A New City To Love

I'm sure I had a blast at all my kid-aged birthday parties, but as far as what I can remember as an adult--this birthday takes the cake. The birthday cake. I still need to upload pictures of all our fun, Miles surprised me with tickets to White Christmas on Thursday, threw a little surprise party/bonfire for me on Friday, and whisked me away to St. Louis for the weekend!

Can I confess that I fell in love with St. Louis during the 24 hours that we were there? I've already found dreamy old homes that we can buy (as in, actually afford) and searched for jobs in the area. I do recognize that I get like this after I visit certain places, ahem, Chicago...and I have a whole list of reasons why its different this time. Not that we're packing up any time soon, but I do love dreaming. 

image via

New Hair, New Car & One Incredible Show

This weekend, I chopped all my hair off, we bought a new car, and finally went to see The Shins. I would've been happy with any of those three things on their own, but all together it has left me feeling like David after the Dentist--is this real life?

On Sunday, Miles drove my car and finally understood why I worry it won't start every time I get in it. So we went to look at cars, as we've done casually the past few months. But this time, we found the exact car I wanted, test drove it, went home and talked about it as reasonably and objectively as we could, and went straight back to the dealership to sign the papers. I love it and am so ready to take some road trips in that bad boy. 

Unlike buying a car...we had been planning on and painfully waiting for the day to arrive where we could finally finish the last of Miles' birthday presents. I'm sure I've mentioned how much I love The Shins, and how even though Miles likes them too, that part of his birthday present may have been a little more for myself. At least I'm being honest? So we loaded into our fancy new ride and went to Whiskey Kitchen before the show. We had a very adult dinner of expensive drinks, spinach artichoke dip, and a root beer float. Maybe one of our more fun dates in recent history. Probably because I made a mental note ahead of time to indulge and allow expensive drinks to be purchased. Carefree like I'm made of mon-ayy. 

And then...The Shins. Oh, how I love The Shins. Does it make sense to say that this music has been one of the few constants in my life over the past several years? From Hong Kong, to Birmingham, to Kenya, to Nashville, through moving, and growing, and sadness, and happiness, and falling in love, and getting married, and learning how to be an adult... My go-to sad song is a Shins song. And my go-to happy song is a Shins song. So chyah, I was  pretty excited when everything worked out to finally be able to finally see them live. 

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty (really, really) good weekend.

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!

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. 

Seven Weeks

And seven weeks later...we close! In an hour I will be sitting in a room with Boo and a bunch of other people, signing all the necessary documents to seal the deal on our house! We can hang pictures and curtains! We can build our fence, and buy a grill, and adopt a pup! We can install our security system, and I can sleep peacefully when Boo leaves for work! We can install a phone jack so we can have internet! We can start thinking about buying a much needed new car! So many things! All involving money leaving our pockets...Ah, home ownership!

I was talking to my mom last night about how relieved we are to be closing. We started this house hunting/buying process in January, so we've been in this mode for so long and are definitely ready to be in a different mode--the home owning kind of mode. I can already feel will be a pretty intense mode, but we're ready for it. There is a long list of immediate to-dos, and a longer list of general to-dos, and a growing list of "what if we did this..." to-dos.  But I love lists, so bring it on (she said naively).

I'm so grateful for everything that Miles and I have learned during this process. And we've learned a lot...mostly a lot to do with being patient. I don't think I've ever had to be so patient for something before. Which kind of isn't saying a lot..but still. And even then, I can't say that I was gracefully patient all the time. Miles has put up with this grumpy/whiney/pitiful wife on several occasions. He had to live in double patience--with the house situation, and with me. So thank you, Boo. You are more wonderful with each new day. You have my heart, home is where the heart is, and so home is wherever I'm with you. But I sure am glad we will own the actual house where our actual hearts will live.

(image via)

One of Those Nights

You know those nights where you're so happy and everything looks beautiful? That was our date night last Saturday. The week-long rain had finally taken a break and everything glistened in the light of the setting sun. We stifled our loud laughs all through our sushi dinner, ran up our tab, hopped over puddles and visited a new gelato place. When we got to Edgehill Village, we saw a double rainbow and stood outside staring at it, open mouthed, fingers pointing, with tons of other people all enjoying the exact same thing. For those few minutes I forgot about everything else, all the stresses, everything that sucks right now, and just let my heart swell up with joy. I need more sunset rainbow moments in my life.

At the end of the night, we rolled the windows down and let the sticky air blow in as we sang at the top of our lungs all the way home. The next morning, Miles said we should do that more often. I agreed.

p.s. isn't Boo such a stud with his haircut? Wifey likes.

Hotlanta Before The Mountains

I finally got my new USB cord for my camera and uploaded 700 photos from the past month and a half. Here are some photos from our afternoon in Atlanta before we went to the mountains for our anniversary getaway. We mainly went there to go to Ikea, and boy did we go to Ikea... (? better joke in my head)

And we didn't even buy everything on our shopping list. We didn't have enough room in our car.

Part of me (most of me) longs for an Ikea in Nashville. But dang, that would be really dangerous for our bank account.

After spending way too much money at Ikea, we ate at The Vortex. I got so many good recommendations on where to eat, but when Boo sees "Atlanta's best burger" as an option, theres no turning back.

I couldn't get a good picture of the food since it was so dark in there, I had shaky, hungry hands, and Miles wouldn't allow me to turn my flash on and "draw everyone's attention". But it was deeelicious! My favorite part was the fried plantains as my side. It was like...dessert...as my side.

And then we went to Trader Joe's and filled our cart with an equal parts food for the week:wine, wine & wine. I still can't understand why Tennessee is so lame, with its wine-less grocery stores. 

Next up: the mountains! Oh...mountain vacation...oh, you...

One Year

I can't believe that our wedding was one year ago. I remember everything so well. People say you won't remember, that it will all be a blur, but I remember. I remember how incredibly nervous and weird I was all weekend. It was overwhelming! Miles and I are kind of background people and a whole day centered around us was definitely a lot to take in. Sometimes I wish I would've had a different dress, or done my hair another way, or made Miles cut his hair before the big day, or that the a/c worked at our reception... But in reality, none of those things matter. I married my very best friend and have had the very best year of my life.  I can't imagine my life without Miles--don't make me, I'll cry.

Blue Ridge

image via wikipedia

And we're off to the Blue Ridge mountains for our anniversary trip. We plan to read, cook meals together, sleep in, watch all of Breaking Bad season 4, read, read and read. Five days of lounging around in our little cabin, leaving the rest of the world behind, is exactly what we need.

Real Life

(I am really hoping these photos aren't as wonky as they look in my editing thing.) 

1. The last morning in our apartment. The last time I will look up to this old ceiling

2. Empty living room in the first place we called home.

3. New bedroom, bare walls

4. Our new way home

5. Deliciousness

6. Sink buddies

We haven't unpacked a lot of things at the house yet, since we don't officially own it yet. And I seem to have packed my camera cord somewhere that makes no sense at all, because I can't find it in any sensible boxes. It will take a while for us to find/make a place for everything, but I'll post pictures along the way--as soon as I find that cord!

Miles and I are so happy we hired movers to get all our stuff out of our apartment and into the house. We could never go back to moving everything ourselves again--it was amazing and well worth our money. Once we got everything in the house, the house actually seemed bigger. So far, everything we have fit perfectly. Our bedroom is so cozy and not at all cramped like we were worried it would be. I can't wait to start putting things on the walls and finding/making/buying new furniture for the house. We're planning a little Ikea trip this coming weekend as we head to Georgia for our mountainous getaway. That will be the first of many homey purchasing extravaganzas in the months to come, and I can't wait!! Miles has even taken a liking to The Container Store! Glory, hallelujah! Organizing gives me belly butterflies and I go nutso in that store. I think home ownership will suit us well. We'll finally have something we both love together to buy for! Now if only we could sign those danged closing papers already..