Ciao from Roma!

Ashley & I are in Rome right now, having some fun! So far we have seen the Colloseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, the basilica and Vatican museums, the Sistene Chapel, and the pope. For reals! I will blog a lot more when I get home but just wanted to throw up a couple quick pics of our travels!

Ash & Me at the Roman Forum

Piazza Navonna at Sunset

Me at the Colloseum at night.

My illegal pic of the Sistene Chapel.

Tomorrow we leave for the coast where we will visit Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii. Ciao!

GMA Music Week

Well, we made it here... just about halfway done! Not much time to write but wanted to post a few pics of what's going on...

Here is a picture of the main reason I'm making it through this week at all:

This is my bed in my room at the Renaissance. You'll notice that it is dark in the room... and yet this is when we have to get up. 5:30 am. Shudder. Thankfully, sleeping in this bed is like sleeping on a cloud, wrapped in magic. I have to cherish it, because on my own dime I could never afford to stay in a hotel this nice. So thanks, GMA!

These are some of the other main reasons I'm hanging in there... my friends at work:

This is my intern, Jessica... she's doing such a great job this week! Every time I see her she's running around carrying something or checking something. I'm so proud of her!

This is Kristin. She's our registrar and she's basically an amazing human being. She's worked longer hours than any of us this week and done it all with a smile on her face. She's totally a trooper.

And then, of course, there's the music. You can't go anywhere during the week without hearing music blaring from every corner and seeing artists at every turn. I try not to geek out at seeing the artists too much, although it is cool to see them running around and hanging out with each other.

So far I've managed to drag my sleepy butt to two showcases. On Sunday night I went to the BMI Songwriter Showcase, featuring a whole slew of artists performing stripped down versions of the year's best songs. During this show there was one of those seriously awesome moments that you'll always remember. Leeland sang "Tears of the Saints" accompanied by his brother Jack, and you could've heard a pin drop as his wonderful, distinct voice just rang out this flawless song. Everyone was just spellbound... it was absolutely an annointed performance.

Also got to see Chris Tomlin perform his version of "Amazing Grace," which I also really love.

Then last night we hiked it on over to the Wildhorse to see Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, and Third Day. Talk about a line up! Unfortunately we missed most of Jars performance, but Switchfoot handily made up for that with an amazing rocking good time. I have only seen them once before live and it was at the Fair St. Louis so I was like, half a mile away. This was way better, obvs... we were right up near the front and it was just so fun! Jon was looking a little worse for the wear with some seriously overgrown and underwashed hair, but I'll overlook that. So I let my hair down and got my hands up and had a great time. During one song Jon came down into the audience, got up on a table, sang the rest of the song, then rode back to the stage on some dude's shoulders. Fun! Bummer, my camera died after about the first three minutes but I did manage to snap one or two blurry photos...

Third Day ended out the very late night, but it's never too late to stay up and see Mac Powell and his handsome mug. Snapshot of our conversation:

Ben: Do you guys want to stay for Third Day?
Heather: Uh, have you SEEN Mac Powell? And his beautiful blue eyes?

No, but seriously, their music is pretty good too.

Well, that's the last of my updates for now... tomorrow is Dove Day! Don't forget to watch it live on Gospel Music Channel at 7 central, woo-hoo!

Happy Things From Today

1. Having Scruffy as my buddy at the house and bed warmer-upper since Ben is gone
2. Lots of pretty sunshine (even though it was kinda chilly outside)
3. Wearing my new yellow shirt - and the color yellow in general
4. Listening to Sleeping at Last even though I couldn't go to their concert like I wanted
5. Dearest friends coming over and watching some classic Office episodes
6. Ben coming home Thursday night instead of Friday

TUNA! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Last night, after a nearly five-month long hiatus, my favorite funny show returned to television: "The Office." Piled on our couches with our friends Jon, Heather, Grant, and Lila, we basked in the golden glow of our television set. We squealed (and then shushed each other) as the cold open began with all our favorite characters milling around their nondescript office area. We groaned and covered our faces in horror as Michael and Jan's disturbing relationship took a turn into painfully and awesomely awkward before their dinner guests' very eyes. We howled with delight as Dwight showed up with his straight-from-the-19th century former babysitter and explained their relationship as "strictly carnal."

Jim so desparate to leave that he nearly ditched Pam.
Serenity by Jan candles.
Michael's attempts at Charades.
The Dundee hurtled from Jan's insane hands into Michael's precious tiny plasma tv.

And then, AND THEN, AND SERIOUSLY, ARE YOU KIDDING ME:

"Hi, Dan here with your channel 4 Pinpoint Weather Alert. If you'll take a look with me here at Macon County up in Kentucky, you'll see some pretty serious storm clouds... now this spinning area on the radar is where we've had one person, excuse me, two eyes, (yeah, he seriously said that) that have spotted what may have been a funnel cloud formation."

So, let me get this straight, Dan from Channel 4. You interrupted the final minutes of my favorite show for this?! First of all, do the people in Kentucky not have their own weather people that could tell them this? Second of all, if it is, in fact, as bad as you are saying, then those people probably don't have power and can't watch you giving this report anyway. Third and most importantly, there was a commercial break THIRTY FREAKIN' SECONDS AGO... you couldn't have done this then?

It wouldn't have been so bad, honestly - I know it is their job - except he just kept going ON and ON. We were ten minutes into "Scrubs" by the time he finally wrapped it up. I could've given that report in about 15 seconds:

"Okay everyone, listen up. Look at this map. See all these red parts right here? Right, if you're in one of those, sorry, but it doesn't look too good. Get in your closets or basements (too bad no houses in the South even HAVE basements) or bathrooms right now. Folks in Bumpus Mills, PeeDee, Stringtown, Hackberry*, this means you. Now sit tight and I'll be back at the next commercial break."

*Names of REAL towns on the Kentucky/Tennessee border

See, would that have been so hard, DAN? Hmm? But nooooo, because of you and your great affinity for all your meteorologist technology, and because of Nashville's general tendency to freak the ef out any time it looks like it might rain hard, I don't know what happened once the cops showed up outside Michael's door. Did they take Jan off in the back of a squad car? Did Dwight pull out his spud gun in defense? Did Pam get back at Jim for trying to ditch her? Did Andy actually invest in Jan's candle company? I'll never know...

...until I watch it again online later today.