Author: Joel

B-double-E-double-R-U-N

Went to the Music City Brewer’s Fest on Saturday.

Mmmmm. . . beeeeer. . .

Mmmmm. . . humidity . . . ugh.

Lots of great brews, including my all-time favs The Highland Brewing Company.  I hovered around their booth for a little while but figured I should branch out.  I would write about my impressions of all the different beers that I tried that day but I can’t really remember.  I must have drunk too many good ones.  The heat is really the only thing that I can remember.  Oooof.

I do remember that I missed having a little water to rinse out my cup at each booth.  You should be able to wash out the remnants of the prior beer before you tried a new one.  I feel that I didn’t get a good representation of taste because they were really all mixed together.  Oh well.  This was my first time away from my favorite brewer’s fest, the Brewgrass Festival, and maybe they don’t offer that everywhere.  At least it gave me a hint of beers that I’ll try to find the next time I’m at Midtown Wine and Spirits.

I did a lot of comparisons between the Music City Brewer’s Fest and the Brewgrass Festival.  My apologies to my partner in brew, I  sounded like a guy talking about his old girlfriend that just dumped him.  I must have sounded like such a putz (no real connection for this link I just love the name of this company)(a shout out to my buddy Mountain Kilter).

On the subject of beers and festivals, walking around amongst the throng of amatuer and professional beer drinkers in downtown Nashville in the humidity I came to realize that I really love to listen to bluegrass drinking fine brews in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Here I am talking about my old girlfriend again.  So sorry.

Sigh . . . well, the introvert/extrovert clan may have to take a trip come September 22 to Asheville, NC.

The Rainbow Connection

Driving along James Roberston Parkway into work this morning I was treated to a lovely rainbow west of town.  It made up for the fact that I had to come into work to babysit this room that only has a projection screen and an a/v cart on which to put their projector. Ugh.

Thanks for the rainbow, God!  As I sit in my stuffy little office squeezed into a closet behind the concierge desk I can picture the lovely half arc of the rainbow above Church Street.  Coincidence? Hmmm . . .

Freaky Friday

I felt that I had something in my eye so I was looking in the bathroom mirror as the Young Extroverted One was . . . um . . . sitting on the throne (it’s a long story that involves brown recluses that we share our home with and some other insecurities that we are still trying to work out).

I randomly said, “YEO what would you do if my eyeball popped out?”

To which she responded, “I would freak out!”

I was kind of hoping she’d say something like, “I would remain ever so calm and pick up your eyeball and put it in a bag of ice (what does one do with a popped-out eyeball?) and call 9-1-1 to save your life.”

Hell, I would freak out too. But don’t tell a potential victim whom you’re about to rescue that you’d freak out. Right?

Travelling Tales of the Introverted One: Part One

To start things off I was invited to participate in the SERVE to Sell training workshop up at the PSAV corporate headquarters in Schaumburg, IL. This workshop is a sales skill-building program which is good because I have no sales skills whatsoever.

    I got my e-ticket (wasn’t there a ride at Disney that was an e-ticket ride back in the day?) and was dropped off at the Nashville airport at the appropriate time to go through security and all. Boarded the plane at approximately 6:30PM and started to taxi on the runway. And then stopped. The captain came on the intercom and said there was a “ground stop” at O’Hare because of a big thunderstorm and that he was going to stay on the runway and wait because it could be minutes or hours before he was okay-ed to go. This guy did not want to lose his place in line.

    TWO HOURS later we return to the gate. I kept hoping for a cancellation because I could just go home. Unfortunately for me (fortunate for the Chicago residents on the flight) there was no cancellation and TWO HOURS later got back on the plane. Needless, to say I arrived at O’Hare very late and the hotel in Schaumburg even later. I think I got into my room around 2:00AM. Good for me the hotel bar wasn’t open because I could have used a brew to unwind but I had to be at the training at 7:30AM.

    The training was good and meeting other directors of Event Technology was pretty cool. These guys (and gal) were go-getters. I was wondering if I made the right decision to leave the exciting life of a rigger to move up (not as literally as a rigger ‘up’) to be a director. I’m enjoying being here and learning the ropes and all of the business related aspects of the job but I don’t seem as focused as these young turks were on being a director. But I also haven’t gone through the official DET training. Maybe I’m just lacking some of the DET jargon that I heard. So, I guess I feel somewhat unprepared for some parts of this job.

    We had such a small group at this training that we were released into the wild that is Schaumburg. At least what surrounded PSAV HQ. Which was The Ram Restaurant and Brewery that was behind the hotel. They had a 6 ounce sampler tray but I was going for the 16 ounce (do the math) sampler. I only made it through 4 before we planned to walk over to the Woodfield Mall. I’m not sure why we ended up there but I thought I could at least get some Chicago related paraphenalia there but we quickly regrouped and walked to another bar called Houlihan’s located in the parking lot of this wonderful mall. Houlihan’s is just like a Bennigan’s. A cookie-cutter bar and grill sort of place. Ho-hum.

    I then returned to the hotel for a final beer before turning in. My planned escape from Schaumburg on the next day will be for another post. I really need to look like I am working!

    Traveling Mercies

    I am back! I have tons of stuff to write but no time at the moment.

    Things like:

    • How it took me four hours to get out of Nashville to O’Hare.
    • How it took me two days to get out of O’Hare back to Nashville.
    • The lovely Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL.
    • My thoughts as I looked around the training room at these young Directors of Event Technology.

    I think I’ll have some blogging fodder for a couple of days as I organize my thoughts.

    The Young Extroverted One’s Joke o’ the Day

    YEO: “Knock, knock.”

    Me: “Who’s there?”

    YEO: “Banana.”

    Me: “Banana who?”

    YEO: “Banana I didn’t know there was hair on my butt.”

    Admittedly, I laughed out loud.  I was ready for a knock-knock joke that was meaningless and quite unfunny.  I was ready to dole out the ‘courtesy laugh’ that I have done so many times before in response to my daughters knock-knock jokes.  But this one was special.  What more could you ask for?  Butt, hair and banana all wrapped up in the punchline. Classic.

    Well played, YEO, well played.

    We hope you enjoyed the beer, oh, like I mean the movie, eh.

    I have hit a dry spell. No inspiration whatsoever. What does one do if one is feeling some mental constipation? I guess I’ll just consult my trusty, dusty, molded-to-my-butt-from-being-in-my-backpocket moleskine to see if I wrote down any thought provoking ideations that have been written down but not yet vomited up here in my little acre of blogsburg

    Let’s see here . . . hmmmm . . .

    • two wireless lavalieres in the Acorn Ballroom
    • conference speaker phone in room #423

    . . . oh, I guess I use this thing for work related things too.

    Here’s something:

    I watch a lot of T.V. and movies. Next to hiding up in my little man-nook on my mac it’s another past-time I really enjoy. The only thing it has really done for me is make me a decent teammate on a trivia team. Heck, my brother and I would play a game we called “Vague Movie Reference” where we’d say some vague line from some vague movie and the other would have to guess the film. For example:

    “I was like a one-man army, like Charlton Heston in “Omega Man.” You ever see it? Beauty.”

    Any guesses?

    With all of my productive hours of watching I have become pretty good at spotting actors that have been in many different roles in many different movies or T.V. shows.

    “Oh hey! That’s the guy that played the dead body in ‘Law & Order’!” or “Look! She played the girlfriend of Jerry Seinfeld that one time.”

    Well, why should I be surprised that, one night, when ‘30 Rock‘ was on the Young Extroverted One yelled out, “Hey! That’s Mister Conductor in my Thomas Movie!” She was referring to Alec Baldwin, of course. She wasn’t even sitting down watching ’30 Rock’ she was walking by the boob-tube on her way to bed. Maybe that useless skill that I have is genetic.

    Kids are pretty cool. Well, at least mine is! =)

    Welcome to the ‘hood

    Well, I guess we have now been initiated into the ‘East Nashville Victims Club’. My Pathfinder was broken into yesterday while we were up in Hendersonville visiting with the mother-in-law. She took the Young Extroverted One to see Ratatouille.

    Upon returning to our house we drove up our driveway and pulled in behind my car. This is when we noticed that the driver’s side door was ajar. I have been known to leave doors open and stuff so, at first I wasn’t too concerned. But, I then remembered that I had not even been in that car all day. Crap!

    Sure enough upon further investigation (with my trusty 90+ pound dog at my side) glove compartment was open, old receipts strewn about and my iTrip Auto GONE! AAARRRRGGHH! They did all of this under the watchfull eye of the Buddy Christ on my dashboard! buddyjesus.jpgEh, oh well. The radio was intact, my drawer full o’ change still full of change, the house untouched and the alarm still armed.

    I admit it’s my fault that I didn’t lock the door. But, in order for someone to get to our backyard they have to walk up a shared driveway! The houses aren’t very far apart, mind you. Plus, after the deed they either have to jump a six foot high privacy fence or walk back down the shared driveway. That’s ballsy folks! At least, nobody was hurt (except the ability to listen to my iPod in the car) and I still have a CD player.

    To whomever took my i Trip: I hope you’ll get a good price for it. I hope your short lived high was worth it and not tainted with some bad stuff. I’d like to believe that you needed to steal it so you could sell it and feed your baby. But, I’ve probably seen you on my street and you look like you don’t have a baby, or one you are feeding properly just so you can get high.