Basketball, sushi and a nice weekend with my brother

I had a special visitor this weekend, my "little" brother Michael. Mike is still on medical leave after having a ruptured appendix, followed by a ton of post-operative complications. It was a scary time for our family, but he is doing much better. We celebrated by having a weekend visit in Charlotte with Michael and my little doggie nephew Murphy.

On Friday night, we went to watch the Charlotte Bobcats play the Sacramento Kings. The game was fun, even though I am not a big NBA fan. (We're more college basketball fanatics, more specifically, the Tarheels.) I've been to Time Warner Cable Arena for many events, but never a basketball game. It was fun.

This has been a nice weekend with highs in the 60s, so we also took the doggies to the dog park and I got to introduce Mike to the joy of the Rusan's lunch sushi buffet.

The best part is how much better my brother is feeling. He was able to climb a lot of steps this weekend and walk through Concord Mills Mall. He couldn't have done that even just a few weeks ago.

Michael and I are at a new, exciting point in our adult lives. We're still brother and sister, but we are learning to relate with each other as friends. And that made this a fantastic weekend.

This is country music

On Friday, my friend Misty and I traveled about three hours to Roanoke, Va. to see Brad Paisley's H20 Frozen Over Tour. I had a feeling it would be pretty awesome to see him live, but I had no idea just how awesome he would be. (Side note: Brad's tour is the leading revenue producer so far in 2011.)

We went to the Roanoke Civic Center, a nice venue in downtown Roanoke. Because the show was sold out, I purchased our tickets through a Roanoke guy on Craigslist a few months ago. While he, and the tickets, seemed legit, I couldn't truly relax until they'd actually gotten us in the door.

Our seats were higher up, but centered perfectly in front of the stage. I loved them! Except for the fact that we had to climb some pretty steep stairs that had no railing. Being not the most graceful girl, I was so scared of them. But I am proud to say I did not fall. (Although five other unfortunate country music fans did.)

The opening act of Jerrod Niemann was fantastic. Not only was he hot, he was ext

remely talented and funny. He shared a couple of new songs with us and, of course, performed his big hit What Do You Want From Me?

Darius Rucker was next. I've already shared how seeing him perform is a bucket list item for me. While I love pretty much all of Darius' new country music, especially This, there was something magical to me about him singing I Only Wanna Be With You, Let Her Cry

and Hold My Hand. There are songs that I have known and loved for 15 years and to see him

perform them live was amazing.

Before Darius took the stage, Misty said, "I dare you to yell Hootie when he comes out!"

"I don't think I will be the only one," I told her.

Sure enough, when Darius came out, hundreds of people screamed Hootie. For just a minute, I could pretend that I had not ruined my life with my big mouth and was, in fact, attending a Hootie concert.

Darius sang a little Hank Williams Jr with the classic Family Tradition, which drove the crowd absolutely wild. Of course, he needed to change the lyrics up a little bit, as in, "Lordy, I have loved some ladies. And I have loved Jim Beam. And they both tried to kill me in 1993."

Darius ended his set with an amazing rendition of Prince's Purple Rain.

Jarrod and Darius alone would have been worth the (slightly scalped) price of admission, and we still had our main event. There really isn't much that Brad Paisley sings, says or does, that I don't love. This night wasn't an exception.

Brad's water theme was a constant throughout the night. At one point, Brad and his band appeared to be completely submerged under water. There were tons of little cartoons and video sketches behind him throughout the evening that could make you laugh, groan or even cry. (Thank you, Andy Griffith)

After playing a couple of songs to get the crowd going, Brad said it meant a lot to him and his band that people would spend their money on tickets to see them. "We're just going to try to give you your money's worth," he promised.

And they did.

It is honestly very hard for me to pick a highlight of the evening. This is Country Music is currently one of my favorite songs. Brad's performance was similar to his November CMA performance, so a montage of country music icons ran behind him as he sang, which stirred up all kinds of emotions for me. Merl Haggard, in particular. I remember listening to him as a kid with my grandparents, who could sing every tune even without hearing the music. My grandmother's brother would sometimes show up with his guitar and strum a Haggard tune. And of course, when an American flag was displayed on the big screen, the crowd went absolutely wild.

My probably all-time favorite Brad song ever is Then. Luckily, another Brad fan caught a great video of that performance for me, even the awesome guitar solo at the end.

One of the many highlights of the show was when Brad decided to "play to the cheap seats." He hopped onto the diving board of a pool and sang out to our section. That was pretty awesome. "When I was going to concerts, that's where I had to sit, so I wanted to do something special for the cheap seats!" he told us.

Brad ended the show with a giant, mascot-Muppet version of himself (hard to describe, but hilarious to see) serving drinks at a bar to Darius, Jerrod, the band and VT head coach Frank Frank Beamer while singing Alcohol. Darius was able to help Brad out with some of the lyrics by shouting out gleefully, "helping white people dance!"

All three of these performers were fantastic. They put their heart into it. They really did want us to get our money's worth. Throughout the show, they all accepted shirts and hats thrown on stage and would quickly autograph while continuing to perform. At the end of the show, Brad placed his cowboy hat on a little boy near the front of the stage who seemed overjoyed.

It takes a rare artist who can play for a room of 7,500 people and make you feel like he's playing just for you.

Check out all my pictures from the show here:

How my big mouth ruined my life

Alternate title: How living in Durham stole my adolescence

When I was in eight grade, Hootie and the Blowfish was THE hotness. There was no band hotter. People swooned as they performed all over the country.

They came to Raleigh and I somehow talked my mom into purchasing me third row tickets. It was going to be the experience of a lifetime.



Unfortunately, I had a little issue. I technically lived in Durham. All my classmates lived in Hillsborough. This meant every time I called one of my classmates, it was long distance.

One day, my parents received a $200 phone bill. Needless to say, they were a little, ummm, pissed.

After a lot of yelling (theirs) and a lot of crying (mine), I promised to never do it again. “If you do,” my mom threatened, “There will be no Hootie and the Blowfish!”
Well, I intended to keep my promise. I really did. But there were plans to be made, outfits to be planned, teachers to make fun of….

I knew the bill was going to be high. Astronomically so.

My parents live down a long, dirt road. I kept anxiously watching the mail box at the end of the road for the bill. My plan was to intercept it and hold onto it until after the concert. I could take my punishment then. And it almost worked.

One evening, my mom and I walked to the mailbox and she told me to get the mail. I did, leaving a critical piece of mail in the box. I planned to come back later and retrieve the mail. Well, about a half hour later my grandfather showed up to surprise us with dinner. He also decided to bring our mail.

“You only got one thing,” he said. “Sorry it’s just the phone bill.”

My parents exchanged a “We’re going to beat the hell out of her” look as I ran from the room. After Granddaddy left, we sat down to review the $350 bill. “There is only way to resolve this,” Mom decided. “We are going to sell your Hootie tickets to pay for the bill.”

I don’t know if I was in denial or just incredibly spoiled, but I just knew she didn’t mean it. These tickets were precious to me. My mom would NEVER do that.

Well, she did. She placed an ad in the Herald Sun, made me go with her to meet the sellers and tormented me the night of the concert. “I bet if you were there, you would be so close to Darius Rucker, he could spit on you.”

Well, 15 years later, I finally get my chance to see Darius. He is opening for Brad Paisley tomorrow night in Roanoke. I’ve heard he plays the Hootie classics.

Even though we have the cheap seats and I doubt anyone except drunk girls in cowboy hats will spit on me, I look forward to indulging my 14 year old self.

Why I heart Brad Paisley

I probably have an unhealthy love of Brad Paisley. I will admit it. Every track on every CD he's ever released is worth listening to as far as I'm concerned.

The fact that Brad is married to Father of the Bride's Kimberly Williams doesn't hurt. He also named one of his children after Huckleberry Finn, is friends with Carrie Underwood, funny on Twitter and not too bad to look at either!

Some of his songs are funny, like Alcohol. Some of them are incredibly beautiful and thoughtful, like When I Get Where I'm Going.

Last fall, in a special with ABC's Robin Roberts, Brad talked about losing most of his touring gear in the Nashville floods. He was upset about the loss, but was also keeping it in perspective. His team rushed to replace everything before they hit the road again. Before they got on the tour bus, Brad gathered his team around to thank them for their hard work. And he cried. It was one of the most genuine expressions of appreciation I have ever seen.

I've never seen Brad Paisley perform live, but I always watch when he performs on TV. I've seen a lot of great performances from him, but my all-time favorite is This Is Country Music from the 2010 Country Music Awards.

Brad had never played the song for anyone before. As he sang the first lines, "You're not supposed to say the word cancer in a song...", the auditorium grew silent.

As Brad continued to sing about country music, the crowd cheered. He even got choked up as he sang about patriotism. It was such a real moment. The crowd went wild when he sang lines from iconic country songs as images of Johnny Cash and the like flashed on the screen behind the band.

After the CMAs, people went wild for the song. The only problem was Brad hadn't released it yet! He rushed into the studio to get the single ready and then offered a free download of the song on his website.

The best thing to me about Brad Paisley is that he manages to modernize country music while still honoring the legends and traditions of the genre. In the process, he has become a country music icon himself. And I can't wait to see him on February 18 in Roanoke!