A weekend of awesome

Right now, I am writing this on my computer in Brandlyn's car... and you will see this later. (Or, well, now.) But I have quite a weekend to tell you about.

Let me preface this blog with a fact: Brandlyn and I have been planning on taking a road trip forever. We’ve sat at countless lunch tables, in countless trees, and spent many hours over the last fourteen years of our friendship speaking of the many road trips that are possible… to Colorado, to California, to many points all across Texas. And finally, this weekend, we found the perfect excuse to hit the road and enjoy the wide open stretches of Texas.

We went to a Nerdfighter Convention!

I spent this whole weekend with my best friend, doing crazy things, singing loud, and trying new things.

Friday afternoon, Brandlyn and I stood in line to vote. It was her first time ever voting, and my second (I voted in the Texas primaries last march.) The starbucks in the grocery store was doing “curbside delivery” to the long line of people voting. A guy would flit back and forth between the starbucks stand and the line and take people’s orders. Very smart, I would say! We both voted (and got stickers! Which I swear was my incentive for voting last March.) See? I got a sticker.

After we voted, we went to my neighborhood’s Halloween party and ran a fishing booth, where kids cast the line over with clothes pins on the end and we attached candy to. It was quite a successful booth, and by the end of the hour we had given away all of the candy.

We left the party a little early and headed to a concert at the Frank Erwin center downtown. Carrie Underwood was performing… and I have to say that it was a really great concert… one of the most fun that I have ever been to. It was nice to be able to sit up at the top (we were literally 4 rows down from the very top of the balcony), put our feet up on the chairs in front of us, and spend the night listening to country music. Carrie Underwood has the most incredible voice, and her opening band was just as good as her. They were Little Big Town, and were great performers. If you’re into country at all, they’re worth a listen.

I got some videos on my camera and some really great photos while there. I brought my fancy camera… it goes without saying.

LIttle Big Town.

That's a cute guy in the band. Photo taken of the big screen... my camera can't zoom THAT far!

Isn't this a cool picture? It looks like I turned a portion of it black and white, but it was just the lighting.

Carrie... that girl has got some serious pipes. I am way jealous of her voice!

Brandlyn developed a crush on the violinist. He sang, played violin, and guitar... I don't blame her!

After the concert, Brandlyn and I walked to the Capital Building, which, if you didn’t know, looks practically identical to the Capital Building in DC… except that ours is taller. And pink. (It’s made out of good old Texan Pink Granite.) Brandy and I goofed off for a bit and posed on a cistern.

You can kinda tell that it is pink... It's so beautiful at night.

I bleed orange, too.

I am not sure what she is doing, but it sure looks cool.

See? I still got it in me.

The next morning, we hit the road to Dallas at about 10 and I spent the first bit burning songs onto CDs. We made a list of 101 songs (6 hours of music, five CDs in all) and spent the 4 hours driving to Dallas singing loud and just chatting. We stopped about an hour outside of Dallas in Italy, Texas.

They had a really great bathroom... especially considering it was a truck stop.

While trying to figure out where we were, I zoomed in with my camera on the water tower, which neither of us could read, and it turns out that my camera could.

And this is Italy, Texas, which looks like a lot of Texas: Flat.

And Brandlyn saw a… something. You try and figure out what it is.

We got to the outskirts of Dallas and stopped to see a movie. High School Musical 3 was our choice. It was actually really good! I think the larger budget made a difference, and I think I liked this movie more than the first two, actually. It had a lot to do with the fact that Brandlyn and I could really relate to this movie more than the other two, since we just graduated last May. Brandlyn loved the choreography and I was blown away by the music. It’s actually worth watching, which I would have been iffy on recommending the last two.

By this time, it was about 6 and Brandlyn and I were hungry and wanted to visit her brother at his work. Devan is a chef at Nobu’s in Dallas… and we sat at the sushi bar and were treated to so much good food… it was incredible. We racked up a bill of around $100, but because everyone loves Devan (and his little sister, of course!) they gave us a lot of it on the house. I ate sushi (red salmon or something) and (I think it was) jalapeno yellow tail in a citrus sauce, and rock shrimp (which was delicious. I think I am ruined for shrimp for the rest of my life ;) ), and the most incredible beef kebab-like things I have ever tasted. And then this fantastic dessert that was a banana dumpling-like object and green tea ice cream with a small chocolate cake. After eating some of the best food I have ever tasted, we headed back to Devan’s apartment and crashed. I fell asleep very quickly, but Brandlyn went out because one of Devan’s friends was having a birthday party and he wanted to see Brandlyn.

And now, today… which was the whole purpose of the road trip!

Today was the kickoff of the ‘Tour de Nerdfighting’. I have been following these two brothers, John and Hank Green, on Youtube for the last two years.

They did a project last year, where they communicated mainly through video logs (vlogs) because they realized their whole brotherly relationship was spent via email and text message. Over the 2007 and 2008, they have acquired quite a following, who have dubbed themselves ‘Nerdfighters’.

Today was a chance to meet the two brothers and listen to John read from his new book Paper Towns. I got my book signed by the two and got a CD of songs that Hank has written. It was really cool to finally meet the two, since I’ve been following their lives for the last two years … almost like meeting celebrities. Brandlyn was very nice about it and tolerated all of my nerdiness, and enjoyed the whole thing as well. They both signed my copy of Paper Towns. (Which you should read, if you get a chance.)

We left and hit the road and now we’re about half an hour out of Austin. We’re driving through Round Rock as I type, and this blog has taken about 40 miles to complete. Do you feel like you’ve travelled a lot too?

The most awesome part of this weekend wasn’t eating really good sushi for the first time, or meeting youtube celebrities, or even kicking Brandlyn’s ass at Wii Mario Kart this morning… it was spending the whole weekend with my best friend, who is my sister in every way but blood.