last weekend in uptown Charlotte

Last weekend here in Charlotte was a lot of fun.

I am pretty much the opposite of a Nascar fan. In fact I hate it. Just don't get it at all. BUT, 2 big races were here in Charlotte the past 2 weekends. The All-Star Race and then the Coca Cola 600 this past weekend. So uptown all the time was "Speed Street". Constant concerts and giveaways and FOOD and thousands and thousands of people EVERYWHERE.

I don't think I have ever seen the streets of Charlotte SOOOO crazy crowded. There was no room to walk. I was actually uptown hanging out and having fun 4 days in a row last week = Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
I saw concerts all the way from some Hip Hop groups out on the Tryon Street stage to an up and coming Country act named Jason Aldeen (not my choice, but April was a big fan!) And of course Life House & Gavin DeGraw were both there with free concerts on the big stage outside!

On Thursday, Crystal and I went with our friends Ryan & April. We went to the Epicentre for "Alive after 5" that is EVERY Thursday. That place was hoppin'! It's the 1st time Crystal and I have been since the Epicentre has been completed. It's a 3 story outdoor/indoor party hub. Tons of restaurants and always fun. Every Thursday night after 5pm there are live concerts on the 3rd story out in the open beautiful Charlotte air looking out at the city. It's just across the street from the Bank of America Building.

Two cover bands were lighting up the Epicentre this Thursday. A Rolling Stones cover band & a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band. Always fun. We hung out on the 1st floor for a while & then moved up to the 3rd open floor and jammed with the Skynyrd band. Ryan and me chilled while the girls yacked. We kept checking the score to the Canes/Penguins game on the widescreen up there.

The place was PACKED. People were constantly bumping into us. You couldn't even think about walking anywhere in a hurry. There had to be several thousand people just in the Epicentre. Me & Ryan talked about how ironic it is that most of us "well off" peeps hanging out up here have no idea about the homeless peeps that hang out at Fuel Pizza just a few blocks over and eat lunch every Wednesday courtesy of our mutual friend Todd. (I've written about this before HERE & HERE & lots more times...)

Then these 4 girls, 20somethings, came up and the "talky" girl came up & started talking to me. She said I looked... I can't even remember the phrase she used... but something compimentary I guess? She wanted me to take a pic of her & her friends. I took a couple. Then they came back again. She started getting all up on me. She told me how cute I was or something? I took another pic & said "bye." Ryan was just smiling. I was wondering when my wife was gonna jump out from behind me & kung fu kick her in the teeth?
Then the girl gave me a big hug & I wasn't really sure what to do. She just kind of draped herself on me & stayed a little longer than I was prepared for... I think she finally got the idea that I wasn't interested when I turned around and started talking to Ryan again.

I can't remember the last time a good looking girl hit on me with my wife standing right beside me? It was fairly uncomfortable & awkward & I think the girl may have been drunk, but I'll be honest = it's secretly good to know that I'm still "hit-on-able" by girls other than my wife. Might not ever happen again.
I'm Curious = What do YOU do when a girl is hitting on you and leans all up on you, hugs you, puts her hands on you?

Anyway, we went on our way to the "main stage" at Speed Street to see this guy Jason Aldean...

**On our way there were these guys on the street corner. oh wow. these guys were CRAZY. I'm posting some pics I snapped from my phone so you can see. They were shouting about how "everyone at Speed Street tonight is going to hell!" I thought about telling them a few things, but just decided to just take a pic of them with my phone & keep walking.
These guys are doing so much harm & damage & really no good. I'm wondering what Jesus would do if He were walking down the street in uptown Charlotte and saw them doing this crap? What would He do? Tell them to shut up? Yell at them like the Pharisees?

One of the craziest things is that they had that little kid with them wearing the hard hat.
We weren't sure why they were wearing the hard hats, but my best guess is so that it would protect them from the rocks thrown at their head by all the "fornicators" they were yelling at.

ah... crazy night. lotsa fun though.