Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Greatness



Sarah and I took some Belmont Students backstage at the Opry for a show on Saturday night. It was a great evening. It was Marty Stuart's birthday and Keith Urban sang a few songs and then joined Marty for a few songs. Dierks Bentley showed up as a surprise guest and played with him as well. Because of Sarah's job at Belmont, she has gotten to know Ricky Skaggs through various events. Ricky played the show and after, we ended up talking with him for about 30 minutes. This guy loves Jesus. First of all, it consumes his conversation and he is excited to talk about what the Lord is doing in his life. It was inspiring. One thing about some of the successful people that we have spent time with(again, sometimes through Sarah's job) is that there is an ease about them. They make you feel good about yourself. I don't know where I heard this quote or who said it but it goes something like this: "Those who are truly great make you feel like you too can become great." I hope that with any level of success, people will feel like that around me.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

USC/Oregon State

I'm not a die-hard football guy. I love a good game but don't spend my entire Saturday in front of the TV. Tonight, there was a great game on. A kid who graduated high school only 4 months ago played running back for Oregon State against USC. Coming into the game, USC was ranked #1 and Oregon State was unranked. All of that changed when Jacquizz Rogers ran for 186 yards with 2 touchdowns. He is a small guy and it was almost like he was David running around and through 11 giants at a time. It was spectacular. In the last 4 minutes, all of the student section jumped over the wall and stood behind the team. Oregon State won the game 27-21. The crowd rushed the field when the game ended. There's nothing like a huge upset.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The Magic of the Dinner Table

There is something truly beautiful that happens when you connect with close friends around a meal...when authenticity meets a ribeye and a bottle of wine. Sarah and I had such an evening tonight with another couple. Laughter, struggles, gratitude, and tears all found it's way out so organically. Nothing forced...No agendas except to just know each other and to be known. The couple were a few more years down the road age-wise and carried the wisdom of walking with the Lord and often pointed things to scripture. It felt like a glimpse of the Wedding Feast to come when we will join around the table as the grateful beloved and share a meal together. We may find ourselves sitting at a grand table wanting to share bites of each other's food because everything is so exquisite. We may drop a fork on a white shirt(which I did tonight) and just laugh about it. I have no doubt that that Feast will be about true relationship and food.

Two things I love...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Matt Wertz at the Ryman

Sarah and I went last night to hear Matt Wertz open for O.A.R. and he did an amazing job. I haven't seen him more polished and ready to entertain. He was gracious to the audience and you could tell that he was loving playing the Ryman for the first time. His CD, Under Summer Sun, releases today. I wrote two songs with him for his record...the title cut "Summer Sun" and "5:19", his current single. He played both of them last night and they were both received really well by the audience. Yessssss!

Side thought...the opening act is a strange gig. You really have to be on your game to sell an audience that is there to see the headliner. They really don't care. If people are there early it seems that they are there to find their seat and chat it up with friends. Matt did make a good move by playing the Bob Marley song "No Woman, No Cry" and as soon as he started I could see about a hundred beers being lifted into the air because all the O.A.R. fans started cheering.

The song-list was great. The endings were nailed. The songs were hooky.

Great Job last night Matt. Proud of You.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Want to Laugh?

This is just ridiculous. Give it a few minutes. It gets hilarious. I laughed for probably 10 minutes.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Getting my toenails did

I've never had a manicure. Because I play guitar, I do have long nails on my right hand to be able to finger pick when I'm playing. I'm kind of particular about my nails. Being long, they are creepy enough but if I let them grow past the time that I would normally cut them, they just look and feel really weird. I have however had a pedicure. Sarah's mom drove into town one day and wanted to take Sarah to go get a Pedicure and somehow I got roped in to go with them. I was super skeptical about the idea of a man going into a nail salon(a lot like my trip to the show "The View" but that's for another blog). I don't think that I would go back and have it done again. Sarah and I are hosting a friend from Seattle this week who we met in Italy and she showed us this video. I have spent a total of probably 27 minutes in a nail salon in my life but it was enough to make me laugh at this video. Check it out:

Friday, September 5, 2008

Follow-up to "I think I might be a geek..."

Last night I came home and blogged about not having a good capacity for paying attention to details. We went though Financial Peace with our church right before Sarah and I got married and as a result, we decided to withdraw money every week for our food budget. We went to Outback last night and both ordered the Outback Special and when the waiter brought the check, we put the cash in the envelope and just walked out making sure to wave to our waiter as if to say, "We're all square". Because of the bill and remembering how much it was, I knew kind of where we were financially going into this weekend. I woke up this morning and walked downstairs and saw more money on the table than we were supposed to have given our night out. I kind of panicked for a moment and tried to replay counting out the tip for our waiter last night and realized that I didn't pay for our meal. Horrified, I called the manager this morning and replayed my fear to him over the phone and he said he would follow up with our waiter from last night. He called me this afternoon and laughed and graciously said that our waiter was really confused after we left because it seemed so out of character. He thanked me for being honest and I told him we'd come by and pay for our meal

Talk about overlooking details...I'd lose my nose if it wasn't attached...but not my iphone:)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I think I might be a geek...


Not the kind that actually remembers important things like numbers, dates, schedules, lyrics, or anything else with any sort of detail...I'm kind of a geek about Apple. Don't ask me to remember what I did today or what I'm supposed to do tomorrow...but start talking about what Apple is coming out with this next Tuesday at the September "event", I can tell you what everyone is speculating. I'm the guy who will ask you if you have this new app for the iphone that allows you to stream your home itunes library on your iphone while your away from home. I'm the guy that will ask you if you have seen this trick that the mac can do(hit Command+Option+Control+8). If you have the new iphone, my first questions will be, "How is your battery life, is the network holding up, and are you dropping calls?" sidenote...my brother and his wife both got the new iphone out in Los Angeles and they said they are dropping calls all over the place. My friends here in Nashville don't seem to be having the same problems with it but the jury is still out.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cirque De Soleil

So I went to Pigeon Forge with Sarah's family over the Labor Day weekend. We went to Dollywood and went to a few shows and had a great time. Sunday night, we were driving around trying to find a show to go to. We had several tourist pamphlets in the car advertising various shows in the area. We called a few shows to see what time they started and because we hadn't eaten dinner, we settled on a show called "Hoot N' Holler". Here is an excerpt from the description of the show:

The two-hour production showcases the Hoot N' Holler Players, a traveling troop of dancers and singers who collide with the comedic antics of "Scraps," the would-be chef and emcee of the evening's entertainment. The show is highlighted by audience participation segments which place unsuspecting guests in the spotlight of this uproarious comedy.

Before the show started, we were laughing about the idea of being called up on stage. We sat down and started eating salad and the character "Scraps" came by our table. We started goofing off together and just laughing about stuff. Knowing what I know now, I should have ignored him and stared at my plate when he approached us. Early in show, he asked for 4 people to come up to the stage. He pointed at me and asked me to come up there as one of the 4. He also made sure to ask if our knees and back were okay. I have had numerous knee surgeries and don't have the strongest back but the prideful man in me stood up and walked down to the stage. What he asked us to do seemed like I needed training with the cast of Cirque De Soleil. I've found a video of same show on another night. This is what I had to go through:

For the rest of the show, I felt like I needed a chiropractor, a masseuse, a counselor, and a gun. I'm hoping that no one shot a video of Sunday night. It was not pretty and I want no evidence of my collapse.