Hello from Nashville! Or for those of you reading from these here parts: Howdy y’all! I’m still getting used to living in the South. I’m still oddly struck when I hear someone’s deep southern accent at the grocery or a restaurant.

By now, most of you are probably reading this thinking, “Wait, you’re from Georgia. What the crap are you talking about?” Ally does not yet have an internet connection at her “house” (ha), so as her new best friend in Nashville, I have been given the distinct privilege to author her latest blog entry. Ally informed me last night that my own blog is not a real blog since it is done through MySpace and not on a blog-only website. I feel the words “spoken” in a blog are more important than the homepage, but that’s my humble opinion.

Anyhoo, I am Brian Moles. Like Ally, I have recently moved to Nashville. I should note that I have chosen to call Ally “Ally” instead of Allison, which she has also given us as an option. Not two hours after she had just commented negatively on someone not giving a straight forward answer to a question, when we asked her what we should call her, she told us either one was fine, so I picked Ally.

But back to my story. I moved to Nashville almost four weeks ago to try something new. Before relocating, I had lived in Terre Haute, Indiana for my entire life. I graduated from Indiana State University, which is in Terre Haute, electing to live at home with my parents during school to cut down on school costs. I might have lost several opportunities to broaden my social skills and make new friends, but unlike most college graduates, I was basically debt free on graduation day. After graduation, I continued to work at the job I had held in my last year and a half of school. I stayed there for another 18 months after graduation and around June of this year, decided I was moving to Nashville to get away from home.

Why Nashville? Last September, my brother Jeff moved here to begin his year-long experience as a Young Adult Volunteer for the Presbyterian Church, the same position Ally is just beginning. Over the last year, I visited Jeff and his roommates several times. Most big cities can overwhelm you very easily, but every time I came to Nashville, it did not have that effect. This spring, Jeff decided to stay in Nashville and continue his work at the Campus For Human Development, a day shelter for Nashville’s homeless population. Jeff and I have an apartment together and are getting settled. Aside from the country music, I have yet to have any major complaints about this town.

My days in Nashville have been fairly uneventful so far. Not having a job and trying to save money, I spend most of my days sitting on the couch watching television without cable and playing online. You can’t imagine how exciting getting a wall post on Facebook is until you’re unemployed. I watch The View and Martha Stewart in the mornings, then turn off the TV until the evening. My afternoons are filled with Mario Kart 64, browsing MySpace and Facebook, and searching for jobs online. If any of you reading this have any connections in Nashville, please let me know. I’m getting tired of people asking me how The View was.

I first met Ally and her new roommate Leslie, Sunday morning after church. We were having them over for dinner that evening, along with Susan, their site coordinator for the YAV year, and Chasie and Tara, two of Jeff’s YAV roommates last year who have also stayed in Nashville to continue working. Even though we had to clean our apartment from top to bottom knowing that five women were coming over for dinner, I wasn’t going to complain because of the fact five women were coming over for dinner.

Dinner was very good and we all enjoyed a fruit pizza that yours truly prepared for dessert. Before and after we ate, we had time to sit around and discuss each others experiences and all that blah blah blah. Ally, being old, has traveled the world and gone to law school, while I, being young, have only an undergraduate degree and speak only English, so I had little to share. But I still had fun.

Last night, we all enjoyed a get together with the other young adults that attend Second Presbyterian here in Nashville. This was the site of probably one of the most awkward moments for me in a long time. Since Sunday, Jeff and I have been saying that Ally and Chasie have very similar personalities and appearances. Last evening, we were discussing how they look alike and instead of just sitting back and letting Jeff and me analyze her appearance, she decides to interject with “And we both have huge boobs.”

As a male, there was nothing I could say at this point that would be appropriate in any way. Thankfully, the focus was then put on Jeff, who backed my thinking up with a “no comment” and a blank stare straight toward the wall.

But it didn’t end there. Instead of just laughing it off, the three or four girls sitting there decided to carry on a full conversation about their breasts and such. After several minutes of banter that I tried to block out as much as possible for my own personal protection, the next comment I hear is “Are they tender?” I couldn’t hold it in any longer and just cracked up. If this is what the next year is going to bring hanging out with Ally, it should be a freakin’ fun year.

I have to admit, this is not the style of my blog at all. My main motivation for writing this entry is knowing how many people will read it. My blog gets maybe 20-30 views per entry, while Ally’s super-amazing-spectacular-fun-filled-adventure blog gets that many comments, let alone views. My own blog is still better than her’s though, you should check it out.

If I don’t find a job for the next month, you can thank Ally. Instead of writing a few cover letters with my afternoon, I have been writing this. My lunch is even sitting in front of me half-eaten because I have become so focuses on blog that is not even my own.

I have no idea what I have just written, but I hope you liked it. I need a job really bad, because this is how bored I am. Ha.

(Conversation in the car last night):

Ally: So Jeff, do you affiliate yourself with a political party?
Jeff: Uhhh…

Brian: He’s a Democrat.

Jeff: Well, I’d say probably the Democrats.

Ally: What about you, Brian?
Brian: I don’t really associate with one of another anymore, I vote for whoever I like best.

Leslie: So what did you used to be?
Brian: A Republican.

Ally: So why not anymore? Did you become a Christian?

That cracked me up. Nice work.

We’re all friends now,

Brian

p.s. Ally-disclaimer: (1) The Christian comment was a joke. (2) My boobs are not, I'm afraid, remotely huge.

p.p.s. I'm grateful for a guest blogger who makes me laugh.