Friday night I attended the “Taste of Nashville” with my friends Kristin and Emily, along with hundreds of other people. After a quick pre-party at Mafiaoza’s, we cabbed it down to the Cannery Ballroom, aka Mercy Lounge, to join the crowd. I managed to score a free ticket (thanks Kristin!), so I ate and drank to my heart’s content. We even got seats in the VIP section, which were large white fabric couches, not necessarily the smartest choice for a food/wine event. I did manage to snap a shot of the wine stain that appeared on the couch nearby.

Said eating and drinking made volunteering early Saturday morning quite a painful task at first. Kristin, Kerry, Terry and a few others teamed up with Hands on Nashville to paint the interior hallways of Thomas A Edison Elementary in Antioch. Terry’s son attends school there and she also works in the administration office, so it was very nice to be able to volunteer at a location where friends spend most of their waking hours! After a few hours of painting and cleaning (and we would’ve been mulching if it hadn’t poured down rain the whole time), we headed back to Limelight where HON hosted a buffet lunch from Whole Foods and live entertainment. I lasted about 30 minutes before begging to go home for a nap and Kerry graciously obliged.

After a quick snooze on the couch, I readied myself for (another) night of fun and festivities, this time at an 80′s Anniversary Party for my friends Stacey and Rickey. I met them about a year ago and have celebrated the 4th of July as well as other holidays with them and their kids. Their 18th wedding anniversary party was no disappointment either, blazing the 80′s rock, fun outfits and plenty of food. The after-party landed us at the USA Sports Grill for karaoke. I managed to stick it out long enough to sing my signature song and then headed home to crash.

Sunday morning marked the beginning of the fall soccer season and the AC Rhinos pulled off a win of 3-2 against the Flying Saucer team. I was surprised I remembered how to play after a season resting my knee, but I think I did alright. Immediately afterwords, I joined up with Emily and friends for a birthday brunch at Bosco‘s where we thoroughly confused our waiter with some coupons, but still had a delightful lunch…which was simply a pre-cursor to the night’s festivities ahead. As it was Em’s birthday, we celebrated not just with a girl’s brunch, but also with pizza and drinks at her place, then more food and drink at Mafs. Good times were had by all.

So, see? I’m not that lazy.

Seriously people. I understand that it sometimes looks like scooters are going slower than the speed limit, but unless I make a mistake and head down Franklin Rd (which I’ve done once), I’m always going the speed limit or above. I could barely see this bitch in my rear view mirrors because she was so close. I was really hoping I’d see her pull into my same parking building, so I could say this to her face, but she sped by the entrance heading to West End. I purposefully stay away from the main roads to avoid jerks like her, but she was on my turf this time. It just really pisses me off.

And besides, who wants to be the woman on the news who hit a girl on a scooter because she was following too closely, or was so impatient she had to speed around her while making a left-hand turn? That move may have saved her 20 seconds on her commute, but I highly doubt it was worth it. Amazingly enough, I wasn’t the only one going close to the speed limit in a residential neighborhood and she just had to get up on someone else’s ass a few seconds later. Well done.

My question is: If I’ve been summoned for Jury Duty to start on February 4th, will they let us out of government business so we can vote?

Unlike this guy, we had to wade our way through the humongous, hot crowd, but finally found the stairs that lead down the river and ended up hanging out on the “tarmac” where the floats/flying contraptions were lined up to take flight. From there we had a pretty nice view of the festivities and got a great preview of the contestants before they headed up the ramp.

One exciting thing is that we did get to see the world-record breaker, even though it was pretty much just a glider that sat on top of the actual themed piece and took flight as the other piece hit the water. It seems like there should be some rule about the pilot landing in a different spot than the actual float. Oh well.

The storm started to roll in around 2:45, so we left early, with about 4 or 5 floats left, so we didn’t get to see all of them. It was fun though. Once we got through the crowd, it was much more enjoyable. It was definitely the first event I’ve been to where Red Bull and Water are sold for the same price.