still don't have a/c.

but i'm one of the lucky ones.

and watching the way nashville has come together shows me we are all the lucky ones.

this blog, which has given our community a new slogan, can describe this better than i would ever be able to: we are nashville.

i have called nashville my home for almost four years now. but now i know for certain i will call it my home for the rest of my life, even if it ceases to be my place of residency.

if you want to help in any way, please volunteer or donate to hands on nashville.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

buses, music, bombs, and floodwaters (part 3)

following up on the last two days' blogs (here and here), i have one more story regarding my trip to new york city.

saturday was our last day before heading back to nashville. we had taken the bus out to jersey to attend the bamboozle festival. on our way back into the city, we decided to head into times square one last time so that andrea could pick up a souvenir for her sister. then we would get dinner and go home to our apartment. we got off the bus in times square and started going in and out of various stores. at this point, all of us were just ready to get out of the massive crowd of people, get some food, and go home. andrea finally found the perfect gift for her sister, and we headed over to the bus stop that we needed.

on our way to the bus stop, it seemed everyone was walking the opposite direction that we were. we also noticed several police heading in the same direction, and myka wondered out loud as to what was going on. we complained that our bus was over ten minutes late, and it was at this point i noticed there was no traffic coming. at all. and then we saw a fire truck blocking in the intersection. rather than waiting for the traffic to clear, we decided to walk a few more blocks down to the next bus stop. we finally got on a bus and headed to the lower east side for some dinner.

it wasn't until the next day that we learned there was a car bomb scare that night. andrea looked up the details, and we are pretty positive that we walked right passed the car in question. it's more than a little unsettling to realize that, had the bomb gone off like he had hoped, i might not have any more stories to tell.

Friday, May 7, 2010

buses, music, bombs, and floodwaters (part 2)

yesterday i blogged about a crazy bus experience while in new york city last week. so, one may wonder (though most of you probably already know), what was i doing in new york city?

well, my friends and i might be crazy, but we drove (a 13-hour trip one-way) to new york for a week to attend a week-long concert series.

you see, thirteen years ago, we all fell in love with a little orange cd: hanson's middle of nowhere. there are probably three groups of people reading this blog right now:

group a is thinking: i freaking love hanson!
group b is thinking: holly, we know you love hanson
group c is thinking: hanson? those mmmbop boys?

the following paragraph is for those of you in the group c section. and maybe some of you in group b.

over the past thirteen years, hanson has continued to put out music. on june 8th, they will be releasing their 5th full-length studio album, shout it out. (over the course of the 13-years they have also released a christmas album, two live albums, and several EP's.)

so, in preparation for the release of shout it out, the guys decided to play a special concert series called "five of five". for five nights in a row, they played each album in full. (middle of nowhere on monday, this time around on tuesday, etc.) on friday they performed all the songs on shout it out and let me just say - i'm excited for the album.

but the other nights were incredible. in no way do i think hanson have the best voices, or the best lyrics, or the best instrumental skills. but they will always be the band that taught me to first love music. and to quote taylor, "the first music you really fall in love with is more than just music. it's something that clicks in you, beyond the song, it's a message or image that causes you to jump in and not let go." and that is what hanson will always be to me. so hearing the songs that i have loved for almost half my life was an experience i will never forget.

[end cheese blog]

Thursday, May 6, 2010

buses, music, bombs, and floodwaters (part 1)

i feel like i have a lot to talk about, especially since it's been awhile since i've blogged. and i know this will take more than one post to give each story it's full attention.

so i'll start with buses:

my friends and i went to new york city last week. two weeks before leaving on our trip, we all met at myka's house to discuss our plans. normally when the three of us girls get together, we get all sidetracked and never stay focused on one topic for long. this time was different. we made our plans. andrea even drew up a little calendar, listing what we planned to do each day. (and of course we left room for flexibility and impromptu decisions.) we just wanted to make sure we could fit in all the big things we definitely wanted to do there.

after the meeting, andrea and i walked down the stairs leading from myka's condo. and then andrea stepped off the curb. but the curb was taller than she expected, and all of a sudden she was on the ground. of course, i laughed at her before asking if she was okay. turns out, she was not okay. so i called myka and her husband came down to help me, while she grabbed a bag of ice to put on andrea's ankle. i drove andrea to the er (mind you, i was barefoot), and we soon learned that she sprained her ankle, and possibly tore a ligament.

they put her in a walking boot and gave her crutches. this made getting around the city a lot of fun.

so, fast forward to last week. it's monday morning, our first full day in the city. we had gotten those hop-on, hop-off tour bus passes. we were touring around uptown manhatten and all agreed to get off at the next stop and change buses, as the current bus we were on held a group of girls conversing in their native tongue at a volume which prevented us from hearing the tour guide. we start walking towards the stairs to leave the bus, and the tour guide sees andrea's walking boot. he tells her to take her time climbing down the stairs. she goes down first, then me, and myka in the back. andrea gets to the bottom of the stairs, puts her good foot on the ground to step off, and the bus driver closes the doors. i immediately try pushing the door back open, but then the driver takes off. andrea falls on her bad foot; her good leg is still hanging out the door. i'm trying to grab her to pull her back in. myka is behind me banging on the side of the bus, and all three of us are screaming. i can't say for sure how long the driver continued to drive (i'm sure in reality it was only a matter of seconds), but to me it felt like minutes. we finally got off the bus and were all shaken up. andrea wasn't injured (well, it hurt, but no serious injuries), but we were all definitely freaked out, and for the rest of the week we were extra cautious when stepping off any bus.

and that, my friends, is story number one. stay tuned for more.