Honky Tonkin'

On Saturday, Miles and I went honky tonkin' for the first time together. I've been a few times over the years, but Miles had never been. Now, to clarify, we only went to one real honky tonk bar...but I'm still going to count it.

Before our big night out, we took a nap. Yep. And really, the nap was only so we could last through a midnight movie showing...and we didn't last. I know, we're a little bit lame, but we tried! (And we're totally okay with being homebodies 95% of the time)

We started out our night at The Flying Saucer, where they were celebrating John Lennon's birthday with a fantastic Beatles cover band. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but it was a lot of fun, and I had the best pretzel of my life. Then we went to Robert's, squeezed through everyone to get to the balcony in the back, and ended up getting the best seats in the house. 

Sometimes you just gotta give in to the fact that you live in Nashville and go listen to some twangy country music. Robert's is probably my favorite honky tonk though...the few times that I've been there, the house band (or whoever is playing...) is actually really fun and great to listen to. We had ourselves a country/surf band to enjoy on Saturday night, and Miles has heard great things about some guy who plays on Thursdays, so I'm sure we'll be find ourselves back on lower Broadway again very soon.

Story Time

Can I brag on the Nashville Public Library's children's program? We go to story time at the main branch every week, and try to make it to most of the other shows they put on and I have loved every single one. We went to a Mother Goose show a few weeks ago and Ellingtown today. I was worried about making it to these library events with a second little one in tow, and its definitely harder, but so worth it. My bigger (as in, 18 months) nanny bebe loves all the puppets from story time, and squeals with excitement when we pull into the parking garage to the library.

Being a nanny, I have a lot of time to think about what I'll do when I'm actually taking care of my baby one day...and every time I'm in the children's theater at the main library, I feel so proud of my city and it makes me so happy to think of bringing my babes to story time one day.

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.

Coffee, Books, Husband

This week, we went to Crema for our Sunday coffee. This little coffee shop quickly rose to number one on our list of visited shops so far. I wish I would've felt a little better to try their coffee, but my sore throat and groggy head needed tea, ginseng ginger to be exact. Miles went with a bagel (my head was too groggy to register which kind) & his regular black coffee, which he thoroughly enjoyed. And I had the most incredible roasted tomato and three cheese quiche. If I can remember through the grog, I think I said "woah" loud enough for everyone in the building to hear. Oops.

Miles has this rule that I've had to learn to live by: wherever we go, if at all possible, he likes to have the seat facing the door. To better people watch with, my dear. Alas, to every rule there is an exception, and I learned the exception to this particular rule on Sunday. Miles took our mugs to the table and placed mine at the seat facing the door, I questioned this, to which he replied, "I do always need to sit facing the door...unless I can sit facing downtown". So there you have it. Downtown beats doors. Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.

Tasting Like Home

Miles and I ate at Bombay Palace on Sunday. It was Miles' second go with Indian food, the first time didn't turn out too well, so we gave it a few years, and tried again. This time he loved it!! I'm so happy that he liked it, I've been seriously craving Indian food for a while now. My family used to eat it all the time in Hong Kong and I can't believe how long its been since I had some chicken tikka masala, naan, and aloo gobi. I took one bite, and it tasted like home...when home was Hong Kong and my life was very different. It was strange to be transported back to such a distinct, different time in my life while sitting across the table from my husband. Strange in the best, bittersweet way possible. But for now, we've found our Indian go-to in Nashville and I am one happy girl!

Coffee, Books, Husband

We went to Dose last Sunday for our weekly coffee shop exploration (we got up late and just went to Bongo the Sunday before that, old habits die hard). I loved the atmosphere, and that we snagged one of the booths before it got too busy. Miles got a cinnamon raisin bagel and I had toast with Amish apricot jam and both were delicious. I'm surprised I got a picture in before Miles inhaled his bagel.

Although Miles isn't the best "sit at a table forever" kind of guy--he's pretty much dying to go after 45 minutes tops, I am really enjoying these Sunday mornings with him. Even if I could always stay for hours longer.

He's so handsome. Like all the time, gah. And after I saw the pictures he took of me that morning, I got it in my head that I wanted to chop all my hair off again. We'll see, I've been growing it out forever--with not as much as I'd hoped to show for it.

Opa!

We went to the Nashville Greek Festival over the weekend and had the best time! The weather had just cleared up and it ended up being such a beautiful day. We ate gyros, drank greek beer, cheered for the dancing children, explored the stalls and took a tour of the Greek Orthodox church that hosted the festival. I absolutely loved being surrounded by such a beautifully vibrant culture with such a rich history. You could feel the sense of community between everyone, and I think that is just such a wonderful, magnetic thing to experience. 

We will definitely be going again next year!

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!

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. 

Weekend, Beautiful Weekend

I choose to spend this Monday morning daydreaming about the wonderful weekend that we just had. Miles only had to go into work for an hour or so on Saturday, and other than that, he was all mine! One of the benefits of us both having jobs that require early rising during the week, is that while our bodies get to sleep in on the weekends, they still tend to automatically wake up around 7:30/8:00 anyways and we still have the whole day to have fun! (I'm also choosing to view that as a benefit)(And to also ignore that we can't seem to stay awake past 10:30 no matter how hard we try).

So we rose, still somewhat early, went to a wonderful breakfast at West End Cafe, I grocery shopped while he dropped by work for a hot second, we finished errand running and then went for a walk around Radnor Lake until we realized it was 4 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We wound up eating delicious TexMex with Miles' mom and then heading over to her house to help install a new washing machine, where we promptly tested her new machine with our dirty laundry. Ah, Saturday. 

The next day, we went to the early service at our church, met our friend Matty, and went house hunting with our Realtor! We ended up making an offer on a house that I would live in forever if our offer went through. But I'm highly doubtful that our bid will be picked, since a million people looked at it over the weekend and probably could afford a higher bid. But we at least put ours out there! And that alone is exciting. I'm not ashamed (but kind of am) to say that we went back to our new favorite burger restaurant, seven days after we first ate there. I mean, The Pharmacy is ridic. And Matt was visiting! We also found at least four other houses that we liked enough to have to choose between if this offer doesn't pan out. Which is amazing! And also stressful. Ah, Sunday decision making.

(aaand by this point in the weekend I was pooped. Just looking at my face here makes me feel tired all over again)

Something Big

This week could potentially hold something really huge for us. 

Fingers crossed, praying constantly, and hopefully we'll have an exciting new something in our lives. Not something that breathes at least. Maybe it breathes, maybe on four legs. But thats not the exciting new something. 

I don't do too well with being vague. 

Already Forgetting

Last night as Miles and I were eating dinner, I realized that we had forgotten our four month anniversary (November 2). Yeah, okay, its not that big of a deal. We both forgot, so that worked out well. But how are we already failing at remembering anniversaries? I can't tell if I'm really upset that we forgot, or if I just feel like I should be. I'm going to say...just feel like I should be. Everything is so wonderful, its not like we forgot because we don't remember that time we got married only four months ago...we're just busy looking forward to weekends and evenings together, talking about house buying (yeah, I know last week I said that wasn't happening soon...but it might if we find something good), watching terrible, awful movies from redbox, failing at dinner-making and not making messes in the kitchen, and having husbands be employee of the month and winning a new Les Paul. Our loves are wonderful, we are in love, I'm okay with forgetting a teensy anniversary. 

The rest of November is going to be so fabulous. I am off next week, glory hallelujer! A whole week to myself to clean and actually have time to cook and bake and organize and read without baby interruptions. That being said, I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss the nanny babe like crazy come Monday afternoon. Then my birthday is coming up, and a week later my brother and sister are flying down from Chicago. We get to spend the whole day in Nashy hanging out, being awesome siblings, and then when Miles gets off work we're piling into the car and headed to our aunt's house for Thanksgiving weekend. I l-o-v-e thanksgiving weekend with my aunt and her family. And this year is going to be the best yet with both of my siblings and my lovely new husband. My cousins have already talked about watching Elf after our thanksgiving feast. Bring it on.

We're headed down to a friend's farm tomorrow afternoon and evening and I got a little too excited when I saw "s'mores items" on the list of things people could offer to bring. I offered. duh. I can't wait to be outside in the beautiful weather tomorrow even though I'm not 100% sure what the hang times will look like or consist of since we're tagging along with a few new friends and a lot of people we don't know. And I'm sure we won't have a giant bonfire. But there will be s'mores. There will be s'mores...

found on pintrest, here

Lately

Miles and I have been pretty lazy about doing things lately, and when we do them we always forget to take pictures. My phone now has been overrun by adorable nanny baby pictures. This little bebe is so incredibly adorable and sweet, I'm sure if she could speak she would tell me to leave her alone 80% of the day. I will do anything to get her to smile (but its not really that hard, so presh), I will talk in an exceedingly high pitched voice for several minutes just to get her to coo along with me. Most of the time I wonder how I get paid for this...But then she'll have a diaper blow out or not want to go down for a nap (and want the whole world to hear about how she doesn't want to nap) and then I think to myself, "yes, I absolutely get paid for this". Then have to hold my breath to change the diaper or convince myself that I won't actually lose my mind if she doesn't immediately stop screaming. But I'd say thats only about 10% of my time with her. Maybe less? I lucked out. As far as jobs go. As far as jobs when you have no idea what to do with your life but still need to pay bills go.

Today was the first day since I began watching the baby that it stayed cool enough for us to be outside for a long period of time. I walked out of our apartment building this morning and thought I was going to cry it felt so incredible outside. I have finally realized/decided that fall is my absolute favorite season. I don't know why it took me so long to realize it. I guess I don't want to give any of the other seasons the shaft because I love little things about all of them. But fall has to win in my book. Fall brings relief (the sweet, glorious relief) from summer's sweltering heat, the trees turn colors and the colors take your breath away even if they're the same as last year's, there are corn mazes and haunted houses and Thanksgiving and cool breezes and tights to be worn and pumpkins to be picked and there is Christmas to be prepared for. That last bit, that has to be by far the best thing about fall--it carries us to the Christmas season! Bethany=obsessed with the Christmas season. Then there is winter and snow is fun for a while, then everything is cold and wet and salty (but Christmas is over, sooo....wompwomp) and spring is so beautiful and everything is in bloom, but then there are terrible storms everywhere and I worry all the time and then summer is fun when the pool is finally warm enough to swim in. But come August I'm over it.

I just love fall and I get butterflies in the morning when I walk out and the air is cool. That happened this morning and here it is, 9:00 at night and I am still in a good mood from that breeze.

I'm going to take that baby on so many walks.

Sister Time

On Friday I picked my sister up to come stay with me until the wedding. Poor girl has nothing else to do here except read her books and help out with wedding projects. But it was her choice to come up to early so I don't feel that bad. I think the Sondre Lerche show on Friday night also had a little bit to do with her desire to come up so soon. 

It was so good. Miles and I saw him two Februarys ago and both agree that he is one of our favorites to see live. He also always has incredible artists open for him. Kishi Bashi and Nightlands were the openers for this show, JBM opened last time. All so good. Seriously. Go listen.

And then there is Sondre. 

He is simply wonderful. And makes me want to be Norwegian. And makes Miles want to buy a Country Gentleman and play jazzy music for me. Everything is good when Sondre is three feet in front of you. I got to meet him last time we saw him, I was a complete dork of course. He is just so goooood.

Last night we bought an a/c unit for the apartment (hallelujah!) and Miles came over before church to install it. And let me tell you...I am blissfully chilly right now as I sit on the couch in my living room (as opposed to the bed in my bedroom). Oh the joys of comfortably sitting upright and not having to watch movies  on a computer!

I think Miles and I are going to get our marriage license some time this week. 19 DAYS!