Casting Crowns Concert

About a month ago, I went to the Casting Crowns concert with some friends. It was in Flagstaff, so we left Phoenix around noon and spent the afternoon in Flag.

Picking up our tickets for the concert

Holly, Sarah, Kim and I - hanging out in downtown Flagstaff

We had dinner at Black Bart's - this restaurant is known for the waiters and waitresses singing while you eat dinner because the food was not that great.

Dinner at Black Bart's

The concert was at Pine Mountain Theater - even though it was June, it was still very cold.

Tim and I at the concert

We drove back to Phoenix after the concert and made it home by about 1am.

Oh My Gosh!

This post is a little out of chronological order, but I flew home tonight from Los Angeles and had a very interesting plane ride. I get on the plane and I had a window seat. This woman (about 50 years old) sits down and we have the following conversation:
Woman: I am a little nervous about flying and I have to go all the way to Chicago. I have not flown in 10 years and the last time I flew I had a panic attack so I associate that with a plane. The only part I am nervous about is taking off. Could I hold onto your arm while we take off?
Me (laughing, thinking that she is not really being serious): That's fine.
Ten minutes later...
Woman: I am really getting nervous. Could I hold your hand during the take off? You are really not nervous at all?
Me: If that would make you feel better then that is fine, and no, I am not nervous. Are you visiting friends or family in Chicago (trying to calm her down a bit)?
Woman: It is a long story.
Me: That is fine, you do not have to go into it.
I go back to my Sudoku game and she goes on to tell me the long story...
Woman: I was married a long time ago and I have two daughters who are grown. I got divorced and then got married again 6 years ago. Right before I got married my daughter got pregnant so I told my daughter that she could live with me after the baby was born. My fiancee did not want the daughter living with us, so we got married but never lived together. I would visit my husband on the weekends but I have never really been happy for the last 6 years. A couple of weeks ago I picked up some friends of friends at the airport and ended up hitting it off with one of them.
Me: So you are going to Chicago because to visit this hot guy you met a couple of weeks ago?
Woman: Actually, it is not a guy. It is a woman. I never thought I would do this but I have never had feelings for anyone like I do for her.
Me (stunned): Really? Interesting...
Woman: Yeah, it is all so new to me. I had to go to the bookstore last week to find a book on 'how to be a lesbian'. My friend pretty much looks like a guy anyway so it is not much different. It would help if she had a p---s, but we have such a good time together that I don't really care that much about the sex part.
Me: Oh...
I go back to my Sudoku game, not knowing what to say. At this point I am sitting there thinking, I just told a lesbian woman that she could hold my hand. Disguisting! Our flight was delayed for about an hour, and then we go out on the runway to depart.
Woman: Are you sure you are not nervous?
Me: No, not at all (while I am thinking, yes, I am very nervous with you sitting next to me).
The plane speeds up, and I continue with Sudoku. I wast not going to let that pen out of my hand because I was so not going to hold her hand. She grabs by arm and buries her head into my shoulder, and after about 30 seconds...
Woman: Are we off the ground?
Me: Yeah, everything is fine. We are in the air.
Woman: I don't want to let go of you until I can listen to my IPod.
Me: I am pretty sure you can listen to it now (knowing that it was definitely not time to turn on "approved electronic devices" but I just wanted to get her off of me).
Woman: Ok, that's good.
She turned on her IPod and all was well after that. I was so happy to get off of that plane!

I Heart NY!

About a month ago I had a training in Montvale, NJ, so of course I would not pass up tagging on a weekend to NYC. After my plane was delayed for a couple of hours, I arrive in the city at about 9pm on Friday night. The subway station by Jenn's has an elevator, bit it was broken so I had to do the stairs with all of my luggage. I started up the stairs and didn't get very far because this homeless guy saw me and offered to carry my luggage up the stairs for me. I thanked him and told him I did not have any cash on me but would be back shortly. I walked to Jenn's apartment, dropped off my stuff and Jenn and I walked back to the subway to give the guy some cash (I bummed a few dollars off Jenn). We then went to a Thai restaurant in the Village and then to see Baby Mama.

Saturday morning we slept in a little and left Jenn's apartment around 11am. We ended up being gone all day and got back a little after midnight. We stopped in Jenn's neighborhood for bagels at Murray's Bagels, went shopping in Soho, went to South Street Seaport to buy Broadway tickets, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had lunch in DUMBO (Brooklyn), went to babycakes, went to Pinkberry (see previous posts), saw What Happens in Vegas and then went to The Hummus Place for dinner.

Ready to cross the bridge

It was a busy day

Brooklyn Bridge

babycakes - they had spelt cupcakes

We got caught in the rain on the way to dinner

On Sunday we slept in again, had breakfast in Jenn's neighborhood at Soy Luck Club and then went to see Mama Mia. That is the most fun Broadway Show I have seen. That would be one that I would definitely see again. After the show we got Pinkberry again and went to Whole Foods before the car picked me up to take me to Montvale.

Mamma Mia!

Just before we were arrested - JK :)

I am looking forward to going back in August for Jenn's 30th!

Steven Curtis Chapman

I was sad to hear the news today of SCC's youngest daughter. I can't imaging what that family is going through right now - keep them in your prayers. Yesterday was also 8 years since Jenn and Jaime lost their parents in a car accident - love you girls.

My Thoughts on "Skinny Bitch"

After having a couple of friends read the above book, I decided that I wanted to read it. The book is "A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous". The book is clearly promoting veganism, and I am not going to be vegan as a result of reading the book. However, it does make some good points:

• Aspartame (artificial sweetener) has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.
• Fruit is possibly the most perfect food in existence. It is unique in that it barely requires any work to be digested. High in enzymes, it effortlessly passes through the body, supporting carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, and cancer-fighting tannins and flavonoids. Because it is made up mostly of water, fruit hydrates the body and aids in cleansing, detoxifying, and eliminating. Fruit serves our bodies best when eaten alone because it is so easily and quickly digested. When we eat fruit with other foods, it cannot pass through our bodies as quickly. So it rots and ferments in our stomachs.
• Egg-laying hens are crammed into cages so small, they are unable to open their wings, and their mangled feet actually grow around the wire mesh floors.
• Partial list of what's in meat, poultry, seafood and dairy: benzene hexachloride (BHC), chlorade, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), dieldrin, dioxin, haptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and lindane.
• Every time you consume factory-farmed chicken, beef, veal, pork, eggs, or dairy, you are eating antibiotics, pesticides, steroids and hormones.
• Dioxin, one of the most toxic substances, is often found in dairy products. When you consume dairy products, you are ingesting the same antibiotics, pesticides, steroids, and hormones you would if you ate meat directly. Cows are injected with bovine growth hormone. Their udders, under normal conditions, would supply about ten pounds of milk a day. Cows are milked by machine; metal clamps are attached to the cows' udders. These udders become sore and infected. Pus forms. But the machines keep on milking, sucking the dead white blood cells into the milk.
• Humane protocol calls for animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered. For cows, this means getting a metal bolt shot into the skull and then retracted. When done properly, using working equipment, this renders the cow unconscious. But time is money, and slaughterhouses operate at lightning speeds, some killing one animal every three seconds. Because thousands of frightened, struggling cows are not easy to stun, it is extremely common for a "stunner" to miss the mark. Panicked hogs, also difficult to "hit," are stunned with an electric device. And if the jolt is too high, it bruises and bloodies the hogs' flest (bad for business). Because business is first on factory farms, the jolt is lowered, despite the fact that it doesn't properly stun the hogs. Stunned or not, cows and hogs are then "strung up" from the ceiling by a chain attached to their legs. In theory, while they dangle there, they are supposed to be unconscious. But often they are fully conscious, struggling, screaming, and fearfully staring at the workers while they have their throats stabbed open. Next, they travel along a "bleed rail," where they should bleed to death. But again, these large, frightened, struggling, conscious animals are difficult targets and the "stickers" (workers who cut their throats) don't always get a "good cut." Before the cows can bleed to death, they are sent on their way to the "head-skinners," where the skin is sliced from their heads while they are still conscious. Of cours, this is excruciatingly painful, and the cows kick and struggle frantically. To avoid getting injured by the struggling animal, workers will sometimes sever the spinal cord with a knife blow to the back of the head. This paralyzes the animal below the neck so that the worker is safe. But these cows can still feel their skin being sliced away from their faces. Next, their legs and head are chopped off, their entrails removed from their bodies, and then, finally, they are split in half. Often before hogs can bleed to death, they are dunked fully conscious into 140-degree scalding water to remove the hair from their bodies. Chickens, because they are so overcrowded and stressed, frequently peck each other and factory farm workers, so the ends of their beaks are literally chopped off their faces.
• Juicing is a great way to detoxify your body and get a lot of enzymes, but you must drink it right away. As soon as a fruit is peeled, or cut, or juiced, it begins to lose its enzymes.

The above is just some of the information in the book - there is obviously a lot more information not included. Since reading this book, I have not eaten any chicken. Thinking about it practically makes me want to barf. I have not eaten red meat or pork for the last 3.5 years so I am ok there. I will still eat fish - only "wild caught." I know that the wild caught still has a lot of mercury and other stuff in it, I figure that with the omega-three's in fish, the benefits outweigh the "cost." Plus, in the New Testament, Jesus ate a lot of fish :) Also, I am still eating eggs and yogurt. I do buy the cage-free brown eggs and I get Brown Cow yogurt. The brown cow does not have any BGH in it as their cows are not given the growth hormone. Although the "cage-free" and "BGH" industries are not regulated, at some point you have to have a little faith in advertising and what the companies are claiming.

I would definitely recommend this book; however, I will warn you before any of you decide to read it, the language is pretty bad so you just have to skim over certain words. Also, read it with a grain of salt - I have read other "health" books/magazines and received nutrition guidance from my naturopath that contradicts some of the points made in the book.

On an entirely different note, here is a picture from last week of Otis and Sam (I couldn't do a post without a picture).

Greasewood Flat - Lauren's BD

Yesterday was Lauren's BD - she joined me in the "28" club. We headed up to Greasewood Flat to celebrate her birthday. Greasewood Flat is an outdoor steakhouse with live music. It was the perfect weather to go - cool enough that it was nice to sit by the fire but not too cold. I had a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner - it was Fat Kid Friday. Normally I would have ordered the chicken breast but since I am not eating chicken anymore (more to come on that later this week) I went with the grilled cheese.

W had tried to bring in stuff to make s'mores, but I guess they have changed their rules because they told us that we could not bring it in. After dinner we sat by the fire while the guys played some horseshoe. On our way home we also stopped at The Gelato Spot.

Lauren & Jason (her husband)

My face is still a little fat from the meds

Paul and Jason having cigars

Getting a picture of Lindsay's boots

Group pic - Paul (Lauren's friend), Me, Lindsay (Lauren's sister), Ryan (Lindsay's fiancee), Lauren, Jason

It was a fun night and it is so nice having Lauren back in AZ :)

Country Thunder

Last Saturday, Montana, Aubrey, Kellyn and I made the track to Florence, AZ to attend Country Thunder USA. We had a great time, although we did not really "fit in." We left Montana and Aubrey's at about 11:30am and finally got seated at 3:30pm. First, the I-10 was closed so we had to take a detour through Mesa. Next, our map took us to the center of Florence rather than to the concert. We determined that the address was no recognized in MapQuest so it just defaulted to Florence. We had brought food in a cooler so that we would not have to buy food inside. After we parked, we had some snacks by the car before we walked up to buy tickets and go in. We then got all our stuff together and bought tickets. When we were in the line to enter, we noticed a sign that said "no re-entry privileges." This ruined our plans of having dinner back at the car, so we got out of line, went back to the car, had more food (even though no one was hungry), packed up all of our warm clothes and finally made it in.

We say Bucky Covington, Billy Ray Cyrus and Kellie Pickler. We also saw others but they were kind of "no names." Dierks Bently was the main performer of the night but we left before he came on stage because we were freezing and both Montana and I had to be to church early the next morning.

Kellyn

At the Entrance

View to the stage from our spot

Our spot - notice the bullride tent in the background

Dinner - I really wanted a roasted corn on the cob