Catching up...

Okay, Okay....I dropped off the blogosphere for awhile, I know.

I'm doing a little work on here to clean up the blog & revamp a little bit, and before too long I will be back to blogging on a super regular basis!

Just a little pic spam of the time I HAVEN'T blogged...

My mom wins for giving me the best birthday cake ever. 

Also to celebrate my birthday, we hit Atlanta for Dragon Con so I could see my sweet Sean Maguire! Sigh, I never ever get tired of seeing this man.

as evidenced by our six million pictures together.

my beautiful girl graduates in May. This means....Aunt Nicole had to do senior portraits. 

The coffee truck is often the bane of my existence. 

Larry & I are as usual, keeping Nashville Movie Industry in business.

The Weekend...

So, I can totally appreciate companies that feel the need to go door to door. I loathe solicitors, so I'm not going to be overly PLEASED that you're at my door, but I get it.

But when I tell you three weeks in a row to please stop coming to my door and trying to get me to come to your church, I'm going to become unpleasant. Sigh. It's not that hard people. I say this as a church leaves my front door, seemingly aggravated I've asked them to leave.

Moving along, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend than this past weekend! It was probably time for a girls weekend in Georgia with the bestie. I'm super fortunate my best friend is only 2.5 hours away, making our Girls weekends so easy to do. I hesitated to go on Friday instead of Saturday, because I felt so overwhelmed and swamped with client work, but decided I needed a break. Best decision ever, to have three total stress-free days! Friday we literally did nothing but sat around drinking wine while gossiping.

Saturday though, we road tripped down to Cartersville (okay, so it's only really an hour and a half from Rita's house, but....still. We are ALL ABOUT some road tripping!) to see Steve Wariner!

Somehow, even after being in and out of this city sooo many times a year to see my friends  - I had never been to this theater! It's BEYOND fabulous, super small and amazing for an acoustic show. I am so bummed PL has never played here, this would have been a DREAM venue to see a Mountain Soul show in. (I'm going to make this happen.)

And of course, for a photo nerd like me - it a gorgeous piece of art that looks amazing in B&W. Yes, I really do inspect every building I see and envision them in a photograph. 

and of course, no girls weekend is complete without six million selfies, right?! literally, after we touched up our make up, it was a "we need a selfie!" moment. 

Steve really put on a fabulous acoustic show - I kind of thought he'd play a little longer than he did, but....I got my song, so I have zero complaints. We were amused we each had a specific song we wanted - and he did them as bookends, hers opened the show (If I Didn't Love You) and mine closed the show (Some Fools Never Learn), and of course one of our anthems (Life's Highway - it leads every road trip set list we have!) was in the midst of the set list too, along with some great hits like Lynda,   The Weekend, etc. He also did Holes in the Floor of Heaven, a song I struggle so desperately with since Granny passed away. 

Side note: Steve doesn't live terribly far from me and I ran into him at the post office a few months ago. I immediately thought to text my best friend and all I could say was I was in line with him at the PO & had this incredible urge to burst out into Lynda! 

Steve Wariner is STILL super handsome.  Totally old enough to be my Dad, but whatever. He has aged pretty fabulously.

Also, what kind of photographer forgets their favorite concert lens? Sigh....Somehow I only brought my 50mm f1.8 lens with me. Not exactly what I use for concerts from 4th row, but whatever.

Oh hey, another selfie bestie! Yes we purposely color coordinated our outfits. 

I suppose what might (okay, not might...WAS) be the best moment of the night was Patty & Emory decided to come out to the show as well! Steve briefly thanked her during the show for coming by mentioning when he thinks of "Greatest Country Female Vocalist", he thinks of her. So not only is he super talented, he's freaking SMART. After the show, we stuck around so Rita could get her pic from the HOF signed, so we also ran into P&E as they left. It was fabulous to hear "Nicole, I thought I saw you in there....do I get my hug?" --  I love that girl.

All this....and I beat the storms home! I win at life this weekend!

But I'm alive & well in Tennessee.....

First and foremost - who heads to the Sweet Sixteen for the 4th time in 5 seasons!?

My CATS, that's who! Go Big Blue!! WHAT a nail biter - it truly could have gone either way in that last minute & I was sure biting my nails. But my Cats pulled it off!!

In other news, the bestie & I spent the weekend with George Strait. King freaking George. No big deal. It was so hard to contain our happiness about seeing him, we've literally been counting down the days since November. 

King George bound!

It was aaaamaaaazing. 2 1/2 hours & 34 songs - which didn't even begin to cover all his massive hits! You could close your eyes and it was as if you had the record going on the turntable - his voice was so amazing. I went in with hopes of hearing my 3 favorite songs, but knew if I heard "Marina Del Ray" live, I would die happy. 

However, George must've heard me...because I got all three of my songs!

this is the result of a quick run to different seats with an iPhone!

We got so so teary eyed to 'Troubador' & 'The Cowboy Rides Away'. I hate this is his last tour, but can't blame him! I'm so happy he'll still be recording. 

Another thing that I loved was the crowd reactions. The true sing along to EVERY SINGLE SONG, no matter if they were singles or not. The massive freak out to "Unwound" - folks, it's hard to get countrier than that song! It's no secret Country Music was my first true love, so it's the little things like this that warm my heart. The want for genuine country music - and not the silly pop crap from today - is still there!

I loved this....waiting for his encore, everyone pulled out their cell phones and used the flashlight app to glow & get him to come back. It looked so awesome. (Glad my phone had SOME use - thanks Bridgestone Arena for not having WIFI and having the worst signals ever. Not being able to use our phones for pretty much anything the entire night was terrible, hahaha) 

"Oh the last goodbye's the hardest one to say....this is where the Cowboy Rides Away...
 Thanks for the memories, King George! 

Saturday was spent in Kentucky, celebrating the sis' birthday! Dolphie's was pretty packed, and we didn't get to sing as much as we normally do. But, we still had a blast and most importantly, Samantha had a great birthday! 

We totally told Metcalf to get his Strait on, we had a full set list of songs we wanted him to sing for us. Apparently, he took us literally - and showed up in his best button up plaid shirt.

The birthday girl brought red solo cup shot glasses (is this one of those "you know you're a southern girl if....you own both red solo cup shot glasses and mason jar shot glasses" things?) and wanted us all to do a shot for her birthday. To make it cuter....we popped out the sharpie and wrote our names on it. Well, kind of our names. Rita & I decided to continue channeling our inner country stars, sooooo everyone took lead from our other names.

with the birthday girl & the bestie! 

After that whirlwind weekend, I need sleep. Happy Monday y'all!

How to spend a Thursday night...

Oh what a crazy, crazy week it has been! Work, sessions, editing - it's been a whirlwind -- and about to get busier.

We did celebrate my sisters birthday on Wednesday at her house - and we celebrate 30+ year olds birthdays by playing Disney games together with the kids, eating dinner & watching "Frozen", hahaha. It was a great night though, and my sister had a great birthday.

Our cousin Mike and his fiance are in town this week for some classes she is taking for work, so last night we spent the night hitting a few places along the streets of downtown Nashville. Which is coincidentally what we did with him the last time he was here 6-7 years ago!

The worst part about the majority of our family being in FL & OH is we don't really see them as often as we want. But when we ARE together, it's like no time has passed and we're instantly the kids we were growing up.  It was fun to catch up & talk (okay, so it was a little more like shouting, hello bars with live music. Welcome to Nashville!) about so many memories... "Remember when we were at Universal Studios and...." "Remember that Christmas Eve that...."

We started out at Margaritaville, where we grabbed dinner!

And then we moved onto Tootsies, which is probably the worst to go and actually think you're going to be able to move or talk because of the insane crowds (but it's where I wanted to take Danielle, since she hadn't been there before! Just playing the good Nashvillian!), but SOMEHOW we lucked out upstairs and got four seats. This never happens when we're there! 

Then we headed over to Silver Dollar, which usually has a pretty good band playing. We saw three bands play &  two were really fabulous, and the last was just flat out entertaining.  However, Silver Dollar has better lighting, which prompted a "THIS IS GREAT LIGHTING, LET'S TAKE A TON OF PICS!" 

Mike was so outnumbered by girls!

The logistics that went into taking a group shot were pretty hilarious. 

We capped the night off at the Full Moon Saloon because the band there usually doesn't play crap - IE; they won't play any of the BS you hear on the radio today. I always get such a delight when someone requests Luke Bryan or Jason Aldean & the band says no, they only play real country music. I love my town. We got them to play us some Alabama, Strait, Waylon & Alan Jackson, did some obnoxious singing along & got Mike to do some crazy dancing for us before realizing it was close to 1am....Danielle had to be at classes on time Friday since she was late Thursday, so we called it a night! 

Such a great kick off to a killer weekend....the bestie will be here shortly & we'll be heading off to our George Strait concert! I am over the moon that it's finally here! We head to Kentucky tomorrow to of course, celebrate Samantha's birthday at Dolphie's!

Happy Friday y'all!

PS: It's SPRING, IT'S SPRING! Don't think I didn't paint my toenails & rock open toed wedges last night!

Oscar Time...

Happy March! So happy it's here -- the TV nerd in me can't contain my excitement that Once Upon a Time finally comes back this weekend!

So much went on this weekend, but since I haven't even pulled pics off the camera yet, we'll save that for tomorrow.

And instead, we'll move onto the Oscars.

Am I the only one who thought "Blue Jasmine" was good, but not over the top great? Apparently so, because Cate Blanchett sure made a sweep at all the awards shows.  (Although, I may just be bitter that she beat Queen Meryl!?) This year was the first year I had seen every single film nominated for best picture, so it was a good watch this year! I've said a million times that 12 Years a Slave was the best movie of 2013, so I'm really glad it won Best Picture!

Anyway, totally starting with this girl:

Lupita Nyong'o. I couldn't help but tear up with her when she won. (And her speech was so moving  & heartfelt!) She was so INCREDIBLY powerful in 12 Years a Slave. I didn't see this going to anyone but her. Also people, she looks like Cinderella! Love her dress & headband!

Jared Leto also made me cry with his amazing speech about his mom. (Also, his eyes are oh-so-dreamy!) This was another win I didn't see going to anyone else. If you haven't seen Dallas Buyers Club, you absolutely must, no excuses not to have seen it!

And of course: Bette Midler wins when it came to the performances of the night. Not only did I loooove this red carpet dress (her performance dress, not so much), but she was totally CC Bloom for two minutes and sang "Wind Beneath My Wings", which of course is only from one of the greatest movies ever made. I may have started fangirling when she started singing.

Looooove Calista Flockhart's dress! I'm not usually a big fan of white, but this screams class & elegance. 

Swoon. Could Bradley Cooper get any hotter?? Didn't think he could, but he showed up like this. Totally the best dressed guy there.

However, my favorite guy of the night was at Elton John's Oscar party. Swoon....I love love love me some Tony Goldwyn! Oh how he's gone from being the bad guy in Ghost to the ridiculously hot Fitz on Scandal. He always looks good in a tux! (or...anything!)

I thought this was a pretty good year for the Oscars! I didn't disagree with too many of the awards, and it seemed to me like everyone got more time for their speeches!? Multiple great speeches this year, complete with an "Alright, Alright, Alright" from McConaughey! 

It's that time of year again....

Being the movie/TV nerd I am, I loooove Golden Globes time! So yes, we DID have a mini-party at my place last night to watch the show. (We may have just used the Golden Globes as an excuse to get together and drink wine, though.) I was striking out left and right  – NONE of my people were winning! My only prediction that won was Best Drama – 12 Years a Slave. I cannot even begin to stress how great this movie was. There were some scenes in the movie that were difficult to watch, but so overwhelmingly powerful --- it deserved its win.

A few ramblings from the show:

1. Because of what a powerful, moving film 12 Years a Slave was - I was SHOCKED to see Chiwetel Ejiofor & Lupita Nyong’o  weren’t the winners in their categories. American Hustle was a good movie, but it definitely wasn’t on the level as 12 Years.  I know I cry easy at movies, but….when grown men start sobbing in the theater, you KNOW it’s a good movie.

2. Seriously? Kerry Washington ignored again? Have you voters WATCHED SCANDAL!?

3. I would marry Johnny Depp at 4:00 tomorrow…..if he washes that blonde out of his hair.  What the fresh hell is this? I know it’s for a film, but….no Johnny Depp. No.

 

 4. Cate Blanchett’s Armani dress was to die for. I wasn’t overly crazy about the back of it, but the head to toe lace was absolutely gorgeous.

 

5. Chris Pine. Sigh. He gets hotter every day.

6. The greatest part of the night is summed up in two words: Emma Thompson. There are few people who can get away with A) Walking out barefoot with Louboutins in one hand & a Martini in the other. B)Tossing said Louboutins behind her back C) Shutting you up when you applaud her entrance. Emma Thompson is one of those people.

7. And finally, even without presenting, Meryl Streep is STILL the Queen.