Saturday, June 30, 2007

This is the pay off for making a pest of yourself

My loyal blog readers will remember me talking about "Steve" the morning show DJ on my local country station. I call him all the time and generally make a pest of myself, in a good way. Sometimes he plays our conversation on air, sometimes not. Anyways, this morning I called him to tell him that Doc Walker was coming to town and to ask if he'd heard anything about it yet. He told me that no, he hadn't (which wasn't a surprise). It progressed to "What are you doing this weekend". Standard question. For some reason whenever I call him I have nothing planned. It's rather funny. He asked if I was going to the Willie Nelson concert tonight in Vancouver. "No, because I'm too cheap to buy tickets and because no one would have gone with me anyways". He asked if I WANTED to go. "Of course!" Then he said, "Well, I have tickets here but there's one stipulation..you have to go with me." The promoter gave him tickets and he, like me, has no one to go with. He is NOT a country fan, but he does like Willie. None of his friends are country fans either and they don't even want to see Willie.

It was a lot of fun. Willie's getting old and you can tell. It was a small concert. Large enough venue but not a large turnout. Same place I saw Dierks in January but there were probably twice the people there for Dierks. We were seventh row up off the floor but still had a good view. Very interesting concert. He sang for quite awhile and did all his hits plus quite a few off the new album and a BUNCH of covers. Well, I don't know if you can call them covers but they were all big songs for other artists. He probably wrote half of them. I just don't know his catalogue well enough to be sure. He's a whiz on the guitar though (even if poor Trigger is falling apart) and his sister was brilliant on the piano. He had his two youngest sons on stage with him too. It was a an interesting experience. Once in a lifetime because I'll proably never go see him again but I am really glad I was able to.

~Heidi

Friday, June 29, 2007

Release It

One of my current favourite quotes is from fellow blogger Martha. It was a comment she made and I've adopted it.

"Take that conversation [the one in your head] and release it"

I think it's an awesome concept. Tonight I'm leaving blogger open and I'm going to note down my observations as they come. The things that I find interesting. This is me. This is the conversation in my head and I'm releasing it.

  • 4:55 - My mouth is still frozen. I went to the dentist at 12:30. I left there at 1:30. It's now five and it's STILL frozen. This is pathetic.
  • 5:35 - I love Ellen. I really do. She's just hilarious. She has such a talent for bringing out the best in her guests. I'm watching a re-run episode where she has Bon Jovi and Josh Duhmel on. It's hilarious.
  • 6:00 - I have a ton of dishes to do. I don't want to do them.
  • 6:25 - Edamame rocks. I bought eight little individual boxes from Costco for six dollars. I opened the first one tonight. That stuff is great. It's addictive.
  • 7:15 - I just sliced my hand. I was washing a glass, it broke and I ran the broken part across my knuckle. I've finally staunched the flow of blood but I'm going to get a cool scar there.
  • 8:30 - My mouth is now fully unfrozen but its still sore. Now that my tounge is unfrozen I can feel that my tooth is smooth. That's weird. The dentist wants me to get a crown. As soon as I can get $400 together that is. That's my portion of a crown since insurance only covers 50%.
  • 9:10 - I just read the previous line. Tooth and smooth don't rhyme even though they're spelled the same. English is weird.
  • 9:40 - DOC WALKER IS COMING TO BC!!! Woohoo!!! I am SO excited!!! They're coming to the town I work in too. When was this announced? I just found it on MySpace. Sweet!!!!!!
  • 9:50 - %$#&! I broke a bowl. What is with me and breaking stuff today???
  • 10:10 - I have another 7am conference call tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

NOW I'm tired :(

I couldn't fall asleep last night. I went to bed at my regular time and read for a bit but when I turned off the light my mind wouldn't shut off. Around midnight I finally got up and took a hot shower (I usually shower in the mornings), made some hot chocolate, read some more, did my nails, finished my book and close to 2 I finally fell asleep. I'm not sure what was wrong. It could be that I lulled myself by mindlessly surfing the internet while watching stupid sitcoms before bed so I was too relaxed. Or that my book was too exciting. Whatever it was, I hope I don't repeat it because I don't feel all that bright eyed and bushy tailed today and I hate this groggy feeling.
~Heidi

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

One year, one month and two days

That's how long it's been since I broke my tooth. Guess what happened again today? Yep. It's a different tooth, further back and thankfully, again, the root isn't exposed. It still feels gross though. Like I have a hole in my head. This time I wasn't eating a Starbucks sandwhich (which, I haven't had since I broke my last tooth) but the sensation was exactly the same. I called the dentist immediately. The receptionist said "Well, we're going on vacation..." (and this is my problem because???) "But I had a cancellation for Thursday" Me: "I'll take it!!!" So, Thursday at 12:50 will find me BACK in the dentist chair getting ANOTHER tooth fixed. Hopefully my sinuses will be fully cleared by then so I can actually BREATHE.
~Heidi

Monday, June 25, 2007

I am exhausted but I got a compliment

I am exhausted right now. My boss and I moved and re-packed eight boxes stuffed full of dusty old files today. I am so tired now.

I want to share a big compliment I got last week though. As you know I work very closely with our board of directors. I coordinate all the meetings, in person and the zillions of conference calls we hold (I swear, if you ask me what I'm doing at work each day, 85% of the time I'm working on minutes).

One director in particular can be quite demanding. He's a nice man but he works for a big company and expects to get what he asks for. One of my co-workers had a run in with him a a few years back and every time his name is mentioned she gets her back up. Because I haven't had the same experience, I happen to think that her reaction is funny.

Another thing you should know is that the board strikes committees as they see fit. The goal is to NOT be on any new committee. It's almost like a game to them LOL In fact they typically nominate anyone who is NOT at the meeting to sit on the committee.

So, back to the compliment. Last week we were participating in a conference call and they decided to strike another committee. Someone nominated this director as chair. His response? "I'll chair the committee if Heidi organizes it. She does such a great job of making sure that we all know about it and sending us reminders. If she does that, I'll chair the committee and make sure it accomplishes what it needs to."

Wow

My boss was *VERY* impressed. In fact she was looking at me and motioning to the phone and mouthing "that is a HUGE compliment"!

It makes me feel good and now I don't mind nagging them about calls so much LOL

~Heidi

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Update

Well, today I am feeling much better. My fever broke and I have been able to keep food down. I skipped church this morning because I wasn't feeling well enough to drive. I'm glad I did because by resting I was able to regain my strength. I actually did some scrapbooking today too so it doesn't feel like a total waste of a weekend.

This evening I went over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. (Mom put a chicken in before church but she forgot to turn the stove on so it wasn't ready until about 5.) Afterwards Mom and I played Scrabble and then I came home. Now I'm relaxing before heading to bed.

~Heidi

No luck on being coherant :(

I spent yesterday moving between my bed and the couch. Mostly just my bed though. I had a splitting headache caused by sinus pressure and the rest of my body just aches. It's not fun. I decided around 1pm that I had enough energy to make some lunch. I had a sandwhich and some chips and an hour or two later I threw it all back up :( This morning I'm feeling a bit better. Still very sore and weak. I had some weatabix and an orange for breakfast. Hopefully I can keep it down. I was drinking neo-citron yesterday but I think that was contributing to my loopiness so I'm going to lay off it today.

My scrapbooking/card making stuff is mocking me. I want to work on it but I just don't have the energy :(

~Heidi

Friday, June 22, 2007

Okay this is NOT what I had in mind

When I said I wanted to stay home for the weekend I meant that I wanted the weather to be my excuse. Not being sick :( I realize now that it's been coming on for a few days and it's not really that bad but I have itchy watery eyes, a sore throat, stuffy nose and a bit of fever. I'm still going to try to scrapbook. Hopefully I'll be coherent enough to make sense!
~Heidi

Is this horrible?

Is it horrible that I'm glad that the weather forecast is calling for rain this weekend? I have nothing planned and I'm hoping to just stay in and scrapbook. That would be a wonderful weekend. If I didn't have to go out at all and I could finish up some projects that I've been putting off for a long time. Here's hoping the weather man is right!
~Heidi

Thursday, June 21, 2007

MySpace vs. Facebook

I've been a member of MySpace since approximately last June. I have over 90 "friends" there but the majority are musicians and SS friends. I've avoided Facebook for a long time but after I got back from Texas when someone sent me an invitation, I said "what the heck" and joined. Within two weeks I had two dozen friends, and I didn't request any of them. I've since started requesting a few and now, within two months, have almost 80 friends. A few days ago I joined the group for my grad class so that number will probably go up pretty fast.

I don't like Facebook but apparently the rest of the world does!!!

So far my most exciting "friends" are a bunch of cousins of mine who I've never talked to online. I logged on over the weekend for my parents and showed them a bunch of pictures of my cousins kids and now they're talking of joining! LOL I'm also getting contacts from old co-workers and associates.

Anyways, it's been good. A bit weird to talk to all these people who I haven't seen in up to eight years, but good none-the-less.

~Heidi

PS I need to give a shout out to Karis who said that she's actually been reading THIS blog without me knowing about it. Welcome!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Liner Notes

I'm one of those people who always read the liner notes. All of them. For an artist I really like I'll typically read all the details about the songs, who wrote them, who was involved in making them etc. as well. The "Thank you's" are my favourite part though. It's always interesting to see which names get imortalized in a cd jacket.

When I had the chance to get MY name added to a cd, just by pre-ordering a record that I was planning on buying anyways, I jumped at it. You may remember the first big event that happened just after I started blogging. The Basics for Babies Breakfast where I got to meet Deric Ruttan and Aaron Lines. This is Aaron's newest cd. By pre-ordering I got it autographed too :) And look! There's my name in black and white!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Soul 2 Soul II 2007: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

You know, I never even blogged about the fact that I finally decided to go to the Soul 2 Soul II 2007 concert on Saturday. I only decided for sure last Saturday and since work was so crazy busy all week, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was get BACK on the computer just so I could blog. Anyways the concert was in-freaking-credible! I had talked myself OUT of going probably a half a dozen times. Last weekend though I got a call from Janik saying that his friend had an extra ticket. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it and am I *ever* glad I did.

Janik and I met Katherine (she's the one I gave the Dierks tickets that I won in January too) at her house and we drove into New Westminster together. We parked by the Old Spaghetti Factory there and had dinner before catching the sky train into GM Place. At OSF we met Janik's friends Shelly, her mom Sue and Ashley (who had the tickets). The tickets were split into groups of three. Katherine, Janik and I were together and the others were somewhere else.
The place was pretty much packed. I had a very lovey couple on one side of me and behind us where what Janik dubbed "the fun police". They didn't want to stand at all or get too excited about the music. The concert itself was fantastic though. I realized on the way in that this is my first *concert* at GM Place. I've been to hockey and basketball games as well as Disney on Ice and stuff but all the large concerts I've attended in Vancouver were at Pacific Coliseum. The only other "big" concert I've been to was at Qwest Field in Seattle which is an open air football stadium and while there was a lot of people there, I was totally not prepared for the light show that they put on at Soul 2 Soul.
Lori McKenna opened for them. She wrote three tracks of Faith's "Fireflies" album. The title track, "Stealing Kisses" and "If You Ask". We arrived in the middle of her set but from what I saw she sounded good.

They "entered" the stage by standing on these risers that raised them up through trap doors in the floor (you can see the square Faith is standing on at right.) They opened with a duet that I didn't recognize. Steve (the radio guy) this morning said that it was a cover of SnowPatrol song. They sang one more after that and then Tim disappeared and Faith did her set. It was actually quiet long and covered all her big hits.

Faith was really good. I dubbed her "Rock Star Barbie" and Janik agreed. She's very blonde right now and with legs up to her ears, clad in a glittery flowing pantsuit with a deep V down the front, she looked great.

The stage itself was amazing. It was huge. The cat walks (there were four sticking out from the center pod) all were shinny so they were reflective but they also digital displays so images were projected on or from them. I found myself watching the stage as much as the singers! The pictures I got don't really do the stage justice. They had all sorts of images displayed from pictures of Tim & Faith and their girls to movies of sychronized swimmers and crashing waves. It was amazing.

This picture of the whole stage, the lights and the disco balls is one of my favourites. It shows how vast the stage was. GM Place holds about 18,000 people and I truly don't think anyone would have felt left out of the "concert experience".
After Faith's set, Tim came back and they sang a few more duets including "Angry All the Time" and "Like We Never Loved At All". For those two they were inside this netting. Those are very emotionally charged songs but putting them essentially in a little "room" made it even better.


After the duets, it was Tim's turn. During Faith's set, the images on the stage were all happy flowers and butterflies and stuff. When Tim came on it was much darker more "masculine". Mechanical bugs and swords and stuff. It's hard to explain or capture the impact in words but it was just that. Visually impactful. Yes it was about the music but the lights and the stage and everything made it a visual feast as well.
Tim's set was great. He's very confident on stage but not arrogant at all. He sang my all time favourite song "Everywhere" and all his hits like "Live Like You Were Dying" which got a HUGE response from the crowd, "The Cowboy in Me", "Real Good Man", "When the Stars Go Blue" and quite a few cuts from his new cd including: "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" which he brought four little girls up on stage for (I'm not sure if they were his kids or not), "Suspicions" and "Between the River and Me".

The picture above is him singing "When the Stars Go Blue" and I told Janik that it was MUCH better then the music video. Note the constellations on the stage.
His encore was "If You're Reading This" and another one. Then they moved into a final duet section. I admit that a lot of the songs ran together for me because I'm not intimately familiar with the lyrics but it was still very enjoyable.
This picture here is *so* cool. They only showed that shot a few times (it's Tim in the middle of the stage, from above) so I was lucky to catch it.
Faith came back out after Tim's set and they sang "Shotgun Rider". He told her "that guitar looks better on you then it did on the rack" LOL
Their final encore was "I Need You" which they sang using one microphone and sitting facing each other. It was so awesome. There is something special to the music when you know that this couple loves each other, respects each other and have been married for ten years while living in the public eye. It lends an electricity that is hard to capture otherwise.





Their final good-bye's were done pretty much hand in hand. It was very sweet.

So yes, an amazing concert and one that I am really glad I talked myself into attending.

~Heidi

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I love my job

I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
(Yes I'm trying to convince myself)
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job

I've been reading old minutes all afternoon and my eyes are crossing on me. I only hope that at some point in the future someone reads MY minutes :P

I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Vancouver

I live about an hour from the City of Vancouver (depending on traffic). A lot of people out her in "the Valley" find going into Vancouver an big deal. Personally, even though it's a bit of a drive, it's something I *love* to do...as evidenced by my activities over the past two days.
Friday night I left work and met Mere and we went into Vancouver together. We walked around a bit first and found a really cool used book store and drooled over all the neat tools in a kitchen store. We decided to have dinner at "Moose's Down Under" which is an Australian type pub. It was great and Mere had a fund time identifying all the Aussie influences there.

After that we went over to Canada Place and took in the Friday night opera singers in the Pan Pacific Hotel. We continued to wander around down town for awhile and then made our way over to "Cafe Crepe" on Granville for a yummy nutella, banana crepe and coffee.

Saturday found me back in Vancouver in many of the same places that Mere I had visited only this time I was accompanied by two of my brothers, Seth and Aaron. Mom and Dad went over to Victoria for Friday and Saturday in celebration of their 27th Anniversary so I was "in charge" of Aaron. He actually stayed the night at a friends house on Friday because they had to do papers but when he was done Seth and I picked him up. We went to IHOP for breakfast and then drove through the rain into Vancouver. fun :)
Our first stop was at "Mink, A Chocolate Cafe" on West Hastings. It came highly recommended and I now know why. Seth had a mocha and a Belgian waffle (I'm in love with the glass that he got) Aaron just had a chocolate bar and I treated myself to the "Personal Fondue" (which Aaron helped me eat). It was wonderful! Not cheap but so good.
From there we went and bought tickets to see "Pirates of the Carribean 3" and then wandered through Chapters, the Pacific Centre Mall, and HMV on Robson.
I got a kick out of the display for the new Simpsons movie at the movie theatre and made the boys pose for a picture. Neither of them were too impressed but they complied :D
So there, two days in Vancouver in a row and both in one section of the city. There is still SO much more to explore. That's why I love going down there!<

Rally in the Valley

Last weekend I attended Rally in the Valley for the second time. (You can read about my adventures from last year here) Friday again was the "Trail in Dance" and it was pretty low key. Saturday I decided that if I woke up early (like I have been doing lately) then I'd go to the pyjama dance. I ended up not waking up until 10am which was fine. I obviously needed the sleep. I made a trifle (my first!) and then made it out there in time for the 1pm Square Dance workshop. My partner and I decided to skip out on the Rounds workshop because we both had stuff to do. I headed into town where and ran errands. I stopped at a scrapbook store and picked up a few little things. I stopped at a second hand book store and bought a book that I've been looking for, for four dollars! I also got a car wash and stopped at the grocery store. It was a very productive afternoon.
After that I was thinking of renaming this blog "Scrapbooking, Square Dancing and Songs" LOL

I got back to the hall in time for the potluck dinner. SO many yummy dishes :) We started the evening dance with a Grand March opening and the visiting clubs brought their banners. It's an impressive sight. I chose to not march this year but instead take pictures of the procession.

Dancing that evening was fun but it was HOT. I actually started feeling sick and had to sit out a few tips just because I was over heating. It wasn't good. :( I really didn't pay attention to how many people were there but it was a decent turn out.

Sunday afternoon, after church, we danced at Minter Gardens again. I got there late and there was another performer booked for the afternoon so I only actually danced two tips. I was okay with that because I was still stinkin' hot. I just went out there to say good-bye to everyone because now I won't see them until dance starts back up in September. I love it but I'm enjoying to the break :) (I didn't take any pictures at the gardens because I was there for such a short time.

From that dance I went straight over to family friends for a church picnic. It was very relaxing. A great way to spend a Sunday evening...until the clouds rolled in :)

~Heidi

Friday, June 08, 2007

Blech

I frequently commit what would be considered a mortal sin among hard core coffee drinkers. It's called instant ::gasp:: My parents always drank instant (and still do) and generally I don't have time in the morning to drip a cup of coffee so instant works well. I have an electric kettle and if I plan on having coffee, I'll turn it on before I hop in the shower. This morning I did that. Filled up the kettle, turned it on and went in the shower. When I was done getting ready I came back to the kitchen and fixed my coffee. Water, coffee, milk. The milk didn't mix in like it normally does so I checked the expiry date. It's good until June 12th so I didn't think anything of it. I stirred my coffee, put the lid on my travel mug, grabbed my stuff and headed out. At the first red light on the way to work I had a sip of coffee. It was COLD! I had turned the kettle on but I forgot that last night I had unplugged it so I could plug in my mix-master. Blech. Cold coffee is nasty.

This story has a happy ending though. My co-worker made a rare Starbucks run today and I jumped at the chance for a hot drink. The grande-no-water-no-foam-extra-hot-soy-tazo-chai that she brought back for me tastes *wonderful*. Starbucks to the rescue!!!

~Heidi

The Higgins & The Richmond Night Market

Remember I told you "more about the Higgins" in a future post in my re-cap of the Acoustic Concert Series? Well this is why. I'm very overdue on this entry but I'm still going to post it. After seeing the Higgins perform at the ACS, I added them as a friend on MySpace and checked out their future concert dates. One of the ones they had was on Sunday, May 27th at the Ladner May Days festival. When that day arrived it was kind of overcast but I was still able to talk Mom, Seth and Aaron into going to check out the festival with me. When we got there, everyone was starting to clean up so the festival itself was very disappointing. We took a walk around Ladner but because it was a Sunday, all the shops were closed. We came back to the festival site to see the Higgins and we all really enjoyed the show. By that time the sun was shinning so it was warm but not overly so. The set list was pretty much the same as at the ACS but they had some different comments between songs and they threw in a few imprompue tunes for the kids that were dancing in front of the stage.
The Higgins have preformed at this festival many times and you could tell that they were really comfortable there. I bought their cd's afterwards and had them sign them for me. I told that I had seen them at the ACS and they were really appreciative that I came out to see them in Ladner. Kathleen (the brunette) even recognized me from MySpace!

Following the performance, since we were already almost in Richmond, we drove over to Ikea. Of course it closed at 6pm :p On the way there I saw the signs for the Richmond Night Market. This is something I have wanted to visit for a *long* time. It was fascinating. The sounds, colours, smells, everything compounded for a whole sensory experience. Each of us bought something. The amount of *stuff* that is available was mind boggling. The food was...interesting. I ended up getting a "young coconut" with a straw in it to drink and a pastry with nutella in it. I'll definitely go back there this summer. Maybe next time I'll actually take pictures :P

~Heidi

Thursday, June 07, 2007

No I don't live in Europe

I have used Yahoo's LaunchCast music service since April 2004. Meaning I have paid for it since then. I used the free version of the service for a long time before that. For me, it is an excellent option. I am in front of a computer for an average of eight hours a day, five days a week. Having the radio playing would drive me nuts (I get sick of the commercials just from listening on evenings and weekends) and I don't do well with silence (I need something to drown out my co-workers) so internet radio is a good option for me. I like LaunchCast because they give me unlimited skipping of songs (sometimes even though I may LIKE a song, I'm just not in the mood for it right then), they have full cd's of songs that have just been released (not only the singles) and they are "radio that listens to you" which means that they're great at recommending songs based on your preferences. "You like George Strait? Well, you'll probably like Alan Jackson too then." etc. Lately though the song selection has been frustrating me. They aren't debuting new material and they got rid of all the pre-set country stations. I actually went so far as to email them. I got a reply back but it wasn't the answer I was looking for and I didn't have the brain power to try and explain it to them.

Today I figured out what the problem was. LaunchCast has grown so that it is international. Somehow, my "Language & Content" got changed to "English - United Kingdom" and my time zone to GMT UK/Spain! I put my time back to Pacific and changed my Language & Content to "English - Canada" and it's already a million times better. Plus, all the pre-set country stations are back. Apparently they don't listen to country in the UK.

It's good to be home :)

~Heidi

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Cattlemans and Billy Bob's Texas

I admit that I've kind of been procrastinating on posting this entry. This night was definitely the highlight of my trip and trying to capture it all in words is hard.

Our first stop in Fort Worth was at Cattleman's for dinner. I believe that Sherilyn and I both had the "Rose O' Texas" Tenderloin Steak with salad and a baked potato. No matter what cut of beef it was, it was delicious. Corey picked a wonderful red wine to go with it too.
From there we headed straight over to Billy Bob's. Brilliant me left my wallet in my rental car in Dallas. The scary bouncer dude didn't want to let me in but because I didn't hesitate when he asked my age and because Sherilyn and Corey are both "legal" ;) he just gave me a strong warning "If I catch you drinking I'll throw your @$$ in jail" "Yes Sir!" (Of course I realized a few days later that I did have my passport with me but I don't normally carry it with me so I didn't think about it).

Once we got inside, we located Marty (at the bar, of course) and after he loaded us up with beers (I took one just to spite the bouncer LOL) he gave us the official tour. Now, you may remember that getting a tour of Billy Bob's was one of the reasons I took my whole Texas Road Trip. Sherilyn and Corey had taken the tour in November when they were at Billy Bob's with Corey's sister. The had been there for awhile before Sherilyn remembered hearing that a guy she had gone to school with was working there. They enquired after him and found out that he is the General Manager. She blogged about the whole thing afterwards and I was probably more excited then she had been LOL When I decided that Texas was definitely in the cards, one of the first things I did was confirm that she'd take me to Billy Bob's to meet Marty and she didn't disappoint.

Walking around Billy Bob's with Marty was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Sherilyn and Corey aren't "current country music fans" (her words) but I am. Marty sort of took me under his wing and we bonded over our opinions of artists, their music and their live shows. Sherilyn and Corey tagged along and Sherilyn was my official photographer for the night. It was really a mecca for me. Finally someone who knows and loves country music as much as I do :D Marty took us back stage and I was just in awe. Billy Bob's has a staff person who draws the logo of each artist that performs on the wall and then the band signs the wall. It was so incredibly cool. In the picture Marty is pointing at a cut out of Garth Brooks from when he first started his career.

Craig Morgan was on stage by the time we got there. I never got really close and the only picture we have is of the screen but I can at least technically say that I've seen him in concert. He put on a good show from what I got to see. We could have stopped and watched the show and looking back I wish we had but I was having too much fun with Marty!

The handprint wall at Billy Bob's is quite extensive. Marty gave us the inside scoop on a bunch of the prints. Like where the golf ball used to be in Vince Gill's square, that Deana Carter did bare feet prints because she preforms without shoes and that Trace Adkins lost the pinky finger on his left hand in an accident, and asked doctors to re-attach the finger at an angle so that he could continue to play guitar which is why it looks like he only has a half a finger in his handprint.

I love this picture of me. Marty dropped his hat on my head and Sherilyn snapped the picture. He took it back right away saying "I can't leave it there too long or I'll have to take her home with me" LOL

Billy Bob's is huge. Marty showed us most of it but when I went back the next day I realized there were parts we missed. Marty showed us the trophy case of the times that the club has won Club of the Year from the Acadamy of Country Music after I asked about it. He also showed us (in no particular order) the bull riding ring, the Texas Club Room (private meeting space), the liquor lockers (where he threw out mind boggling stats about the amount of alcohol served during certain events), the guitar bar and more.
We finished the evening in his office listening to music, looking at pictures and sharing stories of travelling, different events and what's been going on in his life since he and Sherilyn last saw each other. We also watched a couple of girls get busted by the authorities for under age drinking. Very entertaining and better then reality tv any day ;)

It was a late night after a *very* long day but I wouldn't have traded it for the world. And yes, that is a condom in my hand. Don't ask. I'm sharing this picture simply to show that I still looked pretty good at 1:30 in the morning.

~Heidi