oh i'm going to be such a tourist...

Heralded as Music City, USA, and the country-music capital of the world, Tennessee's fast-growing capital city also shines as a leading center of higher education, appropriately known as the Athens of the South. Nashville has prospered from both labels, emerging as one of the South's most vibrant cities in the process. The Gaylor Entertainment Center (formerly Nashville Arena), a 20,000-seat facility spanning three blocks at 5th and Broadway, opened in 1996. Connected to the city's convention center by a tunnel, the Arena hosted the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in 1997. A successful drive to land both a National Football League and a National Hockey League franchise, coupled with a population gain that has pushed Nashville ahead of Memphis, has put Nashville into the major leagues of American cities.

wow what a crazy week!

have been busy on the border of ridiculousness (or beyond it) :) but that's only because the semester is quickly coming to a close! am on vacation tomorrow (yipee!) headed to nashville for a marathon
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.
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and you're thinking... what? did i read that correctly? yes you did, but i'm not the one running in it! i'm just along for the beer (cough.. root beer mom!) and country music :) it's also the best chance i have to wear my rhinestone belt buckle. which i will, proudly. i only hope that i can locate a decent cowgirl hat on the drive through tennessee.
gram - if i get time, we might stop in greene county!

relay for life!

despite popular belief, participating in relay for life does NOT mean you walk all night long. it kicks off at 6:30 pm and last until 9 am. each team participating keeps someone on the track at ALL times (hence....relay) :) so, i'll get some quality naps in tonight, but our team will always be walking for all 14 hours. i have made a personal pledge to walk at least 5 miles...at least, that's what i had to agree to for a guy at work to donate $20 for the cause :) we're under a severe thunderstorm warning with predictions of heavy rain and large hail, so this should prove to be an interesting evening! luckily we're offsetting any good doing type exercise with a grill full of beer brots. i mean really - what else would you have at a cancer benefit?
enjoy the weekend! :)

thursday means it's ALMOST the weekend

thursday is by far my longest day (class until 10 pm) but in some ways my favorite as it is the kick-off to the weekend :) am off to starbucks to work on a project, then class from 7-10, then paul clark and the lonesome drifters at the cellar :) busy busy. cleo doesn't remember what i look like anymore!
but i've made 2 lists, one of things left to do for school (and folks, it's LONG)- one of things i need to take care of outside of school/work - also long :) but some of it's fun, for example -make an appointment to cut my hair, which is getting long, and in need of cutting.
okay, i'm outta here :) anyone noticed my attempt to blog more frequently?

don't you know about the new fashion honey?

all you need are looks and a whole lot of money.

post delinquency

so i've been not posting lately due to work/school/social craziness! seems like i've only been at my apartment to sleep lately. i'm off again this time, but first, a few things of note from last weekend:

- great bike ride and picnic on the new river trail
- fun trip to chateau morrisette :) with plenty of wine to be had
- i read poetry at the 'poetry slam' at easy chair bookstore. it was so much fun - exhilerating even. did i spell that right? whatever.. i'm in a hurry ;) no time for spell check! but somehow, there is time to type several sentences about how it may be mispelled... ah well, there's no accounting for logic on this blog!
happy wednesday ;)

yawn...

i'm tired! but looking forward to a great weekend :) and i'm reading poetry tonight- not to myself at home, but out loud at a bookstore! v. exciting :) enjoy your weekend...

oh that's right

when i post poetry, you guys (and girls!) stop talking... :)

poetry dose 1!

this was written about something my mom used to tell us when we were growing up. now in her defense (i just got off the phone with her)- she says what she ACTUALLY said was "the one who is least emotionally involved is in control," so take this one with a grain of salt ;) and don't get caught up in the overdramatics: (1) it's poetry, (2) this was a long time ago.

my sister tells me we are cursed by the unattainable

no matter what happens, i know

i’ll be okay, i tell her, smoothing

the tears from my cheek

with my fingers, pausing

while the phone line falls silent,

interrupted again by the sound

of her voice. that’s another curse

of ours, she says.

six days later i am walking home

at five o’clock in the evening and i realize

what she meant. rush hour traffic is speeding

past me and my love life suddenly makes sense.

we will never completely succumb our lives

to someone else’s. suspended

in our independence- cursed in knowing

that the one

who loves

the least

is in control.

second poetry dose!

this one is (obviously) written about living on the oil rig.. lyrics in italics shamelessly stolen from Natalie Merchant's Where I Go.

Venice, But No Gondola

I: On the Way

He says out loud (not necessarily to me)

“If you want to see poverty, just go to Venice.”

Funny how they’re both water cities,

whether it’s Italy or Louisiana.

Instead of a gondola, I’m in a Chevy Suburban

traveling down a highway.

Houses on stilts line the roadside,

the smell of oil seems to hang

among the cars on blocks, dark swamps with bright

green algae on the surface. Natalie Merchant

wails from the car speakers, a borrowed CD.

I didn’t borrow it, the lyrics reach me anyway,

climbing over the old stone wall

I am bound for the riverside.

When I look out the window, the leather seats

seem wrong for the situation. I feel compelled

to respond to the poverty comment but don’t know

what to say and the awkward lapse inevitable

of a four hour car ride with a stranger

fills the car. Natalie sings anyway, unaware

there is nothing to say, find a place

on the riverbank

where the green rushes grow

see the wind

in the willow tree

in the branches hanging low

We reach the dock and I board a boat headed out

to the Gulf. I watch from the back deck as we push

through the heavy water and every now and then

my gaze lands on small houses, isolated

by the swamps , connected only by dilapidated

wooden docks. Later, I notice the water has cleared,

the houses are gone and ocean water laps the tall grass

all around us.

II: On the Rig

My shift will be midnight to noon. I learn

to love rising in the darkness, eating breakfast at 4:30 a.m.

I learn exactly what to tell “Q” in the mornings

to have my eggs cooked just right. I learn what to call

the men. Later, I even learn their names.

I find that when the metal

and the men and the mud

become too much,

I can always find the sea.

It stretches out so far that I can no longer remember

where I might find land. At night, I forget that it’s only water;

the other rigs light the skyline as if they are outskirts

of a metropolis.

One morning, as the sun rose on the water

I noticed that the blue was being overtaken by a deeper,

darker brown. It’s the Mississippi, they tell me, even

twelve miles of water between us, it still finds the way

all the silt spilling into the gulf,

staining the blue. child it's lovely

let the river take it all away

the mad pace, the hurry

the troubles, the worries

just the river take them all away

flow away.

i'm published! (well, sort of...)

Silhouette is Virginia Tech's Literary and Art Magazine:

Dear Brianna,

Congratulations! Your poems, “Venice but No Gondola” and “My sister tells me we are cursed by the unattainable” were selected for publication in the Fall 2005 edition of the Silhouette. Thank you so much for submitting! We will be contacting you later on about signing forms, etc. Thanks again and congratulations! :)

Lindsay Key

Poetry Editor of the Silhouette

coffee champions!

jason posted this a few posts down, and i wanted to make sure it wasn't overlooked. my favorite coffee house at purdue, vienna, was 'threatened' by a lesser coffee shop that charged more for coffee that wasn't even good (opened when i was a sophomore there), and it's finally gone out of business :) sad for the business owners, but yay for vienna, the reigning champion! nothing beats ridiculously tasty flavors of the day and sandwiches named after jazz musicians :)

"Jason said...

Speaking of coffee houses...some big news here in the west lafayette (remember, that town you lived in for undergrad?) well, all was normal on thursday, vienna and village coffeehouse both open for java drinks (of course one is better than the other)...come saturday morning village is closed, completely empty with "for lease" signs in the windows, and the markerboard outside says "20 unemployed on a whim..." leaving vienna the undisputed champion on campus..."

i'm in class right now

which is why i've been so post-happy. just in case you were wondering.

april is poetry month!

well we're one week in to poetry month. were you aware of this? the below is stolen from slate's tribute to it:

"Poetry Month, some say, is a promotional vulgarity that lowers a great and fundamental art to the level of Domestic Cheese or Accident Prevention. Others respond, Poetry Month is a genial, harmless way of encouraging people to read poems and buy books of poetry.

Poetry, say some, is a private and personal art, best appreciated in deep chambers of the soul, not out in the public marketplace where it can be bought and sold like a hot dog or an entertainment center. But poetry, say others, makes art from words, the very stuff of the public agora where people meet and exchange words along with ideas, feelings, and goods."

spring fling!

i flung the old blog template in favor of this pretty new green one - enjoy until i get bored and change it again!

a cookie is a sometimes food?

so cookie monster is into greener pastures this season -- a few excerpts below ;) full article here.

"My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods...
...The furry one also plans to try different kinds of cookies (read: healthier cookies) rather than his just staple, chocolate chip.
But will he still scarf his food? Yes, plus the occasional object, Truglio said.
But isn't that unhealthy? Her reply: He's still Cookie Monster.
Cookie Monster appears to be happy with the new "sometimes food" song, because at the end he warbles: "Is sometimes now?"
"Yes," he's told.
So there it is. Cookie Monster still gobbles cookies, he's just a healthier version of his old self. His eyes are still googly, his fur is still scruffy and he's still messy.
Even "Sesame Street" recognizes that we all need guilty pleasures."

arizona snippets

ashlea and i in arizona...with a saguaro (suh-wauroh) for those of you not familiar ;)

but then all was resolved and we were on our way there!

ashlea and i unhappily delayed when flying to az...

this just in

so, i found during my few days in arizona that my grandma does in fact still read my blog (thanks gram!). my mom doesn't because of the lame excuse that she got a new computer and it's no longer her homepage. that's the only way i can get her to read it.. make it her default internet site. the blog even a mother couldn't love! lucky for me, my sense of worth is not closely tied to the number of comments on my blog ;)
this week is filled with homework, projects, papers, and work (of the 40-hour-a-week variety that is). but after that the fun begins! it's a paul clark week, closely followed on friday by the graduate student semi-formal gala - that's right, get out your gala clothes because there's a cocktail party, dinner, and dance to attend (isn't that festive?) can't think of a better way to kick off the warm weather that's starting to be the norm around here again.
bollo's has good coffee today, and i've now come often enough that i recall the exact change for a house mug. $1.37. today, there's not even time for my one free refill, have to rush off to a meeting on campus ;) enjoy the warm weather (hopefully wherever you are, there is some!)

damn that technology

so new google craziness. recently they released google maps - which is my new directions site of choice, but NOW they have satellite photos- want to see your house from way up high? type in your address and up it comes, most are zoomable (i found houses in phoenix i could zoom in completely, but those in blacksburg, i couldn't). http://maps.google.com/ for a little distraction ;) for a little controversy about the subject, check out cnn.

there IS an arizona!

and i'm here enjoying it :) along with miss ashlea -- have been here since thursday and am enjoying every minute of it -- am headed out now for a day of lunching and shopping and then a yummy dinner at cafe boa. it's almost 80 here! am also looking forward to getting back to virginia though :) there are things to be missed at home -- enjoy the rest of the weekend ;)
(i said enjoy no less than 3 times in this post.. and now 4!)