Tambourine Girl

Good morning friends! I've been meaning to post this story for a few days but between finals and the migraine I had 2 days ago, it's been impossible. So you all know that I had bitchin tickets to see Sting at the Bryce Jordan Center last Tuesday and it ended up being the best concert I've ever been too. There were six of us who went: me, Lisa, Jon, Nate, Nate's sister Liz, and Nate's girlfriend Amanda. We all met up before the concert for pizza and birthday cake at Lisa's since she turned 34 that day. First of all, when we got to the concert, I have never been so close at any concert ever. I was front row, center and Sting was 2 feet away. I mean he was sweating on me, I was so close. It was amazing!!! The band Phantom Planet, who does the O.C. themesong "California" opened for him and they were pretty good. The best part though was when the lead singer said they needed someone to play tambourine with the band for a song and chose MOI out of the front row!! It was awesome. They put the big spotlight on me and I got to play along with the band. It must have been some memorable performance because both the Daily Collegian and the Centre Daily Times articles mentioned me on their reviews of the concert. I am now known as tambourine girl in the press (Whoohoo!)



After my brush with fame, Sting came out and played for 2 hours. It was a paired down concert with only 3 other band members and he played some of his really old songs with The Police and even an acoustic version of "Fields of Gold" (I almost cried). The guitarist even tossed Lisa a guitar pic at the end of the concert and Sting called her a fox. It was so cool!! What's so amazing was that it felt like our own private concert because we couldn't see the thousands of people behind us, so it just seemed as if he was playing for us. It was an unbelievable experience and I can now testify that he is as good looking up close as he is onscreen. Anyhow, we were allowed to bring our cameras so I took lots of amazing pics. Check out just a few that I'm putting up here.



I love me some Sting!

Look Ma, No Damage!

Good morning friends! I am happy to report that as of yesterday afternoon, I have have my car back and it looks good as new. I guess only time will tell if it really is, but other than the giant bird crap on it, they even gave it a new paint job and rotated the tires for me. Look how pretty it is now:



In other news, I am sooooooooo excited because tonight is finally the Sting concert!!! My firends and I have front row, center tickets and we're going to party like rock stars all night!! God, I love Sting and I can't believe after so many months that the concert is finally here. In tribute, I am only listening to Sting tunes all day long:)

Oh and before I get back to work, I need to send a shout out to my friend Lisa who turned 33 (I think) today. Happy Birthday Lisa!!! Hopefully Sting will pull you onstage and give you a big birthday kiss.

Hook, Line, and Sinker

Man do I feel like a jack-ass this morning! I normally pride myself on being able to tell a satirical piece of news (a la The Onion) from a real piece of journalism. However, this morning I realized I had been duped into believing a few stories I heard while reading BC's student newspaper "The Heights" that I just found out were not true at all. Apparently The Heights does an April Fools Day edition every year called "The Depths" and I just didn't pay attention to the date I was reading these articles. Therefore, for the last few weeks, I have actually been spreading the rumor that Chi-Chi, the beloved BC sausage vendor, actually purchased St. Ignatius Church and was expanding it into a nightclub. Stupid? Yeah, but too good of a rumor not to share. Anyhow, this morning I found out these were all well-placed lies and I applaud the staff at The Depths for duping the general public once again.

You guys definitely have to read this issue though. Other headlines include "BU to Replace BC in Big East Football", "Napoleon Dynamite Chooses BC", "The Mods Can Lady Earns First Million Dollars" and of course "Chi Chi Purchases St. Ignatius Church".

Pragmatics conference

Wow, I really haven't posted in a long time. Of course I've been out of town at the Pragmatics conference in sunny and exotic Indiana so I have an excuse. I have to admit it, but the vacation in Indiana was just the sort of break I needed before finals:) We had the most perfect weather the entire time (70's and sunny, not a cloud in the sky) and campus was in full Spring mode. Plus, I made it through my first solo conference presentation, which is a huge relief. I won't bore you with all the conference details except to say that the conference was the first unveiling of the corpus and it was a HUGE hit! Julie did a 3 hour workshop talking about eh corpus and was the belle of the conference from then on. People kept coming up to me saying, "Oh, you're the one who gets to work with Julie B. The data are so fascinating!" It made me feel warm and fuzzy to hear that all of our hard work is starting to be appreciated:)

Otherwise, the best part of the week was that my friend James from high school came to visit and stay with me. We had the best time just wandering around Bloomington, sitting outside at restaurants in the evenings and drinking beers. We even went to see Sin City at the movies (Bizarre film!) Anyhow, it was awesome to get to spend 3 days with him:) He's such a great guy!



Oh, before I forget, I got so excited on my last day in Indiana because James and I came across an actual Circle K!!! Woohoo! Name the movie from the quote and you can be my friend: "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."



Anyhow, I have a shiznit load of work that I came home to but I wanted to post since I haven't in so long. Hope you all get out and enjoy the Spring weather!

Farewell to March Madness

Good morning friends! March Madness has officially ended as of last night with the UNC Tar Heels defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini (least creative name in the history of mascots) 75-70. It was actually a pretty good game and I thought Illinois might have pulled it off except for their over-reliance on 3's, which were a bit off last night. And with Augustine fouling out earlier than usual, well... Anyhow, another year of March Madness has come and gone and it's time to gear up for baseball season:)

As an update to my car situation, apparently the insurance people did not hear of all my bad luck with vehicles, as thing have gone nothing but smoothly since I got ahold of that kid's insurance. They got me all set up with a rental car and have some sort of direct billing with the Hyundai mechanics. The mechanics estimated over $6000 worth of damage though and said it would take at least 2 weeks to fix my beloved Elantra:( For now, I'm driving an '05 Nissan Quest Minivan. I sooooo feel like a soccer mom in this thing. It's actually a pretty nice car but all the gears and radio and switches are like on top of the dashboard. It's really weird looking. As soon as my mom brings my digital camera with her this weekend, I'll take a picture and post because it is mighty futuristic looking.

Oh, before I go, I need to give a shout out to my friend Wilson from high school who got married this past weekend in Texas. Wilson and his wife are both finishing up med school at Tulane in New Orleans. Looks like they'll have some pretty smart kids:) Congrats buddy!

Maroon 5 & The Donna's

Morning folks! Did everyone remember to set thier clocks ahead last night for Daylight Savings Time? I didn't and it really screwed me up this morning, but it's all good now:)

Anyhow, last Tuesday was the Maroon 5/The Donna's concert at the BJC and Lisa and I headed there for some good tunes. In grad school, I'm usually used to being one of the youngest people in the room, but at this concert we were seriously among the oldest people there. Braces and halter tops abounded and for the first time in my life, I saw this teenage girl in a skirt so short that I almost asked her how her mother let her out of the house wearing something like that! Seriously though, is it just me or are the clothes getting smaller and smaller? I walked past Abercrombie the other day (a favorite of mine in college) and I swear the clothes have shrunken. I don't remember ever wearing clothes that tight or cropped, even when I did have the body for it. But we digress...The Donna's signed autographs after their set, and since Lisa is such a big fan and I'm up for whatever, we waited in line with lots and lots and lots of other people to meet the bad. In the end, we only got to spend about 15 seconds with each band member, but we did get autographs and I told the band I loved seeing them on I Love the 90's on Vh1 (one of my favorite shows). Then Maroon 5 came out and they did not disappoint. Since they only have 1 album out, I knew it would be a super long concert, but they played some new tunes that aren't out yet and the second encore they did was AC/DC's Highway to Hell. I think I rocked harder to that song than any of their own songs that they played. I mean c'mon, does anything rock harder than an AC/DC tune? Overall it was a pretty cool night, although the best concert of the season is still to come: Sting. Have I mentioned lately that I have front row center tickets to Sting?! Soooo excited! On that note, I gotta get back to the corpus. It cries if I leave it alone too long:) Later gators!

A Saturday Night to Remember

Hello friends. It's been ages since I've posted and lots and lots has been going on in the last 2 weeks but as my fingers will most certaintly get tired, I think I'll split up these stories into numerous posts over the next few days. As it is, I have a great story that needs to be told now while it's fresh in my mind. Last night Emily had a date with a nice Irish boy named Jimmy:) We met first for drinks at this bar "Adam's Apple" and then had dinner really late at this really cool restaurant "The Tavern." Dinner and drinks was full of laughs and lively conversation and as we ended up talking at the restaurant until about Midnight, I started to get sleepy and sensed it was time for me to head home. As he walked me to my car, which was parked on College Ave (one of the main streets in S.C.) I notice that my car looked funny as we got closer. When got to the car, we were amazed to discover that some asshole had smashed in the side of my car and had not left a note. I love my car and am saddened just thinking about the shape it's in, but I kept it together and we called the police to report a hit and run. Two different cop cars showed up and the nicest 2 cops helped us out. Apparently, while we were eating, some 16-yr-old kid came tearing around the corner and due to the rain, he sped into my car. Luckily there were witnesses, a police report was filed and this kid apparently has insurance, but I am still without a vehicle for now. When he hit my car, it shoved the car up into the curb and broke the axle, so it's not drivable. I'm hoping the frame isn't damaged as well, but the Hyundai mechanics aren't in on weekends, so I have to wait until Monday to find out. Anyhow, while we were waiting and I was talking to Office 1, Jim was just hanging out with Officer 2. Then the 2nd officer told me he heard it was our first date and then proceeded to tell the cutest story about how he had his first date with his wife at the Tavern too and on their first date, his future wife got drunk and fell down some stairs. They then had to make up some story to explain the fall to her father, since she still lived with her parents. Anyhow, the real story didn't come out until someone told it during a toast at their wedding. I thought it was really funny:) Anyhow, I ended up getting a police escort home, but promised Jimmy we would re-do the date with an ending that didn't include me being driven away in a police car. Seriously, how does this shit always happen to me?

Due to the fact that I am without wheels for a while, I'll be spending even more time at home, so I hopefully will have more time to post:)