August 28, 2012

New Friend


On Sunday, I met Stephanie for coffee at The Well. We lived doors down from each other during our freshman year in college, I had classes with a lot of her close friends, we are mysteriously already friends on a certain social networking site, but we really only just connected with each other through our blogs. 

Can I just gush for a second? I think my time with this wonderful lady can easily be counted as one of the best  I've had in a very long time. Throughout the conversation I found myself feeling so inspired, and challenged, and affirmed, and encouraged..and I had to keep reminding myself that we had only just met. We talked about the world, our lives, our hopes, our struggles, our cats (yep), and I realized how few the number of times in my life I had felt such an instant connection with someone before. Maybe people experience this all the time, but I feel like a newbie, and it feels so wonderful! I was completely oblivious to how long we had been sitting there, so much so that Boo called just to make sure I was alive, after not responding to several texts (of which I was also oblivious to). I met up with him for dinner afterwards and I had the biggest grin on my face and talked his ear off the whole time about how amazing it was to meet Stephanie.

So, here's to having a new friend, to being so thankful that she is a better planner than I, that we finally met up, and hopefully to many more conversations and fun times to come!

August 20, 2012

Meet Rowan



We are smitten, and we think he might be as well. I didn't sleep at all last night with Ro curled up on my chest, purring and rubbing his face all over mine. And when Miles left for work this morning, Rowan roamed all over the house, mewing and looking for his daddy.


We haven't even had him a day and we're obsessed. I can't wait to get home to my little, purring beeb.

Coffee, Books, Husband

In an effort to experience more of this city we love, we've started making lists of restaurants & coffee shops that we want to try. I've lived here five years and am ashamed to say that I (we) tend to stick to our favorite places whenever we go out. I've also only ever lived in the Belmont/Hillsboro area, so most of our favorite places were within walking distance from where we lived. Moving to a different part of town was a conscious effort to branch out from what we knew and to get out of our little bubble. We've already found our new favorite Thai place right down the street from our house.

We are hoping to go to a different coffee shop/cafe every Sunday morning, instead of always going to Bongo. Bongo got me through school, but there are way too many coffee shops around town that we've never set foot in, so we're going to change that. Yesterday, Miles and I went to Sam & Zoe's and so enjoyed  the beautiful weather and having the deck mostly to ourselves. With our books in tow, we hope to create a new Sunday tradition. There's just something about being intentional with where you go, venturing away from what you know, and taking time to sit and enjoy company without the distractions of everything in our house. 



August 16, 2012

Junior Reminder

My junior year of high school, I had this friend who was unlike any other friend I'd ever had. Apart from having tons of fun together, we also leaned on each other pretty hard during some rough times that year. We've definitely gone our separate ways, living very different lives, on very opposite sides of the planet. But we will always have junior year. And I am a better person because of this friendship. One thing we both loved, was Dashboard Confessional. May I continue to remind you this was at the age of sixteen. And if ever I hear a Dashboard song, I immediately feel like that sixteen year old again. We used to tell each other to "remember to breathe*" during our various individual rough times. All that to say, I am reminding myself to breathe today. I tend to let everything build up in my head, and that always makes it worse than it is reality. So I need to inhale, exhale, and let every worry, stress, thought float away.



Closing on our house was amazing, but we quickly realized we really needed to pace ourselves with all of our home projects. We have a lot of home projects, most of which are pretty expensive (for us, at least). We also need new cars, both of us. Yay! Not. We are eager to be able to adopt some kittens and pups, but need to get a few things sorted before that. I am faced with some decisions about my nannying job, and making those decisions with a lot of people. And all these decisions also make me think about life after nannying, whenever that is, whatever that will look like. All that to say, I feel pretty stretched thin. Very thankful, but very overwhelmed. 

So sometimes I just need to remind myself to breath, even if the rest of the song doesn't apply. (Because when would it?...I only sometimes wear blue)


*re-listening to this song...just...wow. 

August 13, 2012

Gentlemen

For Boo's birthday, I bought us tickets to the Bristol Stopover for Gentlemen of the Road. The gift that keeps giving, amiright? So this was our Saturday (and I only got a little sunburnt):

better than expected hotel sleeps/the sign I had to stop Cody from snatching / state line / festivities / loves / lunch / stud / flags / homemade peach ice cream to die for / perfect weather / bucket list moment--Dawes & Marcus Mumford together / not even half the crowd / dreamy / Stars hide your fires / leaving / loving / Bristol


We fell in love with Bristol--it was the most picturesque little town I've ever been to. Miles was a little too entertained by straddling the state line all the way down the street. Everyone was so nice, the weather was amazing, I wish we had gotten to Bristol earlier, or stayed another day. As for the concert part, we honestly went for Dawes, but loved Mumford, too. I remembered that I was more of a show person than a concert/festival person, but I still had so much fun--apart from a little scuffle with a drunk guy. That was weird, and uncomfortable, and I'd love to forget about it. Alls ya need to know is that Miles was sticking up for a poor 15 year old girl who couldn't shake this dude. And he didn't really like it when Miles stepped in between them. No one was hurt, just some shoving, some (me) almost getting kicked in the face, drunk guy getting hauled off, and Miles holding me tight the rest of the night.   I mean, some people..!

But overall, Gentlemen of the Road was so much fun. And we got a little do-over in Nashville the next night when Dawes played at Cannery and we got on the guest list! Gah, I love Dawes. We love Dawes (which is a big deal--we never agree on music). If you ever get a chance to see them, you must go, they will not disappoint. And their some of the nicest guys we've ever randomly met. Which makes everything better, obviously. Niceness is just so nice. 

August 10, 2012

Pancakes


Sometimes, when you haven't had a quiet evening at home all week, or when you've spent all your money on house stuff and forgotten about buying food, or paying for weekend road trips...you just need to eat pancakes and shrug off the desire to panic. So thats what we did. I sure am happy that Miles discovered that he can make delicious pancakes. I think I almost cried when I took my first bite. Pancake therapy at its best. 

Tonight, we are going to a Sounds baseball game and then late-night driving to Bristol, TN for the Gentlemen of the Road stopover. I'm so excited to have a whole weekend with Miles. Getting away from Nashville for a day or two always does us good.