Awkward and Awesome Thursday: Seriously Unawesome

Awkward:

• So here is my sad story from this past weekend: I went to the Franklin Graham crusade experience Rock the Lakes with my grandma last Sunday. It is a free evangelical worship concert with artists such as Newsboys, Flyleaf, and my personal hero since childhood, Michael W. Smith. On a whim, I eagerly texted the number advertising a contest to win a backstage meet and greet with the evening's artists, but since I don't have a smart phone, I couldn't figure out how to access the direct message they apparently sent me telling me that I WON! I found out Monday morning once I logged onto my laptop that I could have met Michael W. Smith!!! I was kind of devastated for life. Now, that's beyond awkward. It's seriously unawesome.
• Admitting that I have been watching The Bachelorette for the first time this season. Oh, the horror . . .
• My whole always craving ice cream thing isn't helped by it being 95 degrees outside.
• My city has made national news for a shameless act of bullying. You know the crying bus monitor video? Yeah, that happened 10 minutes from where I live. Also unawesome.
• The fact that you might have missed out on these great posts because I forgot to announce them on Twitter and Facebook!
• A Country-Hater Defends Country Music
• Wishlist: I Adorn You
• Neil Gaiman "For Amanda, An Appreciation After Christopher Smart, Sort Of"

Awesome:

• Seeing Michael W. Smith (again) up close and personal--even if he was on a stage and not chilling next to me at a backstage meet and greet :'-(
• Remember how I cry about everything? Well, with this knowledge I probably shouldn't have looked at these 21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity while at work.
• Waffle cones. Now I know what the hubbub is about! 
• An hour-long commute in 90-degree heat with no AC means an automatic blow dry each morning.
• The Louisiana gospel band L'Angelus to whom I was introduced at Rock the Lakes. They are my new obsession! Can't get enough of their sound. And I've never liked gospel music ever. Must be Rachel exposing me to all of that country.
• The best Lobster Cob salad I could have imagined in my wildest dreams at Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel.
• A fabulous hiking and swimming day trip with Mom and Rach on Tuesday.
• The two weeks spent without my honey will be rewarded with an amazing FIVE-DAY weekend together come July. Okay, so that's pretty awesome.

"City Port Took My Blues Away" (Marseilles, France)

I spent today on a lovely excursion to Watkins Glen, New York with my mom and sister. Walking the piers and later enjoying the most perfect Lobster Cobb salad one could imagine, I was reminded of a certain fact about my feelings towards docks, fish, boats, and water in general:

I love waterside communities. I love marinas where boats of sea-goers from every walk of life moor at the edge of the big blue waiting to begin a journey. Even better are European port cities--pockets of the wide open sea tucked under the wing of a bustling urban environment. Such is the Vieux-Port ("old port" in French) of Marseilles, France.

The Watkins Glen piers along Seneca lake do remind me of a much smaller scale Vieux Port, in a way. The above picture could have been taken in a marina from either location for example, but the same could not be said for some of the photos that follow.

Marseilles backs up from Vieux Port to the second largest city in France after Paris. Walking down Rue Canebiere, it's actually quite shocking how quickly this bustling broadway of art and culture cuts of completely and veers off in two gangly arms hugging a narrow boatyard hedged by cafes, cocktail lounges, tea rooms, hotels, and theaters.

As the stereotypical French high-life continues on either side of the port, directly in front of the wharf the culture quickly turns Mediterranean as fishmongers sell fresh wares every morning. And I mean fresh. They were literally hauling in loads of seafood while we stood there watching people barter at the fish market. The men and women who work the docks are dirty, gruff, and boisterous like characters out of a Dickens seaside epic.


This is not the glamorous lifestyle I associated with France before our trip, but it is a side of the country I am glad to have experienced. Who would have known that we are so similar in the Finger lakes region of New York state to the Marseillaises of France?

View of Notre Dame de la Garde from the Old Port

 

More pics of Marseilles' Old Port and one freaking huge fish after the jump!