And the giddiness carries over to Monday morning. (You KNOW I am in a good mood when I can be chipper on a Monday.) But it’s the day of love you know, and more importantly, the best excuse I have all year to wear pink! As you may be surprised to know however, I am not decked out in pink from head to toe. The ensemb’ instead includes my favorite burgundy jacket accentuated with a pink necklace and broach, and I do have Valentine’s socks on, although no one can see them under my sassy boots. I had a piece of chocolate this morning (the breakfast of champions- thanks James, for that) and I treated myself to some coffee- hey- a DIVAs gotta wake up somehow.

So what has kept me busy the past couple of days? I’m sure you are all dying to know. Well, I saw Emily for the first time in over a week Friday night when the Penthouse Pets got together for a roommate dinner. She is well on her way to recovery from that nasty allergic reaction, thank goodness. After that, Em and I went to see The Wedding Date- I know, it’s a departure from my usual pending-Oscar-winner movie-goings, but for 5 bucks, I decided it was worth a mindless 2 hours of entertainment (“Somebody buy my hoo-ha a drink”). Plus it gave Em and I a chance to hang out, which we haven’t done in a while (my fault, I know!).

So let me pause at this point to catch you up to speed on my latest soapbox (consider this a plangent, if you will.). I am sick to death of Tim McGraw’s song “Live Like You Were Dyin.” Now don’t get me wrong- I think it is a great song. It’s well written, he sings it well, it’s a great record in general. But my gosh. The single and cd came out back when Rhonda was writing on her own blog- and we all Know how long ago that’s been! Seriously, every time I have the radio on, I hear Live Like You Were Dyin- and as if it weren’t bad enough that it’s on all the country stations, now there is a crossover pop version playing on 107 as well! (And don’t even get me started on having 2 versions of the same song for crossover purposes) We discussed my irritation with this song being over-saturated on the market Friday night over dinner, and then, the icing on the cake: Em and I walk into the movie theater Friday night and I kid you not, the preview guy says, and here’s the latest from Tim McGraw, “Live Like You Were Dyin!” I can’t even escape this song in a movie theater- it’s following me everywhere! You know what? I get the point. Live each day to the fullest. Now move on. Find a new song to play- there are plenty of other great songs on that album; (Can we say, Blank Sheet of Paper?) just read Rhonda’s review that she posted on her blog. Anyways. So that was Friday.

Saturday I zipped up to Louisville (Loo-ah-vul? Looey-ville?) (car-a-mul? Care-a-mul?) to spend the day and evening with James, V, and Katie. We walked down to TGI Fridays to have lunch and watch the UK game. Of course U of L just Had to be playing at the same time. Actually, the first place we walked into, we asked the hostess about turning one of the tvs to the UK game which came on in 10 minutes, and she kind of laughed and said, not in here. “We can go somewhere else,” I said jokingly, but not really kidding. So the hostess turns around, looks at the tv, and says, “well, it’s only in the first quarter!” (Oh REALLY? Quarters is it? That’s the first thing I said to James when we walked out! Ari, I know you appreciate the humor in that.) So we settled on Friday’s, since they were accommodating enough to turn one of their tvs to the UK game, but unfortunately we were not granted control over the volume, so we had to watch the game in silence, listening instead to the stupid U of L game. I just don’t get that. We are an hour away from the school with one of the longest-standing basketball powerhouses, and you’re telling me everyone in this town is still stuck on Pitino Ball?? I admit I was slightly annoyed having to watch the game with no sound- we all were-so during halftime we walked back to the hotel to watch the rest of the game, and then got ready for dinner that night. We met up with 2 other couples (college friends of James and V who live in Louisville) and their adorable children, we all had a grand time at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I had forgotten how good that place is- and can we just Talk about the Spumoni? Oh my goodness. I was stuffed and still ate all of mine, plus half of James’! (Gotta love that dessert pocket!) After dinner, we said goodbye to the Louisville residents, and headed down to 4th Street Live. I have to admit I’m slightly jealous that the cool city of Nashville doesn’t have something like this. It’s an entire city block with all these different bars and restaurants, and at night they close that section of 4th street to traffic, so it’s like one big block party. And the bars and restaurants are all very unique- an upscale pool hall, an upscale bowling alley, a piano bar, a Hard Rock café, a beach themed place, the token country bar (here’s where Nashville kicks their butt) (and btw Rhonda, that token “token” was for you!) plus too many others to name. Deon met up with us, along with his sister and her boyfriend, so we all got to hang out together. Louisville is surprisingly a fun little town. I recommend it for a night out with friends since there is something for everyone.

Of course it was a late night, and Amanda had to get on the road to get back for “Pirates” on Sunday, so that was not much fun. I said bye to James and had to drive straight back to my rehearsal where I got to meet our new Fredrick (um yeah- about that… our director fired the lead guy last week, and found a replacement at Belmont- he’s a 3rd year voice student, and is actually really good. No worries whatsoever about him hitting on me though, if you know what I mean. What can I say? He’s a tenor! I’m used to it.) I had dinner with the fam (because we all know the only reason I go over there is to eat anymore. Note the tone of sarcasm in that last statement) and then went back to the apartment and found Brad and Rhonda watching the Grammies so I was sucked in to the show as well. I will let one of the other authors write their Grammy review if they wish, but I will say this: J-Lo and Marc Anthony’s Telemundo Soap Opera peformance was laughable at best. What in the heck were they doing? If you missed it, your ears are thanking you, but you really did miss out on a good laugh. Ok- I lied. 2 things: I am tired of the post-humus Grammies awarded as well. It’s such a cop out and a slap in the face I think. It’s like, “hey, you weren’t recognized for your talent when you were alive, so now that you’re no longer with us, we feel bad and here, let us give you this Grammy to make up for snubbing you in the past. Hope that smoothes things over with your family and honors the legacy you left behind.” But was that really the album of the year? When people look back at 2004 they will say, yes, Ray Charles- now that album sure was flying off the shelves. I don’t think so Juanita.

But it’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. So go love others today. Tell em Bob Borders sent ‘ya.