I SEE STARS!

Yesterday I went on a fruitless search of Nashville Pawn Shops, looking for a large piano size keyboard. You'd think in Music City they'd be plentiful, right? Nope. Nothing. Lots of guitars and drums, but no keyboards and I visited many, many pawn shops.

Found a Studio Instrument Rental place that wanted to charge me my mortgage to rent a keyboard for two weeks. They must have mistaken me for Taylor Swift. That happens all the time and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of it.

So I went back to Shelby House and practiced on my little keyboard. I knew I should've brought my biggun!

After a day of making music, or trying to anyway, I wanted to get out of my own head for a while. SO!

In Brentwood, TN, they have this observatory run by Vanderbilt University. Wait, I have to mention that every time I see a sign for this University, I think of my 8th grade designer jeans. Can't help it! Anyhoo, so the Dyer Observatory has Open House Telescope nights from March - November. Last night was the last time this year to look through their telescope, so naturally I went. It was a hoot. A loooong line of people, many of them boyscouts, yay, and docents along the line giving us information on space, and the observatory, and what we would be seeing in the sky this fine clear evening. I knew I wouldn't be seeing Saturn as she is a morning star, but luckily on the docket... Jupiter! I was stoked. So I waited in the line, shuffled forward inch by inch, and looked at star charts and read up on nebulas, which are my personal favorite. So beautiful. They had huge photos taken from the Hubble space telescope all along the walls with written descriptions. Globular Clusters, The Tadpole Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy which is moving toward our Milky Way even as we move toward it... It boggles the mind.

So I finally made my way into the main dome which houses the telescope. It was pointing to an open spot in the dome through which I could see the night sky. And my pulse said "HI!"

After I hijacked the Observatory personnel to take my photo (on my iPhone which he was not familiar with. Fun for everyone especially the people waiting in line behind me), I was able to look through the powerful telescope and gaze at Jupiter. The red spot was not toward me but I was able to clearly make out the stripes and striations of moving gasses. And the bonus? Three of his moons, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were visible, with Europa's shadow visible on the planet's surface.

Call me a geek, but I almost started crying.

Afterward, I decided I needed a treat and three weeks was long enough to go without sushi. I found a nearby place and it looked promising. However, I was thoroughly disappointed. Why is it that I can peek into the window of my neighbors 365 MILLION miles away, say howdy to their moons, and on this very planet, most sushi places can't put fish on rice and make it delicious?

I mean, It's not like its astronomy.

Sheesh.