the ringing of the division bell has begun

                          On Saturday night Peppy and I went to see Brit Floyd at Belmont University. He was looking to see if there was any reason to Uber last weekend and happened to see they were playing a school's performing arts center. We sat exactly opposite of where I circled. The location was beautiful, and almost felt like we had been transported back in time. Plus we'd never had seats this good for Brit Floyd before. We have previously decided that higher is better to appreciate all the lights and lasers, but we've never had balcony box seats before. 

It felt like a legitimate date because we left with time to spare! I was on a quest for a delicious reuben, and Peppy had promised me that he knew of a great cookie place we could go to before the show. He kind of gave me the Nashville tour, driving around and showing me all the spots he regularly talks about when he ubers. It really was interesting because downtown Nashville has grown so much over the last decade. It feels very different than it did when I was a child, or even just fifteen years ago.

We went to the 51st Street Deli and then to The Baked Bear for a custom ice cream sandwich. We shared an ice cream sandwich, and I had looked at the menu online already, but places like this are so overwhelming to me when you walk in and there is no one in front of you in line. Someone is there and ready to serve you, like, NOW. There's so many choices. Too many choices. Someone like me needs three options max. 

A brownie on the bottom, caramel pretzel ice cream and then some sort of nutella oreo cookie. I think? It was really good. The cookie and brownie were both very fresh. 

We ate our cookie outside on the patio with one other couple, who were obviously on a first date. We overheard one of them saying something about Donald Trump being shot, but from the tone of his voice we thought he was telling her a joke or something. And then three hours later my friend texts me and tells me that someone tried to kill Donald Trump. It was kind of surreal knowing that the only person we heard mention it in real life was the guy who we thought was joking. We were around lots of groups of people that night, and not a single person said anything. That just feels weird. Former president has an assassination attempt and no one in my realm of existence at the time seemed to care at all. 

It is also interesting that suddenly no one is talking about replacing Biden anymore.

Just a couple general observations from over here.

At one point I looked down and realized that the ground level seats had no clue about the lasers. No one was looking up. Everyone was looking straight ahead. Peppy and I had already decided based on previous shows that we always wanted to be able to see the lasers, but we had no clue that you were oblivious to them if you were on the floor. It gave me this weird Truman Show feeling, like I was one of the people pulling the strings and I was a realm above the lower level, watching them watch the show. It is kind of sad because I could feel this weird parallel of people going through life and not even realizing they are missing out on half of it (and probably the best part!) Or people too focused on the distraction by the entertainment in front of them to notice all the amazing stuff going on all around them. 

Because I was sitting up I was miraculously able to stay awake until about 11:30. (Although I was a little worried when I was obsessively yawning at 5 pm on the way to dinner.) I tried to continue conversation on the drive home, but the moment I pulled my pillow out...I was gone. I'm serious. I just propped it up on the window, leaned over and suddenly we were back home.