Friday, April 25, 2014

Currently...procrastinating.

I mean REALLY procrastinating.
Right now I should be doing laundry and packing. But what would I rather do? Eat and sleep. Merp.
Hello anxiety.
Anytime there is any kind of travel going on, my anxiety shoots up, I get the BGs, and all around unmotivated. And so that's exactly where I am now.
My tiredness could also have something to do with not getting home until 2am or not getting to sleep until about 3 or so.
Anyway, I'm just going through the motions right now, I'll get excited again soon...I hope.
Let's get on with this shizzz.

reading... Facebook, blogger, twitter, whatever is in my line of vision at the moment. As far as books, I'm slowly reading "Jesus > Religion" by Jefferson Bethke (the guy who made this video). I've had it for a few months am only a few chapters in. See also I'm being a slack ass when it comes to reading..We won't even talk about "The Book Of Lost Things" that I have yet to finish.

trying... to keep this anxiety at bay. Ughh. And to get motivated to start moving.

eating... hamburger helper, mashed potatoes and a roll

drinking... Bud Select

calling... My cousin back.

doing... laundry

going... to Tennessee, baby.

thinking... About way too much. My Grandma isn't doing well, they're not sure she has much longer. Then this trip and being anxious about it & exhausted just knowing the events happening in the next 6 days. My husband. Finances. Life. BLEH. I honestly think I need a good cry. Just one of those let it ALLL out ones.

feeling... Numb.

hoping for... My Grandma to be doing well. For this trip to go smoothly.

listening to... Cody Carson's voice. lol. Set It Off is stuck in my brain so therefore I have to listen to it, repetitively.

celebrating... Framing Hanley...for the next 5 days! (I have their album that's due out on Tuesday & it's fantastic!)

smelling... nothing, I rinsed everyone's pollen coated cars off earlier & I'm pretty sure the wind blew half of it back in my face, so I'm a wee bit stuffy at the moment. But on the bright side, I got some vitamin D. That's always good.

thanking... you all, just for being you. Oh, and to any of y'all that follow me on Twitter. I don't know how much FH I've talked about lately, so, I only slightly apologize. ;-) But, still if you follow and put up with it, THANKS! :-)

finishing... this post.

starting... to pack, I guess.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I would say I'll probably be MIA for a little bit, but fuck, that'd be nothing new for me right now. :-|

But, I'll be back.
Lataaaaa!

Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

Monday, April 21, 2014

This weekend..

This weekend was needed.
Laid back and pretty much didn't need to do anything. Well, aside from Easter plans and those weren't stressful.

Friday was a typical Friday. Once 5 o'clock hits it's like time draaagggs waiting for Doug to get off of work & get home. We all pretty much just sat around and watched a movie & called it a night.

Saturday morning was an errand running morning and then we had our Easter dinner at home since my Dad was going to be leaving town for work on Sunday.  So, we had our Easter lunch at home & my Granny came to eat with us. It was delicious and I may or may not have finished off over half a bottle of wine that's been in the fridge for a while. The rest of the day was pretty chill. We made a trip to Home Depot and Wal Mart with my parents. And then later after everyone went to bed, D & I had a little Netflix date. And what do watch? The Coneheads, of course! He ended up getting tired after that one and so we called it a night. In his defense, he made it til after 1am, so, I really can't complain. :-)

Sunday we said buy to my Dad as he was flying out on a business trip & then D & I  spent the whole day up at my Mother-In-Law's waiting for time to eat Easter dinner at Doug's Nana's. Doug checked his trail camera that's set up in his mom backyard and, well, if you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen the visitor we caught on camera. If not, you can meet him(or her?) now...

After hanging around most of the day, we walked over to his Nana's and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. I can't stress enough the fact that I married into such a wonderful family. I always love the get-togethers at Nana's. Even though we didn't do eggs this year we still had some good food and good talks. Then of course we got home and were exhausted.

Sounds pretty plain and simple & it was. And it was fantastic! I have a few more days until a busy week ensues. While it's all a fun busy, it's still busy so this weekend was so very welcomed.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend & Easter!!

How was your weekend?

Love & Stuff
♥♥♥
Brandy

Friday, April 18, 2014

Friday Jams

Well hell, these are good for any day of the week.
But I wanted to link up with the wonderful Unicorn of a Lady that is Whitney  & share a few songs that have been stuck in my head.

1. So, you've surely heard Jason Derulo's Talk Dirty To Me, yes?
I dig it, it took a while to grow on me, but now I love it.
And then this came along...

Meet Cody Carson, he's the lead singer of Set It Off & aside from being gorgeous he's a pretty great singer. I'm bummed I didn't get into Set It Off sooner because they were just in Atlanta like 2 weeks ago. Boo. So anyways, he has a cover of Talk Dirty To Me & swoon. I love it. Not something you'd usually say about a song like this but, did I mention he was gorgeous? I even like his little goofy rap part. I really wish I could download it! So, go ahead, check it out. Also check out his band, Set It Off. Their latest album will be in my possession soon. I need it. Not want. Need.

2. Neon Trees- Sleeping With A Friend
They're just good stuff, amirite? Really though. Love this! It's like something from the 80's! The sounds, the look of the video. I just love everything about it.

3. Paramore- Ain't It Fun
I just love the sound of this. It's fun to sing along to! And who doesn't love SOMETHING from Paramore?


4. Set It Off- Kill The Lights
Like I said in the first video, when a friend of mine posted that cover, it of course led me to really check into Set It Off. & While I could really suggest the whole Cinematics album, I'll pick one song for now. :-)


I could probably go on but, I'll stop for now.
I'm doing some running around with my cousin today so this is about all I can crank out right now.
I hope everyone has a great day & weekend. Spend it with those you love!  And hunt some Easter eggs!

Happy Good Friday!
&
Happy Easter!

Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Best Friends, Florida, & Framing Hanley

Last weekend was a good one.
I figured I'd throw together a little post about it.
Friday morning we headed out, on our way to Florida for the weekend.
Two purposes of this trip was; 1- spend the weekend with my best friends & Doug to go fishing with M's hubby. 2- For C, M & me to go see Framing Hanley. (It was M's first FH show too!)

The show was Friday night, so we got to M's around 3 and got dressed real quick & headed out, we had about a 45 min- hour drive to the venue, which was in Jacksonville.

We leave, decide we'll get Taco Bell since we thought we were pushing time. It was about 4-something and because we didn't know where we were goin, we wanted plenty of time to get there.

Well, plenty of time we certainly had..

Let me back up..
I got an email on March 22 stating that the time had changed from 7:00 to 6:30. No biggie, really.
So that was factored into our rushing. We wanted to stop and get dinner at a sit down restaurant but figured we wouldn't have time. Even though FH was headlining & would be going on last, we wanted to get there when doors opened.
Now...then venue.
Let me set the scene...we're driving & are now in an area of Jax that M (who lives there & is familiar with Jax a little) is not too familiar with. So we just follow directions & it has us pull into a shopping center. The only legit store in the center is a Dollar General on the end. Then there is like a nail salon & a couple of other stores that I can't remember. On the opposite end there is a club (or something) that M see & says, "oh, there have been shootings there before." Holy God. Great.
Well, after driving back and forth & being blind, we finally see the venue's sign on the building, which happens to be right next to the other club.
I called to double check that we were in the right spot & to ask when doors opened, thinking it was at 6 or 6:30 since, ya know, that email. Nope. Doors open at 7. What?
So, here we are, in a sketchy ass area with an hour and a half to wait for this place to open up.
We pulled across the road to a nicer looking gas station & I ate my food while we sat and talked.
Finally it's almost 7 so we went back across to where the venue was. Thankfully there was a small line formed. So, we found a parking spot as close to the door as we could & then got out.
We felt a little better then & finally at about 15 or 20 after 7, the door opened.

There were 4 or 5 openers. That's a lot. And I didn't get into all of them.
Actually the only opener I really like was the one right before FH, and there were called Avenue of the Giants. (Check 'em out).
We got our merch & chatted with the guys before they went on.
And then around 10:30, or maybe even 11, Framing Hanley went on stage and all was right with the world! They played a lot of their new material & of course some of their songs from the past 2 albums. As always it was an amazing show. I may be biased but, that's honestly besides the point. If you've never been to a show, go. Tickets are always reasonably priced. :-)
After the show we chatted a little more & M & I took a picture with them.
We got home about 2am.

The rest of the weekend was good & bad. My lovely husband was supposed to go fishing Saturday with M's husband. BUT, poor D, he ended up waking up with a stomach bug. So, while M's husband went fishing & us girls went to do a little shopping, he stayed on the couch allllll day. So much for hoping he could have a little break. :(
We stayed in and watched a movie Saturday night.
Sunday we just sat around until time to say good-bye. Thankfully D was feeling better so the long ride would be too miserable.
After saying bye, we stopped at Chili's for lunch. (At which we saw a woman who looked like she was about 8 months pregnant enjoying the hell out of some margaritas. -We are bout 90% sure she was pregnant, it wasn't like a fat belly, it looked like a pregnant belly, belly button sticking out and all-)
And then we took the looong drive home.
And viola! That was my lovely weekend! The only thing that would have made it better was is D wouldn't have gotten sick.
Did you make it to the end of reading?
If so, yay!
Remember how I said I took a shit ton of pictures at the show & only a handful came out. Here they are...
Blurry, but I love it.
Avenue Of The Giants
Guitarist, AOTG
Devon, lead singer, AOTG

Nixon
Framing Hanley
Jon
Framing Hanley
Nixon
FH
Ryan
Framing Hanley
Jon, Brandon, Nixon, Chris, and Ryan
Framing Hanley
Jon & Nixon
FH
Nixon, Jon & Ryan
FH
Nix
Ryan
FH
Chris
FH
Brandon
FH
Framing Hanley & Me
4.11.14

After looking if I did a little editing, there are a couple more that would probably be halfway decent, but oh well...

Framing Hanley has a new album coming out April 29, it's called The Sum of Who We Are.

If you're interested in following or keeping up with them you can either:
Like their FB
Follow their Twitter
Follow the FHan Twitter
Follow the Street Team Twitter (A lot, not all, but a good number of the tweets from it are me)
And then of course there is their Website.
And the FHan site

Look for The Sum of Who We Are in stores on April 29.
You'll here me mention it more, obviously! :-)

And, I'm out!
Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Numbers of life, currently...

Hi, there! Slacky, here. You know how when you get back from a trip you're just flat out exhausted? That's me. We took a weekender to Florida from Friday-Sunday, so I've had a couple of days to recuperate already but, fack, I'm just tired! My energy is at about a 1...maybe a 2, for whatever reason. Anyway, I'll maybe do a separate small post on that trip. Sole purpose was to see my bestest again & go to a concert. So, it likely won't be too lengthy.

Speaking of numbers though, last week, Erin did a post called My Life In Numbers & I really like it. It's a neat idea so, I'm going to do my own, only this one is more of a currently/lately as opposed to throughout my whole life. :-)


639 - Number of pictures I took at the concert this weekend.

19 - Number that turned out good enough (not great)

14 or 15 - Approximate number of hours I drove between Friday and Sunday

1 -  Number of people that ended up sick during out weekender.

8 - Amount of hours I slept last night

48545 - amount of hours I want to sleep.

3 - Number of days it's been since my last Mountain Dew. I want one nooowwww.

2 - Number of books that I'm in the middle of reading.

7 - Number of days I need to spend cleaning, purging and organizing everything.

30 - Number of minutes I've actually spent cleaning in the past couple of days. Merp.

8 - Days until my next concert.

10 - Days until my next trip.

5 - Amount of upcoming concerts I already have tickets for.

6 - Number of concerts I'm eyeballing tickets for. Dammit.

2 - number of pounds I've lost since my last weigh in, which is totally unexpected.

55 - Temperature outside.

70 or 75 - Temperature I wish it was. With maybe a slight breeze.

55 - Days 'til we hit 3 years of marriage & 11 years of being together.

0 - Amount of time I've spent exercising lately. Le fail.

5 - Cases of empty jars just waiting on us to make candy.

18 - Number of drafts I have just waiting to be turned into posts.

23 - Number of blog posts I've posted so far this year. That's sad, and needs to change.

And I'll leave you all with this today...
F-You, Mother Nature...
 
 
I'm still here!
Miss you all.
Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy


Monday, April 7, 2014

Hangin' out..

That was my weekend.
From Friday til Sunday. We had company all weekend.
Which is always fun.
And then once they both left, I retreated to my room for alone time.

I love hanging out. LOVE it.
But dang, once it's over. I sometimes go into a mini-hibernation. Doesn't always happen. But, sometimes it does.

This weekend it did, which was fine because the ACM Awards were coming on and I wanted to watch them.

But, before I get ahead of myself.
Friday, we hungout, drank beer, talked and stared at a computer.
Saturday, we took C's son to see The Muppets Most Wanted. It....was actually a good movie. I can't even lie. I'd recommend it, especially if you gots kiddos. Afterwards, we came back home, drank beer some more, talked some more, sang some, stayed up until 5 (6 for me), and then bam, Sunday.
Sunday I went to a birthday party with C & then she dropped me back off & my weekend was coming to an end.
All that was left was to watch the ACMAs.

Did you watch them?
I'm sure there will be recap after recap going around the blogosphere so, I'm not really going to recap, just make a few comments.

*I think Luke & Blake do really well at hosting. I love the sense of humor from both of them, they're my kind of folks, that's for damn sure.
*Miranda Lambert, if I haven't said it before, or if you've just never seen me say it, I absolutely adore everything about her. She's probably one of my ultimate woman crushes (if not THE ultimate). She's beautiful, am I right? It's highly noticeable that she's gotten in better shape which is great, and again, she's gorgeous. I just hope she doesn't get too skinny. I hope she's striving for healthy over skinny. She's looks good now. But, let me be clear, she looked damn good before. So, you go Miranda! I love you regardless.
*Eric Church isn't really my cup of tea. I try to get into him, I really do. And I do like his songs,..some of them. But I don't know. I'm just not on the Eric Church train. Don't hate.
*Best performances: George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton..
*Loved seeing Garth Brooks present Merle Haggard the with ACM Crystal Milestone Award. Kinda just loved seeing Garth Brooks and Merle Haggard there, period. Am I the only one?
*And Trisha!
* FL/GA Line performance w/ Luke, I appreciated it. I kind of liked the Nitro Circus going on in the background.
*But, best part of it all (other than Merle Haggard getting his award), as any fan of country music is concerned, is the fact the George Strait won Entertainer of the Year. D & I were talking right before the winner was announced and I asked who he thinks will win, he predicted Luke or Blake. I agreed either one would be possible, or Miranda of course, but then I said, "You know what would be even better? If George Strait won it." And by God, he did. And I cheered & clapped.

*The overall production seemed a little stale though. I don't know. I feel like with any award show, it's hit or miss, it can be great or not. I think this one teeters a bit. There are some good parts & some MEH parts.

*& lastly.. I honestly would not mind going to Dallas to see the 50th Anniversary ACM Awards. Because, I'd love to go to an award show (it's actually on my 30 before 30 -which has next to nothing checked off of it-) and I've also never been to Texas. I'd honestly consider going. If I knew I could manage it and not be broke.

What I could manage more though, Isn't there always some sort of Awards to kick off CMA Fest week in Nashville? On Wednesday? My brain isn't computing properly right now, but I feel like I'm right. My point it, IF there is, I could totally handle making it to that, it's closer trip & all, so...ya know...CMA, if ya wanna hook a girl up?!?! I've also never been to CMA Music Fest. I'd totally take both and spend 5 glorious days in Nashville & then rave all about it on the good ole interwebs! :-D

That's all for now. Time to get some laundry done, run errands and clean. Busy week that should be leading up to fun times this weekend. :-)


What did you all think of the awards?
If you didn't watch them, how was your weekend?!


♥♥♥
Brandy