Hello Australia (and presumably, other parts of the world)!
First and foremost, thanks for letting us borrow Beccy and BJ these last two springs. They’re great, and we’re sure that when they’re here, you’re sad they’re not there.
Where to begin … It’s a really arbitrary story, how our worlds collided. http://www.ourloveisamazing.com/blog/?p=15 Last year, my friend Mallory (whose name you no doubt recognize [yeah, we spell it with a ‘z’]) and I were working together at a bluegrass music festival run by her grandmother when her mother informed us that we’d been charged with playing ambassador to two Australians, much to our chagrin. I mean, we had our own drinking and wandering to do, right?
Don’t get me wrong. We imagined that any two people who would travel 9,300 miles (just over 15,000 Km) would certainly be there for the music, but there was just no guarantee they’d actually be cool people. As fate would have it, they’re just like the friends we already have, just with a different worldview and a different funny accent - what a pleasant surprise! (We still spell that with an ’s’)
Mal and I had a great time showing them around. It’s still a toss-up between us whether the intimacy of live bluegrass around a campfire at 3am, or the way moonshine burns so “delishusly” was more engaging to them, but when they left we felt a sense of pride on our job well done. The only problem was that we were never going to see them again … and we didn’t even get to say goodbye? Not cool.
Ah, lest we forget the internet. We somehow found them this winter, and started leaning on Beccy to drag BJ back down here so we could get our fix. Besides, we’re not there for the Festival like everyone else is.
For everyone that takes part in that annual weekend, it is Zen to the power of Mecca. I’m not kidding that this year, there were almost 100 concertgoers’ chairs set up within 5 minutes of the main stage’s arrival, nearly 36 full hours before the start of the weekend’s 30 band-long pick-a-thon. For the patrons, it’s an all star cast of their favorite bands. For us, it’s a job away from our jobs. At this job, though, we get to get shitfaced with our best friends for a week and camp out. Winner!
We kept in touch with the BJ’s throughout the spring, and before we knew it, we’d peer-pressured them into coming back! I’m not sure how two $85 tickets for free managed to woo them into spending roughly a metric ton on “petrol,” but apparently, we are pretty good salesmen. Either way, we couldn’t have been more excited when they told us they’d be here Friday. Well, that was what we thought all the way until they showed up on Wednesday, two full days early, and then told us they’d be staying the whole week after!
We spent the week in solid fashion. Around 15 of us drank roughly 500 beers in our 5 days of camping. Factor in 6 hours of sleep a night, and Beccy mentioned the foot-long peace pipe - about 50g of grass was lost to that. Along with hash cookies, moonshine, and 120 hours living in a tent, we were chomping at the bit to get to show our guests that we do, in fact, sober up eventually.
That was great, too. BJ didn’t get to hang out as much as we would have liked, but we got to show Beccy around downtown Lexington, and some of the outlying parts. We went to http://www.keeneland.com Keeneland, a horse race course, and saw the grounds and some horses, as well as http://www.popsresale.com>a local consignment shop. It was a lot of fun helping them to get to know our part of the world during the daylight, but it also gave me new insight.
See, I’ve never left America, and I’ve only seen about 1/3 of it. I’ve lived in Kentucky almost all my life, and as a result, I was really under the impression that it was basically boring, and hopeless. In fact, it sometimes made the word “hellhole” sound a lot like “vacation.” My only dream ever was to get the hell out. But, after seeing a week full of excited reactions from two road-hardened “cool people” from as far away as anyone could be, I’ve kind of started to change my tune.
I think I’m starting to realize that it’s not at all where you are, but rather who you have and what you make of it. To see these guys happy together in Kentucky, when they literally could have been anywhere in the entire world, has given me new hope for my home, on both a national and local level.
Over the two weeks they were here, we talked, and bonded, and learned a lot about each other – that, I expected, and am extremely grateful for. But now that they’ve left, and I’ve had a day to reflect on the entirety of their visit, I’m even happier and more grateful that they came again and stayed behind, because they gave me an opportunity to learn about myself, without even trying.
Their love is amazing, and I can’t wait until the next time they can share it with me and my friends.
