July | 2008 | BenSpark Family Adventures

Crystal: I can be Adopted at the North Attleboro Animal Shelter, originally uploaded by BenSpark.

I can be Adopted at the North Attleboro Animal Shelter.

â€œCRYSTALâ€-Neutered Male-Angora-Seal Point Himalayan- Born 3/98- â€œI was brought to the shelter after my best friend passed away. It has been a big adjustment for me, but, I am settling in pretty fast already. Iâ€™m not all that worried about finding a new home-with my awesome looks, and beautiful coat, who can resist me? And, I have the personality to go with the looks!!! I get along great with other cats (it would be nice if I could be placed with one of my friends), and I even like dogs. Iâ€™m more used to the small size dogs though. Maybe a laid back big dog would be ok. I also like kids, and Iâ€™m pretty out-going. My real dream home though, is with a nice older couple, who can spend their retirement with me. We can be good for each other. Iâ€™m used to traveling too, so-how about someone who likes to see the country? Anyway, come along, visit, spend some time, and get to know me, and maybe Rhiannon or Meeshi too! Or, give in to us, and take all three!! We really arenâ€™t a lot of trouble!â€ Love, handsome and knows it Crystal

Back about 3 years ago I was using myspace to blog as well as to discover new music. I discovered Eddie Christy and his song “I Can’t”. You must go to Eddie’s Myspace page to hear this song, it is beautiful and one of my favorite songs ever. Well, Eddie became a regular commentor on my blog posts and I would post comments on his posts as well. We struck up a friendship through blog after blog. And often he would say that I should look him up if I ever get to Nashville.

In a serendipitous twist of fate, Last Friday I got asked to cover demos in Nashville and Seattle, I was able to go to Nashville. I sent Eddie a message and we made plans. We would meet for diner downtown. I was looking for some decent BBQ grub and conversation. I was not disappointed in either. I’m probably going to make Eddie blush about this but I have to say it. He was the nicest guy. I mean sincerely nice. He was nice to everyone we met on the street, everyone. He took me through the city and told me about the history here and there. He considers himself a fact geek and loves facts about history. He pointed out a building that was not a building but rather a fake building to hide some ugly industrial equipment.

That is something I noticed, Eddie saw things that no one else did or would. He told me about Sam’s Sushi where the owner, Sam is a grumpy guy who doesn’t like new customers, yet he and Eddie talk on all sorts of issues. That doesn’t surprise me. And as we were walking down a hill a man in a powered wheelchair was coming up. Eddie said hello and told me the guy was a retired cop who liked the Nashville Predators. You see Eddie talks to can cares about people.

I notice how much I am in my own little world with my walls up all the time and noticed it more so while walking around with Eddie. While we walked around we caught up with some of my co-workers. I introduced them to Eddie, after we had gotten their attention, and he pointed out all the places to eat that were around. We were going to Rippy’s to sit out on the rooftop and have some BBQ. So we left them and headed up that way.

Along the way Eddie pointed out more history and places to see. We got to Rippy’s and took some photos including this one that I took with my Sanyo and my XShot 2.0 (New contest to win one is coming and I will have some to give away at IZEAFest 2008 and if I win the FuelMyBlog contest I’ll have some for Blog World Expo too.) After we were done taking photos my co-workers caught up to us and the 5 of us had dinner.

Dinner was delicious and we had a great time swapping stories. After dinner I caught a ride with one of my co-workers and Eddie headed off back to home. I had a great evening, awesome ribs and great conversation. Eddie, if you get up to Providence or Boston I’ll show you around there. Here are some photos from the trip around Nashville.