Friday nights are back!!

We’re big movie people. Our idea of the perfect Friday night is probably Taqueria Del Sol followed by a movie at Atlantic Station. However, this has not been done in MONTHS due to the fact that there hasn’t really been anything worth seeing (in our opinion). Well, Friday nights are back!! That’s right people, it returned this weekend with The Dark Knight.

 

I admit, I was a little nervous. The last movie we went to with great anticipation was Indiana Jones, and well, yeah. NOTHING to write about there. So, I wondered if this could live up to the hype, and if I (Jill) would even like it after hearing about how dark it is. It’s a GREAT movie. Not your typical Super Hero movie (which, I rarely see), this one raises questions that make you think. Heath Ledger’s performance absolutely lives up to the hype and has made me have a delayed reaction to his sudden death this year. Sad that we’ll never see more from him. After this, he would have gone on my (I almost say “our”, but, we may differ on a few) list of actors who make me see a movie simply because they are in it, because I trust their choices and want to watch their work.  

Here is my list, in no particular order:

• Christian Bale (had to name him first after this weekend!)
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Ryan Gosling
• Johnny Depp
• Denzel Washington
• Matt Damon
• Edward Norton

As for the ladies:

• Meryl Streep (I am planning on going to Mama Mia soon!)
• Natalie Portman
• Reese Witherspoon
• Kate Winslet
• Cate Blanchett

I certainly have not seen all of these people’s movies, because some I just simply don’t want to see. But, usually if these people are in a movie, I am interested in seeing it, or at least reading about it. (Sometimes movies can be too depressing/dark for me, I admit..I don’t go see those..)

Who is on your list??? 

Resource Room Clean Out!

Yesterday at work four of us reorganized the resource rooms on UpStreet! It’s AMAZING now!! Special thanks to Catherine, our INCREDIBLE intern (ok, we’re not supposed to call them interns but for lack of a better word, that is what I will call her), and Karis, one of the interns at North Point who has a true gift for organizing and came down to help us. I wish I had a picture of these girls, but all I got was before and after shots.

BEFORE

AFTER

Sorry, I realize this might be boring to some, but to us it was major!! Plus, a good “before and after” story is always fun. Oh, and while I’m at it - this is Bethany, my counterpart in UpStreet groups. (She does 11am, I do 9am.) She ROCKS. Bethany is leading a team to one of our partner churches in Seville, Spain to launch UpStreet. They head over in September but have their retreat this weekend. Needless to say, it’s given me the bug - I’m ready to head overseas again! It’s really exciting! She also loves football as much as me (though she’s more in to college than pro), and has this rare combination of being one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet while also being incredibly competitive. I’ll have to do a post soon with more details about my staff team. They are all fabulous to work with. Bethany gets a special shout out here as she had to endure basically a whole year of me going “umm, Bethany, can I ask you a question”? Now that I’ve been around a year, I can only imagine how OLD that got!!! (Actually, I still do it to her a LOT!) Well, enough for now!

When was the last team you cleaned so much you wanted to blog about it???

Question Series - #3

What’s your favorite meal your Mom cooks??

• Chicken and Rice Caserole with Jelly Belly Biscuits. YUM!! When I came home from college we either had this or went to my favorite Mexican place the night I got home. It was always one of those two. A close second would be Spaghetti - I love Mom’s spaghetti! Also must give honorable mention to her veggie plates, in particular the fried okra, that is not actually fried, but baked in an iron skillet. 

Your turn!! Give your Mom a shout out!

Less than a month!!

In all the excitement of yesterday I forgot to post that it was officially ONE MONTH until the Olympics!! I’ve had a great time watching the trials, especially swimming last week. Today’s Show will be broadcasting from Beijing starting August 4th. Can’t wait!!! 

What is your “can’t miss” Olympic event?? I have three: Opening Ceremonies (and closing too actually!), Gymnastics, (ALL of it), and Swimming. I watch it all, but, those are the things I plan evenings around. I realize perhaps I am one of a rare breed of people who actually plans evenings around the Olympics, but, if you did, which ones would you watch live?

Obama and “Camp Mimi and Pop”

I took today off of work. A random Tuesday I realize, but you see, Obama was in town and Mom called Friday to see if I could go. Because I am choosing not to get political on this blog I’m not going to say much other than it was just a really great morning!! No matter who you are for, this is a special moment in History, and it was really cool to sit in on a Town Hall Meeting with a Presidential Candidate. It was absolutely slammed, but very organized. Here is Mom and I in line to get in:

It was hard to get good pictures, even though thanks to a good friend of ours I was able to sit in the VIP section. However, here is one I took and cropped to make it look better.  I loved hearing him speak and answer questions and was SO impressed with all he had to say.

 

After the event (which was all morning since we got there before 8am to get in line!), we went back to Mom and Dad’s house where this week is “Camp Mimi and Pop” for two of the six Grandkids. (Two are at real camp this week, and the other two are too young!) Two fun activities for this afternoon were visiting the Humane Society and then my favorite museum in Atlanta, the Olympic Museum at the Atlanta History Center. They have this cool exhibit where the names of all the volunteers scroll through - apparently it takes about 2 days to scroll through all the names. Well, we just happened to get there in time to see ours! We couldn’t believe it! I tried my best to take a picture, though as you can see the “J” got cut off in my name!  They also have a “Sports Lab” upstairs where you can try a few sports. Here is my niece and me rowing against each other (she won!!).

 

Anyway, all in all a really fun day! It’s great to take a random day off every now and then to do something special with your family. 

Anyone have a good random day off story??

Harp Moving

(I apologize in advance if this is long and boring. I admit, I did this for me. I really just needed to vent. Thanks for “listening”.)

When people find out I play the harp, some of the first questions I get are “How big is that thing?”,  and “Do you move it yourself?”. About 80lbs, and yes, I have been moving it myself since I turned 16 and inherited Mom’s dear old Toyota Privia mini-van. In fact, these days it’s more of an effort than it used to be. In high school and college I toted the harp around so much it was just part of life.

Though it’s big, it’s fragile, and there is a VERY short list of people who can actually move it for me or even help me move it. (So when I’m pulling it out of the car and the dear man walking down the street gives me the “holy cow, what are you doing – you are a woman, I’m a big strong man, I must help you” look, I have mastered the art of fending people off in a somewhat nice, but firm, manner.)

Last night I played at Centennial Park. I should start by saying that not only am I extremely possessive/protective about my instrument (as I should be, people in general have no idea how to handle it), my number one pet peeve in life is rudeness for no reason, or bad customer service. Basically last night was just the perfect storm for me. Complete rudeness combined with issues with the harp.

I pull up in the special closed street to unload (thank you to the ONE nice cop I met last night who at least let me do that). I get my harp out of the car and right away these guys working “security” are like “Mam you have to move your car”. I tell them “Ok, I just need to roll my harp 30 yards down to the stage and leave it with the symphony crew and then I can move it”. To which I get a firm “No, I can’t let you do that”. Seriously??? For real? You want me to leave my instrument here on the SIDEWALK with a crowd of people just so I can move my car real quick? People, how about a LITTLE grace?? Thankfully, Bevlynn, the other harpist, showed up with her Dad and they rolled it down while I moved to the parking lot. I got to the lot and the guy there wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t have a pass. (WHICH, I was supposed to get when I dropped my harp off, which I couldn’t do because of the guys demanding that I not leave my car for 30 seconds). I end up calling Melanie, who runs the show with the ASYO and is FABULOUS. Needless to say she gets the producer to radio my name to the parking lot and all it OK.

Let’s fast forward to after the concert. (Which was tons of fun to play!)

Fireworks start going off at 9:36. They are to go for 24 minutes. I start RUNNING to the parking lot to get my car so that I can pull it up to my loading spot before the chaos of people in the streets. The police officer will NOT let me go the direction I need to go and tells me to just “drive around” to get where I need to. I end up somewhere in the depths under the Ga Dome, am actually a little scared, and drive back to the policemen almost in tears saying “sir, I’ve got to load up a harp and have 3 minutes to get to my spot – what do you mean “drive around”. He rudely says “Take a right on Northside, if you had done that you’d already be there”. Umm…OK. I turn around, and BAM, train rails come down and a train goes by for the next 10 minutes. Now I am STUCK driving in traffic.

This could go on for awhile, but basically I’m stuck in terrible traffic, and when I try to make a right on to the street I need to park on to load up (the street is closed but I am supposed to have access), the police office tells me I can’t. I need to circle around because of too much traffic. “Circling around” took me another 20 minutes. At this point my family has gotten my harp (another saga, but THANK YOU Bevlynn for getting them access so they could get back there), and my Mom marches up to the Cop at the corner of Ivan Allen and Luckie Street who told me no before. Mom says “when my daughter comes up you HAVE to let her take a left. Sir, we have a harp in the middle of a ROAD back there with the ASO trucks and we have to load it up”. He says NO and walks away from her completely rudely. So Mom tells me she is just going to remove the barriers herself, and now I’m convinced my Mom is going to be arrested. At this point Andy calls me and tells me he is just going to roll the harp all the way down, past the aquarium to where I am in traffic. (Let me take this moment to give a shout out to my dear friend Jane who came to the concert and was a part of ALL of this!! I think she got way more than she bargained for!!)

I don’t know if this even makes sense to read, and believe me this is the short version. When the pros do these kinds of things, the crew takes care of getting the harp there and back. That would be nice. I really just encountered rude person after rude person, almost as if they were on a power trip to enforce rules all night. I mean, I’m making a real effort to keep this short – there are actually MULTIPLE other examples of this.

I apologize for using my blog to vent. I think it’s healthy. Outside of those issues, everything was great. The rehearsals the last two weeks have been so much fun and the concert itself was great! Plus, the midnight meal at the Varsity afterwards with the fam was delicious.

How was your 4^th of July?? Do anything fun??

Unable to see Green

Jill is great about blogging, I am not.  I admit that I originally thought blogging was a bit presumptuous.  I envisioned myself sitting down and typing something like “Well, I did it!  Yep, I just made the jump from Crest Mint to Crest Winter Fresh Mint with Fluoride!” which seemed insanely arrogant to assume anyone cares; however, with time, I have seen that blogging enables friends to stay connected and make new friends so why not…here is my latest rambling on anything…

 Now I am the first to confess that I talk to my dog yet I firmly believe it is quite possible to cross the line of which pet obsession reaches insanity.  For example, a friend of mine recently called me when he saw a guy carrying his pet rat terrier in a baby bjorn while jogging along a trail (my point exactly).  Nothing, however, and I do mean NOTHING highlights this belief more than a particular story recently featured in the NY Times. 

A summary of the article is as follows:

The recent estate of a NY Billionaire is taking its’ assets and ‘throwing it to the dogs.’ (I made that headline up myself as a tribute to cheesy journalism…seriously, how cool am I now?)

Leona Helmsey, the hotelier and real estate magnate (which means you’ve got “coin”) specified that her entire trust, valued at $5-$8 Billion, should be used for the care and welfare of dogs (one can not make this stuff up).  The trust originally had two goals which was later reduced to one… 

 (And I now quote directly):

THE FIRST GOAL WAS TO HELP INDIGENT PEOPLE, THE SECOND TO PROVIDE FOR THE CARE AND WELFARE OF DOGS.  A YEAR LATER, THEY SAID, SHE DELETED THE FIRST GOAL. (Wow Leona, you were so in touch with reality!)

(just wait ~ it gets better…)

The largest beneficiary of the trust was Leona’s pet Maltese dog named ‘Trouble’ who received $12 million (that’s $3 million per paw).

The trustees of the estate have reason for concern for ‘Trouble’ has recently received death threats (‘Trouble’ can read?) requiring the Maltese to receive personal security costing $100,000 a year (that makes perfect sense however it has still been reported that the white ‘fancy feast’ cat is outraged and demanding a larger entourage). 

It is interesting to note that the late Mrs. Helmsey was convicted in 1989 of $1.2 million in federal income tax evasion, for which she was sent to prison (does anybody know if Michael Vick is in her old cell?)

Her vast estate will become one of the nation’s largest foundations when the probate process is finished (and sure to be a TV movie on the Hallmark channel featuring Steve Guttenberg as the bodyguard and Wilford Brimley as ‘Trouble”).

 

 

Question Series - #2

If you could own a second home, where would it be?

• New York City!! Don’t have to think twice about that one. I know Andy would agree with me on this one. That’s totally a common thing in our “if we had tons of money we would” talks. (That’s our big splurge - I hope the rest of it would go towards helping the poor and bringing justice to the oppressed in the world and here at home) I’d love to have a place there and go regularly. We went in October for our anniversary and literally had NO plans. No tickets to any shows, events, anything. It was fabulous. We walked around the little neighborhoods, went to coffee shops, bakeries,etc., and just took in the scene in the less touristy parts. I love it there.

Where would yours be??

Warming Up

The next two weeks I’ll be spending time in ASYO rehearsals. That’s Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, as in, the best part of High School for me and the pinnacle of my orchestra experience. (That’s another blog entry for another day, but, I’ve played in some great ones since then, but something about once you start doing it for money changes things…the pure passion in youth orchestras is something special.) No, I’m not going back to high school. However, the ASYO was asked to play the July 4th concert at Centennial Park this year and many of the kids spend their summer at music festivals, as did I at that age. So they have ask some alumni to fill in.

It should be fun, once I get back in the groove. Here is my thing with harp: It was my life for so long, and now I work full time and rarely get to play. So, when the opportunities arise, it’s really stressful for the first little bit. The problem is that I sit down to practice I want to jump in immediately where I left off post college. I forget that at that stage of my life I was practicing 4+ hours a day and had been playing most every day for the better part of 15 years. So, today I tuned and started with just Conditioning Exercises. Nothing glamorous, but it’s important to start with the basics and warm up your fingers, brain, etc. Of course, it wasn’t long before I had out the Faure Impromptu and giving it a go, but hey, it will come. I don’t know why I don’t do this more often. Well, I do…time, life, etc. For awhile there I went through almost a “mourning period” with harp. I had to just let it go because I couldn’t figure out how it could be just a small part of my life and not a major part. Now, I’ve come around and I’m really enjoying practicing. I’m not sure I see solo recital in my future, but hey, we’ll see…

What’s that thing for you? The thing you love but has gone aside because of “life”??

Question Series - #1

While I’m in UpStreet world on Sunday mornings, Andy is facilitating Starting Point, one of the coolest environments our church has, and definitely in line with his gifts and passions. At one of the recent leader trainings he went to, he was given a pack of cards. Each card has a conversation starter question on it. I love these type of things. As I’ve referenced before, in general I hate ice-breakers, but these kind of things are great! So, that inspired a blog idea. I will do a “Question Series” going through some of these questions. These won’t be the only postings, just mixed in with the others. It will be like a “get to know you” session on the blog. So, I expect some comments!!

#1. What are you a snob about??

Good question!! Sadly, I can think of a decent number of things..here’s my top two:

1. Atlanta!!! I admit it, I am a full fledge ITP snob. However, I have a right to be, I was born and raised right here in the city. I almost called in a radio show a few days ago because the DJ was on the air talking about how he just realized how big Atlanta was when he had to drive to Doraville, Kennesaw, and Alpharetta all in one day. HELLO? People, that is NOT Atlanta. If you say you live in those places, I have no bones to pick..but if you claim Atlanta but really live like 40 minutes outside the city, well, then we need to have words. I didn’t realize this went on until I went off to college. I got to Furman and every other person was from “Atlanta”, yet lived an hour from me and had been downtown only a handful of times in their life. Thus I became a snob about Atlanta. I also am one of those people that would rather live in a TINY place in the city than have a big house outside it. The whole “you get so much more for your money” thing doesn’t work on me at all. I’m completely energized by the city.
2. Restaurants. I must confess, this is one for me. There are a few chains I’ll eat at - Chick Fil-A, Willy’s, Chipotle, mostly for quick lunches. But, in general, I am a total restaurant snob. I mean, you can look at our links to restaurants on the side of this blog to see that. Atlanta is full of incredible restaurants and really neat neighborhoods all over the city (and, I know outside the city too, but, as referenced above I am only talking about IN the city or else I would have named the other cities). This does NOT equal expensive. Just unique places that have their own flavor. Ironically, our first date was a Chili’s. We are so ashamed of that now, you have no idea. But hey, as we say, “we were young and foolish”. 

OK, your turn: What are you a snob about??