my friend courtney is amazing.

i am beyond excited. my friend courtney, who resides in chicago, is going to be in richmond this weekend. courtney is one of those people who showed up in my life at exactly the right place at exactly the right time. if my life in college were a movie, she definitely would have played the role of "manic pixie dream girl" but without all the negative connotations. i was this dumb kid who was just kinda figuring himself out and she kinda opened my eyes at a time when they were very much closed.

al burian, in his book natural disaster (highly recommended by the way), refers to a phenomenon called the "non-stop party wagon". the decision to say "yes" to every offered experience and see where it takes you. hanging out with courtney in college was a lot like this at the time. an adventure.

she moved across the country after college and we have stayed in touch all these years and our friendship has stayed strong. she's married and has a dog and puts on amazing shows with her theatre company. she's someone i've always been really proud of and she's always been completely supportive of me when i was pursuing music.

anyway, i'm super excited to have her visiting, because i get to show her my life in richmond and let her see where i live. i've always visited her, on various tour stops over the years, and with the exception of a brief visit to my shitty/awesome band house in harrisonburg many years ago, she hasn't been able to see much of my little world.

it's going to be really awesome. i'm taking her to comfort to get some southern cooking, then to the richmond folk festival, and then we'll see where the night takes us. i'm envisioning rooftop beers or a stop by cous cous. needless to say, it's going to rule. tomorrow we head off to south boston (virginia) to celebrate the wedding of garrett. lots of old blacksburg friends should be there and it promises to be a hell of a good time.

i can't wait. it's going to be awesome.