Looooove Nashville Style

Where does one begin?  Friday afternoon we had a great drive down.  Truth be told, once I got Monkey pottied, in the car, gas, through town with traffic and on the road it was 4PM.  We shot down the highway and didn't stop until we were about half way there at a rest stop.  It was a really nice, big, clean one.  Also, when we stepped out of the car we had to quickly come to grips with how fucking hot it is about 100 miles south of here!  Holy shitballs batman, it was 90 degrees and we could immediately feel our skin burning.  Not. Ready. For. All. That. 

We pulled into Le Chateau du Friend around 7:00PM.  It was perfect timing.  I whipped together a lite dinner from the pantry and fridge (with their welcome permission of course) and then we went out to water the plants and garden.  I filled the jug about half way like 15 times and helped her water stuff.  Then Monkey chased her first Lightenin' Bugs (that's Appalachian for Fireflys).  We ran all over the back yard, it was great fun.  We went in and took a bubble bath in the giant tub and we both konked out at around 9PM. Seriously.  We were soooo tired we slept in until about 6AM.

Saturday we got up and had breakfast, then we showered and headed downtown. Because everything is so different, I wanted to have a game plan on where to park and the quickest way to get from point A to point B.  They live about 5 minutes from downtown so it was perfect.  After I got my bearings and I told Lilly all about the "Church of Music" (at the Ryman of course), we drove over to south 7th and popped into Third Man Records for a little record shopping.  That would be Jack White's (formerly of the White Stripes) glorious recording studio with a little shop out front.  Glorious. I bought his new album on vinyl and I can't wait to listen all the way through.  Lilly likes dancin' to it, hooray!  Of course, Jack's taste is a smidge dark and his decor features some taxidermied birds and such.  This resulted in some awkward question and answer sessions in which I dropped the ball.  I should have said that they were just pretend, but instead tried to explain how they were alive once but died and were stuffed.  Lilly kept trying to re-explain it to me in the car and wanted to know who killed the birds.  She cried, I held her hand, then it was over.  The end.

The wedding was beautiful.  It took place in the Downtown Presbyterian Church with its ornate Egyptian revival decor and humorous pastor (a must for all weddings if you ask me). Afterward we all schlepped a few blocks over to the Berger Building for a Cinco de Mayo themed reception.  We had pulled pork for dinner, rainbow cake, there were pinatas, snacks, candy and lots of dancing.  Lilly's a kick ass dancer and just really threw down. She made lots of new friends that you'll see in pics on FB.  Super dang cute. Like, ridiculously cute.  I'm sure Erin will see and hear lots of Lilly in her wedding video.  So happy for Erin and her fella.  Erin was the first friend I made in college and is a wonderful human to know and be around.  She's got a great family and lots of good friends and I feel blessed to have been a part of that special night. 

Going to Nashville and getting to kind of wander a round and see the folks that I used to hang with before we moved, it brought up some stuff and I've about worked through it.  I really did love living there.  Its too bad its so far from home because I honestly wouldn't mind living there now (although downtown seems to resemble Myrtle Beach more and more....if you've never been to Myrtle Beach, that's what we call the Redneck Riviera). Its just weird thinking about how I walked away from my life there and my friends and didn't really look back.  Of course, lots of life events happened around that time to distract me, but still.  Thank goodness for the internet and pushy, unrelenting, forgiving friends.  Amen. 

In short, it made me realize how much I've missed and how much I love my dear, dear friends from the college/early-adult years.  I need to do a better job of keeping up with everyone, daunting as that may seem.  I just hope they know that I love them and I miss them all the damn time.

One trip down, LOTS more ahead.  Happy Monday.

Love,
Molly