Tribute to Katie

I just had to do this. Katie Couric has brought me the morning news for so many years. I love her! If I can't be a journalist like Lois Lane and fly high with Superman/Clark Kent/Dean Cain, then I want to be a journalist like Katie Couric. She told me when Princess Diana was killed, about Columbine High School, about the World Trade Center, how to stay in style with her great fashion, and how to come up with really cool Halloween costumes. Sometimes she's a little interrogating and a little too biased, but I still really like her. I will miss her in the mornings, but since the Today show wasn't on my station, I didn't get to watch as much as I liked the past 18 months. (sick, I've been working at WVLT for that long!) However, she is going to CBS, so that gets me one step closer to her. Maybe we will meet one day in the big network that is CBS.

Saturday with Cousin Jill

So Friday night my Cousin Jill and my Aunt Melinda came to TN. They came for our mamaw's birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday Mams! It was a great visit! I think Jill and I talked from the time they pulled up in the driveway until the time they pulled out of the driveway on Sunday morning. It was just beautiful. We talked about our families, our guys and when they have cooties, and a lot of cool stuff that only best cousins can talk about. She brought me a book called The Mystery of Marriage that so far I think everyone should read because everyone has told me and the Good Reverend to read it. And since I read the prologue, I think they are all correct. Maybe that's what I will do at work today! Thanks Jill!

So besides that, Jill and I ate lunch with Mams and the Moms (Tootle and Simp) for Mams' birthday. Thanks to the people at O'Charley's for surprising Mamaw with a sweet little birthday cake and rockin' birthday song. Jill and I then continued on to Old Navy and a really cool little shop called Apricot Lane. It's really girly and I love it. Jack says I'm not girly, but I'm all girl. I think that's good.

After the little shopping excursion, we drove across town to Pastor Jack's. His friend Aaron stayed with him this weekend, so Jack had a buddy and I had a cousin. Aaron is crazy. He is very funny. He works at Starbucks and told us his view of society through his work as a Starbucks barista. It's ridiculous to think of how sick and twisted our society has become, enough for a coffee cup emblem to be a status symbol!

Well, Pastor, Pastor's girlfriend, Pastor's friend, and Pastor's girlfriend's cousin (what?) all went to a Tennessee Smokies game. Those games are great! I sort of feel like I took a nap when I leave there because they are so relaxing. The baseball is just fun and the crowd is laid back and chill. The "entertainment" is typical minor league ballpark but it gets everyone involved. After chillin' at the game, we went back to Jack's and he and Aaron wowed us with their mad skills on the hammered dulcimer and the guitar. Let me just take a moment to brag on Jack! He is so talented and so humble, so I am the one that gets to brag. He played "Nothing but the Blood" on the hammered dulcimer and then let Jill go to town as well. I can tell she will blow us away, just as soon as her hubby Josh drops the dough for a hammered dulcimer.
This picture is not of Jack and Aaron. But it could be in a few years.

In further events, after Cousin Jill left and I finished crying because I was so sad, I held my own with the boys and we went to a hole in the wall called Union Jack's (no relation to my pastor), an English Pub. In keeping with the English tradition, they have a Pub Quiz on Sunday nights. You get in teams and blow everyone's mind with trivial knowledge. One of the questions, for example, was what word is said 776,000 times in the KJV of the Bible? Well, being with 2 delightful pastors with M. Div's, I thought we had that in the bag... but we didn't. They decided in the end that since it was at a pub, they wouldn't know the real answer.

Well, I think those are most of the entertaining bits from my long weekend. I am only working today and tomorrow and then the Good Reverend and I are going to spend some good quality time away from Knoxville. Where that is or who it's with I don't care! I just want time with my beloved. For my birthday I am getting 24 hours with him, no cell phone, doing something special and lovely. I can't wait!

Yelling and Running

So I work out an awesome gym, Blount Memorial Wellness Center. It's very clean and organized and has everything you could possibly need to make sure you maintain the highest level of physical fitness. There is an interesting array of people that work out there. In the mornings, there are mostly elderly people and stay-at-home-moms. Makes sense. In the evenings, there are people who come after work and younger people. Also makes sense. I used to go in the evenings and got to be good friends with the people who work there and work out. However, my work schedule has changed (thank goodness) so now I go in the mornings with all the elderly and moms. I am the only one of my "type" there. I always wonder if people think I am unemployed or just lazy or what. I kinda want to wear a t-shirt that says "I have a job."

But anyway... there is one elderly man there that is very interesting. He's short and stocky and always wears a some sort of Marine shirt. A few weeks ago he wanted to share the bench I was using. I just sort of looked at him funny because I didn't know what he was doing. But he just used my bench to support his arm while he curled about 80 pounds. Old doesn't mean weak. But... He yells. That's right. He shouts. Mainly when he runs on the treadmill and sometimes when he lifts heavy weights. (He didn't when he was using my bench.) But it's gotten to the point where people don't even look up at him. It's like you see the Marine shirt and expect to hear the yell. I wonder what it would be like to run and yell. If you are a Friends fan (and I know you are), do you remember the episode where Phoebe and Rachel were jogging and Phoebe just went nuts when she ran? She ran like a little kid and had fun with it, whereas Rachel focused on breathing, etc. I think Phoebe and the Marine man have a lot in common. There should be freedom in exercise and we shouldn't smirk at it, like I do when I hear the familiar yell.

I think maybe the next time I (attempt to) run outside, I will yell. I will just let loose and flail my arms about and not care if people hear me or see me. I think we should all give it a go. It must be freeing. And maybe I could even burn a few extra calories!

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...

So the Good Reverend and I went to the Knoxville Zoo with all of the King family. It was loads of fun. Here we are with little Ellie and Anna Kate. They are both 2 and a half. SO CUTE. I never know what to do with kids. I never know what to say to them. I want to talk with them like they are 24 years old, but they are not, and I get worried that I am not saying the right things or am being really uncool. But with Ellie and Anna Kate, I do not have to worry about that. We are friends and they think I'm cool. Ellie calls me Em-a-lee and to Anna Kate I am Emiwee. Elizabeth is 4 and she is a genius. I really think she is smarter than me. I mean, this little girl recites the books of the Old Testament at the dinner table. She was recently learning the Minor Prophets.
This is the Good Reverend and I with the zebras in honor of Kenya and the zebras there. He is such a good sport. I tried not to be one of "those people" and talk about how the last time I saw elephants, giraffe, zebra, etc. I saw them in the wild in Africa. I slipped a few times, but I tried not to be a jerk. I think he understood. But I still think its really cool how the last time I saw any of those animals they were in their natural environment...

The End....

Girl Wonder

So last night Jack and I wanted to do something cool. He wanted to do something we had never done before and I wanted to do something outside. So, being the ultra hip, cultured, intelligent couple that we are, we decided to throw a baseball. We went to the homestead in Fountain City and got his old gloves and some baseballs and went to the backyard. He was thinking (I think) that I was going to throw like a girl. Huh. Yeah right. (I was a champion on my tee ball team and my brother couldn't hold a candle to the distance in my throw or the strength in my swing.) So Jack and I get out there and, I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous because I hadn't thrown in so long. But the baseball glove felt like a second skin. On the first throw, Jack was impressed. As he should be. I was fielding grounders, pop flies, line drives, the works. It was great. His admiration for my skill grew. But to be honest, some of my throws were not without a dainty jump in the air for leverage, and some balls I caught were not without a girly scream. I am a girl. I can't escape it, nor do I want to. (The picture to the left should say enough...) But I'm pleased to say that I think we may have found a new pastime, one which will increase the quality of our relationship and one that will probably make people want to hang out with us even more.
After we honed our baseball skills and he was impressed beyond belief, we went inside to hang out with his mom Linda. They introduced me to something I am eternally grateful for: Monk-e-mail. Please treat yourself to this. You will thank me later. Well, Jack. Whatever.

One more thing.....

Speaking of phone calls, I just got one from a lady telling me that her dead son, who died in 1973, was playing with her and kept turning her television off. She was making sure it was her son and not our station that was messing up. WHAT?!?!?!

Burnt Popcorn

Most days my job at the station ranks as the most boring job on the planet. Probably the galaxy. But some days I get really funny phone calls. Yesterday this man called and the conversation was the following:
(please read with a Tennessee good ole boy accent)
"Hey! I was the guy that got stabbed earlier today and ya'll's news was sayin' that I wasn't gonna press charges, but I am going to press charges! The police won't let me press charges, but I'm tryin and ya'll's news....."

He was stabbed and he was calling the news station!!!!! WHAT?!?!? Shouldn't he be in the hospital? Shouldn't he be calling his doctor? Good grief. Don't call me! I do wish I had asked him why he had gotten stabbed and what had prompted the person to carry through with said stabbing. And more interesting, stabbed with.... what? A pencil?

Something else interesting.... I got an email yesterday from a principal at an international school in Uganda, East Africa offering me an English teaching job! I mean, it wasn't a real "offer" per se, but she wanted to see if I would/could do it. How cool is that?! Although that is my dream opportunity, the only minor details are that Uganda is not safe what with all the political instablity, rebel warfare, displacement, economic crises, etc. and that I wouldn't/couldn't leave Jack... unless he wanted to go to Uganda too. I could probably call my best friend Nicole C. Mullen and ask her what she thought about Uganda. (Jode and I rode first class with her from Nairobi to Washington when she left Uganda... not really about the first class, but we were on the same plane.)
Nicole ----->
Jodie and I really do have pics with her and we really did have a conversation with her and she really is cool and we really did talk about her for 2 hours after we met her.

Your thoughts on the stabbing and Uganda are welcome. The station smells like burnt popcorn. They probably got distracted by the guy who was stabbed.

Blogging

I just told Jack the other day that I would make fun of him if he did a blog. I love reading Jill's, Osh's and Jode's blog, but said I would never write one. Never say never. I said I would never get a red car either, but I drive a red car. Here is a list of reasons why I am excited about my new blog:

1. I will have something to do at work
2. I can contribute something to the blogging world.
3. I can ramble and someone might read it.
4. I can be cool.
5. I will have something to do at work.

I don't really know how to use this yet. I will do this at work while I play my hamster game. Hey, I think I just did a hyperlink.