#NashvilleNYE

Hi! Happy First Monday of 2015.... there is a reason to celebrate every dang day, isn't there?? This Monday was particularly hard to wake up to, due to the whirlwind of activity over the past few weeks. If you read my Christmas Coffee Talk Catch-Up post, you know that the holidays were very busy for us. Well, the fun didn't stop when Christmas was over... because to celebrate NYE and the new year, we headed to Nashville to "party our faces off!" (gotta quote my sister on that one... pretty sure she is right!)

C and I flew to Nashville on Wednesday afternoon (originally scheduled for a flight at noon on the dot, but delayed til almost 2, of course!) and met my sister and brother-in-law, along with four of their friends, for a long weekend in Music City. We. Had. A. Blast.

This might seem like a semi-crazy plan, but C & I had money plane tickets burning a hole in our pockets, and it actually seemed like the perfect opportunity to cash them in. We booked a trip to Nashville in May to celebrate C's birthday, but when my grandmother passed away right after my grandfather, we ended up having to cancel so I could fly to California and be with my mom and our family. Southwest didn't refund our money, but gave us vouchers to use by March. When my sister suggested the Nash-Vegas NYE trip, I looked up prices.... and it turned out to only be $20 more out of pocket to fly down for a long weekend to celebrate the end of 2014! Done and done. The money was already spent, so why the heck not.

We went to the huge block party-type celebration on Broadway in Nashville for NYE, which was... an experience. It was a free concert, headlined by Lady Antebellum, attended by 130,000+ people, in freezing cold temperatures. While we had a good time, I'm not sure it is something I ever want to repeat! (Nor do I want to repeat the hangover that followed the next day... #cantdrinklikethatanymore!)

Thursday and Friday were much more our style - bar-hopping from honky-tonk to honky-tonk, listening to tons of great live bands (and a few not so great) and soaking in the fun and excitement that can only be found in Nashville.

We went to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel one afternoon for a drink and to check out the Christmas lights - talk about an incredible hotel. It is absolutely stunning inside and out, and the Christmas decorations just make it that much more extravagant and gorgeous.

We almost made sure that we ate BBQ at Jack's (a Nashville staple) and spent hours at Tootsie's World Famous Orchid Lounge. We had fried pickles at Rippy's (one of Nat's and my favorites!) and danced at Legends Corner. 

On Saturday, C & I met up with one of my sorority sisters who lives in Nashville, and she took us to brunch at Josephine and then for an amazing driving tour of the "not touristy" parts of Nashville. I loved finally having a chance to see places other than Broadway. I totally failed at getting a picture of the two of us, but I was so grateful and happy that she was willing to spend her Saturday chauffeuring us around and showing us the sites. Love ya, Rachael!

It was such a fun (and exhausting) way to spend a few days - we had a great time, and already can't wait to go back! Nashville is one of our absolute favorite cities, and it will always have a little piece of my heart. 

Foreshadowing: 2014

They say that how you live on the first day of a new year is an indicator of what the rest of the year will look like. I've never quite decided if that's accurate or not, but I did several things on New Year's Day that I hope are examples of how the year will go for me (and C). I generally don't make "resolutions," I don't pick a "word of the year" like so many bloggers do, and I don't even really set "annual goals," mostly because I know myself well enough to know that, come August, I won't remember any of that stuff because I'll be too busy actually living. Maybe that's a bad thing, but... it is what it is. #realtalk

Anyway. In honor of my usual Five for Friday, here's a twist, with five things I did on January 1, 2014, and how I hope they correspond to the rest of the year.

1. What I did: bought a couch

• This was totally spur of the moment, but also something we've been discussing for a long time (years!). We stumbled upon an awesome New Year's Day sale at a local furniture store, and then stumbled upon the perfect sectional for our living room. So... we bought it. It will be delivered on Saturday, and I will probably never want to sit on anything else, ever again.

What I hope this says for 2014

• We've been in the new house for just under six months now, and I think that we're settled in enough to start doing the things that will make this house a home. We have several projects we'd like to take on, and several changes we'd like to make in order to have this place really feel like ours. I think buying a couch (also, our first piece of real furniture for this house) is a great first step!

2. What I did: made a pot of chili

• C & I worked together in the kitchen to find all the ingredients and get it going, and it turned out deliciously, though we didn't follow any sort of recipe. It definitely wasn't black-eyed peas and whatever else you're supposed to eat on New Year's Day, but it was really good!

What I hope this says for 2014

• We cook a lot around here, but we tend to get into habits (some may call them ruts) of making the exact same things over and over. C & I have talked about a "culinary bucket list" and trying to make some things that are out of our comfort zones. We love to spend time in the kitchen together, and I look forward to lots more time like that in the coming year.

3. What I did: took a nap

• Come mid-afternoon on Wednesday, C & I settled down in front of the TV to watch some of the college football games that were on, and, before I knew it, we were under blankets and I had the cat curled up in a ball on my lap. Nap time commenced!

What I hope this says for 2014

• I intend to consciously let myself relax. Shockingly enough, I am a "yes" person - almost any time someone says "do you want to...." I say yes, and next thing I know, we've had no free weekends in a month. C & I had a discussion recently about making the decision to have no plans for at least two weekends a month, as we really need time to do some of the projects and house maintenance things that come with owning a home. It's hard for me to say no, but it's worse when I run myself ragged. Sometimes, I need to say "no" and get some downtime.

4.  What I did: went to the gym

• I wanted to go to BodyPump, but all the classes at my gym were cancelled for the day. Instead of giving up, I went and did a HIIT workout on the treadmill and truly kicked my own butt. It was just what I needed!

What I hope this says for 2014

• I've let myself get out of the habit of going to the gym all the time, and I need to find that routine again. Even if there's no class to take, there are workouts I can do on my own. The gym is my happy place, and I want to spend a lot more time there this year than I did in 2013.

5. What I did: went out to lunch with C

• After the couch-buying-extravaganza, we decided that lunch and a beer were definitely in order. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings, shared some wings, sipped a beer, and talked about a variety of things. It was unplanned, but I'll still call that a date.

What I hope this says for 2014

• I love including other people in our plans (more people = more fun), but I obviously enjoy spending one-on-one time with my husband, too. We'd like to get back into the routine of having real date nights - we used to do it all the time, but, once we moved, they've kind of fallen by the wayside. In the not too distant future (but NOT NOW), our family of two will likely become a family of three, and we'd like to get in as much quality time together as we can now, before that happens. Time to reinstate the dates!

Do you think your actions / activities on the first day of the year sets the tone for the rest of it? What did you do on New Year's Day that you hope will keep happening in 2014? Do you make (and keep) resolutions?

Ringing in the New Year

I fully intend to start an “Index Card Journal” because that idea is just so cute and easy (and appealing to someone like myself who has the attention span of a gnat, so writing one sentence per day is about all I can handle). However, since it is currently Jan 3, and I have neither the journal nor the supplies for the journal, just the idea of the journal, I shall document (for posterity) what has occurred so far in 2012. Let’s see…

Jan 1 – Hangover. Terrible hangover. Neither shocking or uncommon, but what can ya do. We threw a NYE party, and hung out with the friends who were still around for much of the day on New Year’s Day. After an epic clean-up session (surprisingly little mess considering the size of the party, but still enough mess that it was making me highly uncomfortable), Charlie and I trekked to Wegmans for some of their $6 (or $8, in my case) dinners and hi-jacking The Pacific from my parents. Got home, and immediately began a marathon session of the DVDs. So good! We watched eight of them back to back (and stayed up til 2 AM!). 

Jan 2 – Slept til 11, then watched the last two episodes of The Pacific. Cannot say enough good things about that series – it is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking and scary and amazing. I can’t imagine living during a time of war like WWII was – the war of the 2000s was so different from that of the 1940s. I got my hair cut and colored (and absolutely love it – I’ve been itching to go back to basic brown, and Stephanie the hair fairy did exactly what I was hoping for) and then came home and made a pot of chili. Watched some football and flipped channels for a while, then headed to bed early.

Jan 3 – Back to work for the first time in 2012 (boo!). Tonight is the Sugar Bowl, and the Hokies are playing Michigan. We’re headed to Springfield to watch (part of) the game with Michelle & Joe. Let’s Geaux Tech!

So there we have it. Proof that the first three days of 2012 were not very exciting, but were good days nonetheless. My 25^th birthday is five days away, and I intend to make my 25^th year one of the best yet!