Summer and Engagements

--I find that when I learn of a friend getting engaged these days (usually via facebook), I start singing "Another One Bites the Dust" in my head.

--It has been so hot here in Nashville. Like, break-a-sweat-walking-to-your-car hot. Oh, summer.

--This is my first "real-life" summer. I feel an immense pressure to do something wonderful, fun, and adventurous. So far, I feel I have failed. I have had fun, but nothing adventurous.

--My best friend is getting married in 24 days. Which, conveniently, brings me back to my first point.

"Every time a couple gets married, two single people die." --Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation

Some things you may assume about me by looking at (and in) my car

And whether or not those assumptions are correct

Sometimes I walk by cars and see something inside, or a bumper sticker or something, and try to figure out who the person is that drives the car. It's a fun little game. Then I thought, what do people think about me when they see my car.

1. I'm not rich

Correct. I am not rich. I drive a '97 Honda Civic and that was actually a recent upgrade from my '92 Civic.

2. I'm not a neat-freak

Correct. I often eat breakfast in my car. Therefore, crumbs. Sorry.

3. I am a girl

Correct. The 38 hair accessories in the middle console may have been a big clue.

4. I have children

Incorrect. I only teach them in Sunday School. I keep the curriculum in the car, in case I need to kill time between two activities.

5. I am a Christian

Correct. I have the SS curriculum, the compact Bible, and the various church bulletins in the back seat to prove it. In the front seat is Donald Miller's latest--for slow drive-through situations.

6. I am getting married

Incorrect. The "Congratulations on Your Marriage" gift bag filled with bows in my backseat is because I'm Maid of Honor for a wedding in July, and apparently, I'm supposed to make the bow bouquet for the rehearsal. The bag of bows will remain in my backseat until approximately 2 days before the wedding.

7. I am athletic

I'll give you credit either way on this one. I am not a talented athlete, but I do like to play (some) sports. The cleats in my backseat floor board are from Ultimate Frisbee. I leave them in there so I don't forget. I've never tried, but I'm thinking it would be pretty difficult to play Ultimate in flip-flops.

If the trunk of my car was also revealed to you, my athleticism would be more difficult to argue away. I keep a football, flag football flags, a soccer ball, and a frisbee in there. You just never know when you may need them.

[Once, I opened up the trunk of my car so my friend Mary could put her luggage in. She looked at all the sporting goods and asked me why I didn't have a boyfriend. I told her "Hey, wanna see what's in my trunk?" was not a pick-up line that properly conveyed my intentions.]

8. I have a boyfriend or kid named Kyle Maxson who left his hat in my backseat

Incorrect. The hat is from Goodwill, given to me for Ultimate team unity or something. I have no idea who this Maxson kid is. Thanks for the hat, though, Kyle .

9. I am often cold

Correct. I have been known to turn on the portable heater in my office on 90 degree days. So, I keep a sweater or jacket in my car, even in TN in the summer. I wasn't always like this. I'm not sure what happened.

10. I leave trash lying around

Incorrect. That is not trash. See? This scrap of paper has directions to the frisbee fields. This one has a list of things I need to do before next week. This post-it contains a quote I like. And this little torn-off bit of notebook paper has an idea for a book written on it. Not trash at all.

pros and cons of reading stuff on the internet

I read a lot of stuff on the internet. I read blogs and articles and tweets, some on a daily basis.

This is good in some ways. I learn some things. I learn different opinions about some things. I learn new ways to think about some things. Also, a lot of the blogs/articles/tweets I read are funny. Laughing is good. A lot of the blogs/articles/tweets I read are inspiring, too. And challenging.

All this reading is not good in some ways. Because of all my reading, I have come to think that I have few original thoughts. Many, many times, I have read the exact thing that I have written about or wanted to write about. Only, I usually read writing by professionals (can you be a professional writer? I'm not sure; but that's a different blog post), and they say things better than I think I ever could. Then, I get sad about my writing. It will never be as funny/well-written/inspirational/popular as the others'. If I've already written it, mine seems cliche now. If it's still waiting to be written, it won't be, because it has already been said--only better.

Another thing I have a habit of doing is reading inspirational things, getting all inspired and ready to take on the world, and then doing nothing. I'm going to try to stop that. I have decided that this, my first summer in the real world, is a summer that I will really conquer some things. So here it goes. Feel free to hold me accountable.

Likes/Dislikes

I like cheese puffs. (I'm kinda going through a phase. I won't share how many meals I've had that consisted solely of cheese puffs because then you might worry.)

I really like beat-boxing. As in, I like to listen to it--I can't actually beat-box myself. It amazes and intrigues me.

I dislike weed-eaters.

I really dislike merging onto an interstate when there's a huge 18-wheeler in the far right lane. It's tense. I may or may not hit my brakes every time this happens.

[I'm gonna tag this Things I Like Tuesday, even though it is Thursday and also things I dislike. But it's related. I'm not sure why I felt the need to explain that.]

Risks

Sometimes, you have to take risks in life. Like, even though you know it's possible to get sick from eating raw eggs, it's still a good idea to eat raw brownie batter, even with the eggs. And chocolate chip cookie dough, too.

That's just a risk you have to be willing to make.

Lessons from a Flood

So Nashville flooded...

And I learned a few things.

Lesson 1: If you own a buffalo, and that buffalo gets loose because of, say, rain and flooding, you should definitely report this to your local news station. You should do this to warn people? Get assistance in your search for said buffalo? I'm not sure the motivation, but this actually happened. Naomi Judd (not Wynona...I was wrong) called the news station in the midst of the rain/flood crisis to let them know her buffalo was (were? I'm not sure how many) loose.

Lesson 2: People are more ready to believe the fantastic than the familiar, at least when piranhas are involved. When a news report came out saying that piranhas were loose in the Opry Mills mall (they had, apparently, escaped from the aquarium restaurant during the flood), people retweeted and updated facebook statuses, and watched youtube videos all day. We laughed about possible horror movie plots and speculated how the divers would find the piranhas or where the fish might end up. But, alas, we received news that this report was wrong. No piranhas were loose in the mall. And you know what? Immediately, conspiracy theories began. No one questioned the fact that piranhas were loose in the mall, but people questioned the fact that the report was fake. We (because, yes, I refuse to believe, too) think that, while the piranhas may be contained now, at one point, they were battling it out with the catfish in Bass Pro.

Lesson 3: Twitter is often a more efficient place to get information than the news. The people @nashvillest deserve an award for all the tweeting they have done, and continue to do, regarding this flood. They gathered and distributed information faster than any of the TV networks. The only reason I even knew about flooding in the first place is because of their tweets. Twitter has also played a huge role in uniting Nashville--passing around the article I linked in my last post ignited a WeAreNashville hashtag, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and an attitude.

Lesson 4: I live in one amazing city. I have not been in any other place where a disaster of this level has occured, so I can't say with experience that our city responded differently than others. But I do know the response is amazing. I wrote about the immediate response a little before, but this past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer. I was in a neighborhood in Franklin where one street had been flooded. We arrived early and began tearing out dry wall in one house. By the time we had finished, the neighborhood was filled with volunteers. I'm serious. There wasn't room to park because people volunteering had the curb completely lined with cars. And those who couldn't do physical work were helping those who were able. We were fed donuts and sausage and biscuits, were offered gatorade and work gloves and pizza. One woman who was not affected personally by the flood waters had set up a supply station in her front yard and filled it with boxes, food, and cleaning supplies. Two dads pulled up as we were heading out and asked if they could set up their grill in order to cook for people. They had an entire truck-load of kids, but also packed in a grill, table, and burgers. And the great part was, I knew this was happening all over the city. Amazing. Truly. I am so proud to be Nashville.

And here's the other thing about the response of the city. Someone said that the director of FEMA said (he said, she said, I know, but, at least I'm honest about my sources) that they had never seen a local response like this. Someone else mentioned that other cities should learn from this response. Another person mentioned that it was a great witness. Nashville is the buckle of the Bible belt, but I'm sure that not all these volunteers are Christians.

But all this got me thinking...this is a microcosm of how the Church should be--everyone using their gifts, abilities, perhaps even stepping out of their comfort zone, but loving each other. Helping each other. Having a we're-all-in-this-together attitude. When I learned volunteers were coming in from other places, my first thought was, "We don't need them. Nashville's got this, y'all." What if the Church was like that? What if we just took care of things--orphans, single moms, world hunger, AIDS--and said, "We got this, y'all"?

So, Nashville Flooded...

Nashville flooded over the weekend. You may have heard.

And we, those who call this city (and its surrounding suburbs) home, love it even more.


On Saturday, I left Nashville for Arkansas, by way of Memphis. I checked the weather channel and thought I had found a good window in the severe storms I know as "Spring weather." I stopped for the free venti iced chai latte I got for my birthday at Starbucks [if you haven't registered a gift card with them, you definitely should, because..free venti.] and headed west.
I stopped again in Dickson because the rain was getting rough, and well, I was drinking a venti-sized latte... As I was preparing to leave, the cashier said something about roads being closed and Memphis, so I enquired. She said I-40 was closed. I-40. Because of flooding. Seriously?
After consulting with my dad, my personal GPS/weather man, I reluctantly headed back home. I stopped in Bellevue to see a friend because I was really tired of white-knuckle driving (I'm kind of a grandma-driver, I admit). We sat around for a while and I began to get some twitter messages about flooding in Franklin. And pictures. This was some pretty serious flooding.
I started back home, had to change my route due to a street closure, and eventually got back.


I admit, I was annoyed. This flooding stuff had ruined my weekend plans, I had just spent a very stressful 3 hours on the interstate, and now it looked like I was stuck for the rest of the weekend. I sat down defeatedly to watch the news.


Then I saw a building float down I-24. A building. Float. Down I-24. (I-24 is not a river, or any body of water, just for clarification.)


For the next several hours, I watched as the news cameras showed footage of more and more cars trapped on the interstate, then bobbing up and down in the water. It was crazy. That's the only way I know to describe it.


Sunday was even more surreal. Churches were cancelled, due to flooding. Then, I saw Bellevue, the area I was just in the day before, under water. The riverfront downtown was slowly drowning.


Surreal. I keep hearing the phrase, "It's under water now." and it is weird to realize that it is a completely true statement. No exaggeration. Literally, things are submerged.


Sunday night and Monday, as the river continued to rise, our landmarks began to sink. Opry Mills, Opryland Hotel, The Grand Ole Opry.


Here's the thing, though, we are Nashville. That phrase is now sort of a Nashville Flood 2010 cliche, but I don't care. It is true.
We are Nashville.
As the water was rising, Nashville was showing up in such Nashville-like ways.
Someone wrote a song.
Several people made videos.
Lots of people took some beautiful, tragic pictures.
And there was this great article written.


Best of all, we showed everyone why we're called the Volunteer State. Before the rain even stopped, people were asking for ways to help. One of the volunteer websites even crashed on Monday, because so many people were looking for opportunities to help their neighbors.


So, Nashville flooded. And I love it even more.