It is my last day in Nashville! I have been running around all day making sure I have everything I need before I leave the country for 6 months. I keep forgetting that there's a good chance they will have toothpaste in other parts of the world. It's going to make it hard to keep my suitcases under weight with 6 bottles of shampoo in them. Now I have to worry about having a Halloween costume before I go. We are required to attend a party that night and it would be best to dress up.  Last minute costume + already heavy suitcases = going to Target for a pair of fairy wings and calling it a day. 

Now you all definitely have something to look forward to. If you were bored enough to read about what I did in Nashville, the rest of these blogs are going to seem great! First stop Rome. I've posted the rest of my itinerary below so you can follow along with me if you'd like.

I saw another movie! Last night I cut loose with some friends to see the remake of Footloose. It was just as good as you would expect it to be. They stayed very close to the original with a few modern updates. I only cringed twice throughout the film, once when they didn't bother to update the costumes for the prom scene and once when Ren had his break down in the abandoned wearhouse and he did his angry dancing. For some reason that scene just didn't translate into 2011. I did enjoy the rest of Kenny Wormald's performance including his authentic Boston accent. I think casting made a wise choice to find a Boston native rather than having to sit through another Leonardo Di Caprio/The Departed situation. I also really enjoyed the kid playing Willard, Miles Teller. He definitely saved the movie from taking itself too seriously. The movie was a bit raunchier than I remember, although I think the last time I saw the 1984 Footloose I was too young to catch any of the rude parts anyway. It's definitely not a must see but it was survivable when being dragged there by friends who weren't too embarrassed to admit that they were dying to see it.

It's hard to believe but tomorrow begins our final week in Nashville. We learned three 50 minute shows and three 15 minute shows in three weeks. When I shake my head it sounds like loose change rattling around. Now we have this last week to really clean everything up and make sure it sticks in our brains. At this point I'll be happy if I can even remember which song comes next.

I have been managing to make use of my time off as well. Last weekend we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and toured Studio B where many of the greats recorded their big hits.

They actually let me play on Elvis' piano! I was playing "Let it Be" and everyone on the tour started singing along. It was very cool. I realized later that day it was John Lennon's birthday, extra cool.

I finally finished Simon Pegg's book "Nerd Do Well." While I absolutely LOVE Simon Pegg, this was not my favorite book of all time. It was split up into two stories, one fiction and one non-fiction. Most of the book was his autobiography but every 50 pages or so there would be a small section of fiction that Pegg wrote about a character called Simon Pegg and his robot helper named Canterbury. I found myself skimming through the autobiography just to get to the funny adventures in the fictional story. For me, the book was a little too long (350 pages) and I wasn't laughing out loud in an embarrassing way like I was when I read Sarah Silverman's "The Bedwetter." Also, a lot of the references were probably lost on me because a big part of the book was Pegg talking about his influences and favorite movies like Star Wars, which I couldn't see in theaters due to the fact that I was not yet born. I think I gave this book three stars out of five on my goodreads.com page. I still love Simon Pegg.

This week I also attended a show at the Cannery Ballroom to hear Carrie Rodriguez. My good friend Lily is dating a talented musician native to Nashville named Handsome Hans Holzen. Well, Lily added the "Handsome" part but it's definitely true. He lives in NYC now but came down to play this show with Carrie Rodriguez. They were awesome. Carrie is a singer/songwriter/badass fiddle player. I really enjoyed her music and as always it was cool to see a young female musician rocking a crowd of rowdy southerners.

Last night I went to see "The Ides of March" with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. The cast was small but totally all-star. This one is hard to give a review for without giving things away. The trailer kind of gives you an idea of what the movie is about but not really. Every time you think the big, stressful thing has happened something else comes up. I became one of those people I hate in movie theaters who talk at the screen. There was a lot of, "Oh my God!"s and "(GASP) No!"s and a couple, "uh-oh"s. It wasn't overly political for a movie about politicians. This is definitely worth seeing.

It is the end of our first week and we are a complete group at last. We picked Margaret and most of her luggage up from the airport tonight. I've been bombarding her with questions all evening and have learned some interesting facts about my journey to come: 1. There was a chance that Willie Aames was going to be our Cruise Director, but it turns out he will be on another ship. 2. On one of the Nautica's first runs down to South Africa it was "attacked" by pirates. But they were in tiny motor boats and the Nautica is a cruise ship so it didn't go well for the pirates. Margaret will probably be sick of me and my questions by tomorrow lunch time but I think she's super nice. She's from South Carolina so in case the two Brooklyn boys weren't having enough of an effect of my accent I've now picked up a twang.

I'm adding another category to my blog, Movie, Music and Book Reviews. This afternoon the boys and I saw 50/50.

I loved this movie. I mean it was wicked sad and cried pretty much from beginning to end but I also laughed just as much. I would not be surprised if Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets nominated for an Oscar for this performance. Bryce Dallas Howard, who I just saw play the mean girl in The Help, was just as good in this movie at making me really hate her. Seth Rogen played his typical Seth Rogen type character and provided most of the comic relief. I would give this movie 4 stars out of 5 for sure. Although now that I'm reading this review I realize that I don't know what I'm talking about or how to review anything at all. Nonetheless, I was totally into this movie.