“Innit, tho?”

So, I don’t really think we could have had a better time Saturday night. Only Nadalee and I would run into 3 boys from London on Beale Street. What a night… jeepers. New friends, proper laughs, lovely memories.

My feet are wreckkked from walking all night. It’s what I get for wearing proper shoes… I’m glad I chose the balance-enhancing wedges over the less forgiving peep-toe heels, though. That would have been sooo much worse. I began my Sunday morning routine with a handful of Tylenol washed down with a swig of orange G2 – I needed some serious pain relief. I’ll recover… the experience was so worth it.

Getting sorted to go to dinner with Miss Nadalee and a friend from church.

It’s always a party here in Collierville, Tennessee.

I’ve got a date with my BFF Shaun at Gould’s tomorrow – I’m far past due for a hair cut. We’ll see what happens. This is the longest my hair has been in a goooood long while, possibly since May of ‘07 (and then we cut it ALL off). Not really sure what I’m planning on doing, but I usually go in ‘for a change’. I never have a clue of what I want, but somehow the hairdresser and I manage. We’ll see, hey? I’ll enjoy what might well be my last night with this ‘long’ hair.

Right then. I’m off.

xxAimeeCait

Bloc Party Saturday.

Not sure how long this’ll last – pretty sure I get tired of Bloc Party fairly quickly. It’s something I can’t quite figure out, I just know that 15 minutes of them and that’s all I can be expected to handle. However, I’m listening to Helicopter right now and totalllllly digging it. It’s been ages since I’ve had a Bloc Party fix. If you haven’t heard of them just yet, it’s okay. Crawl out from under that rock and check ‘em out. I highly recommend the following tracks:

From their first album, Silent Alarm:
Helicopter
Banquet
This Modern Love
She’s Hearing Voices
Price of Gasoline

And from their sophomore effort, A Weekend In The City:
The Prayer (favorite, hands down)
Flux

Now I’m missing my guys from Rock. (Note – It’s not BLOC party. It’s bloc PARTY. Fact.) Peter, Will, Rachel, Chris, everybody — y’all have impacted my taste in music. Congratulations. What a feat. You lot are proper legends. Have an absolutely immense experience at Leeds for me, hey?

Who else is craving some drum&bass at the mo? Jeez.

If you like those kids, I would allllso check out Maximo Park (wahey northeast legends), Foals, and The Cribs. Just because you can’t really afford not to.

Well, enjoy your Saturday, lovelies. Got to get moving – I have a poolside date with Mr. Kerouac, and it’s slightly rude to keep a man waiting.

xxAimeeCait

Project Runway Party

So, let’s get real honest for a second. Hear me out. I’m not just playing Debbie Downer, as per my usual gig.
I’m all about the backstory.

Number of friends Aimee has in Baton Rouge: countless.
Number of friends Aimee has in England: many.
Number of friends/acquaintances Aimee has in Memphis: …

So, when I’m dying to leave the house to do something less inane than grocery shopping, my options are (to put it lightly) limited. Obviously, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy spending time with my family. I love my family more than I can say. But it’s frustrating.

In England, I went out at night. I went to pubs and danced and laughed with friends. Granted, the change of lifestyle & the slowing of my pace was wholly expected upon my return to The States – more importantly to the Southern Baptist stronghold that is the South… I just didn’t expect it to feel so mind-numbingly bland. I guess I came back with ideas & plans that, due to one circumstance or another, never came to fruition. I’m sure you know what that’s like. Easy to feel deflated when holes are poked in your plans.

Now, all that being said, not having things to do hasn’t been the worst thing that’s happened to my summer… not by a long shot. After 9 months in the UK, spending vast amounts of my time alone, I’ve learned to cope with not having plans for a weekend. What once was a totally disheartening experience is now an opportunity to absolutely revel in solitude – something I welcome openly at this point. Nothing says “wholly free of social anxiety” like a night spent reading in bed. So, while I can certainly cope with being alone for periods of time, the song remains the same – I’d do better with a friend or two.

So now that we’ve established that, let’s move on to tonight’s events.

Highlight of my night? Project Runway Season 5 debut.

Cassidy and I decided that we ought to celebrate (I don’t really need a reason to celebrate, but sometimes it helps) and have a Project Runway party. Thus, we played with make up & spent time making snarky comments at the motley crew of youngblood fashion designers that take themselves far too seriously. It was magic.

One day, soon, I’ll have friends to do this sort of thing with. It’ll take some time, but I’ll get there. Keep the faith, lovely.

Alright, while this might not make sense yet, I’m fadin’ fast. My eyes are halfway shut & my breathing is slowin’ down. Gorgeous.

I’ll look at this in the morning. Until then…

xxAimeeCait

Wanna go to London?

(Ah yes, Baton Rouge’s own U.S. Times… I wonder where this record has gone? I hummed ‘Wanna Go To London’ the entire time whilst on the train here.)

So yeah, I’m on the train back from London. This is going to be a quick post as I’ve got a SPLITTING sinus headache (thank you, London Underground air…) but I just wanted to let y’all know that Nadalee & I are alive and well.

Highlight of the trip? Well, apart from the Tate Modern, Avenue Q, the Waterloo Banksy street gallery…

WE LITERALLY BUMPED INTO THE JONAS BROTHERS.

Haha. Nadalee and I basically lost it. It was great. Sadly, we didn’t manage to get a picture or anything ’cause the teenage girls next to us kind of monopolized on their personal space, but hey. I’m not a proper fan, they were – it meant more to them to get to chat with them. Besides, what would we have even said: “My little sisters think you’re awesome!!!!” That’s what every teenybop rocker wants to hear, obviously. But yeah – there’s my one celebrity sighting whilst living in this country, and they weren’t even English. But yeah, good times. Fact: You never know who you’ll trip over whilst in Leicester Square.

Nadalee heads home on Friday & she’s helping me get myself sorted to start packing for my journey home, which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is only a week away. How ridiculous…

I’m starting to well up with these stupidly unpredictable tears again, so I’m going to have to leave it here.

What a long strange journey this has been.

xx Aimee Cait

Babble babble babble

Bonus points to the brave few who’ll make it through all 9 minutes and 46 seconds of me. High five in advance.

Haven’t stopped moving yet… jeepers. This day will end at some point. This I know.

xx Aimee Cait

Favourite Music Video of Late…

Okay, so it all started with an episode of Nevermind the Buzzcocks…

Ryan Jarman of the British indie band, The Cribs, has such an incredible accent, and he’s ridiculously funny. (He invented Live Aid. True story.) The video for their song “Mirror Kissers” (see up there) is just genius and it makes me smile, so give it a watch.

xx Aimee Cait

Just10

Leah said it earlier – yes, this is that J. John from HPC. He’s a very well known evangelist in the UK and I’ve got the privilege of hearing him speak for the next 10 weeks.

I attended Night 1 (Commandment #10) of Just10 Northeast last night in Gateshead.

The feeling of being in the presence of 6,000 other people, singing How Great Thou Art… Absolutely incredible.

There are two sites in the Northeast of England that are hosting J.John – one in Gateshead (Tuesday nights) and one in Stockton (Wednesday nights). He’ll be unpacking the 10 Commandments one by one, counting down from 10. He’s such a brilliant communicator. He’s able to communicate with such a wide variety of people – just looking around last night, seeing the thousands of different kinds of people… it was just so flippin’ cool!

xx Aimee Cait

Adventures in York

Right – solo adventure in York today. York is a lovely lovely place & I chose to go there today because

1. I refuse to sleep ’til 2 in the afternoon again
and
2. I haven’t really walked in a few days

So I figured out how to get from Emile’s house to the train station (Thornaby), stood in a MASSIVE queue for a ticket, and hopped on the 12:05PM bound for York.

Nodded off many times during this train journey. Don’t remember too much, really.

We pulled into the York train station and it makes my heart ache a bit. The last time I was in York, I was with Bubba & the Istrouma lot. I (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned numerous times) have been excessively homesick lately, and visiting a city that only carries memories of my mum? Not my best idea. But it was really neat to revisit it. I just set out exploring, and that was lovely. Remembered my way into the city centre (the signs miiight have helped – thank you, brilliant city planner people of York) and just began to wander.

York has some of the most amazing little stores… loads of fudge/toffee/confectionery places, lots of souvenir shops, an entire store devoted to whisky, even a bookstore called “The Little Apple”. (Ha – ha. Get it?) Also there are stacks of tea rooms. Stacks of ‘em. Flippin’ everywhere.

I wandered into this amaaaazing vintage clothing store (it puts Time Warp to shame on so many levels) and began to browse the racks of clothes. Then I noticed something odd.

Something sounded familiar.

Being the curious individual that I am, I had to ask. So, once the store cleared of customers, I asked…

Me: “Ma’am, who picks your soundtrack?”

Store lady: “My boss, actually. They’re his CDs. He’s kind of this 70’s punk rocker guy… so yeah.”

Me: “…Dr. John?”

Store lady: “It fits somehow…”

I explained where I was from, and how Dr. John was such an unexpected thing to hear in a vintage boutique in Northern England. She smiled and nodded appreciatively. There’s something nice about sharing stuff like that with strangers. A bit of a thrill, a warm feeling, this quiet understanding of someone on a really basic human level. I continued browsing.

As I was walking out, having not purchased anything (the store was crazy expensive), I did the typical “I haven’t bought anything even after we’ve bonded Walk of Shame” thing, but once she noticed I was walking out the door, she called out after me:

Store lady: “Hey, next time you’re homesick, come on by and I’ll play some Dr. John for you!”

Oh oh ohhh. I love people sometimes.

In the end, I bought a cute dress/tunic/thing from H&M.

xx Aimee Cait

1 way to make friends on trains…

I pull out my Mac on a train from Darlington to Thornaby, and this is what happens.

I miss nannying!

IKEA was magical today — I have super cute ice cube trays now. Hooray!

Hope you’ve had a brilliant day. All my love!

xx Aimee Cait

C’mon, cry with me…

Just watched a bit of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ with Ben, and this kid brought me to tears (along with the rest of the audience and one of the judges) and I had to hear it again. Check little Andrew out – he’s amazing.

Off to IKEA today! Hoorayyyyy

xx Aimee Cait