Journey Back Six Years With Me
I am far too tired to recap the Minnesota trip right now, but I will later. Short version? It was great. Some impulsive decisions are the right ones.
In lieu of a recap of Thanksgiving Weekend 2008, I give you a couple of pictures I found from Thanksgiving Weekend 2002.
(Click for full sizes.)
Yes, that is a cigarette in my mouth. CLASSY.
Steph and I at the bar in my hometown. (Deer trophies, god help us all.) I haven't been back to my hometown since.
Steph spent a lot of time that weekend listening to me talk about "The Cute Boy" at work. (I have a sickness which prevents me from calling anyone I'm fond of by their real name.) Six weeks after those pictures were taken I asked Chris out for New Year's Eve, and my life would never be the same. That sounds melodramatic, but it is true. I'm so glad he said yes.
(Are you done barfing? Okay, good.)
Looking back on myself in these pictures, I think he knew what he was getting into. And he still said yes. Maybe he isn't as smart as I thought he was...
What? You Don't Listen To The Beatles
and wallow when you're sad? Well you totally should.
And when that doesn't work you should impulse-buy plane tickets to visit your bestie from Comp Sci school for Thanksgiving. Ohhhhhh yeah, baby! We are leaving for Minneapolis tomorrow after work for some much needed Sean and Charlotte (and baby-to-be) time.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving (and also because I was such a downer yesterday), I give you...
Things I'm Thankful For Today (A Stream of Consciousness List, by: Ami):
- Old friends to whom you can say anything and know that they will still love you.
- An email from a reader in Canada today. I love it when people comment or email to "de-lurk", it totally makes my day. I see the number of hits to my site and I wonder who you all are.
- Pizza and beer at The Pie tonight with Jesse, Sharon, Nick, Hannah, Steph and Tom.
- My upcoming 17 day camping trip, see also: The fact that I have someone whom I can't wait to have all to myself for 17 days and The fact that I have someone who can't wait to have me all to himself for 17 days.
- A girl I haven't seen since I was 12 years old finding me on Facebook.
- Oooooooobama, and the hope I feel when I think about him leading our nation,
- A coworker that is so genuinely nice to me ALL THE TIME. I pick on him constantly, and yet? He goes out of his way to do nice things for me and make me laugh. I think he's trying to kill me with kindness or catch me with honey or something. (And it totally isn't working, I am a jaded, mis-trusting bitch, but this is the THANKFUL list. Back on task! *clap clap*)
- Headbands. I've totally been rocking them lately.
- Chris. I have never seen Chris judge anyone. I have never felt like there is anything I can't tell him. He always makes me feel like it is okay to be exactly who I am. Being with me isn't easy. I'm "a handful", at least, and more trouble than I'm worth, at most. Every single day I think to myself that I don't deserve this amazing person in my life.
"And In The End...
...The Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make"
Having a bit of a rough time, y'all. Ruminating. Or something like that. Missing someone with whom I would normally talk about these things. Gaining others to talk to but questioning my judgment now. Wondering if it will all end badly. Will deal. Life motto = "This is far from the worst thing I've been through." Funny, it is true in EVERY situation. Team Suck-It-Up Uber Alles. xoxo
EAT IT
We went to the library today, and I happened to have my camera handy to snap this little gem of a note on a sign about fare increases in the parking garage.
(Click for full size.)
LOVES.
I Think We Need An Intervention
(
The Scene: Chris and me, side by side on the couch with our laptops, both of us on Facebook.)
Chris: Can I borrow your power cord?
Ami (pulling the power cord from her computer and handing it to Chris): Sure, here.
Chris: Thanks.
Ami: I think this is the Facebook equivalent of sharing a needle.
Old Crow Medicine Show
Chris and I went to the Old Crow Medicine Show show at the Depot on Tuesday night. (You are probably thinking that all we do is go to shows, and lately, you would be kind of right.) It was fucking amazing. We waited to get tickets at the door, and I'm glad we got there when we did because the show sold out. I'm really happy for them that they sold out a weeknight show in Salt Lake City, because that's just great.
While bluegrass isn't my favorite genre (although it is up there), Old Crow Medicine Show is probably my favorite band of all time. They are amazing performers. There is no bullshit with them. They don't have an opening act, they don't drink onstage, and they go on within an hour of start time. They line up, all five of them in a line like it's a recital. They are just crazy-talented and that's what it is all about. The crowd at their shows is like no crowd I've ever seen. People are just...reverent, for lack of a better word. There is dancing and cheering and "collective effervescence" for sure, but the crowd is out to absorb this shit like it is a Sunday fucking sermon. It is really a sight to behold.
We saw them almost exactly a year ago at the same venue. When they took the stage I said to Chris "They look so much OLDER." I expected him to laugh at me, but he said "They really do." (Except for the bass player, who still looks like
Beavis.)
Most of the stuff they played is from their new album, which came out in September. They played a few songs from their self-titled album and couple from the one that came out after that. I was most excited to hear them play "Next Go 'Round", cause that is just kind of my song as of late.
"On my next go 'round I'm gonna keep it to the dreams we knew before I broke them down...I won't let you down on the next go 'round."In keeping with my camera phone obsession of late, here is a pic of the band:
And I guess I took a picture of my cowboy boots in the reflection of the train window on the way home. Yes, I had been drinking:
I <3 Burt's
Grainy, poorly-lit iPhone photos are the only way to properly capture a PBR Tall Boy moment. Also? How hot is my husband?
On Friday night we went to see El Ten Eleven with John and Monica at one of my favorite bars of all time, Burt's Tiki Lounge. Burt's probably ranks in my top 5 favorite bars EVER. It's a dive, which should go without saying because only dives rate with me. But the thing that seperates a good dive from a bad dive is pride, and Burt's has pride.
The first time I ever went to Burt's was in the fall of 2001, when I was a wee slip of a 21-year-old girl. It was Election Day, and I was there to see the band of a friend of a friend. (Utah liquor stores are closed on election day. This will be important later.) I walked up to the bar and the bartender asked me what I wanted. I said "Do you have Crown Royal?" (I was going through a Crown Royal phase.) He turned around and eyed the shelf of liquor bottles, spotting a bottle of Crown with maybe 2 shots left, and said, "A little bit. I forgot it was election day today and I didn't go to the liquor store yesterday." I fell in love with that place then and there.
I went with large cans of PBR on Friday night. (PBR isn't a phase, it's a lifestyle.)
Ami: Can I get a can of PBR?
Bartender: Big or little?
Ami: Big. There is only 1 right answer to that question.
Ami (to John, Mon, and Chris): These are called something... TALL BOYS! They are called Tall Boys. Or they were in Iowa, anyway. I never know if these things are universal or regional.
Bartender (professorially): That is the proper nomenclature.
LOVES.
Yes, that is a cigarette in my mouth. CLASSY.
Steph and I at the bar in my hometown. (Deer trophies, god help us all.) I haven't been back to my hometown since. 
