TreyCurtis: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

TreyJaVu: Week 17

Week 17. Baking Cookies is a Hard Process

Why I hate going to the bank. Betsy is back in Nashville. Self-Cleaning ovens are hell. Baking cookies out of a tube. Songwriting with Betsy. Rain is a good thing, but raining phones are not. I FREAKING LOCK MY KEYS IN MY CAR. My parents come to visit me, AND my single gets released on iTunes in ONE WEEK.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

parents are pretty neat

this past weekend my parents drove down from missouri to visit/bring some stuff to my house here in nashville.

updates.

(SATURDAY)
I now have a bed.
My parents bought me a BED!
I was just going to get a "full" size, but the "queen" size was the same price, so I got the queen.
I've been sleeping on my futon since I've moved into my house, a month ago, so I was really excited for this bed. perhaps overly excited.

I now have food.
we made a walmart trip. those trips are always fun with the parents. ;)

I took them to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

We rode on the General Jackson Showboat down the Cumberland river.
we just got to relax and enjoy each others' company for a couple hours while seeing some great scenery, before seeing a show on board.

now you know where I get my (dashing) good looks

the show we saw on board was called, "Heart of Tennessee" it showcased the several different types of music that have come out of the state. Six singers were accompanied by a live band. It was pretty entertaining.

(SUNDAY)
I took them to church at Crosspoint, here in nashville, and after that we all went out for lunch with my roommate, Bryce, at The Pfunky Griddle.
The Pfunky Griddle is a restaurant where you have a griddle built into your table, and you buy batter/eggs/french toast & you cook it yourself. It's a great place to go have a fun experience. It was my second time eating there. I love it!

...and then my parents left.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

TreyJaVu: Week 16

Week 16. I store mouthwash in my car?

Taco Bell at 2:10 a.m., I keep mouthwash in my car, SATCO = buttload of chips, Julie LOVES cars, Cafe Coco @ 4:00 a.m. & totally random house tour? It was a really weird week, and I don't have any friends.

all I do is cook

except, not really.

I was with my friend, Ryan, the other night, and we made a late-night supper. I've been wanting to learn how to cook, and he went to culinary school, so hey, why the heck not?

we picked some recipes out of a cooking magazine, (maybe food network magazine? does such a thing exist?) eh, who knows.

we ended up choosing to make penne noodles, with a vodka/tomato sauce (now don't get your panties in a wad, the alcohol from the vodka gets cooked out), we steamed an artichoke, and I got the job of making a pecan pie.

we steamed the artichoke and as an appetizer, we dipped the "leaves" in ranch, and then cut up the heart of it. It was so gooood.

mixing the ingredients for the pie

in the meantime while my pie was baking, this is what Ryan was up to;

my pie turned out really well, if I could say so myself.
(I had a really good recipe to follow.)

final product pictures. The pasta turned out great, and overall the meal wasn't that hard. Maybe I won't starve after-all living on my own. (or use all my money at fast-food joints...)

Friday, May 25, 2012

midnight snack in a tube

my good friend, Betsy, had just gotten back into Nashville after being in Nebraska for a couple weeks, so we got supper, went shopping for groceries, and worked on some songwriting.

I had been wanting to break in my "new" kitchen, so while we were getting groceries, I decided I wanted to make some cookies. I didn't have any ingredients to make cookies from scratch (and didn't know what ingredients I would need to buy off the top of my head) so, Betsy suggested that I start out with just buying some cookie dough, and baking that.

we turned on the oven to 350 degrees, and the kitchen filled with an awful smell. Since it was the first time using the oven in the house, since we've moved it, we came to the conclusion that the oven needed to be cleaned.

neither of us really knew how to clean a "self-cleaning" oven, but we pushed a couple buttons, and had to wait a couple hours.

in the meantime, Betsy stole my guitar and played in the kitchen

after writing for a couple hours, the oven was done cleaning itself. We were both really tired, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the chemicals or something from the oven had gotten into the air, and into our brains, so we were a bit crazy from that.

I didn't have any spray butter for the pan, so I just rubbed a stick all over before arranging the dough.

and wha-lah

you can all start calling me Rachel Ray, or Paula Deen now. I've received several calls from tv stations for me to start my own cooking show.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

old ladies, ice cream, & hit songs

a couple days ago, a sweet older lady in her 70's came, alone, into the ice cream shop that I work at. She asked for a single scoop cup of our pralines and cream. I scooped it, and handed it to her.

this is not the same lady. I found this on google.
photo credit: emmasgoods.wordpress.com

you could see that she had really been looking forward to this, and her face lit up. She said that this ice cream is the best around, and this was her favorite flavor. (she made sure to tell me that she had recommended it to all of her friends)

I rang her up at the cash register, and told her the total.
"that will be $3.17"
"Oh!" she said in a surprised tone "I don't remember it being that much. But I know it's worth it, and I'll be the last one to complain!" She said optimistically. "You know, one day, I'm gonna have that hit song, and I'll be able to buy a lot of ice cream!"

this sweet lady in her 70's still had the hope of writing that "one song" that will make it big, and will take care of her financially.

this is the hope of nashville.

but that's not the end of the story.

she opens her firmly gripped fist, and lets out several coins onto the counter

counting out the three dollars and seventeen cents in dimes & nickels, checking it twice to make sure she was going to pay every cent.

with all of the change she had in her fist, it amounted to $3.15.

two cents short of the total.

I told her not to worry about the two cents, that it was taken care of, and to have a great day.

she looked a little unsettled, and went to sit down at a table where she had left her purse.

a few minutes pass, I go back to the kitchen to make a milkshake, and a coworker takes over the cash register to ring up the line of customers we were serving.

I look over, and see this older lady making her way back up to the cash register to make sure she was paying her last two cents.
"I knew I had these", she said proudly as she hands the remaining two cents to my coworker from digging deep into her purse, just so she felt at peace about paying the full amount.

this is the pride of nashville

it's people like this nameless woman, that make me love this city. the people are truly great. this sweet woman has the hopes of a child, and sees that the sky is the limit.

there is always a chance. have hope, and one day, it just might pay off.

Friday, May 18, 2012

TreyJaVu: Week 15

Week 15. Livin' the dream, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Deodorizing rugs with baking soda. Betsy doesn't know how to change guitar strings, and neither do I. All my friends leave me, and I love alone. Kelsi and I play super mario brothers and we order sushi through GoWaiter.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

TreyJaVu: Week 14

Week 14. You can only edit out so much awkwardness.

Done with voice juries, finals, & school. Last night together with friends. Sneaking out to go to Cafe Coco. Moving out of the dorm, moving into my house. Staying up all night. Rain, hail, & and a job! Also, we're really proud of our new shower curtain rings. You'll see why.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

first day on the job

I had to arrive early to my new job on the first day to get a parking pass. Of course, I should've known that the Nashville flood of 2012 would come out of nowhere. 2:30 p.m. = clear skies & 80 degree weather. 3:20 p.m. = random clouds filled with water aiming towards your head, hail slamming into your car, & a temperature drop to 65 degrees.

I've come to realize that God has a sense of humor that I may never understand.

I run from my car to my working place (which is only a couple blocks away) and THIS is what I look like when I walk in.

I might as well have just taken a bath in all of my clothes, because this is due to just a couple minutes in the rain.

But, besides my body being soaking wet, it was a good first day at work. I watched a training video, learned how to clean the store, and even scooped some ice cream.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

moving is expensive

...and I am poor

I have now been living in this new house for 6 days and it's starting to come together. I made a walmart trip a couple days ago to get some food (ramen, tv dinners, & boxed mac&cheese, of course) and I also bought a couple storage drawers. The have really come in handy with making my room more organized.

But, the real reason why I am writing this post is to talk about how ridiculously expensive life is. It's obvious that living with two other guys in the house is a lot cheaper than living alone. (splitting rent, utilities, internet, kitchen supplies, furniture, & such). But still, dannnnggg.

Perhaps I'm being extreme, but I'm currently thinking about couponing. Do I have to be a middle-aged woman with at least 35 children to coupon? Who knows, maybe I'll be SO good at it that I can make it onto the tv show, Extreme Couponing.

Now that would be an accomplishment.
Most likely more accomplishing than anything else I'll do in life.

But hey, who knows. Maybe I actually will end up marrying that country/pop star I secretly love, and I'll never have to worry about money again.

Until then, I'm embracing this poor, pathetic thing I call my life.

Monday, May 7, 2012

is this what growing up is like?

This past week we pretty much unreal. So many different plans and emotions played a factor in this fa-reaking roller coaster ride.

Monday we got the keys to the house we are renting for the next year, here in Nashville
Beside's being somewhat in the ghetto, it's a great location, and in the Belmont area.

We were looking around the house, and didn't find anything really majorly wrong with it. So, we left, and made plans to move in on Tuesday (the next day). Whoooooooop.

I had class on moving day, but afterwards, I took a load over to the house around noon and heard from my roommates, "We think we have mold in the ceiling." This isn't really something you want to hear about a place you're living. We do a pretty thorough look-through, and my roommate, Bryce, even gets in the attic to look at the ceiling (which was also bowing due to water damage)

side note: To add to the stress level of the day, I also had a job interview for an ice cream shop downtown.

We make some phone calls to see if we could get it checked out by an inspector, called the landlord, and at this point, we were also looking online for other houses we could rent in the area if an inspection didn't go well.

We order an inspection for as soon as possible, and he comes Wednesday morning.

Tuesday was just not a good day. We were all in a place of uncertainty. If the inspection goes well, we have a house. If not, and our landlord chooses to not fix any major problems, we were going to see about getting out of the lease, and start the whole process over again. Looking for houses, filling out an application, touring houses, finding one in our price range, getting approved, signing the lease, and then moving in.

Here's the twist.
Had I not also mentioned that is was also my finals week at school, and I had to be out of my dorm room by Thursday - Saturday at the latest?

It was becoming a reality that if this inspection didn't go well, there was no way we could find and move into a new house in two days, or even four days. I was going to be homeless.

I am so thankful for the friends I have here in Nashville. I told a few people about the situation, and had some offers if I needed a place to stay for a few nights.

Wednesday came, and I drove over to the house after I was done with class. The house was fine. Yes, there was some water damage, and some possibly leaks in the roof, but nothing too bad. Yes, there was some possible mold, but nothing that the inspector was worried about, so he gave us the go-ahead, and we started moving in.

[insert huge sigh of relief here]
All of our uncertainties were gone, and we had a house. We actually had a house.

Oh, and I found out that wednesday that I got the job downtown.

Wednesday was a good day.
Let's just forget about Tuesday.

As I was talking to a good friend about everything that was going on, she said these wise words, "I know that this week is really hard, but it's helping you grow. It doesn't seem like it is, but it was all work out, and when it's done, you'll feel like you can do anything; because you got through this week."

Sunday, May 6, 2012

first attempt at dinner

Since I am now living in a house, without the "luxury" (if you can call it that) of a university cafeteria, I have to make my own meals. Besides making ramen yesterday in the microwave, I made my frist meal today. I bought the Great Value mac & cheese at walmart.

First of all, I made the mistake of doing this...

I found it was pretty easy after all. I just boiled the noodles for 6 minutes, drained the water, added "milk" (I don't drink regular milk, so I substituted Vanilla Almond Milk) and some blue bonnet vegetable oil spread.