Tag Archives: journal

about-me, anniversary, memories, moving, nashville, wayback-wednesday

Wayback Wednesday: Moving to Nashville

2 Comments

Five years ago, I moved to Nashville. Five years ago October 3rd, or so my old private journal tells me. Of course, its kind of weird to say that, since between October 3, 2006 and our wedding in January, I spent about as much time in Texas as I did in Nashville due to wedding planning, etc.

Anyway, I thought I’d share my moving recap from my private journal. As I said, I moved on October 3rd, but just a couple days later I was already headed back to Texas… in one of my very few actual trips on the tour bus…

01:51 am October 3rd, 2006

Well. I’m all packed up and ready to roll. All that is left is a few things that I need tomorrow and then Sully.

I was in a reflective mood all day, and I was also a little snippy. I’m excited to be going! But I’m also… I dunno. Not sad, really. But I’m definitely… reflective.

Anyway, keeping this short. Gotta go to bed. Headed Nashville-way tomorrow! Should be there tomorrow night. :)

03:28 am October 4th, 2006

Made it to Nashville fine. Will give better update tomorrow when more coherent. But we’re here and all doin’ fine.

04:38 am October 7th, 2006

I’m writing this somewhere in Alabama. At least that’s what my cell phone cames back with when I do a “Find Me” on my Weather Channel application a little while ago. We might be in Mississippi already. I have no idea.

It’s hard to keep up with where you are on this bus. C and I are in the back lounge for the night. He’s already trying to sleep since he has to get up and drive in the morning. Me… it’s only 12:14 am. I’m not the least bit sleepy. So I thought I’d write a journal entry to be posted later….

Monday we spent the entire day packing me up to move. Loading the U-Haul up. I found myself very short tempered as the day passed, and I snipped at C a lot. He was giddy-excited. Me? I was happy and excited, sure! But there was the underlying sense of sadness and reflection. So his playfulness ended up, well, he said it himself… annoying me.

That night, I apologized for being so short with him, and I asked him to please be patient with me. This was a big deal for me. He said he understood and tucked me into my bed. He left to his room, and I sat up on the edge of the bed… I looked around the room.

All the walls were bare. My laptop and cell phone plugged in but sitting on the floor. A few empty boxes we hadn’t needed in one corner. Boxes of things I’d still need in the morning stacked in another corner. Slowly… silent tears started to fall. I turned off the lamp, crawled into bed and quite literally cried myself to sleep. I was excited for my future, but I mourned the end of what had been my life for the last (almost) 26 years.

The next morning, I’ll admit that I got started later than I had planned, and yet somehow I didn’t care. I showered and then got C up to go shower as well. I called my parents to come say good bye, and when they did we all realized it would work out to have an early lunch together.

We loaded up the last few items. Put Sully in his crate. I got C to take a picture of me with my parents at the house before leaving. And we headed to Dairy Queen for a quick lunch.

We ate and then it was time to really say good bye. I held back tears as I hugged my parents and told them good bye. It was emotional! Even though I knew I’d be back in a few days, I also knew that this was it. When I came back… yeah, it would be home. But it was never going to be the same.

We climbed in the truck, gave Sully some water and we were off. I let Sully out of his crate, but he chose to stay in there for a long time. When he DID crawl out, we both realized… neither of us had grabbed his litter box. OOops.

Sure enough, he chose to use his bed as a liter box… the smell was AWFUL. We had to roll the windows down and find the first place to pull over and dump it out. Once we did, twenty minutes later he did it again! UGH! This was going to make for a long trip! But, luckily, that was it. And not long after we were able to stop at a Wal-Mart and buy a small box that fit on the back seat perfectly.

I took the wheel for a few hours – all the way into Arkansas. We stopped for supper in Texarkana before continuing on our way. C drove the whole rest of the way into Nashville. The drive was good. Not much traffic. Sully came to life and paced a lot. He sat in both our laps at times. Then would perch on the center compartment in the front seat. Then he’d get on top of his crate and watch the world go past us. Trucks fascinated him. He only got panicky one time, but it only took a few minutes to calm him down.

We made it into the apartment complex around 2:30 am. Unfortunately, even with as tired as we were, sleep would not come. So we sat watching TV until almost 5 am before retiring to bed.

It was around noon when we got up and moving. We ordered a pizza to be delivered so we could eat while we moved everything from the trailer to the apartment. It was low 90s and we kept having to take a break. Second floor apartment. It was hot. It took it out of us! Plus, we were snipping at each other non-stop. It was borderline worrisome how we kept bickering over boxes and stuff.

J showed up finish cleaning out her stuff, so we ended up helping each other. We’d take stuff down of hers, and she’d help carry stuff of mine up. ‘She also left boxes of clothes she was going to toss – one even still had its tags! So I grabbed a ton of clothes that are like new! I love that we are the same size of clothes – except for jeans of course. LOL Once we emptied the trailer, C and I returned it to U-Haul. Then we went driving around to just relax and get away from it all for awhile.

C and I spent all evening cleaning the apartment up. Putting my things in place. I took over J’s bathroom, and its MY room. It the one room that is all mine in the apartment. The other bathroom is C’s. It’s kinda nice to each of us have one room all our own. It’s our sanctuaries, if you will.

Once we decided to call it a night on unpacking me, we sat on the couch and talked for a long time. We ended up discussing out bickering – discovering why we were on such different pages. Mending fences. Agreeing that it’s going to happen from time-to-time, it was just that this was our first time to really bicker for a long period of time. Nothing serious, just individual frustrations that we needed to discuss.

We again stayed up way late before crashing. I got up today “early.” I was so excited about my bathroom that I wanted to go play with it some. Arrange my closet. Take a shower. Etc. Lovely!! It’s silly how excited I got over it.

We had a 6:00 pm bus call, so the day had to be quiet and simple.  I got to meet the new guitarist and bus driver upon bus call. Everyone was thankfully cool with my riding down tonight. I love that they’ve all figured out they don’t have to sensor themselves around me and stuff. I’m one of the guys now. Only, you know, not

Mom and Dad should get to Pasadena mid-afternoon tomorrow. We’ll all have supper together, watch the show, and then I’ll head back to Cameron. Two busy weeks and then its off to Billy Bob’s.

I’m very happy to be in Nashville now. Even though I’ve only been there two days. My sadness has given way to excitement. It’s still going to take some getting used to, this new life of mine. But I’m happy for it. I respect and miss my past. I appreciate my present. And I anticipate my future.

I’m sure we’re in Mississippi by now. I need to call it a night. I’m starting to fade a little bit.  C has to get up and drive in the morning, and I figure I’ll get up with him and sit in the jump seat while he drives. So I should get some sleep. It’ll be a long day tomorrow.

memories, news-commentary, tamu

Remembering 9-11-01: My Story

4 Comments

This Sunday is a somber anniversary. The anniversary of 9/11. It seems the question everyone has been asking this week has been, “Do you remember that day?” Oh yes, I do remember. Luckily, I wrote a detailed journal entry that evening, documenting my day for my own memories. I thought perhaps I would share my story today, as we lead into this weekend of remembering.

Written at 12:53 am, September 12th, 2001:

NYC Twin Lights 9/11 "Tribute in Lights" Memorial 2005
Photo by Jackie (Sister72 on Flickr) on 9.11.05

I went to school today like usual. I got good parking, sat and waited awhile, then went to my 8 AM class. Little did we all know, that as my professor began to speak on Media Economics… the American Stockmarket was screeching to a halt… as did America’s sanity.

 I walked to my next class with a new friend. We laughed about having fallen asleep in the previous class, swapped stories about the previous weekend. We were oblivious to the blank expressions on many people around us.

 In the next class there was a somber buzz. Words like “airplanes” and “World Trade Center” swirled around. “New York City” and “Washington DC” were used side by side. “Terrorists” and “Americans” used in opposition.

 I could not comprehend the seriousness of the situation, and even the fact that my professor promised to let us out early didn’t really register. Something major had happened, and yet it was still too unclear for me to pay much attention.

 The professor, who always keeps us late, released us half-an-hour early to go watch TV and find out what was happening now.

 I couldn’t’ decide what to do… I was out early and had the rest of the day ahead of me. I decided to go to the library to study. I am behind in my homework and needed to get to work. I grabbed a table at the coffee shop, and started getting organized. Around 11:00, the shop started selling sandwiches, and I got a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a coke. I sat down to eat, and the girl at the next table turned on her cell phone.

 I ate, reading homework, and eavesdropped. She was speaking to someone about two women she knows that worked at the WTC who had not yet been accounted for. She’d let them know when she knew something. My curiosity was piqued, but I still paid little attention.

 She left and someone else sat down. The couple was talking about people they knew that worked at the WTC; they were all okay, thankfully.

 All through this, I kept picking up my cell phone. Waiting for it to ring, and tempted to call my parents myself. I needed to know what had happened.

 I decided to wait. I finished lunch, and studied. A couple hours later, I had finished with that subject and I was sore and tired. I packed up my stuff, threw away my trash, and went over to the MSC.

 I entered the MSC, and found hundreds of students around a big screen TV set on CNN. There were too many people to get a clear picture of what was happening, so I went on to the bookstore… my intended destination. There was a small TV set up in there, also on CNN.

 It was there that I learned to true nature of this tragedy. I watched the footage of the second plane slam into the tower. I listened to the reporter give the run down. Then he said, “We have no way to know how many young children and teenagers were on those planes.”

 I physically doubled over as if I’d been punched. I was just in shock. How? Why? Who? WHY??? For that moment, my emotions were the most intense. I was fighting tears; I was fighting the urge to scream.

 I ended, however, simply in shock.

 I finished my shopping, and went back to the main room of the MSC. I joined a group watching CNN on the big screen TV. There I stood in silence with my school family. We all stood together in shock… A guy asked me what had happened, and I filled him in on what I knew.

 After awhile, I felt the need to leave. I needed to call my parents; I needed to get “home”.

 As I made my way across campus, I noted the flags at half-staff. I noticed that most of the corp of cadets now wore their dress uniforms. I noticed the muted attitude of all the students.

 I got home, and sat talking with my aunt for awhile. She filled me in on some of the stuff I was fuzzy about. Eventually, I got away to call my parents.

 They’d been waiting for me to call. At lunch they’d started trying to reach me, but the phone lines to College Station were too bogged down for them to get a free circuit to contact me through. I got a chill down my spin. It was the same time I’d been watching my cell phone, waiting for it to ring.

 We spoke for just under an hour… each filling the other in on what we knew. 

I saw on the news that there would be a prayer service at the campus, and I decided I would go. I needed to go. So, I filled my time on-line and watching the news until the time came to leave.

 To get to Reed Arena, where the service was to be held, I have to go around the campus, and get on George Bush Drive.  George Bush Drive was a parking lot. No one could get anywhere. I sat at one stop light for five lights. The guys in the truck beside me kept playing Chinese Fire Drill. We were all going a little crazy.

 I sat there for over 20 minutes before I gave up. I detoured off George Bush, and made my way back to University Drive. As I did this, I called my parents to let them know what was going on at the campus. They had just talked to [my brother], and they said he asked how I was doing. So I told them I’d call him. I stopped at Sonic on my way home.

 The gas stations were insane. I am quite thankful I have enough gas to carry me for quite awhile. I got back home, and called my brother. I think he was glad to hear from me. I was glad to hear his voice. He had my niece, and she kept getting fussy. He said she was telling me “hello.” That made me smile.

To be so oblivious to the tragedy. To be so oblivious to the drastic changes that have occurred in this world today… in just a few hours time.

There is an innocent beauty in that.

I have full classes tomorrow. I’m peeved in one way, and in another I’m relieved and proud of that fact. We will not let these terrorists stop us. We will continue on as always. We will triumph.

 For now, though, I remain numb… perhaps a bit nauseous, too. It makes me ill thinking about this. I need to go to bed, but the chances of sleep coming any time soon are slim.

Take care. God Bless. Call your family and friends. Let’s all join together… we will prevail in the end. We have to.

Where were you? Or please share your link in the comments to your own story from that day!