I had been talking to Tracy about birthday presents and I said that I was desperately looking for a CD by Josh Turner, a wonderful singer with a bass voice like molasses. Well, in my search for the CD I looked up some of his tour dates, just out of curiousity, and previous talk of people going to random concerts in surrounding cities (this is aparently a good central location for concerts). Well, it just so happened that just a few days after my birthday he would be performing in Alabama... Dothan, to be exact. Which is about 2 hours away... not a bad distance to go for a concert, problem being I don't know exactly where Dothan is... or much of anything, including inside the city limits of Montgomery. But that does not deter me. I'm determined to have a good birthday for myself even if it kills me. But I eventually wisen up and talk to one of my friends and she just happens to know who I'm talking about, which is kind of rare because he's not only country (I get the feeling not a lot of people in Dixie actually like Country Music), but because he's still an up-and-comer. I'm excited and she agrees to go with me, and convinces her boyfriend to go with her. I figure if I'm no longer going by myself I'll gather a possie together and get a move on. Other friends agree to go, Chris, Erin, and Emily, and the date is set. The 11th of November, Veterans Day, fell on Friday this year, so I was still at work hours before the concert... covered in paint. For those of you who haven't seen me paint I should probably explain something (because luckily noone has gotten pictures of it yet): Regardless of what I'm doing, the day does not go by unless I end up with paint on me somewhere. And if I'm doing a project, my hands are often stained whatever colors I'm working with that one would think I'm wearing gloves. If I do a texture, which I love to do, or aging I spatter... which means the entire right side of my body, including my back sometimes, is covered with millions of paint freckles. It's an interesting sight which promotes many comments like: "You've got a little something right there." or "That's a nasty skin disease, you should have that checked out." Which I promptly reply, "Yes, I'm alergic to paints."
Anyway, back to the concert: Because I've been spattering all day I'm covered, and refuse to go to a concert looking like something out of a B-horror flick. Get off work at 5, and on the road by 6... country music the whole way there. The concert started at 7, but luckily a band opened for them, so we only missed that. We got there for that band's last song, which was great for us.
Now I should explain that this wasn't your ordinary outdoor concert... no. This was at a festival... and not just any festival: THE NATIONAL PEANUT FESTIVAL. I didn't want to miss Josh Turner, so I just went on down and paid to get a seat, rather than stand. Chris went with me, which was nice, because I didn't want to go alone to the concert part. The rest of the gang heads up to see the rest of the festival (more like a carnival with sideshows and fair food... and peanuts, of course). It was amazing! If you ever get a chance, listen to on of Josh Turner's songs. He's got a new CD coming out early next year (January, I think), and 1 of his songs is in a movie. He was introduced by the Peanut Queen, which was funny. But Chris and I got really good seats, and I was able to take tons of pictures... untill my battery ran out. **tear** Which of course it did towards the begining, so I didn't get a close up of when I got to go up to the edge of the stage for his encore performance, or when I got his autograph afterwards. I was as giddy as a school girl, and annoyed all the others. But I had fun, and that's what counts. Since the other's had gone around already, when the concert was done they were ready to go. But Chris and I hadn't seen the rest of the place. So, we convinced them that we had to do two things, and we do them quickly. 1) Eat a funnel cake (you simply must if they are available to you) and 2) Buy some peanuts (you can't go to a peanut festival without getting peanuts... and this was the national one... though it resembled the fair at Yale). We found the peanuts, which I took home and had in the bag for a week, and when I poured them into a bowl to slowly eat them for a week or so by myself... I think I got two, maybe. But they were really, really good. But it took forever for us to find the funnel cake. We knew they'd be mad at us, so we started to just get an elephant ear, but then we saw somebody with one and I quickly asked "Where did you get that?!" We ran to the booth that was selling them, ordered, waited... and ran and ate funnel cake. We were done with it by the time we found the others, so we thought they didn't think we got it, but the powdered sugar around the mouths was a little bit of a give-away.
On the way out there was a barrel of peanuts, so each of us grabed a handful... unfortnately since I was carrying a purse, it ended up with a number of those handfuls. I'm still finding peanuts in it. The way home was a quiet and content one. I slept with a smile. I recommend seeing him, or at least listening to Josh Turner sometime, even if you don't like country music. Thank you, Tracy and Chani, for the Brooks and Dunn concert that introduced me to him. **sigh**
2 comments:
now that was a fun night... I got to spend some time with a hot girl and eat some peanuts... ohh and you being giddy isn't bad its quite cute.... although almost killing everyone at a red light now thats bad
Awwwww! :) I wish I could have gone with you! That sounded like so much fun!! :)It would have been great to get right up to the stage (be that close :)) and get another autograph! I am glad that you had such a great night! I really like the story of your painting fun:) Have you framed the autograph you got yet? It put a huge smile on my face when my name was in the beginning and end! your welcome for the Brooks & Dunn concert:)
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