traveler's rest

i just returned from a much-needed vacation, where i spent about 28 hours in a car, about 20 of which i spent in solitude. i have always felt a sense of freedom getting away from routine, with my favorite songs and the gently hum of the highway as the soundtrack. this long weekend was no exception.

i left town wednesday afternoon and drove 4.5 hours north to indianpolis where i visited with stacy g., my college roommate (not to be confused with stacy l., my current roommate whom i also lived with during college. confusing. yes. don't be.) anyway. immediately upon graduating college in 2006, stacy g. and i took a trip with the school to japan. while there, we frequently feasted on a dish called okonomiyaki. unfortunately, we have had much difficulty finding it in the states. but no more! a japanese steakhouse near stacy's home serves it, and i was pleased to revisit such a delicious experience.

the next day i drove 4 more hours to my home town of saint joseph, michigan. my mom and i did not let the rain stop us from attempting a trip to the beach, and as soon as we arrived the rain ceased.

friday afternoon my mom, my grandma and i drove 2 hours west to meet my brother and his girlfriend for dinner in their town, chicago. after dinner, it was 2 hours back east to michigan.

saturday morning i drove the 4 hours back south to indianapolis where i met back up with stacy and her husband, and we then drove 2 hours north to wabash to celebrate the marriage of angie and josiah. it was a festive day and one that truly reflected the personality and relationship of the happy couple. post-wedding we drove 2 hours south to indianapolis.

sunday morning i hit the road again: 1 hour north to anderson, my college town, to attend the mercy house. being part of that community before moving to nashville made a huge impact on my life and i can honestly say i'm a different person because of it. i briefly caught up with my friend matt before the service, and then after drove back down to indy for lunch, and finally the 4.5 hour drive south back to nashville.

pictures coming friday. stay tuned.

a perfect fall weekend

this weekend past weekend will go down in the history books as one of the most perfect weekends. it was a combination of everything i love about nashville, about fall, about my hometown, and about road tripping.

roommate kirsten and i each took off work a little early on friday afternoon for a raod trip north. we stopped by fido to grab some coffee for the road, and to say goodbye to our roommate karissa, barista-extraordinaire. while waiting to order our coffee, we noticed the guy in front of us. the first thing i noticed was how short he was. yours truly stands at a measly 5'1" on a good day, and this guy was at most the same height as me, if not shorter. definitely not taller. next i noticed he was fairly attractive (though he was there with his wife and infant child), and then i realized he looked really familiar. i turned to kirsten and before i could say anything, she whispered "i think that guy was on some show we watched as children."

we spent the first 15 minutes of our road trip googling and imbding various 90's sitcoms and finally figured it out. the guy we saw was jason marsden. (not to be confused with james marsden). jason played jt's best friend & dana's boyfriend on step by step, eric matthew's friend on boy meets world, and dj's boyfriend on full house. he seemed nice and we actually talked to him for a whole 30 seconds after i miraculously caught the coffee beans his wife almost knocked onto the floor (i never catch anything).

we arrived at my mom's house in michigan around midnight and talked with her and played with the dog for a bit before hitting the sack. kirsten had never been to michigan before, so after breakfast we hit the krasal art center, silver beach, walked out to the lighthouse, met my grandma for pizza, visited an apple orchard and pumpkin patch, went to a cider mill which had cider tastings, and then a vineyard/winery with wine tastings.

then we went back to my mom's house for some pumpkin pie and apple crisp, then drove down to mishawaka, indiana. which was the whole purpose of this trip - our roommate, stacy lantz, was having a cd release show near her hometown, which is conveniently near my hometown. after the show, kirsten, stacy, the boys in her band, and i headed out to her parent's house. they have a lot of land, and her dad built a log cabin in the woods where we slept for the night. us girls woke up much earlier than the boys, and stacy's dad thought it would be fun to wake the boys by blasting led zepplin on the sound system while shooting off his shotgun. so he did. only they didn't wake up.

after they finally woke up, we went fishing in their pond (though we didn't catch anything) and climbed their silo. it's a 60-foot silo. dan and clayton made it all the way up, and kirsten and i chickened out after 6 feet or so. and scott didn't even try.

then we loaded up the trailer and cars and drove back down to nashville. the whole weekend was amazing. we did so many things in a short amount of time, but we never felt rushed and it was all just very relaxing. and it was peak fall colors up in michigan, and in my opinion, it was the perfect temperature at 65 degrees.

life on the road

mother, teach me about the country
can you tell the lies from the lives that you've seen
now mother, can you tell me
where this road is gonna lead?

just let yourself go and sell your soul to the road
just let yourself go and sell your soul to the road

["road song" - steel train]

i feel incredibly redundant saying this, but there is something beautiful about being on the road. i have had the privelege to travel a lot lately (for someone who works a 40-hr/week office job that doesn't involve travel). since this time last year i have been to california, indiana (3 times), illinois (twice), north carolina, south carolina, georgia, new york, michigan (3 times), and places in between. currently i'm sitting in the passenger seat of my friend's car (i love technology) somewhere in kentucky on our way to ohio. this world is too big to sit still for too long; too small to make excuses to not get out there and go see it. it feels as though there's a piece of my heart out there somewhere, but then i'm reminded of its true location: the world that has yet to come.

[fun side note: as i wrote this, we definitely passed an old van headed east on 71, with a window air conditioning unit hanging out the back and a generator strapped to the front. have i mentioned that i love traveling?]

weekend road trip: chicago.

so i failed at blogging every day this month, as i didn't blog this weekend. i went on a road trip to chicago this weekend, and i had been planning it for months. so when i decided to attempt to blog every day august, i knew this would require that i blog while out of town, which can, at times, be difficult.

so i went on the trip and i took my laptop with me. but my body decided to catch some germs while in chicago, and so all my spare time was spent sleeping rather than blogging.

my apologies.

but i had a great weekend regardless. quality time with friends, family, and my favorite band.

so, i always think it's weird to blog about not blogging, and i went and did again. to make up for it, i'll tell you this: i have something exciting to share tomorrow. at least, it's exciting to me.

freecation

i recently experienced what i like to call a freecation. a vacation. full of free.

here's the deal. i left work wednesday afternoon, spent the night with a friend in indianapolis, then thursday i drove the rest of the way up to michigan and stayed at my mom's house until sunday morning, when i then drove the rest of the way back to nashville. the only cost to me for this trip was gas. everything else was built-in. free places to stay, free meals (except for the two meals i ate while on the road, but those were normal groceries i bought before my trip and packed with me - no extra expenses).

but that's not entirely what i mean when i say this was a freecation. what i also mean is that it was very free-ing.

i absolutely love nashville, and if you've read any of my previous blog entries, you probably already know that. but nashville is a city and sometimes you need some air to breath. so when i say this trip was freeing picture the following:

driving through the rock formations of kentucky.



driving through the corn and soybean fields of indiana with fog in the far distance.



driving through the vineyards of southwest michigan.



watching the sunset over lake michigan.



freedom. space. fresh air.



(i lost my camera on my trip to new york, so all i have are iphone photos. at least until i get my film developed. yeah, film.)

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.

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]

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.

fare thee well, october.

i didn't blog much in october.

i traveled. a lot. over 4200 miles in 20 days. three separate road trips to destinations such as indianapolis, chicago, charlotte, myrtle beach, and atlanta. all for the love of music, and excuse to see good friends from all over the country.

summer 2010. are you listening?

home on the open road

i love me some nashville, you all know that by now. i blog about it all the time.

but still, sometimes you need to get away. away from your routine, away from what you call home, away from life.

and so, a road trip is in order. tomorrow after work i'll be heading north for the weekend: chicago, via indianapolis. the forecast calls for cold weather. very cold weather. which i love.

the open road is calling my name.

it's where i feel alive.

ahh vacation.

sometimes you never quite realize how badly you need a vacation until the whole thing has ended and you return to normal life. my vacation was perfect. a pleasant mixture of discovering new places, seeing new sights, and relaxing in the pool and jacuzzi, cocktail in hand.

i mean just look at these places...

I am back from the best spring break ever. I really mean that. It was full of great hilarious times that I will remember for the rest of my life: everything from Rescue Mom-One-One to the Judy Game and everything in between. We went to awesome places like the Little House on the Prairie and the Wal-Mart Museum. But aside from those the things that will stick with me the most are the things God taught me. He taught me sooo much and right now I'm having a hard time sorting it out. For being the best week ever I sure cried a lot. But tears are not bad, they are needed. I had a chance to talk to Lisa about a friend of ours and for each of us to get some of our worries out to each other and be an ear for each other, and in that process we gave something to that friend that I hope is a gift. I cannot go into details about that for the sake of the friend's privacy. One night I was sitting in the backseat by myself on our way back from who knows where, and I was looking out at the stars. Ryan and Lisa were both pretty quite themselves, and it gave me a chance to think. I thought about how God made those stars for us to enjoy, and even if I was the only person here on this Earth He wouldn't have done anything different. He made that beautiful sky for me. And I just thought about how much He loves me and how much I take that for granted. I thought about those two precious people in the car with me and how important they are to me, and where I would be without them in my life. I thought about how much I love the two of them, and I wondered how much more God loves us, and how impossible it is to comprehend that, because I was having a hard enough time realizing how much I loved them. It was the most peaceful - and yet at the same time frightening (in a good way) experience I've had and it brought me to tears. It's crazy how God decides when to speak to you. I never would have guessed the backseat of Ryan's car on the way back from Kansas or Texas or wherever we went that night.

More on spring break later... busy day.

I just had a great weekend! The group I'm in does worship for different churches, and we went to Ohio Saturday and stayed the night with some families there. Everyone was so kind and it was a blast, a great experience. Yay for mini road trips! Yay for worshipping God! Yay for the kindness of strangers! Yay for Stacy's mom (she's got it goin' on, and even though she wasn't there with us, she's here at AU now).