Last Friday (the 12th), I got to go see the Black Eyed Peas in concert at the Sommet Center. Now, that was a freakin blast. My good friend Leslie arranged for a limo to take us (she and I, and a few girls from her office) downtown; it’s always fun to ride in style. Opening acts were LMFAO and Ludacris. That may sound like an odd combination, but it was a great way to kick off the night. I was surprised at how many songs I knew by both groups. Well, and then the BEPs came out and it was all over. Damn they know how to put on a good show. Fergie was amazing; I kept saying “Its really her, its really her”. Haha. will.i.am rocked it out and I heard he DJ’d later at one of the clubs downtown. We just limo-ed it to Whiskey Kitchen for a drink or two after the show. Overall, it was a spectacular night and a great extension of my birthday (as the ticket was a bday present from Leslie).

Speaking of my birthday, I have to say it has got to be one of my best birthdays ever (my Sweet 16 on a boat was pretty sweet). On my actual birthday, a small group of friends and I enjoyed a delicious, relaxing meal at Flyte and ended the night at Mafiaoza’s for an additional cocktail. I took it easy on Thursday in order to prepare for Friday, which was the main event! Another good friend, Kristin, used her inside connections to secure us two King Suites at the Hutton Hotel and arranged for 12 of my girlfriends to party on the town and then crash at the hotel. We started out with tipsy madlibs and then got all dolled up in the suite before calling up our favorite taxi driver, who just happened to be driving his limo that night (same one as above). So we all piled in to the limo to go three blocks to midtown where we partied it up at Broadway Brewhouse and Hollywood Disco. Afterwords, we headed to Broadway and danced our hearts out at Decades. Altogether I think we danced for about three hours.

And my feet were not happy with me the next day. The next week really. I guess wearing heels that are slightly too small and constrict your toes is not a great idea. From the ball of my foot to the tip of my toes, I had a tingling sensation, like when they get super cold, for 8 days. I had them checked out and found out it could last for weeks, but luckily I recovered quickly. I will, however, use that as a lesson and not subject my feet to such torture ever again. Here’s to good intentions.

This weekend I’m participating in a Habitat for Humanity home build with my co-workers. I’ve never done one before (and now realize how difficult it is to arrange/sponsor a build) so I’m pretty excited. I’m just hoping for somewhat nice weather, as the build will happen no matter what. I’ll try to get some pictures posted afterwords!

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.

Not this season anyway!

Everything was supposed to be “final” last week, but, handling this on my own (aka sans attorney), I missed an integral step in the process and arrived at court only to find out I didn’t actually secure the date. It was quite upsetting at first, as you can imagine, but I soon came to grips with it and worked fast to take the necessary steps to secure the next available date, which is next week. If all doesn’t go as planned, it will be another two weeks before I get another slot. Its not that I’m in a hurry, but I don’t want to prolong the situation either.

One positive is that I’m going on vacation soon with my mom and brother. We’re going to the Outerbanks, which has been frequently suggested to me as a place to visit. So my mom is flying into Nashville next Saturday, and then we fly to Norfolk, where we’ll meet my brother, and drive to Nags Head for a week on the beach. I am very much looking forward to it.

The injury that was a result of my water sports accident last weekend is almost completely healed. I had the stitches taken out on Thursday and you can barely see it even now. Sorry, I don’t have any good pictures. I’m supposed to keep it covered with sunscreen to lessen the scarring, so that will be one of my primary tasks on my vacation.

Oh, and during my soccer games tomorrow. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Championship games, so if we win the first one, we’ll stay to play another one. I’ve had a week off and haven’t practiced at all. I hope I can hold up the whole game. Hopefully we’ll have at least 1 girl sub this time.

My brother is in town this weekend so he got to see me play soccer for the first time in many years. That was cool! Especially since we won. He’s here to help me move…which I won’t go into right now, but I’m sure it will eventually be addressed. Anyway, its great to have him here, especially to watch me play soccer! Did I mention that we won? :P

Thanks Kristy!

I got a nice fat lip from protecting my face with my hands. I’m beginning to think I would’ve been better off if the ball had hit my face instead of my bony hand, but whatever. Its back to mostly normal now. I’m the only person who can tell something is wrong and its still a little painful to eat hard foods, but..whatever.

Yesterday we played the second tournament game and we lost. So we’re out. Our ref was horrible and the other team scored at least twice immediately after fouls the ref didn’t call. Usually I am sympathetic to refs due to my father’s participation in the task, but she was awful. Missing obvious handballs and acting like she was going to call a foul when really she wasn’t, so we’d slow the play and the other team would take off. Anyway, it did not feel like a fair ending to the season, but its all in good fun.  Till next Spring!

The other new thing is soccer. Today at 2pm is the first soccer game of the season. I’m joining a team on a different league than last year, one that already has enough girls, so hopefully we can sub in and out often. They played one game last week and tied, which is pretty good, I think. I’m not used to being on winning teams, so it will be great if that’s the case with this one. I found out about the league through a dear friend who just returned from being gone in India for a few months. Not only is it great that she’s back, but now we get to play soccer together! That rocks. :)

My play, Metamorphoses, opens next weekend, the 12th, which is Mother’s Day weekend. My mom and brother are coming to see it and are staying with us for a few days. My brother still hasn’t seen our house, and neither of them have met Clementine. Anyway, they are both coming in on Saturday and then Sunday we can do brunch. I made reservations at one place, but I may change my mind to go somewhere closer. Monday we’re going to pick up my dress, which I haven’t seen yet since it arrived. I’m very excited.

The play itself is going really well. I’ve memorized all my lines and am not having dreams about forgetting all of them. We haven’t really seen the set yet or tried on costumes, but I think we get those this week. For those of you who don’t know, the play takes place in and around a pool of water, so we have to have comfortable, yet minimal, costumes. In fact, there is one part of the show where a guy is entirely naked. I’m not sure if my mom knows that yet. Oops. So anyway, if you want to come see it, call head for tickets at 341.0300. It’ll save you $3 to call ahead.

Soccer has been fun so far. We’re 1-1 so far and I have some fun bruises to show for it. Nothing like Jason’s nasty bruise on his NZ trip, but battle scars nonetheless. I’m having a good time. I wish my mom could see me play, but there’s no game on Mother’s Day.

Lastly, wedding stuff is coming along nicely. Today is exactly 4 months away from our wedding! I’ve decided to hand-make our invitations. I’m creating them from scratch, not using a kit, so we’ll see how they come out. I’m working on other details, like the favors, cake, and decorations, and I have a pretty good idea about all of them. The music is hard to put together, but I’ve at least found our recessional song.