Becky has been blogging about her adventures in the fair city of Nashville. I know that she's told y'all about the adventures we've been having exploring the city and that it's was rainy and damp all weekend. Well, today turned out to be a glorious summer day in the great city of Nash-vegas and as we were driving back from lunch, I took a picture of the Nashville skyline and the infamous Batman building to show off to all the bloggers who've been reading her adventures and wonder if it's every bright and sunshiny here in the great state of Tennessee.
Look kids--the Batman building! I also have to admit, I found it amusing some of the comments we've got in our blogs and via e-mail wanting to know all the great details of our meeting live and in person. So, I decided to have a little bit of fun with y'all and describe our meetings. But, there's a catch. Some of what you will read here is real, some of it is fabricated. My challenge to all of our blog readers is to figure out what I made up and what actually happened (OK, yes, I'm shamelessly trolling for comments, but come on! You gotta admit this is fun!)
Friday afternoon, Becky rolled into the great city of Nashville. Seems when she planned her trip and asked me what a good time to visit might be, I failed to observe that CMT Fan Fest, Bonarro, a race and a
Star Trek convention featuring William Shatner would all be in town. I decided to surprise her and stop by her motel on Friday evening to get the initial face-to-face awkwardness meeting out of the way first. Plus,
the buttless chaps I'd threatened to wear were starting to chaff a bit and I couldn't imagine wearing them another day. I was getting some awfully strange looks from the people at work. I called her and told her I was on my way. Now, I'll admit I was a bit nervous. Meeting a strange woman at her motel was like something out of a Bond novel, only I'm not even close to Pierce Brosnon. I'd have to say I'm not even in the same area code as George Lazenby. When I told her I was coming by, she said, "Right now? You're kidding? I've only just changed into my UT Vols t-shirt and shorts." So, I have to admit I was pretty intriuged by that.
I went into the lobby, stopping by the lobby computer to check my e-mail and see if anyone had commented on my blog. Then
I took the elevator up to her floor and nervously walked down the hall. I knocked on her door, took a deep breath and then the door opened. I saw her for the first time outside the pictures on her blog and being the typical idiot I am, my brain thought "Wow, I thought she'd be taller." Alas, my mouth thought this sounded like a great opening line to say to her and it slipped right out. Becky then snarked back at me and the ice was broken.
I went inside and we talked for a while. We discussed what she wanted to see, beyond the buttless chaps. I couldn't believe she'd already had time to buy a UT t-shirt. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "They gave me one at the visitor's center when I crossed the border into the state." Take that you states without an income tax! We figured out the plan of attack for the next day and then I left to head home and begin my night life as Spider-Man.
The next day, Becky called me, telling me she'd slept in and was getting ready to head out for a day of seeing the city that is Nashville. I started thinking--if I were visiting Nashville, what would I want to see first?
After deciding that maybe a trip to Stephanie's Cabaret was out, I then decided to give her the tour of my Nashville, which would include used bookstores, antique malls, furniture outlets, a flea market, movie theaters and the Opry Mills area. I went up to her motel and again went inside, this time taking the stairs. Becky was ready and we set out on our adventures.
Little did I know how adventerous she was. Almost immediately, she asked if there were any restaurants around that specialized in a combination of Thai and ancient Aztec delicacies. Luckily I had been to one just the week before and we had a nice lunch there. We visited a used book store where we found several copies of the
new Harry Potter book for sale. OK, only one and I wanted it but Becky fought better and she got it. She laughed at me the whole way to the car on that one.
We saw some of the scenic areas of Brentwood and Franklin, even driving past Garth Brooks'.
Trisha Yearwood had her U-Haul out front and was moving her stuff in, in anticipation of their upcoming nuptuals. We chatted a bit and I displayed the disconcerting tendency to want to look at her while she was talking and then nearly driving off the road or out of our desginated lane. Becky, alas, saw through my attempts to cover this up, by joking that I was used to my other car the Porsche. As we got into downtown, Becky said she'd like to do something different. I happened to recall that there were hang gliding lessons being given off the top of the Bell South (aka the Batman) building and asked her if she was up for it. I was hoping she was bluffing..but again, she was not. Let me say this--you really can see a lot of Nashville from a hang glider.
After that, we headed to Opry Mills where apparently half of Nashville had gathered since it was raining. We wandered by the Aquarium Restarant and debated seeing a movie.
I wanted to see Star Wars Episode III on the IMAX and Becky was dead-set on Mr and Mrs Smith so we comprimised and saw
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Part 27: Really, We're Just Beating a Dead Horse Here. I like it, but I bet Becky will deny seeing it as she said something about two hours of her life she'll never have back after the film. Personally, I can't wait for
Part 28.
We ended up a long day, going back to her motel. I dropped her off, walked her to the door and gave her a hug goodbye. We tried to take photos of us together for the blog, but couldn't since for some reason
the buttless chaps had welded themselves to my body from nervous prespration and let's face it--no one really needs to see that photo. Plus, I'm a gentleman...
Alright, some of that is true, some of that is b.s....You tell me what is what.
UPDATE: (6/14/05): So, some of the less than truthful parts of this story have been outed by my faithful readers. But there are still some half-truths and all-out non-truths in there. I've bolded the fiction that's been found.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 6/13/2005 03:33:00 PM |
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