vacay...

Sorry that I haven't posted a real update since starting this....the past few days have been busy. Brandi came up from Ft.Campbell on tuesday since we were going to see Metallica in Cincy, and then stayed an extra day to hang out. Needless to say I've had better things to do.

I hate that we live so far from each other. I mean, it's not a huge distance (only about 3 1/2 hours) but it's certainly not convenient. I guess it's just not fair that two people who have so much in common can't live closer to each other. And she's going to be moving to Georgia (probably) soon...so it'll be even further. If I could pack up and go with her, I really would. It's the Army way of life that I have to live with, even though I divorced it 3 years ago.

Anywho, we had a great 2 days. She came in on Tuesday and made us a late lunch and then we headed out to Cincy. The drive wasn't too bad once we got out of the Louisville metro area (we left at 4ish, so by the time we got to I-71 traffic was starting to thicken up) We got to town a little after 6, found a place to park and got into the arena a little before 7. I realize that Cincinnati isn't a huge city by any means, but I would have hated to have to drive through it. The downtown area is just layed out weird and trying to find your exit can be difficult if you don't know where you're going (or if, like in our case, your gps decides to give you wrong directions) I'm not a big fan of driving downtown anywhere, but I'd surely take driving in Louisville over driving there.

The concert was fantastic, even though I had never heard of the first two bands. Well, I had heard of Lamb of God, but I hadn't ever heard their music. And while LoG isn't something I'd go download and listen to on a regular basis, I certainly enjoyed their set. I always find live music enjoyable even if it's not by an artist that I particularly love. (well, almost always)

Of course Metallica was amazing. I mean, it's Metallica! They're classic, they've inspired thousands of musicians..and they've been doing it since before I was born. I'm grateful to have gotten the opportunity to see them live and I would gladly fork over $50 a seat to see them again. Everything sounded awesome and it really hit me why they're as popular as they are. They're artists, everything was so perfect, and you could tell they simply enjoy entertaining people. Hell, you could even tell that they're humbled by their fans, which is nice. It also didn't hurt that I was there with 3 people I love and call family.

We had actual seats and not general admission, but our seats weren't bad by any means. I don't really think you could have gotten a bad seat there (at the US Bank Arena) I got a lot of really awesome pictures too, which I'm stoked about. I'm really glad that I forked over the extra money when we got our taxes back to get my camera. It's not the most fancy thing you can get, but it's certainly one of the nicer cameras in it's price range. As far as I'm concerned that thing has already paid for its self with all the great pictures I've gotten to take with it. I love taking pictures and I love Metallica, so it was a win-win for me, heh.

After the show we stopped for some late-night grub at Taco Bell and were on the road. It was a much quicker trip at midnight than it was a rush hour, I can tell you that.

Wednesday Mike had to go run some errands, so Brandi and I stayed behind to get ready and stuff. Well, Brandi was already up and showered before Mike and I even woke up because she's some sort of mutant...but I still had to get ready. When Mike got home we went out to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. It was a really nice day yesterday, albeit slightly warm. The plus side of going out on a wednesday afternoon was that it was pretty dead. So we got seated and served quickly. We ate, scoped out some fancy replicas of The Nina and The Pinta that were parked at the waterfront for some reason, and then stopped at the grocery store to get food for dinner. I really hated that Brandi had to drive the whole time she was here, but my mom has had my car for the past few days since hers broke down. Mike had his mom's car, but that this is in no shape to drive around Louisville, plus it doesn't have A.C which would have been uncomfortable.

When we got home Brandi took a nap, which was she excited to do since she's normally super busy at home. We lounged around for a while and finally got around to doing dinner right about the time Aaron got home from work.. Mike made us some burgers on the grill and Brandi got to meet neighbor Joe and all of his dogs...which is always amusing. Neighbor Joe is a character, but we love him, heh.

Once we had dinner and cleaned up, we had Mike build a fire in the fire pit. Then we proceeded to get ridiculously drunk off of Bacardi Rum and Diet Coke. And by 'we' I mean Brandi and I. Mike had a shot or two and I think Aaron had a drink, but Brandi and I were way beyond whatever they had going on. I guess I underestimated how strong the 151 was, lol. I had a great time, at least the parts I could remember were great. However, the HORRENDOUS headache I had this morning when I got up was not great by any means. Good thing I don't drink like that very often, I don't think my liver could take it.

Unfortunately Brandi had to go back to mommy-land this morning. :( It's a good thing that I have lots of pictures! (which are all loaded up to facebook for those of you who haven't seen) We got to see each other two whole times this year, can you believe it?

Now I'm just hanging around waiting for Mike to get home from work. Like I said, my mom has had my car since Saturday, so we've been waiting to figure out what she's going to do for transportation. It's a long story, but mom lost her job at Kroger, but thankfully got another receiving job at Belterra in Vevay, Indiana. It's a little over an hour drive both ways for her, which is kind of ridiculous, but it's full-time with benefits, so she couldn't really pass it up. Unfortunately her car broke down last week, which we pretty much expected to happen. It was an old Cavalier her step-brother sold to her. She's actually had it for over a year, so I guess she got her money's worth out of it. I would imagine driving to and from Vevay every day for the past few weeks was too much for it. We actually had to drive to get my mom from Madison last week when it broke down. She had to sit down at the waterfront by herself for over an hour while she waited for us to come get her. For such a nice person, my mom sure does get the shit end of the stick an awful lot.

I guess it's a good thing I was on vacation this week, huh? It's also a good thing that mom's friend Sandy is helping her buy another used car. It's newer and has fewer miles apparently, so I should get my car back from her tonight or tomorrow. We're lucky that Mike's mom has let us use her car this week and that Mike only has to go a few miles up the road to go to work. I will be happy to have my car back though.

At any rate, I guess that's about all I've got to share at the moment, so I'll wrap this up. Hopefully I can get into posting more often...I didn't make a new blog to let it sit un-updated!

<3 T