Winter concert series - Luke Bryan

B-rad & I went to see Luke Bryan at Rupp Arena Friday night.  You may remember me bitching about telling you how they rescheduled it from Jan 17th to a night when I had to work the next day.  It was going to a 50/50 shot on my mood:  

A) hyped up on adrenaline 

B)  tired & cranky.  

 I was tired & cranky....

It's bad when your co-workers are like, "HEY, HOW WAS THE CONCERT?  You look tired...."

Uh, yea.

I slept in the car for about 45 min on the way home.  We got home around 1:15, I was in bed at 1:30 & asleep by 2:00am.  I was back UP at 6:30 am for work. 

LORD.

A friend of mine, Robin, (who is also Alicia's sil) & her crew were going.  We texted the whole way there.  We tried to meet up for dinner & that didn't work out.  They were a bit ahead of us because we stopped to eat & she let me know there was a wreck & traffic was backed up so we could find another way there.  THAT was awesome because I would've had a stroke.  Thanks, Robin!

We had planned to text each other when we got into the arena for our seats because I wanted to find them & say hi.  It was at this point my night got REAL bad because I couldn't get ANY cell service.  It showed I had like 1 dot of service (how's that for technical?), but it wouldn't even send a text for crying out loud.  (for non iphone users, those red (!) means my message didn't go through!)  I had NO idea where they were & my stupid cell phone was useless so I didn't get to see them before.  

As we were walking OUT of the arena the message she had sent me came through telling me where they were.  Sadly that was 4 hours too late...

I was excited to see their pics on Instagram, though.  They were practically one section up from us!  Robin's daughters bff is our nephew, Brady's, girlfriend.  (Follow that?)  Isn't it a small, small world?!

ANYWAY-the concert was a great time & of course I have pictures & stories to corroborate my story.

I was really pleased with our seats.  The stages in the middle of the floor are GENIUS ideas.  Whoever thought that up deserves an award.  

(Please note how early we were there by all the empty seats!  I like to be prompt...)

 The first opening act was Cole Swindell.  He was really good.  I liked a lot of his songs.  

 The second opening act was Lee Brice.  He did a good job too...I was soooo tired that I just wasn't with it.  I didn't take any pictures of him.  I was yawning the whole night.

But then something happened that made me perk right up.  Between Lee Brice & Luke Bryan, we saw several people standing up & moving around down in front of us.  Then I heard the dreaded words, "Some girl down there puked."  

UHM, what's that ya say now?  

This is reason like #3 I don't drink.  PUKING?  ON PEOPLE?  Do you know how pissed I would be if I got puked on at a concert?  I would go off & I'm not normally a violent person.  Puke would make me violent...

It's one of those things that makes me completely insane... a grown woman goes to a concert & drinks SO MUCH before the MAIN MAN comes on stage that she pukes on the people around her?  Good Gawd woman.  Have a little self control.   (Ok - so I'm assuming she drank too much & just didn't happen to come down with a dreaded stomach bug DURING a concert & couldn't make it to the restroom or away from people before she puked...)

I noticed that this cop magically appeared during all this too.  He stood there at the end of the row FOREVER while they were getting everything sorted out.  I guess he was there in case any of the pukees got violent.

Soon, they sent down the bucket brigade to clean up the mess.  

 Can you imagine?  I bet they wanted to get violent too.

 Finally, it was time to see Luke Bryan shake his ass.  Ya'll - the man can DANCE.  I can't help it. 

He came up out of the stage on a truck encased in a ring of fire.  Hot, huh?  

I was a little disappointed about the screens they had up.  I wanted to see him shaking his ass on the screens, but they showed a lot of the crowd & his band.  UHM, I don't care about the crowd OR the band...show me some LUKE!

 There were a couple of guys next to us that were almost as entertaining as the concert.  They were drinking before hand (but managed not to puke on me or anyone around us.  Shocking.).  They were really friendly & chatted with us.

When the concert started they were singing & dancing their hearts out.  I found myself watching them a lot because they were so funny.

The guy next to B-rad put his arm around him at the end of the night & kinda gave him a bro hug.

 I failed to take a picture of B-rad & I.  I will plead exhaustion on that one.  It was open house at work that day so there were people EVERYWHERE & I had to be nice & smiling allll day.  Exhausting.  (& technically B-rad had been up since 4:30am & he worked all day too...but he deals w/ exhaustion better than I do!)  I left work at 3:30, we hit the road at 4:00 & were promptly in our seats at 7:00pm (one half-hour before the concert started thank you VERY much).  I yawned the whole night & was dreading what awaited me the next day at work.  Sorry...just know we both looked very cute....

Murder on Valentine's day, a colorful change & something embarrassing...

If you think I'm leading w/ the embarrassing stuff - you really should know better.  I'm forcing you to read alllll the way through...

Let me tell ya'll how B-rad & I spent our Valentine's Day.  

(Ya'll know I'm all about a day ALL about love...gag)

We got in a big fight that morning over eye drops.  YES, eye drops.  He was going to the farm show so he was home in the morning while I was getting ready for work.  I do NOT like when he's there when I'm getting ready.  I have a system & him being there messes up my system.  (Love you, B-rad...)  So he was talking to me while I was trying to dry my hair so every 30 seconds I had to turn off the hair dryer & say, "HUH?"  I was giddy because he was almost out the door Just as he was leaving he said, "Oh, I need my eye drops."  Which I ignored - like I forgot I heard it as soon as he said it.  I don't have anything to do with his eye drops.  Then he came back & said, "did you put them up?"  I had NO idea what he was talking about.  I said, "WHAT?"  He said, "My eye drops - did you put them up?"  I said (very nicely in my nicest, most sweetest voice EVER), "No.  I've been in here trying to getting ready!" 

Then he says, "They were on the counter.  Did you put them up?"

LIGHT BULB.

He had stopped & bought some at Walgreens on MONDAY.  He came home & put them on the counter in the kitchen (which is where he sits EVERYTHING) & when I got home, YES I put them up.  MON-DAY.  This was FRI-DAY. 

I said, (again, NOT raising my voice, NOT yelling & for sure NOT cussing), "OHHHH!!!  Yes - I put them up... but that was 3 f***king days ago!"

This gives new meaning to St. Valentine's day massacre, people.  I KNOW I wanted to kill him & I'm QUITE sure the feeling was mutual....

He went to the farm show all day & I worked.  I brought pizza home for dinner (NO not heart shaped, either) he said to me, "Happy Valentine's Day.  I didn't get you anything."  (Which is fine by me - we usually don't...)  We sat down to watch 'Bad Grandpa' & it was totally stupid so I laid down to take a nice nap.

We're all about the love at the McAfee compound...

I get tired of having the same ole backgrounds on my electronic devices.  Last week I decided to change them ALL.  I have one criteria...bet you can't guess what it is....

Normally I go w/ flowery type things...but this time I wanted something funky & colorful:

Desktop at work:

Phone:

iPad:

I know they say politics, religion & pet peeves are things you shouldn't 'talk about'.  I'm not gonna 'talk' religion so don't freak out.  I saw at the beginning of the year, JLL posted somewhere that she finished reading the Bible in a year.  That was very intriguing to me.  I've always wanted to read it, but it seemed like such an overwhelming feat.  I wouldn't classify myself as 'religious', but I was raised going to church every Sunday & I absolutely believe in God & the Bible.  We don't go to church regularly & I cuss a little sometimes.  Of course I'm a sinner.  We all are.  But I also believe God knows my heart.  Anyway...I found this 'The One Year' Bible.  It breaks the verses down by days & gives you maybe 10-15 minutes of reading a day.  VERY do-able & I'm actually enjoying it.  It's neat to read more in-depth about all the Bible stories I learned as a kid.  There are 'boring' parts (which I'm in now), plus my mom is like a Bible scholar so she helps me fill in the parts I don't understand.  And, dare I say it - I think she likes loves explaining the parts I don't understand because she likes loves to be smarter than me.

 

I know you probably thought you'd heard the end of B-rad's claim to fame from his farming video, but you were wrong.  When he visited the Precision booth at the farm show - he found a picture of himself!

They were also playing his video in another area.  C'mon people, that's just COOL!  They take this display to the other farm shows across the United States.  B-rad is FAMOUS, people!

He said he was talking to someone in the booth & they said, 'HEY, that's you!'

 Sigh.... now for what you've all been waiting for the embarrassing stuff.  Does anyone have areas in their home that they are ASHAMED of?  Like seriously ashamed?  Maybe it's cabinet or a drawer?  Maybe it's a closet?  Maybe it's under the bed?  Mine is our basement & garage.  B-rad is one of the hardest working people I know, but when I start talking about cleaning or organizing- his eyes glaze over & all he hears is 'Wonk, wonk, wonk.'   (Like the teacher on Charlie Brown.)

So, over the last few years, the basement has gotten in REALLY bad shape.  It's kind of our 'catch all' & storage area.  If we had something we had no other place for or didn't know where to put it - it went in the basement.  Then we piled more stuff on that stuff & it quickly got out of control.  There was no organization of the 'stuff'- it was all just thrown & tossed around.  (YES I am including pictures...hold your horses I gotta tell the story first!)

I've been on B-rad the last few weeks to get the basement cleaned up.  It's winter after all & while there's ALWAYS something to do at the farm, it's not as pressing as it is in the spring & fall. He wanted to go on a archery trip thingie the first of March & I told him he couldn't go unless he got the basement clean.  (Yes, I AM the boss of him.)  That really didn't have the effect I wanted because he didn't jump right on it.  He kept telling me, "I have stuff to do at the barn.  I have to work on the planter.  I have to load trucks."   I tried to come up with a compromise.  I would say, "Ok, one night go work at the barn, the next night work on the basement."  

Yea, that didn't work either.

Then, it happened.  LIGHT BULB.

We get a dividend check from the co-op we buy chemicals from on the farm every year.  It's kinda like a bonus check from them based on how much money we spent the previous year.  We got the check in the mail one day last week & it was for almost $2800.  And I told B-rad I would make him a deal....

If he got the basement clean before he goes on his trip thingie, I would give him the WHOLE $2800 to do whatever he wanted.  If he didn't want to take the deal, I would put the money towards some of our other bills...

And guess what - just like that - the basement was clean.  In like TWO days, people.   TWO.  

I really should be ashamed of myself...but I'm not.  I'm an evil genius... (& it didn't even involve sex.  High five!)

Now - you're first reaction will be to judge but I'm kinda baring my soul here so that would be really mean of you.  I tell ya'll everything & if you judge me, I will block you from reading mmmm kay?  It's kinda like when you watch the show 'hoarders'.  You KNOW it's bad, but you also feel really sorry for the people who are hoarders.  (No - just me?  I feel sorry for them.)  We know it's awful, we KNOW.  But it's kinda like gaining weight, alcoholism or drug abuse - you don't realize its happened until it's so far gone you can't see anyway out.  I will allow you to gasp.

Before:

 AFTER:

 

B-rad bought some shelves because I told him that if we had some sort of organization for all the 'stuff' it wouldn't be so bad.  The shelves are still a work in progress.  There are items just kinda sitting on them until I get some totes.   The kinds of things we have on them right now are: our luggage (because it was always stuck in a closet & takes up SO much room), coolers (we have a lot of coolers), Christmas wrapping paper, paper towels, toilet paper & even some of my large kitchen items I don't use all the time.  

(Cupcake carrier, decorative serving dishes, etc.)

Sonny's litter box will be moved to another location in the basement.  He's gonna LOVE that.  

On the right side of the pic is a weight bench (which he 'plans on moving' & an old desk w/ lots of old electronics on it.  I am in the process of taking those things to Best Buy to be recycled.  They will only accept 3 items per household per day.  Once those are gone, we will get rid of the desk.  

And if you're wondering - yes, B-rad has already asked me when I'm going to put the money in his account. 

It's clean, people - so the ends justifies the means... (& no sex was involved in the making of this clean basement.  I think that's important to say again remember...)