Summertime is funtime

I realize I've been ridiculously terrible at posting lately. What can I say? I've been busy having a crazy fun summer!! My other excuse would be that my old Mac laptop bit the dust, and I'm still trying to coax all of my photo files out of its death grip.

As much as I would like to go on about everything I've been doing, it's just not going to happen. So here's a mini-recap, with some pictures.

• Bonnaroo: EPIC! The whole weekend was amazing, with fantastic sets by some of my favorite bands, lots of sunshine...and heat...and mud and my favorite part: Silent Disco! If you don't know what a silent disco is, just ask me. So. Much. Fun.

• mewithoutYou concert at Exit/In
• Adult Night Out at Adventure Science Center - You may have seen Kevin (Grownup), Stephen and me on NewsChannel5 for this one. No kidding.

• Favorite Aunt Day with Chantry, Callie and Cole - Games, games, games at Chuck E Cheese and yummy treats from Las Paletas.

• Cheap dates! - I love having Centennial Park in my backyard. Nashville Symphony Orchestra one night, Wizard of Oz for Movies in the Park the next.
• 4th of July - Friends and more friends for party at Tony's house, then the BEST SEATS EVER for the fireworks show in downtown Nashville.

• Pool days
• BEECH BEND PARK! Fun for the whole family!

So there it is. I've been working a little bit, too, but the Census is about to wrap up, so that will be done with soon. Keep me posted if you know of jobs around Nashville!

Happy Friend Day!

You've heard me talk about Jenna Brie - she's my best friend and personal photographer. Whenever one of us has a birthday, heartache, personal victory, Dead Day or just need a fun night out, we love to get dolled up and go out for a friend date. Nice dinner, cute dresses, yummy desserts. It's what we do. So at the last birthday (Jenna Brie's in January), we decided that we need another excuse to celebrate, so we created Friend Day. We picked a date directly in between our birthdays - a nice even-numbered day that was going to fall mid-week (so she didn't have to plan around shooting a wedding), and came up with June 16.


Jenna Brie is always there for me - through heartaches, whinings, lay-offs, personal victories, hometown festivals, Dead Days, trips and just plain chill times around the house. Our grandparents were friends and through a chance placement in our first college class, we have become great friends as well. Thanks for always being there for me, girl!

Don't judge us.

Watching the thunderstorms roll through at my parents' farm before we joined the fun and played in the rain.

Also, Bonnaroo was crazy great! Pictures to come, but my internet at home is on the outs and I'm tired of sitting at this McDonald's.

Bonnaroo bound!

Today's the day! BONNAROO BEGINS! I made the trip to Manchester, TN last night to pick up my wristband, now I'm gearing up to see some great bands. Who am I excited for, you ask? Kings of Leon. Punch Brothers. Regina Spektor. Phoenix. Norah Jones. The Avett Brothers. Julia Nunes. That's a few, anyways.

Hopefully the storms will hold out for the weekend. Either way, it will be a blast. Pictures and stories to follow.

Also, for you folks that will be staying (or visiting) Nashville, have some fun with the CMA Fest (AKA CMApocalypse) tourist craze with a fun game of BINGO.

Hydracalypse 2010

In case you haven't heard, Nashville is drowning this weekend.

Toward the end of the week, weather reports were reporting storms for the late Saturday/Sunday forecast. When I woke up to the sound of thunder and raindrops pattering on my air conditioning unit Saturday morning, I was quite pleased. Nothing so soothing as Saturday morning rain.

When I got out to meet up with some friends Saturday afternoon, I began to see the problems. Luke had to get out of his house because flooding was about to trap him in, not to mention that he was without power for a few hours. I began to see the stream of reports of massive flooding from areas all around TN and Nashville. Oh, and tornado sirens. Lots of those, too.

Luckily, I live way up on a hill and have been able to stay at home for the most part and out of harm's way.

I did go check out Riverfront Park downtown a couple of times to see how the Cumberland River was doing. Crazy stuff...

River(front) Park, about 4pm on Sunday. Almost completely submerged.

That's all for now. Stay safe and dry out there!

Doors may open

I know I already went on about the weather in my last post, but there's something special about the April sunshine that gets me nostalgic. Reminds me of the days of unbelievably drawn out hours of the long last few weeks of my elementary and high school years, final exams at Lipscomb (time to watch Love Actually again!), and most of all, of Fish Fry time in Paris, TN.

Every small town in Tennessee has its big festival that they celebrate annually, whether it's the Strawberry Festival in Humboldt, RC - Moon Pie Festival in Bell Buckle, or Winterfest in Gatlinburg. My hometown claim to fame is the World's Biggest Fish Fry, which always happens on the last full week in April. There's all-you-can-eat fried catfish and hushpuppies every night as well as a carnival, arts and crafts, rodeo, parade, and even catfish races (you have to see it to believe it on this one). If you've got the time, you should definitely make the trip and check it out - I'll even show you around a little if I'm in town when you go!

This year, the week signifies something different for me. Last year, immediately following my return from a great weekend at the Fish Fry, I received the unfortunate news that my position at Centerstone was eliminated and I was out of a job. The anniversary of such a significant event in my life has made me look back on the past year and all the changes that have come along, and man, has it been a crazy one.

Of course, it was a huge challenge to cope with losing my job and the uncertainty that goes along with being suddenly unemployed, but I see plenty of rainbows that have come from that dark storm. The most significant is undoubtedly my trip to Europe. It's crazy how perfectly things worked out to make that trip happen - with my job, the lease expiring on my apartment, money I had saved up while working, and a moderate dose of gutsy craziness. I was so fortunate to have the ingredients for the perfect opportunity all dropped into my lap at the same time. It was the trip of a lifetime and I'll never forget it.

So all in all, I'm okay with how everything turned out. Sure, it's been difficult to deal with seemingly never-ending unemployment and the constant stream of rejection letters from applications, but who else gets to spend so much time without a 9-to-5? I'm excited to see how my job with the Census Bureau goes and the doors it may open. Not to mention, I've got great friends and family to share my ups and downs with. Thanks, all, for listening to my gripes and cheering me on through the past year.

A walk in the park

It's officially springtime! The trees are blooming, the sun is shining and everyone is out at the park enjoying the weather. It's such an exciting time, it seems like, and that is only made better by the little things: riding with the windows rolled down and music turned up, busting out the skirts and dresses, springtime thunderstorms and fresh bouquets of flowers. (No doubting my tree-hugging tendencies when you read that sentence.)

The warmer weather also makes it a perfect time to get my amazing bike for a spin or jaunt down to Shelbyville for a PHOTOSHOOT! I promise I don't typically get to go out and have these fantastic pictures made quite so often, but I've been fortunate lately.

Kyle, my fake boyfriend/co-model for the day

It's almost impossible for me to just post this one photo; they all turned out fantastic! Make sure to check out Jenna Brie's blog for more and have a look around at the rest of her work while you're there.

In other news, today I began training for a supervisory position with the US Census. It's temporary, full-time work, but I'm excited to back to the workforce for a decent paycheck and a challenge.

That's all for now, so get outside and enjoy the sunshine!

Ooh la la!

Since I've been in the black hole that is my experience with unemployment, I don't feel like I've been an exceptionally interesting person. Nothing much going on except application after application, which is far beyond boring. So I've decided to take on a project: learning French.

This finally arrived for me in the mail today

I've always loved the subleties and complexities of languages - some of you may remember that I minored in Spanish at Lipscomb, and I recently started reading The Story of English, which chronicles the history of our own language. But now I'm going to attempt to wrap my head around the sexy beast that is French.

My goal is to spend at least 20 minutes a day in some effort to learn French, whether it's working through this book, listening to podcasts or whatever other means I can find. Any suggestions for picking up another language are more than welcome. I'm excited about this new venture and hope you will hold me accountable with this!