Notes from Big Red - 5

It’s been such a long time since I’ve written about life at Big Red. Since I’ve missed the opportunity to tell some great stories, I thought it was time to start up again.

Yesterday, while taking out a particularly toxic bag of trash (I’m cat sitting – so we have two now.) a Metro Police car pulled up. The officer waved – I waved back –and then walked on. Seconds later he was out of his car, asking me if I lived there.  Turns out, the Medical Direct Club offices had a silent alarm tripped and he was checking on the situation.

The officer was very curious about Big Red. He said he had no idea it was an apartment building and he was quite surprised that I would live there since this was “The most dangerous area in the city.”

What?

Oh yeah. Turns out that all the homeless services across the street are not so much a haven for the down and out as much as for the serious sexual offender. Sure, I would expect some crime in that area – cars get broken into all the time. But the officer told me that stabbings, rapes, etc. are the norm over at Catholic Charities and Room In the Inn almost weekly. He said I should be packing a gun at all times of the day. Turns out there are some serial rapists who enjoy the charities of our civic and religious outreaches.

He made serious suggestions for me to protect myself.  First – get a gun permit. Second – get a .32 and carry it on my person at all times. (Jesus, really?) Third – also carry a knife – just in case. Fourth – remember to start shooting sooner than later. (This part he demonstrated, showing several different scenarios of all the bad things that could happen if I allowed an attacker to come too close.)

In the mean time, he suggested I get mace immediately and hold it (ready to spray) in my hand at all times outside the building.

Now I’m sufficiently freaked out.

The last thing he said to me: “Don’t forget to shake the can of mace before you spray.”

New Painting

I painted this using Mount Hagen organic instant coffee. I call it Morning Pain.  It looks pretty good hanging in my bathroom.

Growing Sprouts in Mason Jars

Growing sprouts indoors is really easy. I use mung beans (you can get them in a bag at almost any grocery store).  Here's the easy way to grow your own sprouts at home:


1.  Put a small amount in any size mason jar and soak for the first 8 hours in water.

2.  Drain in the morning.

3.  Every morning rinse out your beans.

4.  When the bean pods are all off and rinsed out of your jar, your sprouts are close to being ready. Put grown sprouts in the fridge and enjoy on salads, sandwiches, etc.

Water Main breaks at Big Red - Pics and Video

First day of 2011
Pics and a few videos of the event.

Notes from Big Red 4

Random notes:

I just picked up two new blogs that I'll be writing and updating monthly for a media company in Louisiana.
That should be fun work!!

So far, I have one tutoring student in Franklin.

And I've been Christmas shopping and baking cookies while getting organized.
I have yet to get my TN Driver's License (oops) or my library card (a must).

My reading list this week:

Dune
Feminist Social and Political Theory
The Republic

Notes from Big Red - 3

Back at Big Red for the weekend. Of course, I plan to get some writing done! I have two pieces I want to finish this weekend  - a 6-8 page research paper on an obscure Brazilian metal Hamlet tribute album (really), and a short essay about the giant pile of human shit I found next to my car the last time I was here.

Today the Boyfriend and I went to the Habitat for Humanity store (there's a giant tile mirror there that I want), the Lao grocery, and an indoor gardening center...all just steps from Big Red on 8th Ave. I love downtown Nashville. Tomorrow we will go to The Turnip Truck - an all natural grocery.

The Tree That Grows from Big Red

This is a tree growing from the second story of Big Red. I took this from the ground floor while looking straight up at its roots.

Notes from Big Red - 2

10/8/10

I’m sitting at the kitchen counter reading passages from The Koran in my Western Lit text and writing notes on how I will present it to my students back in Alabama. None of them have read The Koran. I’m sure that some of my more religious students will be reluctant to read it lest they are corrupted by the Muslim text. 

The boyfriend and I have been listening to the Opening from The Koran on CD – something I will play for my students later next week.  He was given an entire recording of the Koran (in Arabic of course) when he was in Morocco.  I wonder if we’ll ever listen to all 15 hours of it.  Certainly Big Red would be the place to do that.

The more time I spend here, the more I am convinced that this is the place to do my writing.  Words come to me here in a way they haven’t in a long time.  Not since New Orleans have I been able to express myself so easily.  I’m glad I found Nashville. 

Notes from Big Red - 1

10/8/10

This is my first morning waking up as a quasi-resident of Nashville. The plan is to move here – to Big Red - in December. 

Big Red is a downtown building of 16 loft apartments – all with exposed beams, mismatched brick and stone walls, and wood/ concrete floors.  I love this place.  My boyfriend has lived here for years and I am coming to cohabitate with him until we find a place in the country to live out the “big change.”  (But more on that later.)

Since I first came here, Big Red has felt like a good place to be; and now, it feels like home.  The plan is to re-paint and find room for my stuff. I don’t have much furniture to bring up from Alabama. The only real concern is finding a place for my shoes. Sure, I could move them down to the boyfriend’s storage unit downstairs, but a girl likes to keep her shoes close.

Today the boyfriend will take me to explore some places in Nashville.  I hope to find places that I will like to shop. (I’m such a girl sometimes.)  But also, I hope to come back here  - to Big Red – and get some writing done. I’m pretty inspired here – and Big Red is the perfect place to materialize the stuff I’m working on. (More on that later.)