Category: nashville

One church’s perspective on the “English Only” charter amendment

TOMORROW, January 22, is voting day on the English Only charter amendment.

Hearing the biblical call to welcome the stranger, the Session invites the congregation to prayerfully consider the following:

On December 18 the Session voted to urge members of Trinity to vote against the “English only” charter amendment in the January referendum. The Session gave the following reasons for its action: The “English only” requirement does not acknowledge the linguistic diversity that has always characterized the U.S. (the result of many factors, including voluntary migration, conquest, employment practices, and compassion toward refugees) and continues today. Furthermore it does not manifest the hospitality toward immigrants and refugees that we have every reason to expect in our public and private life. And it is out of keeping with the future character of our nation, region, and city, which will remain both red and blue, black and white, yellow and red and brown. The Presbyterian General Assembly in 1990 acknowledged “the special claim that immigrants make on Christian conscience and the contributions they make to U.S. society,” and reaffirmed the following principles:

-providing for the human needs of refugees and immigrants;

-non-discrimination in aid and in application of laws and policies;

-upholding constitutional and civil rights;

-protecting lives;

-special consideration for women and children, individuals with special needs, and unification of families;

-provision of adequate resources to communities in order to reduce tensions;

-vigorously combatting expressions of racism in policies and their implementation.

From Trinity Presbyterian Church PC(USA), Nashville, TN

A New Year…Some New Stuff

Holy cow! I believe my wordpress.com page has changed three or four time since I last posted something of unimportance. I am a huge slacker in the blog world. My Twitter account is seeing all the action these days. Maybe I should look back on my ‘tweets’ and consolidate them into some sort of narrative longer than 140 characters.

Here’s the update: The Elder Extroverted Holy One is now the Reverend Elder Extroverted Holy One. Damn, her alias is getting longer. Maybe I’ll just call her “The Chosen”, or “The Truly Better Half.” How about “The Reverend Extroverted One?” That works for now…Well, The REO (awesome! “I can’t fight this feeling anymoooooorrrrrrrre”) was called to a church in Chattanooga and has since been ordained in the Presbyterian Church(USA) and is now serving that church. It’s a pretty cool small thang but with some great potential and I do believe that The REO is the youngest person there. tee hee

The Young Extroverted One is now firmly planted in a new school which is near our new house. It was a totally different experience dropping her off for her first day than her first day at the old school in east Nashville. But that’s for another post I suppose.

The Mullethead is now one year old and is doing great. Cruising around and standing on her own. We’re waiting for her to take some steps any day now. Look out world! When she can walk by herself I’m getting her a job! She needs to start earning her keep around here.

Speaking of earning one’s keep, I am no longer earning mine. I am back to being a full-time stay-at-home dad. My frequent tweets have changed dramatically from ‘doom and gloom’ to ‘rainbows and unicorns’. Sort of . . . those of you who follow me either on Facebook or Twitter would understand.

Selling our house in Nashville has been another issue entirely. The economy bit the big one right around the time we were getting our house on the market. And there it sits. All alone and empty. Waiting for someone to move in. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Something-d-o-o economics…anyone?

We are in a house that we really like in Ooltewah, TN but it’s only under a lease/purchase agreement. Basically, we’re renting it until someone buys our house and than we can buy this house. But since we’re renting the owners didn’t want us to have our pets here. So, Bosco, Maya and Aine (pronounced “anya” yeah, we’re weird) are living the good life at grandma Lucy’s house until we can buy this house. I don’t care much about the cats but I miss my dog. Sigh . . .

So, that’s us in a nutshell. Boring I know but that’s all I got for now. I would like to write more regularly on things that interest me in the future and hopefully I will. Until then? Just read this over and over again.

Welcome to My Blogroll Family!

If you like beer and if you follow me on Twitter, Brightkite, Plurk, Facebook or whatever other social networking site I have joined but forgot, you would know that I, also, like beer then it would behoove you to check out this new addition to my blogroll: the Beer School Blog.

Beer School Blog is two guys drinking beer and telling us what they thought. That’s it. There’s no pretension that one would find from a snooty wine taster. They use words that we all know to describe what they’re drinking. Simple enough. Me likey. Hopefully, I’ll be able to meet up with them in the near future to partake of some frosty beverages at a neighborhood bar in the Nashville area.

You can’t tell but I am raising a pint to them!

Super Stormy Tuesday

Crazy bad storms roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky last night. Luckily, those of us in the Nashville area seemed to fare the storm pretty well.  I stayed up late (after an exceptionally long day at work) tracking the storm activity instead of keeping up with the primary results and the Predator/Hurricanes game on Versus.

While I was at work I set up to record the hockey game on my DVR. DirecTV is so cool for adding that feature. I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!! Unless, of course it’s overridden by the ladies at the house.

I was watching the storm coverage on WTVF (don’t meteorologists take some sort of glee in dangerously active weather?) confident that I wouldn’t miss the game of two of my favorites going head-to-head.  All of a sudden right after the first super cell barreled through downtown they take a call from a former employee who is at the Sommet Center. As he is on the phone he describes the actions taken by the staff at the arena and mentions the outcome of the game!?! Hello? Gimme a spoiler alert warning for Pete’s sake! I know you’re stressed out but come on. . .

I suppose I’m the kind of guy that once he hears the outcome of a game that he is taping he no longer has interest in watching that game. Even if it turns out to be good contest. For me, it’s kind of like watching the movie ‘Titanic.’  I know the thing is going to sink so what’s the point?

Nashville Should Have Some Talent

We have the America’s Got Talent group in the hotel today and it is crazy packed with a line around the building and going west down Union. They’re here for two days and surely some sliver of talent will be found in Music City U.S.A.

I’m not a big fan of the show but I might have to watch to see how we fare as a talented city. For now, I will hide in my office and try not to come out.

Toot Toot

Don’t mean to toot my own horn . . . but, I set up a room with some audio visual gear yesterday for a meeting that the hotel and their corporate folks are having today. As I stood in the room making sure presentations were working properly my set up got some nice compliments. It’s really not that big of a deal but when the director of sales is in the room and he is one of the reasons my company hired a different director it was kind of satisfying to show him what he’s losing. Not that it matters anymore because I hope the Nashville Doubletree will be better fit.

One other presenter was from the Renaissance Asheville (I’m not sure what her position there is). My company just listed a director position there that is open. Unfortunately, I can’t throw my hat into that ring because the Elder Extroverted Holy One has one more semester. Aargh! She wasn’t too happy with my idea of me taking that job to set up the homestead back in western North Carolina. Especially with the Young Extroverted One and a new human and school. With being at the Doubletree I’m kind of obligated to stick around for another year.

Oh well, <vague t.v. reference> “Missed it by that much.” <anyone get it?>

Movin’ On Up (or across town really)

My days here are numbered. The new director of event technology will start next week and for the next several weeks I will help him transition into this position. I’ll be training him until the Elder Extroverted Holy One brings forth the second child. During the delivery I will be in the corner of the room with an epidural and copious amounts of drugs to help us get through the delivery. With all of my saved up vacation time I will be able to stay home with the family and help with everything. It will end up being some great daddy-Young Extroverted One time as the new one learns what kind of crazy world it was forcibly brought into.

After the holidays and the new year I should be starting here. Where I will, hopefully, be the official director of event technology. So, I’m slowly finding my work getting me closer and closer to our home in the east Nashville area. Also, it puts me closer to the Sommet Center and the embattled Nashville Predators whose tickets I still can’t afford (not because they’re outrageously priced but we’re outrageously broke) but would go to every single game if given the chance.

Speaking of hockey, I got the YEO signed up for the G.O.A.L. program hosted by the Preds and Delta Dental of Tennessee. She’s excited about it or I’m excited about it for her. Maybe I’ll just go as her and get some ice time! Our equipment fitting session is this Monday and, unfortunately, we have to drive to the Southern Ice Arena in Franklin for this fitting and all 4 sessions of the program. Looking at past G.O.A.L. programs we missed the ones at the Centennial Sportsplex. Which would’ve been way closer. But then I think about the sacrifices that hockey greats’ parents made to drive their wunderkinds to their respective games and practices uphill both ways in the deep snow all across the Canadian wilderness and figure it’s not so bad driving down to Franklin except maybe for the exceptionally poor drivers the most Tennesseans are.

Death Throes of the Predators

Let me start by saying I am a hockey fan.  While I have some favorite teams (Predators, Hurricanes, Maple Leafs) I really do love the sport.  At the same time I understand a little bit about the business world.

I went to the Predators vs. Flames game on Saturday night with my buddy, Stuart.  There were many empty seats in the building.  Heck, there were empty sections!   We could have moved down to sit on the glass if we wanted to.  If Nashville (and by Nashville I mean regular fans and most of all local business owners) can’t fill an arena on a Saturday night against a team that has regularly gone to the Stanley Cup playoffs then we don’t deserve to have a hockey team.  And if they move I might have to uproot the Extrovert/Introvert family and head north!

Okay, I feel a little better now. I needed to get that off of my chest.

Traffic Rules Poll

This is just an informal poll but I wanted to know how many people really know what to do when confronted by a certain traffic opportunity.

When you come upon a blinking red traffic light what is one supposed to do? Same goes for a blinking yellow traffic light.

After a sufficient number of comments about what you think you should do in this situation I’ll post about my lovely experience as I drove into work this fine Saturday morning at 5:30AM.

B-double-E-double-R-U-N

Went to the Music City Brewer’s Fest on Saturday.

Mmmmm. . . beeeeer. . .

Mmmmm. . . humidity . . . ugh.

Lots of great brews, including my all-time favs The Highland Brewing Company.  I hovered around their booth for a little while but figured I should branch out.  I would write about my impressions of all the different beers that I tried that day but I can’t really remember.  I must have drunk too many good ones.  The heat is really the only thing that I can remember.  Oooof.

I do remember that I missed having a little water to rinse out my cup at each booth.  You should be able to wash out the remnants of the prior beer before you tried a new one.  I feel that I didn’t get a good representation of taste because they were really all mixed together.  Oh well.  This was my first time away from my favorite brewer’s fest, the Brewgrass Festival, and maybe they don’t offer that everywhere.  At least it gave me a hint of beers that I’ll try to find the next time I’m at Midtown Wine and Spirits.

I did a lot of comparisons between the Music City Brewer’s Fest and the Brewgrass Festival.  My apologies to my partner in brew, I  sounded like a guy talking about his old girlfriend that just dumped him.  I must have sounded like such a putz (no real connection for this link I just love the name of this company)(a shout out to my buddy Mountain Kilter).

On the subject of beers and festivals, walking around amongst the throng of amatuer and professional beer drinkers in downtown Nashville in the humidity I came to realize that I really love to listen to bluegrass drinking fine brews in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Here I am talking about my old girlfriend again.  So sorry.

Sigh . . . well, the introvert/extrovert clan may have to take a trip come September 22 to Asheville, NC.