Weekend ReQap

Day 17 in the April A-Z Blog Challenge and we've landed on letter Q. Since we had a fun weekend away I'm going to do a little recap here today. Which has nothing to do with my challenge theme focused on grandparenting, but I knew from the get-go there would be a few random entries sprinkled throughout. 

Hey, it wouldn't be my blog if you always knew what was coming, right? 

Q is for Quite The Weekend

Friends who go way way back hosted a wedding in Nashville this past weekend and we were so happy to be included in the celebration. It's been a long time since I've been in Nashville and the city has really grown up and out since Daughter2 and I made a campus visit to Vanderbilt in 2007. 

Let's not even mention she was a seventeen year old high school senior then because how can that be???

Anyhoo, Nashville. I love it. It could use a power wash, but it's a great city with loads of things to do. Music, sports, history, fun. It's a busy busy place and I'm pretty sure every bride-to-be in the continental United States has a hen party there now. The number of bachelorette groups we saw was ka-razy! You knew immediately that's what they were...boas round their necks and fluorescent pink, green, and purple wigs on their heads. 

I don't get the wigs. I sound old, but did y'all have a bachelorette party when you got married? That wasn't a thing when I got married. A night out sure, but not a whole weekend away with air travel and expensive hotel rooms. Times change and customs too and it seems like most brides now have a bachelorette shindig. 

We had a little side trip on the way to town which I'll for sure talk about one day soon, but for now let's stick to the wedding weekend.  

Nashville is a great mix of old and new. They have fully embraced the music scene and I'm here for it. The CMA's were happening on Sunday evening, but we didn't realize that until someone told us Blake Shelton had been in his bar the night before. If you watched the CMA's on tv they had about 10 people in the audience due to Covid restrictions. I'm here to tell you the streets were teeming with people and the bars were full to overflowing. It's such a mishmash of rules and no-rules that nobody really knows what's what. 

The groom is the son of one of our bestest college buds so most of our weekend revolved around wedding people and activities. We stayed at The Graduate which is a cute, funky hotel. There are several around the country but the Nashville hotel has a Dolly Parton theme and there are nods to her everywhere. The location is great and we'd definitely go back. 

Friday night we met up for dinner with more college friends and had the most enjoyable, leisurely meal at Husk, starting with an oyster topped with lemon sorbet and a splash of Sotol. 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and met up with the the groom's parents, a couple of their neighbors also in town for the wedding, and the bride and groom. We gabbed and caught up and then called it a night. 

Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Midtown Cafe with our friends. So good! We girls had our hair done then met back up with the guys and headed over to Broadway to see what we could see. Which was a little bit of everything and has to be one of the world's best spots for people watching. We listened to music floating out of the various venues and decided to grab a seat in one, Kid Rocks Honky Tonk. It was so much fun, and we met people at the neighboring tables, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Country music can do that. 

It can also make you cry, but today was all about the happy. 

Which brings me to the wedding. The event was held outside the city limits but the couple had a shuttle for guests so we didn't have to drive. The ceremony and reception were in a pretty venue called The Front Porch, a farm like setting in the serene Tennessee countryside. There was a cocktail hour beside the pool, followed by the reception in a beautifully decorated new barn. 

The bride and groom married beneath an enormous old tree and the vows were something special y'all. I'm not going to tell their story because it's not mine to tell, but you needed more than one kleenex to make it through. 

We had a delicious supper and danced a lot because that's what we like to do. Eat and dance. Hubs, the groom's dad, and our Friday night dinner friend were all fraternity brothers some 40 years ago, and they can still impress the 'kids' with their moves. 

These two men standing with with hubs and the groom were in our wedding once upon a time and the long and lasting bonds of love and friendship we still share make these life markers feel extra special. 

Cheers to the adorable newlyweds and a lifetime of happiness! 

Chillin' on a Snowy Road

Chillin' on a dirt road sounds so much better doesn't it? That phrase conjures up images of summertime fun which, with six inches of snow on the ground and more falling fast, feels a long way off this morning.

March why must you be so cruel?

Might as well grab your coffee and settle in for some Friday Fragments.

Every now and then Safari pops up with that annoying message saying it needs to unexpectedly close.  You're then given the option of reporting this to Apple or not reporting, so I'm wondering...do you report?  Is there a person on the other side of my computer whose job it is to analyze said reports? I'm glad I'm not that person. I have enough trouble with this side of the computer.

Somehow I've ended up with a stack of routine doctor's appointments all happening this month. In spite of sunscreen and a hat, I have some ever so slight tan lines left over from last month's trip to Florida. I'm sure the dermatologist will scold me because that's what they do.

Then there's the eye doctor who will no doubt feel it his duty to remind me of my age. My eyes were absolutely 100% perfectly perfect until one day three years ago when I woke up to a slightly blurry world.

Aging is like a nuclear explosion. There is a lot of fallout.

Are you familiar with the Jason Aldean 'country rap' song called Dirt Road Anthem? I'm pretty sure twenty years ago nobody put the words country and rap in the same sentence, but whatever...

Jason does a good job with the song, but I have to say my daughter2 gives him a pretty good run for his money. She gets every.single.word. and is a tiny little blonde headed thing which makes it doubly fantastic.

Also? That child refers to me as Momma. Not Mother, Mom, or Mommy, but Momma. The word momma is like a windows open, soft breeze blowing, sunshiny blue sky day in my soul.  When your children grow up and move away you don't just miss their faces. You also miss the voices that go with the faces.

I took my pup to the vet yesterday and we won't even discuss how many dinero I've handed over to these people in 2013, but she's cute isn't she?

She thinks if she gets behind the wall maybe they won't see her.  

I'm supposed to be getting my haircut this morning and then having lunch out with friends to celebrate some birthdays. Those two activities together contain the makings of a great day, unless they are interrupted due to pesky snow in March.  

Having my haircut ranks right up there in my top ten list of favorite activities.  A good haircut has the potential to completely change my outlook on a day, maybe even life. (No pressure Jodie!)  

Having to cancel a haircut can also change my outlook on a day. 

Not life, just my day.  

Snow. Bother.  

We have nothing on the weekend calendar. I'd kind of like to go into the city and I'd also like the air to be somewhere around 65 degrees. Not sure either of those things will happen, but if I were betting I wouldn't put money on the latter.  Still, it's a weekend and we're empty nesters, so we can do whatever we want.  

I guess not all fallout is bad.  

To read more Friday Fragments or add your own, hop over to Half Past Kissin' Time

Little bit of Chicken Fried...

If you're looking for questions to this week's Weds. Hodgepodge you'll find them here.

Saturday afternoon we heard us some country music. Yes I do realize that statement is grammatically incorrect but somehow it just feels right. We had tickets to see Kenny Chesney along with the Zac Brown Band and Billy Currington and Uncle Kracker. I'm not a huge Uncle Kracker fan so we spent his time slot tailgating with friends in the Giants stadium parking lot. We munched on appetizers and discussed, among other things, the idea that we might possibly be sitting atop Jimmy Hoffa. The rumor mill says he was buried under the old stadium which is now the parking lot. How's that for a little slice of trivia on this rainy Tuesday morning?

Hubs and I have a few things in common with Kenny, namely the fact that the three of us attended the same university. He's a little bit younger than we are but still, we claim him as a hometown boy. Kenny got his start playing for tips on Tues and Thurs nights at an out of the way Mexican restaurant on the river near collegetown. Its fun to be sitting in Giants Stadium (yeah yeah I know-its technically The New Meadowlands Stadium) and to hear a shout out to your little ole Alma Mater. More than a shout out actually. He references East Tennessee often in his speech and music. Its a place that gets deep into your heart and soul.

The country, the river, the mountains, the people. Trips to the Carolina shore and football games in small high school bleachers or the third largest college stadium in the country. He sings about standing on the Lambda Chi porch and we've stood on that Lambda Chi porch. He sings about the river and we know that river. He inserts the familiar into his music and listening takes us back to hubs hometown, to the place we met, to the roads we used to travel and to the mountains and countryside we will always love. His music is painted with the brush of East Tennessee and when we listen we are there.

Now, onto some observations about the evening-

The skies were threatening but you are not permitted to bring umbrellas into the stadium. I am not sure if its because you'll block your neighbors view or there is the concern that you might poke annoying and unruly fans with said umbrella. Or there could be the fear that you'll be one of the annoying unruly fans and they don't want you 'armed'. It didn't start raining until later in the evening and we were in the company box so not a problem for us. I believe I've stated here before that this is my preferred method of viewing all concerts and sporting events.

Speaking of weapons, security also confiscates water bottles upon entry. Apparently they can be used as weapons too but secretly I think they just want you to buy their water. I had a conversation with a girl in the rest room about the fact that they did not confiscate her hair spray. She and I agreed we could do a lot more damage with hairspray than a water bottle.

Where did all these cowboy boots come from? I spent most of my growing up years in this state, lived here for another five years early in our marriage, and have been back for two years this time round. I never see people in the Garden State walking around in Western Wear but the concert was full of cowboy hats and boots.

I love a fiddle.

Zac Brown has one of the most beautiful clear voices out there today. He and his band sang America the Beautiful and knocked it out of the park. Some Navy folks in uniform were in the audience and the camera zoomed in on them and the crowd went crazy.

My favorite Zac Brown song is Free because it makes me feel happy and sad all at the same time. Lots of country music songs make me feel this way.

How fun would this be?

Kenny Chesney came into the stadium on some sort of suspended seat with a harness and sang his way across the crowd and onto the stage.

My husband's whistle is completely obnoxious. Oh my aching ears.

We were in the company box along with about 15 other people. See the gentleman on the left-

He is the out of town guest of someone else in the box. Guess where he's from? He lives in the very same teeny tiny village we lived in across the pond. He knew our neighborhood and the street we lived on and we talked about our favorite Indian restaurant and the changes in the village since we left and oh my goodness, it was all just too much.

At the end of the show KC hugged everyone in the band and the Jets coach and a Yankee player who were part of the crowd.

I explained to one of the girls with us that this is how we know KC is a Tennessee boy. He's a hugger.

This post would not be complete without a little music. Here's one of our favorites...the words are poetry. Tennessee poetry.