To Jump or Not to Jump?

Life was rolling along pretty smoothly until that day Bella and I went for a joy ride a couple weeks ago. We ended up at a detour sign because the road we wanted to travel was closed for construction. And there it was. All shiny and new and beckoning: a brand-new community with townhouses for sale.

Of course we turned in to look around. It doesn't hurt to look. It was pretty. Then there was the office, and they were open, so I went in to . . . satisfy my curiosity. Now, both of my parents have visited to check out the area and offer their insights. They both agree that it's a good deal, doable, but completely up to me.

So now I'm faced with this huge, grown-up decision: to buy a townhouse or not to buy a townhouse?

I'm a pretty responsible girl. I've been living in Nashville on a tight budget for two years now. I have a good job that I love with amazing coworkers, and I don't anticipate moving away any time in the foreseeable future. There are so, so many factors to weigh in this, the biggest purchase I would ever make in my entire life. No pressure.

The pro/con list is trucking right along. The friends and colleagues are offering their advice, insights, and stories. I am well aware that "just because you can doesn't mean you should."

I have around 50 days to make a final decision. Your prayers are extremely appreciated.

Pistol Annies album “Hell on Heels”

Miranda Lambert’s brand new girl band Pistol Annies has a brand new record out. [Pistol Annies is composed of Miranda Lambert (Lone Star Annie), Angaleena Presley (Holler Annie), and Ashley Monroe (Hippie Annie).] Today marks the album’s one week birthday!

I preordered “Hell on Heels” from the Annies’ website and was so excited to find it in my mailbox on the very day of its release. I started listening right away. My first reaction wasn’t over the moon, but after a few more spins the music has really grown on me. It’s definitely one of a kind and oh-so-country.

My life is like a lemon drop
I'm suckin' on the bitter to get to the sweet part
I know there are better days ahead

The album's second track is called “Lemon Drop.” It’s been stuck in my head for a few days now—the melody and the harmony are happy, hopeful, and light, considering the hard time this woman is having.

My muffler’s tied on with a guitar string
I owe $7,000 to a bank machine
Before this car is ever really mine

Angaleena really did tie her muffler to her car with a guitar string once. She told Country Weekly, “[‘Lemon Drop’] was just about my life and my struggle at that time and just knowing in my heart that a better day was going to come . . .” It's said that writers should write about what they know. These girls know hard times and the better days that follow. That's what makes their music so strong.

“Beige” is a beautiful and sorrow-filled song, sung by the amazing Ashley Monroe. The music sets the stage for the emotional lyrics that tell the story of a young woman who didn’t wait and ends up wearing beige at her shotgun wedding. Ashley’s voice is soft and sorrowful and makes you feel what this girl must be feeling. “Beige” also showcases Ashley and Miranda’s incredible talent for writing heart-wringing lyrics:

A bride shouldn’t be four months and three weeks . . .

Daddy’s pride and joy was marrying some boy . . .

Everyone in this place knows I didn’t wait
Cause I was wearing beige . . .

The song in no way recommends or endorses its subject matter; it is simply sharing the story of one girl who ended up in this situation. I love CW’s interview with the girls on this song. Miranda talks about how the idea came out of the blue. The word beige popped in her head, and she yelled it at Ashley, who had no idea what she was talking about. Miranda, who recently got married, explained her thought process: girls who are pregnant wear beige for the wedding. Then she and Ashley wrote a song about it—to tell the story of the bride wearing beige.

“Bad Example” will make your foot start tapping. I love the energy in this song, and I don’t think the message is harmful or meant to be taken too seriously.

Somebody had to set a bad example
Teach all the prim and propers what not to do

It’s a fun song. The twangy vocals take you straight back to the original country queens like Loretta Lynn and June Carter Cash. The harmony is perfect.

Angaleena takes the lead in “Housewife’s Prayer,” a song she wrote about a time in her own life. She told CW, “I was going through a divorce and sitting there literally thinking about how I could burn my house down because I was in a really low place, scared, and didn’t know what to do.” This song tells the story of a woman in that same boat. She’s at the end of her rope and needs a break. Granted, the best idea isn’t to set the house on fire, but it sounds good to this woman in this moment, and she just needs to vent.

Track 6 is sort of an autobiography of the band members. The lyrics express how the hardships of life on the road and trying to make it in the music business—

We owe $400 to the boys in the band
Gas light’s blinkin’ on our broke-down van
Livin’ on truck stop burgers and fries,
Crossin’ our fingers for a vacancy sign

Ain’t tryin’ to get rich, just tryin’ to get by
By playing for tips on Saturday night.

—often result in some bad habits. “Takin’ Pills” expresses how the girls could deal with the stress: “One’s drinkin’, one’s smokin’, one’s takin’ pills.” Ashley told CW, “Everybody has a vice, and parts of it are definitely exaggerated, but it’s kind of like what we would have been if we started this band right out of high school.” Miranda defends the song further saying, “That's the good thing about song writing. You can write about killing people, but you don’t actually do it."

“Family Feud” is the last song on the album, and the girls co-wrote it with the one and only Mr. Miranda Lambert. This song addresses the greed in human nature. A girl’s mother has recently passed away, and just two days after the funeral, her relatives are looting the house. The daughter in the song is disgusted with her family and condemns their behavior:

Who gives a damn about a cedar chest
When we just laid her soul to rest?

I love that the girls get back to the basics of real country music. They tell stories about real life without apology. I appreciate the incredible artistic talent it takes to compose such stories in such short lines, while getting the point across in less than three minutes. I love the album's "bluesy country sound," its "sparse production, unabashedly country lyrics,  and strong rhythm sections." It's good-ole country music.

The Help

I actually began writing this post shortly after I finished reading The Help, which was back in . . . November of last year. (Wow, time flies!) Now, the movie is out, and I suppose this post is still relevant and not one to toss in the trash.

I found this book engrossing.

The Help, by first-time author Kathryn Stockett (who is a Phi Mu from Alabama!), is a good, strong book. The story unfolds from the viewpoints of three women—two black maids in 1960's Mississippi and a cotton-farmer's daughter, who has just moved home after graduating college—Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter.

Kathryn's writing pulled me in and held me down. The maids' vernacular was a little difficult in the first few chapters and inhibited a smooth read. Hearing the talk and seeing it are very different. I have one friend in particular who won't read books written in unfamiliar dialect because it's so distracting. I think that it truly adds to the authenticity and strength of the book, especially this one, so I pressed on.

I laughed out loud at poor Miss Celia and felt my heart wring in pain for her. Minny's notorious stunt completely grossed me out. Aibileen's kindness warmed my heart. And I definitely relate to Skeeter, who, according to Aibileen, keeps her hair "cut short above her shoulders cause she get the frizz year round" (p. 4).

Most people, whether they've read the book or not, know that The Help deals with racism in the 60s. But it goes beyond that; readers will see everything from domestic abuse and mean girls to cancer and miscarriages. The Help tells the tales of the injustices to Aibileen and Minny as they are trying to make lives for themselves and their families, while one is living with an abusive husband. It reveals the shallowness that was embodied in some hoity-toity white women, like Miss Hilly. Not only is she extremely racist, she even excluded certain white women from her social groups because they didn't live up to her standards. The book also follows one courageous young woman's dream to become a writer in an age where women just didn't do that.

The movie is also pretty good, but, of course, the book is better. I really enjoyed the movie in itself. A few things I didn't like about the movie: Skeeter's relationship with Stewart is not developed at all. They may have had four scenes together. Constantine is a really, really old and frail woman, which is not at all how I pictured her. On the other hand, Aibileen is younger than I pictured her. In the movie Mrs. Phelan appears much more sorrowful about what she did to Constantine. I didn't see that in the book. There were several things I loved about the movie: Emma Stone's hair. I think they nailed it. Minny. Miss Celia. Hilly. Mae Mobley. The scene of the Terrible Awful. Perfection.

Have you read the book or seen the movie? What are your thoughts?

Best. Night. Ever.

As some of you may know, I "ran into" my idol and her hubby last night at a local Nashville establishment: the one and only duo Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.

Here's the story.

Several of my neighbors have dogs, and Miss Bella and I have made friends with them. After work most evenings, we have play time on the tennis court. Last night was one of those typical evenings. When we'd finished playing, Bella and I came inside, and I was ready for a low-key evening reading a book I should have finished a week ago. About five minutes after we came inside, someone knocked on my door. It was one of my neighbors. She told me her boyfriend, who is a local musician, was out listening to music downtown and just happened to be standing near Miranda and Blake Shelton, and she thought I'd appreciate that.

Little did she know!

It was around 8:30 p.m., and I appreciated the tip so much that we decided to go see if it was true. In less than ten minutes, we were on our way and at the venue in record time. We walked through the door, and THERE THEY WERE. In the flesh. Right in front of us. Sitting in a booth with a of couple friends. I started shaking.

We went on over to stand with my friend's boyfriend and listen to the music, which was good and country. I really didn't want to be "that person" (you know who I'm talking about: that crazy fan who stalks and harasses famous people). What's more, since I live in Nashville, I'm supposed to abide by the unwritten yet understood rule: locals don't bother artists when they see them around town. And trust me, we see them around town pretty often. (I ran into Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at the doctor's office a couple months after moving here!)

So we hung out and enjoyed the music. I noticed maybe two or three people go over and ask for a photo. We realized that Chris Young was also there sitting with them. After about an hour, I saw an opportunity, and we walked over. Miranda was talking to her friend, so we waited, not wanting to interrupt. Blake looked our way, and we apologized for intruding and asked if we could get a picture. He was pretty nice and said, "Yeah!" Miranda turned, and we posed. My friend snapped the picture, and then I took one for her. We said thank you, apologized again, and went back to our group. We stayed a while longer (the music was really good!), and Miranda, Blake, and Chris moved up by the stage to better enjoy the band.

It was so indescribably amazing to be listening to a good old country band playing Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and George Strait with Miranda and Blake five feet away. I wish I could've stayed all night. But I was blessed (or cursed?) with the responsible gene and had to be at work the next morning.

I'm so glad we went out on this little adventure and that I got the picture! What an amazing Nashville experience. :-D

Pompeii: City on Fire by T. L. Higley

I just finished a book five minutes ago, c. 10:00 a.m. It was my first Kindle eBook experience. But more about that later.

Written by T. L. Higley, Pompeii: City on Fire is a solid and stimulating story with integral Christian content, set in the ancient Roman world less than a hundred years after Christ walked the earth and just before the infamous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79.

As a lover of and advocate for the Classics (the study of ancient Greece and Rome), I was very pleased with Higley’s research and accuracy. Her subtle descriptions of life in Pompeii reveal Higley’s knowledge of the ancient world. Her transfusion of Christianity into this world reveals her great talent.

I appreciate the word list in the front matter and the use of Latin in the text, although the Latin was not as prevalent as I would have liked. (I love Latin.)

The commentary from Vesuvius personified added a sense of urgency to the story, but I grew weary of her self-pity. Perhaps one or two of those interruptions could have been left out?

SPOILER ALERT.

Cato's conversion is just gradual enough to be believable, for a Roman man of his standing and time. Ariella's journey is constantly changing, and I felt that her conversion was sudden. I expected it, yes, but not from any hints Ariella shared. Her inner 180-degree turn had little warning and felt abrupt. Looking back, Higley does utilize several paragraphs to reveal Ariella’s thought process leading up to the leap, so maybe that is sufficient. But initially, it felt sudden to me.

The ending is satisfying and believable. I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation for at least the final ten chapters. Tears pooled in my eyes when I realized, along with Ariella and Cato, that Europa, Seneca, Flora, and Jeremiah intended to stay behind. Their faith and contentment is awe-inspiring.

I highly recommend this book to those who love the Classics, Christian fiction, and a good story.

This is the first book I have read from T. L. Higley. To learn more about her, visit her website, "No Passport Required."

Kindle/eBook experience:
Not a fan. I don’t like having to push a button to turn the page, not being able to quickly flip back for reference. I don't despise it, and I'll probably use it again, but I prefer physical books.