country singers and creepy abraham lincoln

let me set the scene for you.  nashville, tennessee.  yesterday.  claire, erica, and i are full to the brim with delicious food and we have spent a lot of time reminiscing and giggling.  erica's on a high because alabama kicked florida's butt, i'm on a high because duke beat st. john's (though not as handily as i'd have liked), and claire's on a high because she went for a run.  claire's high is a result of doing good things for her body.  mine and erica's high is from sitting on our butts and eating spinach artichoke dip and occasionally clapping and cheering.

note: there are two claires.  i am one of those claires.  the other claire also works at my school, and sometimes we call her claire #1 because she was there first.  we also look kind of a lot alike.  it is weird.  and awesome.

back to the story.

so we're in nashville and we've put on our dancing shoes and gotten ourselves in a cab and we're headed out to listen to live music and go dancing.  nashville is the BEST PLACE EVER for live music - free, in every bar on the main (touristy) strip, and of really high quality.  mostly country music, but not always.  this was my third time in nashville and every time i've had SUCH a good time going out, mostly because i love live music.  hooray.

at about midnight, in a bar, claire and i saw cowboy troy and gretchen wilson and a man dressed up as abraham lincoln.  the man dressed up like abraham lincoln was creepy because he looked SO like abraham lincoln.  we ran away from him.  or, scurried away from him.  it is hard to run in a bar.  i did not know who cowboy troy was.  we passed by him in the bar at one point and i thought he was just a guy with bad facial hair.  twenty minutes later he was up on stage and the band was introducing him and he was singing/rapping songs.  really fun.  and then the band introduced gretchen wilson who i HAVE heard of.  i kept asking claire "is that really her?" but the moment she started singing her hit songs it was clear that it was.  she sang a couple of her songs with the band behind her - in what appeared to be a totally impromptu performance - and the first stanza of janis joplin's "oh lord won't you buy me a mercedes benz," which entertained me greatly - and then she and cowboy troy disappeared and all was normal again.

so fun.  and it felt so NASHVILLE.

now i am back in atlanta.  and i will take a nap.