John Mayer Addendum

in case you wanted proof of that john mayer autograph action, here you go:

Tips for Concert-Goers

so friday night, david and i were lucky enough to get tickets to go to the john mayer concert in atlanta. well, actually it was in alpharetta (which reminded me of why i don't like leaving downtown). but anyway, it was an amphitheater show, which next to really small venues are my absolute favorite. it was amazing. john mayer is amazing. i'm sad we will be missing ryan adams in a few weeks.

anyway...we had lawn seats, which i love. but that meant we got there at 6:30 to claim our seats...much like the student section for an auburn football game. in the two hours before the concert as well as the time during the concert, i gathered these few nuggets of wisdom that i feel compelled to share with everyone. 

• just because it is possible to lay down and grope each other on your blanket as you wait for the concert to start, does not mean that you should. 
• if you have general admission tickets and you are aware that people have been sitting for quite some time to get their great seats, don't show up after the opening act and squeeze in front of those people.
• if you do decide to be a jerk and do the above, don't stand up and dance in front of them as you are being booed by the entire section of people sitting behind you
• don't hit on a married man in front of his wife. seriously, girl, you about got your ass knocked out. 
• do try anything...our friend, sam, decided that he wanted to at least try to get his john mayer signature strat signed (seeing as how he was on the front row) and it worked. during the concert, john stopped and noticed and said "when you are lucky enough to make it to the point that you get a guitar with your name on it, and a fan brings you that guitar, you have to sign it" john's so awesome. 
• if you are over 50 and are wearing a fanny pack, please, dance until your heart's content. 
• do see an act in their hometown, because its so much better

ok, i think that's it for now. 

New Sleepy Schedule

i haven't posted in a few days. but i have legit reasons. i moved to atlanta on sunday. well, kind of atlanta. since we still haven't sold our house in auburn, we have to depend on the generosity of others when it comes to our living situation. so right now we are living in lawrenceville. for those of you who aren't familiar with the atlanta area, that puts us in the burbs/commuter crowd. here is a run down of our day (for biscuet i am using bullet points).

• 5 am: get up. shower/get ready.
• 6 am: walk cheeto (the dog), breakfast.
• 6:15 am: leave.
• 7:00 am: arrive at matchstic. drop david off. backtrack half the way i just came and head on to buckhead church.
• 7:45 am: arrive at buckhead church. sleep in car.
• 8:20 am: wake up and go to work.
• 12:30 pm: kids go down for nap. i chill out, eat lunch and hang out with dee dee and tatum.
• 2:30 - 3:00 pm: kids wake up. play time.
• 4:30 pm: leave buckhead church. travel back south to get david.
• 5:25 pm: arrive at matchstic. sleep on couch in meeting room while david finished working.
• 6:30 pm: leave matchstic and backtrack back north to 85.
• 7:15 pm: arrive at the johnson's house. 
• 8:00 pm: dinner.
• 8:30-9:00 pm: bedtime.

so if you haven't heard from me, this is why. i just honestly have a hard time mustering up much energy at all. but there are awesome perks to this job as well. for instance, last night charlie hall played the last 722 and so during sound check yesterday, tatum and i decided to take the two year olds up to the auditorium to watch. they loved it. we loved it. it was awesome. 

How to Save the World, One Plane at a Time

tonight i got to get dinner with my sweet friend christi who just got back from china for the summer. it was so much fun to get to catch up and along with her was our friend, biscuet, who lives in china and is just home for the summer. it was hilarious hearing her stories of how her students called her fat (she is the farthest thing from it) and biscuet's revelation that the only applicable thing he learned in his training was not to erase the board side to side because it causes your butt to jiggle and your students will laugh at you.

i think it is safe to say that christi gets scared a lot - much more than the average person. so we were sitting at mike 'n' ed's (which we wound up closing down) and christi proudly declares "let me tell you about the flight. i only thought i was going to die once!" it was at some point when they were over the ocean and everyone else was asleep and her mind started to run wild and she started thinking of everything that could go wrong...at which point, we decide to start brainstorming and coming up with logical ways that the airline industry could give its passengers more confidence in its ocean-crash-landing-scenario. here are some of the things we came up with:

- install gigantic water plane "thingies" that can come out from behind the landing gear in the event of a water landing.

- instead of just having your seat as a flotation device, consider having it strap onto your back and deploy a parachute. 

- make every row an emergency exit...you can choose for yourself if you want to go that route.

i think those were all of the suggestions we had come up with when we decided that its all really pointless because when you are plummeting 7 miles to harder-than-concrete water, you will probably just have a heart attack and die before you hit anyway...but they were just thoughts. 

My Malorie

so, i got a job in atlanta, and as of sunday i will be moving there. i don't feel like i'm really moving cause i'm only taking some clothes and i still own real estate in auburn but its as good as permanent.

so today i had breakfast with my dear friend malorie. i love her more than words can express. here's the deal...mal is three years younger than me. she is embarking on her senior year of college. that being said, she is wise beyond her years. i quite often find myself forgetting that she's younger than me. but anyway, she is just so precious to me and now that i've started writing this i feel overwhelmed to put down all the reasons why. basically, she just one of the most genuine people i know. she doesn't say a word that she hasn't thought out and processed and purposefully put together with other just as intentional words. i am ceaselessly amazed by her humility and her pursuit of the Lord in every aspect of her life.

the other night, we were just sitting around talking about a lot of different stuff and she said, "bek, i just have to believe that people can change. i can't live my life thinking otherwise. i mean think about it. if we, as believers, live as people CHANGED, we have to take people at their word that they CAN change." these few sentences spoke to everything we had been talking about that night (friends, some family members, etc). but i was just so amazed because if we would just start thinking about all things in those terms, how different our perspectives would be.

anyway, i love her to death and the way she challenges me. i can't wait to see what the Lord does with our relationship as i move, but i will miss her so much. next stop: sweet leigh anne. 

Haiti Nutrition Project

my friends, mandy and joel moved to haiti this summer. their goal? to fight malnutrition by helping establish a plant to make a nutrient-fortified peanut butter substance. its really easy to make and a very simple solution to the issue of malnutrition. haiti is the only country in the western hemisphere with malnutrition as devastating as sub-saharan africa (fact). while they were there, they literally saw kids being pulled back from the brink of starvation and death. this peanut butter stuff is saving lives. this was their second summer there and i highly doubt it was their last.

anyway, they got back a few weeks ago and i'm dying to finally get to sit down with them in person and just talk but i don't seem to know when that will be. but while they were there, mandy took a ton of pictures and these are just a few that they put together. 

I Had Freshman English With This Guy

this morning, i had to leave atlanta. but so as to not have to leave the boys apartment unlocked, i had to leave with them when they went to work. today just happened to be the day they all had to be at work early. so i got back to auburn at a bright and early 7:15 am.

i took a little nap on the couch then woke up and started watching some swimming heats (i guess from last night). i really like watching swimming. yeah, michael phelps is ridiculous, but my husband was a swimmer and i like hearing him talk about it. i went to auburn - home of kick a swimmers. auburn is usually well-represented in the olympics by the swim team (men's and women's - u.s. and foreign). this morning i was watching the 200m breaststroke heats and i see this kid, eric shanteau come in second in his heat. as soon as he stands up in the pool, and i see his face i instantly recognized him - i had freshman english with him. swimmers are people you don't forget. they are very imposing, always wet, really blond...you just don't forget them after you see them every day for a semester. and then you see them randomly on campus, on the autographed swimming poster that hangs in every downtown restaurant. 

i got excited. i love seeing people i know (sort of) and i immediately think "ahh i hope he wins!" then they interview him afterwards and they start talking about cancer. i couldn't really here because i was doing something else, but i decided to look it up. and the articles were overwhelming. at 24, he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer and is forgoing immediate treatment to compete in the olympics. its ridiculous and because there is no need for me to paraphrase what someone has said better, i will let you read the article if you want. i just thought it was crazy and will definitely be pulling for him in this race - which i'm pretty sure it the only event he is competing in. 

Reason #143 I Hate Starbucks

so today i had an interview at buckhead church for a position teaching preschool. everything went well, and barring any major issues between me and my co-teacher, i will start working there on monday. so to celebrate this little bit of good news, i decided to swing by starbucks and get a treat. also, it was only 1:45 and the boys don't get done with work til 6 or 7, so i had nothing but time to kill.

i go into starbucks and i'm feeling frisky so i decide to get a coffee cake and order my usual decaf mocha frappaccino. first of all, do you ever walk in to a place and everything you know logically goes out the window and you feel like everything you've ever trusted has somehow failed you? that's how i felt. one guy was working on something and the other was just standing there looking at me but when i went to order, he looked like it was so beneath him that i wondered if there was some new way of ordering drinks that i wasn't aware of. isn't that what they are there for? to take my order? am i at the wrong end of the counter? what is happening?

anyway, so i order my decaf mocha frappaccino to which i get back a blank stare. did he hear me? i politely repeat my order. this is what happened then:

him: "um, we don't make that in decaf."

me: "oh, do ya'll not have it here? that's ok. ummmmm...."(looking back up at the menu)

him: "do you ever get that at a starbucks? where?" 

me: "well, it depends on which one i go to..."

guy that was actually working: "yeah, it's just a space issue."

then the guy who was theoretically taking my order flips his jonas brothers hair in disgust and looks at his co-worker, not believing that he didn't have his back and says "it's not just a space issue. starbucks doesn't carry that!"

co-worker: "yeah but we used to and now that we have new stuff, there just isn't room for all of it so the decaf got discontinued"

me: "oh ok. that's fine. i'll just have a regular one then."

i could not believe this freakin barrista's attitude. i don't know if he was hopped up on his free espresso shots or what. i wanted to tell him that i don't even like starbucks. it tastes like burned coffee. i wanted to remind him that for someone so high and mighty he works at the most generic, soulless coffee shop imaginable. i wanted comment on his stupid inverted beard (you know where you shave down to your jawbone and let everything under your chin grow). i wanted to say so many things. but i just said thank you and took my treats and walked out remembering why i hate going to starbucks in the first place. 

I Think I Had a Seizure in the Bank Parking Lot

ever since 2 summers ago, i have been open to the idea of having a brain tumor or some other kind of neurological issue. it all started with randomly throwing things across the room (pens when i would go to pick them up, my phone when i would go to answer it, etc.). i have since developed a slight stutter.

today i was in the drive thru at the bank and i put my car in park and leaned out the window and realized i didn't have leverage on anything and slammed my foot down on the gas. the people in the next row thought i was challenging them or something. so then i wait for my deposit slip to come back and as i'm getting situated about to drive off i somehow (still don't know how or why) hit the steering wheel and honked the horn. i think the people around me thought i had serious issues. 

sometimes i wonder myself.

Holding it Together

to kick off my morning, i start by laying in bed reading my blogs. one of which is written by my former boss. i see the picture is of the "for sale" sign in their yard and then i realize it is a post of how their house has sold after 4 weeks. now, a sane reaction to that post would be to get excited for people who are in the same situation as you. however, what happened? i started crying.

we are going on week 9 of our house being on the market with no offers in sight. my husband lives in a different state and works a job that keeps him so busy, i'm lucky to hear from him for 5 minutes a day. not to mention we both suck at talking on the phone and the things we have done during the day just don't seem important enough to talk about when your tired at the end of the day. 

i am desperate to get to atlanta. to live with my husband again. to be able to hang out with friends when i'm there and not feel like i'm missing important time with david. i get really sad when i think about it, so i just try not to think about it and then one day it rushes out as i'm reading matt's blog. 

i will say this...i am grateful for the time i have had here this summer. it has given me a chance to spend some much needed time with a friend that i have missed so ridiculously much the past few months. i have gotten to hang out with a friend who is on a break from teaching in china as well as a friend who stays so busy with music that he hardly sits still. i have been able to go and do without figuring out what the "plan" is. i have realized how God has blessed me with david (you know how you don't know what you got til it's gone?). He has shown what a gift david is. 

i know at the end of this, there will be an amazing lesson but right now i'm having a little trouble seeing the forrest on account of the trees and whatnot. 

(disclaimer: this is not intended to be a pity party or plea of any kind. just a little honesty.)

Wilson sings "War Eagle"

i was organizing things on my computer just now, and i came across this video of the sweet little boy i used to keep. when david played with martha's trouble, i kept their kids and i spent more time with those two than i did with david. i miss them so much!

but the story behind this is that wilson loved auburn basketball (thanks to his ga ga, not rob and jen) and so one day i decided to play the fight song for him on my phone. that was the end of it. every day, multiple times a day, he would bring me my phone and say "aubie, bek. aubie." meaning, "play the fight song." the version i have on my phone is only the band playing but i still managed to teach him the "go! go! go!" part...the arm thing he just started doing. i guess its inherent to collegiate spirit. anyway, i think its one of the most precious things...maybe it will make you smile too. note: he does not get faked out by the intro. (for rss readers, there is a video here)

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wilson fight song from Rebekah Ytterberg on Vimeo.

The Red Scarf

i love to read. so i've decided that maybe i'll just fill you in on things that i read. especially right now because i have a good bit of free time and get to read a lot.

i just finished a great book in about 4 days. i'm really enjoy reading fiction, but it is hard for me to find fiction that i really like. and as a graduate in history, i usually find books that deal with subjects that i find most interesting. this entire year i have been in my russian obsession. this one comes and goes, as do most of my obsessions. anyway, i just finished a biography of catherine the great so i decided to go with a novel on russia under stalin...the red scarf by kate furnivall.

synopsis: 

two women are prisoners in a gulag labor camp in siberia. they have been bonded together through hardship and near death experiences. to distract them from their lives in the camp, anna tells sofia stories of growing up as a wealthy aristocrat in st. petersburg with her best friend, vasily. vasily becomes their hero through the memories of anna's childhood and makes the long, bitter days a little easier. when anna becomes sick, sofia realizes she won't make it through another harsh siberian winter and decides that she has to escape. she has to find her way to the small village of tivil, to vasily who is living under an assumed name. together they will come back for her.

after months of hiding and traveling, she makes her way to the small town, where she is cared for by a gypsy family. she finds who she believes is anna's childhood friend, only she falls in love with him and can't help but feel like she is stealing the man anna has been in love with her entire life. together, they have trouble just making it through the days with the harsh conditions of stalin's government but they are going to have to dig even deeper to somehow make it back to anna before it is too late. 

opinion:

i loved this book. first off it is just well written. i'm really picky about novels because a lot of them are cheesy but this one was amazing. and historically, it was interesting and true. it gives an insight into rural life in communist russia and how even the smallest of villages is not safe from the all-seeing eye of the motherland. you feel like at any moment you are going to get caught reading the book and somehow be implicated in the fictional activities. at the end, the events do start to happen much more quickly, as though the author realized it was getting too long and had to wrap it up, but it wasn't to the point that it ruined the story. all in all...great book.