Ganon in the train set | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

via flickr.com

Click on through for my Flickr gallery of Ganon & the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Hat!

Got me a new hat yesterday thx to Mimi!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Remote controlled tarantula

I have arachnophobic friends. I could get myself murdered with this...

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Old McDonald's Farm...Metal Style | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

via flickr.com

Ganon sings "Old McDonald Had a Farm", metal style. Tenacious D would be so proud; the metal has now smote nursery rhymes to the ground.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Raaaaawr!

Visited the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History today! It's one of the museums that honor our American Children's Museums association membership, meaning we got in for free! We've now visited the Children's Museum of Memphis, the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, & this one! that membership has been paid for already & it hasn't even been 3 months.

The Leonardo da Vinci exhibit was excellent, but the "energy blast" movie was a clear reason why we should be skeptical of corporate sponsored science; it was all about how natural gas is formed & what an amazing person this one guy is for finding out how to get to some of it in Texas. Fine & dandy & really amazing how he did it, but not a word about the possible environmental impact of the drilling method or the use of natural gas itself. The exhibit was clearly sponsored by the company who's praises it was singing. Not impressed.

The rest of the exhibits were great, & Ganon can't stop talking about the museum & how much fun he had. That makes me happy. I realize I'm capable of giving him so many more learning opportunities than I had at his age, & I plan to take full advantage of that fact. :)

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

I MISS MY SON!

Also my husband but I haven't seen Ganon in 2 weeks y'all.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Pete is testing...

My Posterous doesn't appear to be autoposting to my Blogspot blog, so here's a picture of Pete with a blanket on his head.

Edit: Okay, it DOES appear to be posting here, but only when I email from one address and not the other. But it autoposts everywhere ELSE from that other address. More investigation is warranted, I believe.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Music

I've been thinking about something lately: do you have something you truly love but don't feel able to discuss intelligently? I am such a music fan. I cannot go 10 minutes in a row without listening to music of some sort. I'm utterly addicted to my iPhone. I spend tons of time making playlists that "go together", suit my mood, evoke a certain emotional response, etc. I am constantly looking for music. Bonnaroo was practically heaven for me: a giant buffet of new music I have never tried before. I gobbled all of it up, came home, & spent too much money on music on iTunes.

But I am not a musician. My fire lies elsewhere. That passion I see in people when they're playing live--I have that, but not to make music with. I have that when I'm starting an IV, when I'm doing chest compressions, when I'm smiling at someone because I know they're terrified of the procedure they're about to undergo. I don't have a problem with that; I wouldn't change that for the world. But sometimes I wish I could speak as eloquently about music as other people do. I wish I had that emotional understanding of what it's like to create something so beautiful & leave a tangible...something...anything...behind.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Oreos with cookies&cream filling: redundant!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Centeroo Fountain

via flickr.com

Oh, Bonnaroo. What an experience you were!

Something always goes wrong gearing up to a big event & this was no exception. This time, it was the tickets. I was packed & driving to LR before I realized something: the tickets were in DALLAS. You see, Bryan drove to Dallas with Ganon so that Ganon could have a week with Mimi & Augie. We had switched Bryan's suitcase at the last minute, and I didn't realize at the time that I hadn't gotten the Bonnaroo tickets out! I called Bryan, who called Mimi, who found the tickets & put Ganon in the car and rushed to Love Field to get Bryan the tickets just in time for him to make it back through security & slide onto his plane. Crisis averted, heart attacks ceased. Mimi for the win!

I picked Bryan up at 10:30 pm at the Little Rock airport. This isn't as bad as it sounds; I worked the day before and had slept all day. It was the perfect setup to driving at night, you know? So I did. He slept most of the ride after we stopped a couple of times for food & gas. We hit Nashville at sunrise and y'all, that gorgeous skyline glittering in the sunrise was breathtaking. I was driving, otherwise you'd have a photo. Little Rock currently has my heart, but Nashville…man. Another big city with mountains & lots of trees. Nashville. I think I'd like to get to know you better. Wanna go out for a coffee? ^_~

The Bonnaroo app directions told us to get off I-24 at exit 111, but the Manchester police had another plan. They routed eastbound I-24 Bonnaroo traffic to EXIT 127. o_O We stopped for gas at 114, and it was a good thing, too. We got into the Bonnaroo traffic line around 6:30am and pulled into our parking/camping spot just after NOON. Yes indeed, y'all. That's a long line. Through the center of nowhere. But we made it eventually.

That's when the first hilarious story from Bonnaroo happened. We were setting the tent up; in fact, we were seriously just unrolling it on the ground & I was looking for the big tent stakes when a man walked up to me. "Need to buy some shroomies?" That was the moment I realized something. This was it. All those years of "just say no" and honest-to-God--this was the first time I'd ever had to use it. At 31 years old, at my first camp-out music festival, I had just been offered drugs for the first time in my very sheltered, privileged life. It was certainly not that hard to say no…I hate feeling drugged. It just runs counter to everything I'm about. Bonus: I have a license & I'd like to keep it. Our hospital seems to drug test more often than most and in any case, there's no way I'm ingesting something sold out of pockets in music festival campgrounds. The biggest danger of illegal drugs is not what you think you're buying, but what you don't know they've put IN it! We felt like the only ones not partaking. It wasn't enough to get a contact high because you were always outside & therefore well-ventilated, but it was enough to become extremely irritating if you don't like the smell of marijuana, and I don't!

In addition to the ever-present, headache-inducing, all-pervasive scent of WEED at Bonnaroo, there was another recurring theme: SKIN. I have never seen so many people running about in various states of undress. I'm not just talking girls in string bikinis, though there were more of those than I ever thought to see in one spot. I'm talking guys in speedos & no shirts. Topless people of both genders (though all the shirtless boobs were painted to look like they weren't). People running around in shirts with no pants. I even saw one guy in his boxer briefs. Seriously just walking around in his underwear, and I know they were underwear & not a pair of bike shorts because they're they exact same brand Bryan wears. I wash underwear just like that all the time. Another skin-related theme was tattoos. You know the phrase "tattooed freak"? At 'Roo, it was "un-tattooed freak". I looked like a raging conservative with my one, small DMB rings tattoo on my wrist, and Bryan looked like an outright prude, with his perfectly unadorned skin. I'm pretty sure I've now seen a tattoo of EVERYTHING. Clowns, flowers, insects, band logos, cartoon characters, quotes, portraits, original characters, names, dates, the Twin Towers (not joking), zippers, handprints, one giant butt over a city skyline, and the guy with a tattoo of a mustache'd piece of toast smoking a cigarette in a holder & wearing a beret.

Me: *grinning* I like your French toast, there.
Him: HEY, THANKS! It's so nice not to have to translate that for someone!

Didn't see much music on Thursday. Mostly we just went in, scouted the food situation, ate some, and got the lay of the land. We determined the spot we'd probably sit in the mornings, looked at Planet Roo, & I signed the registry to become a bone marrow donor. One more step in my quest to save the world! Then we went back to the tent and I crashed harder than I have a word for. I don't remember falling asleep, and I don't remember dreaming.

Woke up in the morning with my back hurting like crazy and sweating bullets. The girls on my favorite thread at Inforoo had told me it got freezing cold at night but I didn't believe them, and so did not pack for that. THAT WAS NOT A LOSS. This year (and they swear to me on Inforoo.com it's the first time EVER) IT DID NOT get cold at night. I slept on top of my sleeping bag in a pair of scrub pants (just for the help with the sweaty sticky feeling) and my spaghetti strap tanks, and most of the night I went without covers. When I did use a blanket, it was simply a cheap twin sheet from Wal-Mart. I didn't need any more than that. The heat woke us up daily about 7am, when we had to flee the tent or roast alive. Each morning we started the car and got dressed in the air conditioning while we charged our iPhones.

Friday: This was the day we stage-hopped. We had a list of people I wanted to see, and we went from stage to stage catching them. I DON'T RECOMMEND THAT. Y'all, it was too hot and that involved too much walking. In the morning (and every morning) before most of the music started, we'd sit in the Sonic Cafe next to the Sonic Stage and just enjoy the shade & sometimes a breeze. I drank one glass of iced coffee per day; caffeine is a diuretic and I had 2 reasons for avoiding it: 1) Anything that made me need to pee meant using a port-o-potty more than absolutely necessary, and 2) DEHYDRATION. No alcohol for either me or Bryan; again, it's a diuretic and WHOA was it expensive at 'Roo. The only thing I considered was a tiny cider from the Woodchuck Cider stand in The Brooers' Festival, and even that was $3 for 3 ounces! No thanks. Acts: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Conan O'Brien, Gossip, Tenacious D. Gossip (punk rock) was the real stand out; Beth Ditto sounds just the same live as she does on her albums, which is to say GREAT. Her voice is powerful and melodic. The band is awesome, the songs are stellar. I left a much bigger fan, and Bryan discovered himself a new band. :) Tenacious D was fun to see, but I doubt we run out & buy any albums. The best part of that was The Metal coming out on stage; it was a VERY TALL man in a giant suit of armor! He was on stage for the duration of the Ballad of the Metal, in which he smites all other musical genres to the ground. And then he smote Jack Black to the ground. Note: when in need of extra syllables for a lyric, Tenacious D defaults to the F-bomb.

Saturday: This was the day we discovered stage stalking. On Friday we laid out our towels on the ground beneath the trees near the Which Stage and just stayed there all day. We alternated going to get food & drinks & bathroom breaks, and otherwise we just hung out. You know what? It was perfect. It was seriously the way I thought a music festival should be and I had a great time. My only problem was that I felt kind of gross all day. I think it was a combo of heat exhaustion & eating mostly fried food. On the plus side, my mood was 10 points better because I'd washed my hair that morning! We had gone to great lengths to make sure we had enough water for me to wash my hair the next day & it worked! I just stood outside the Element & washed it with bottles & my head hanging upside down. So refreshing! Acts: Rebelution, Trombone Shorty, Baaba Maal, Norah Jones, the Avett Brothers, and Weezer. This was a standout day because so many acts were so good. I came home and immediately downloaded music by Rebelution, Trombone Shorty, & the Avett Brothers (we already own all the Weezer albums). Rebelution is a great funk group, Trombone Shorty is jazz, Baaba Maal is African tribal fused with pop, Norah Jones is easy listening, the Avett Brothers are…something alternative-ish…and Weezer is Weezer, yo.

Sunday: This was it. The day I showed what kind of DMB fan I am. This day we planned to be there when the What Stage gates opened at noon, run toward the stage, and get the best possible spot for the DMB show. As we stood outside the gate after filling all our bottles at the filtered water station, I mentioned to Bryan that we needed to find some other DMB fans, "join their party" in RPG terms, and all get a good spot together. Just as I said that, 2 guys in lawn chairs (with a 3rd guy sleeping on the ground behind them) looked over their shoulders at me simultaneously and said "Hi!" I grinned at them. Their names turned out to be Mike, Josh, & John, and I'll just go ahead & say that my concert experience was leaps & bounds better because we met them. I have since friended them on Facebook & they'll probably read this! *waves to the Superfans, which name I have collectively given them in my head* We talked DMB until the gates opened, at which point Josh & Bryan hauled their butts at top speed to the stage, with me, John, & Mike following with most of the stuff. Thanks to Josh, we got PRIME spots. He's fast as lightning, and we were almost dead center right at the railing where general seating ended & the pit began.

Thus began a day of extremes. It was extremely hot & humid. We were in direct sunlight all day. It beat down on us; I know that's a very tired cliché but there is simply no other way to express how it felt. It's like we were being cooked; like the heat was directed at us specifically. We slathered in sunscreen all day. We took turns going off to the bathroom and getting food & drinks. Mostly we sat around & talked about life, jobs, college, families, other friends, and DMB. It was actually really engaging the whole time; all 3 of the other Superfans were extremely vivid, interesting people. Bands came & went across the stage and we saw some REALLY impressive stuff. Acts: John Butler Trio, John Fogerty, Zac Brown Band, Dave Matthews Band.

The biggest up & down of the day came at 5pm, when I got a voice mail saying I had won something I'd signed up for. Specifically, A MEET & GREET WITH STEFAN LESSARD. You know, THE GUY WHO PLAYS BASS FOR DMB. I jumped up, screamed, told Bryan, and ran to listen to the rest of the voice mail (it was too loud during John Fogerty to hear properly; I had to run across the What field). It was then I realized the voicemail had been sent at noon. I hightailed it to the Ben & Jerry's tent, but there was nothing to be done. The meet & greet had happened at 3pm; I'd missed it completely. No consolation prize, no nothing. If I had an AT&T executive right there, I would have kicked them in the face for the quality of their data network. :( The woman at the booth remembered me from the signup; she'd asked me if I was a fan & I had told her YES, and showed her my tattoo. She said people had been signing up even if they didn't like DMB, and she hoped it was fans like me who won. Well, when it turned out to be me who missed it, she was SO disappointed. When I ran up & told her my name & what had happened, she goes "OH NO, IT WAS YOU!!!"

Of course you know I adored the DMB set. Do I have to even say it? They played Lying in the Hands of God and Time Bomb, which means that I've now heard the entire Big Whiskey album in its entirety. Woo hoo! They did not utilize Jeff & Rashawn enough for me; it seemed like every time there was a good spot for a long, jamming solo, it always went to Tim. Don't misunderstand me; Tim is an amazing artist and he's gifted at what he does. It's just that, well, EVERY band has someone who shreds. Every band has a guitar. Not every band has a violin or a trumpet or a sax. Those are what I love most about DMB; those instruments that give it a completely different sound. That's what I always want to hear more of. But it was good nonetheless. They played You Might Die Trying, Seven, Cornbread, and Jimi Thing with the Sexy MF'er outro--all are big favorites of mine. :)

The REAL discovery of the day, though, was John Butler Trio! Both Bryan & I were beyond impressed: me with the music & Bryan with John Butler personally. Every member of that band was massively talented and the music was just…wow. What Bryan noticed about Mr. Butler is that he was very genuine. He started off talking about respect for the land & the ancestors of everyone present, and at one point he mentioned the Gulf oil disaster. He was so ANGRY about it, taking it so seriously and so personally, that he got tripped up and mixed up his words. And that was appealing. He meant everything he said; he wasn't paying lip service to anything. Later on, he said that some people had jobs they loved and they really did what their souls wanted to do, and that there was nothing more amazing than that (of course I started screaming & clapping there, and people looked at me funny). For everyone else, he said, "Consider not going back!" He meant it. And while I'm not proposing that everyone who is dissatisfied with their job should go quit NOW, I agree with him. Identify your dream job, the thing you most want to do deep in your soul, and find a way to do it for a living. Take steps toward it: go to school if you have to, move geographically. Do something, but please, move toward it. Also, he mentioned the "revolution" and how it isn't "about" to begin, and it hasn't ended--that is is ongoing. You do not start the revolution--you join it. I can't even tell you how deeply that resonated with me. Anyway, that aspect of his show was really intriguing. His pure talent on every stringed instrument he picked up…wow. Just wow. I turned to Bryan & told him I was going straight home & downloading this guy's latest album. Another impressive thing was at the end, when all 3 players started drumming. The drummer stayed at his kit but the other 2 had 2 drums each and they…wow. That was a BLOW YOUR MIND moment. I had to catch my breath. I also had to catch my breath during an instrumental solo song Mr. Butler played. There was such emotion poured into that music; it went from bright to sinister to foreboding to determined and back a thousand times. I am going to buy all of their albums; I have already purchased one.

More later, possibly. I'm off to nap again before work tonight. 7p to 7a; it's back to the hospital for me!

Posted via web from What I Need is All Around Me

A few Bonnaroo highlights

Here are a few tidbits from Bonnaroo while I'm trying to get the whole writeup done. I realized that so very much happened in those few days that trying to write it all up in one entry is going to make for a MAMMOTH, wall-of-text type entry that no one is going to read. That would make me sad, so instead I will break it all down into easy to manage chunks that maybe highlight what it was like to be at such a crazy event.

A few stories:

I pretty much hated camping, to the immense surprise of no one at all. Does it surprise you? No. It was hot, sticky, humid & awful. The only air conditioning we got was in the early morning when the heat drove us out of the tent & into the car to get dressed for the day & charge our iPhones. We bathed with baby wipes and brushed our teeth with bottled water. The hike from camp into Centeroo (the name of the actual venue where everything happened) was LONG, and even if I did feel reasonably clean after a baby wipe bath & bottled water hair washing, I didn't by the time we got there. The coolest we might be all day is when we sat in the Sonic Cafe in the morning. I just felt…filthy. Gross and filthy all the time. Next time I do a festival (and make no mistake there will be a next time!), it will involve an RV for certain. In fact, I've always wanted to own one. Maybe we can one day in the not-too-distant future. <3 I'd love that. It would make festivals a breeze.

Bryan & I tended to get up & go immediately into Centeroo because it was too hot & boring to stay at camp. Music usually ended around 6am, but didn't start again until noon, so Centeroo was sorta deserted, in a way. Not entirely, but it was definitely sparse compared to afternoon, when all 100,000 attendees seemed to be packed into the same small space. We wandered about on Friday morning, seeing what was open & looking at whatever caught our fancy. It was pretty quiet as we walked around the Twix/Fuse Barn and wandered to the back entrance to Planet Roo…where we were suddenly face to face with about 487 yoga practitioners in mountain pose. I literally jumped and Bryan goes "WHOA!" They were SO QUIET! My original number there was just me being silly, but truthfully I know there were about 90 people standing there in mountain pose, not talking, just waiting to scare the devil out of me & Bryan. I took a picture.

The food was great. There were all kinds of normal festival foods, but there were also a million other things. Mine & Bryan's favorite were the African (not Indian-style) samosas. They had potato curry, chicken curry, ground beef with cheese, apple, turkey, or broccoli varieties. Sweet potato fries, giant pieces of brick oven pizza (think of a large pizza from your favorite place, now cut it in quarters. That's a slice from Pie for the People), crepes, smoked turkey legs, Chinese, Cajun, waffles, ice cream, burritos of all kinds, coffee, beer, cocktails. You name it, it was there. If you could deep fry it, it was there in more than one stall. :) Greek food was REALLY popular: gyros, spanikopita, and Greek salad especially. Several of the food vendors were vegan, several were local, and all the coffee was fair trade. It was Hillary Food Heaven in so many ways, except that it was too bloody hot to eat half of it. We didn't eat nearly what we thought we would because the heat makes you so sick you don't want to eat much. Ben & Jerry's was on site with their Bonnaroo Buzz flavor; it was coffee+malt ice creams with Heath bar pieces & a whiskey caramel swirl. It was delicious; even Bryan thought so. Said the coffee note was much like that in tiramisu; supporting & not overwhelming.

Sunday morning at 6am when we woke up with one more blessed hour to sleep before the heat set in, we couldn't sleep. Why? BECAUSE OF THE RAVE. Somewhere in the camp (it had to be in Pod 9 because I can't imagine how loud it would have to be to extend all the way back where we were if it wasn't in our pod) someone was throwing the loudest techno rave I have ever heard. We could hear not only the bass but most of the music. It throbbed and hummed and whistled and beeped. At 6am! That meant people had been up all night dancing; you don't get up at 6am and go to a rave. When did these people SLEEP? Bryan & I decided we wanted to find their tents when they were sleeping & blast music into them. This led to a conversation about what music would be most irritating to someone who dances to electronica till 6am. We eventually settled on Toby Keith songs. :D

A girl fell down next to me during the Weezer show. She had a fast, thready pulse and a really high respiration rate. She was sunburned to PIECES and I could tell it was heat exhaustion & dehydration. I explained I was an RN and told her what to do in order to feel a bit better (which was all common sense but they acted like I was the Goddess of Healing). In thanks, one of her friends offered me one of the cookies they'd all been sharing during the show. Hand-made cookies that I was pretty sure had some extra special ingredients! I politely declined. :)

After the Avett Brothers and before Weezer, Bryan & I both went to the port-a-potties. It was raining. He was still inside and I was waiting on him when a series of 4 golf carts drove past…and on the back of each one was a member of GWAR in full costume. *blinkblink* And I had my camera & both iPhones packed away in baggies in the backpack because of the rain. GWAR! On golf carts! Bonnaroo makes your life weird!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Getting our faces rocked off!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Bonnaroo. Was. Incredible.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Weezer!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Our shuttle stop

I washed my hair this morning! I used 2 bottles of tap water we got yesterday & 2 bottles of the boatload of Sparkletts we brought. My mood: +10.

We discovered the campground shuttles last night! Bought a card good for 5 rides, thinking we could take it back & forth instead of walking from our campground, which is in approximately Kentucky. Well unfortunately the shuttles don't run until noon so we had to hike it in this morning. It was ok, tho; we passed through a bunch of food vendors & snagged teriyaki chcken & rice for breakfast.

Now we're hanging out in the Sonic Cafe, waiting for the line to die down so I can get an iced coffee. Then we're pretty much gonna hang out by the Which Stage today, since lots of good stuff is playing there. Weezer at 7pm!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Sweet potato fries & a potato samosa!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

The Which Stage during Trombone Shorty

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Drop hammer forged medallions!

I'm getting copper with a caduceus on on side & compass rose on the other! They put a blank in the press with a design on each side, then drop that hammer. When they drop that press it makes the ground thump. It's HEAVY.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Bonnaroo Day Two--GO!!

I arrived here hoping to use my backpack to carry most things into Centeroo (that's what they call the main portion of the festival), but that's a pain for the things you use most often, like money & lip sunscreen, & of course I don't want to keep my iPhone behind me where I can't see it. I was on a mission to find a tiny pouch with a long, cross-body strap for that stuff & behold! I found it. Bryan has comandeered one of my head bandanas & wears it under a seagrass hat. He looks quite cute. I shall have to take a pic when he's not looking.

Lots of neat, sometimes unexpected things here. Signed up to br on the bone marrow donation registry last night; another step in my quest to kick cancer's butt. Also signed in support of public grants for community gardens! Ben & Jerry's was behind that one. They created a flavor just for this; it's called Bonnaroo Buzz & OH it's good! Coffee & malt ice creams swirled with whiskey caramel & Heath bar chunks. The coffee isn't too heavy; just right for contrasting the caramel. Even Bryan loved it!

In contrast to the unstoppable noise of last night, the only things I hear this morning are Bryan breathing & one of the police horses off in the distance.

I think I'm gonna get up. Tent is starting to get stifling & I want to brush my hair.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Bonnaroo Craziness Day 1

Quick things I want to remember:

# waited in car line from 6am till after noon
#sick from exhaustion when I got here
#steak samosas are tasty
#as are buffalo chicken crepes
#all the food rocks but it's cheaper outside venue in campgrounds
#tent full of baptists!!
#purple nuns with epic dreads
#non-stop sound
#first time I seriously had to "just say no"!
#campground awkward to walk to & from 'Roo
#corporate sponsor tents all air conditioned! Very clever.
#compliments on eye makeup
#new, orange tinypurse for carrying iPhone, lip sunscreen, credit cards.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

The drive is gorgeous!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

So I have this blog, right...?

And I HAVE had this blog for a while now. However, I've just never really done anything with it. I jumped on the blogwagon at Livejournal in 2002 at the urging of my best friend, and I'm so thoroughly entrenched there that it seems a little redundant to do anything with this one.

I read a lot of blogs here, though, and I do love to comment, so I keep this open. Recently I've been thinking of perhaps mirroring my Posterous account here and posting some of my Flickr photos. A photography blog, perhaps? It feels a little arrogant to think my photography might be worthy of its own blog. But my Livejournal is locked to friends only, and as an extremely pronounced extrovert, that's begun to feel stifling. Maybe this can be my side outlet. That sounds like a nice plan. I'm glad we had this talk. Thanks, Probably Non-existent Blog Readers!

First adventure on the newly repurposed blog? BONNAROO, Y'ALL.