Sunday Social time....

I worried about the snow forecast, and what do we have on the ground? Nooooothing. Everyone is so disappointed - except me, that is! I think I might be the only person in town that is thrilled that Nashville is always "on the line" & rarely gets the white stuff? This let me do my session this morning with zero problems -- except freezing my ass off!

This weeks Sunday Social is sooo right up my alley....it's all about TV/Movies!

1. What is your favorite thing to watch on a girls night?It really depends on what we're in the mood for! However, a big hit on girls night with my bestie is Dolly's "Straight Talk"! 

2. What is your favorite thing to watch on your day off?It depends on if something is on or not! My shows are on hiatus right now, so I've been re-watching Once Upon a Time & Scandal earlier seasons or re-watching Army Wives on most of my days off right now! BUT....if I happen to catch Snapped on or turn on the ID channel - it's all over, that's all I'm going to watch all day....

3. What is your favorite thing to watch when you're sick?
Friends or Golden Girls - forever the greatest show ever made. I know it drives my brother in law NUTS that my sister & I constantly quote them verbatim. I watch them at some point every day!

4. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?Dallas Buyers Club, absolutely fabulous!!

5. What are your top three favorite movies or tv shows?
Movies: Steel Magnolias, Beaches, Something Borrowed
TV Shows on now: Once Upon a Time, Scandal, Downton Abbey

Step right up....come on in...

Happy Friday! I'm so happy to have a low-key weekend ahead....save for a session on Sunday morning, I have a nice weekend in. Considering I just bought a big stack of more vinyl, I fully intend on spending my Saturday with my record player.

It's Five on Friday time, and I'm totally theme-ing it this week. I had to pick out 5 songs for a friend this week to add to a playlist, and quite frankly: picking 5 of my favorite songs was a lot harder than I thought it would be! It should be no surprise to anyone that the 5 I picked were all "real" Country Music, and were mostly from artists I rave about daily. With that said....5 songs I can't live without, by 5 artists I can't live without:

one. The Grand Tour - George Jones 

Not only is this my fave Jones song, this is my all time favorite song by anyone.  This song is breathtaking. If this song doesn't hit you or bring tears to your eyes, I'm not sure you have a soul. "As you leave, you'll see the nursery, oh she left me without mercy..." I promise you no one but George Jones can deliver that line with that pain. Sigh. I'm so fortunate I had the chance to hear him do this live multiple times before his passing.


two. Till I Can Make it On My Own - Tammy WynetteI say it was hard to rank a top 5 songs, but it certainly isn't hard to rank my top 2. This vies sooo close to my #1 spot for favorite song. I love Tammy. I still cite getting the chance to see her live as one of the highlights of my life. I was eleven years old when she came to my hometown of Sebastian, Florida. My mother refused to buy me tickets, so thank goodness the DJ's at our local station took pity on the kid who so desperately wanted to go & handed me two tickets. Bless her heart, a rough life she led - she was pretty frail by the time I had the chance to see her. But boy was it magical - and I can still remember every single moment of that show. Hearing this live was one of the greatest moments of my life.
three. Jeannie's Afraid of the Dark - Dolly Parton/Porter Wagoner
Jeannie's Afraid of the Dark has always been my favorite Dolly song....and goodness knows it's hard to pick one, because that girl knows how to write a good song. I could have thought of 100 songs off the top of my head that she wrote that I can't live without. Anyway, I love this one --- I miss the days of Country Music songs telling a story. I almost miss the days of a good duet!


four.  It's Only Make Believe - Conway TwittyOh how I love, love, love this man. Talk about a huge loss -- waaaay too soon for Country Music. I was 9 years old when Conway died....I still remember where & when I was when my Mom told me he was gone. I often think about what an even bigger impact he would have made on Country Music if he had lived a little longer. This song is incredible live..

five. My Old Friend the Blues - Patty LovelessYou didn't think I'd actually leave P out of this list, did you? Goodness knows my top fave songs are peppered with probably almost every song P has ever cut. This song absolutely slays me. (And even more so live) Multiple artists have cut this, and not a damn one of them has put an ounce of the emotion that P has in her version. 

'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black....

As a 18 year resident, I'm not one for all the touristy stuff in Nashville anymore. However, country music is one of my first loves -- and not that crap that's on radio today, the classic stuff that  will break your heart. So, I'm a frequent visitor to places like the Country Music Hall of Fame....places that help preserve the history of Country Music.

One of the new attractions that has been added to my frequently visited list is the Johnny Cash museum. Today, after a particularly stressful day, I decided to head back to the Cash museum to explore a little more. I know I've mentioned it before briefly, but this place is so so well put together. I swear I find something new every time I visit. It's seriously one of the greatest gems we have in town, and I could probably go every day if I had the time!

The memorabilia is really amazing. I know I've posted the big stuff like photos of his Grammy's or CMA's, but there is so much more than that at the museum.

This greets you when you walk in the museum, and I cannot think of anything more fitting.

The vinyl nerd in me goes crazy over the two walls of records they have up. It's incredible. What I wouldn't give to be able to listen to every single one of those.

And in my infamous "Where I Stand...." -- under one of my fave Cash records! Not only do I have this one hanging in my kitchen & listen to it frequently - PL has this record on the cover of Sleepless Nights!

These posters are all so amazing -- all this stuff from way before my time that I'd never have been able to see if it weren't for the museum.

Serious Country Music history right here....I read every line like I didn't know the lyrics to the song. 

And if this doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will...what Cash wrote after June's burial.

By the time I left, I forgot what I was stressed out about when I walked in.... I love Nashville.

Dallas Buyers Club

I really should have some sort of stock in a movie theater....I don't think we've gone a week without going to see a new movie in a loooong time.

Friday night, the girls & I went out to see "Labor Day" with Josh Brolin & Kate Winslet. I'm such a sucker for sappy love movies, but this one didn't do it for me. It was good - but it moved so slow. I wanted it to be better than it was.

Saturday after taking advantage of a GORGEOUS day -- 61 degrees meant I was able to have an amazing session in the morning & a nice jog at the park -- Larry, Christian & I decided to go grab dinner & a movie.

Oh, and because I'm, you know, a Starbucks addict, Christian and I also made a quick stop....and snuck in all the important stuff into the movies.

(By the way, fellow photos, the Kelly Moore Mimi bag not only successfully carries my gear & every day stuff -- it carries a Venti Starbucks!) 

We went to see "Dallas Buyers Club" with Matthew McConaughey & Jared Leto. Wow. If you haven't seen this movie - you MUST. This movie is brilliant work, by all involved.

I went into the movie knowing they had dropped a significant amount of weight to play AIDS patients, and that was really it. What a story they told. McConaughey plays Ron Woodruff, a guy who is beyond homophobic & contracts HIV - and of course doesn't believe it, since he insists he only has sex with women. It's not until he does a little research and flashes back to having unprotected sex with a woman, a drug addict sharing needles, that he truly believes that his diagnosis is true. His 30 days to live diagnosis immediately prompts him to take matters into his own hands, and not trust what doctors tell him - or try to treat him with.  The intro to the situation really makes him look like a total ass you don't want to root for. 

The story delves into his desire to get his hands on un-approved drugs claimed to help those diagnosed with HIV. This launches him to start a business to help others with HIV - including Jared Leto, a cross dresser who was utterly & completely unrecognizable -- not only because of the cross dressing, but because of the significant amount of weight he lost for the role.

I can usually tell how good a movie was based on how much we talk about it in the car on the way home -- we could not stop discussing this one.  It's out on DVD on Tuesday, and it's worth the trip to your Redbox to see it! 

Less Skank, please...

My big success this week was I fit in my Derby dress! You know, the Michelle Pfeiffer dress I've been pretty obsessed with for awhile & finally found....and purposely bought a few sizes smaller. The problem?

It's ridiculously short.  I mean seriously, it's freaking short.

I know some girls enjoy dressing like skanks, but I'm not one of them.  Pretty sure I'm not alone in this.

It doesn't help that I'm tall, definitely. The dress I bought honestly didn't look super short, so maybe on someone a little shorter than I am can pull it off beautifully. But I know it's not just tall girl problems..... a LOT of dresses today are made insanely short. Not that I'm looking for a casual summer dress, I need a little dressy dress for the derby, but I get that when it's 100 degrees outside, a dress is a super simple & cooler solution than jeans or something.  But believe it or not, you actually DO have to put something on that has a little bit more material to it if you intend on wearing it, you know...anywhere. And girls of all ages wear it - and I loathe the message it sends to young girls.

I spotted this at H&M when I was shopping there the other day. I usually love some of the designers at their store, but...this was a major fail.

Are you kidding me right now? WHEN DID DRESSES BECOME SO SLUTTY LOOKING?! Newsflash ladies: your ass should not be hanging out of your dress.

Please tell me that's a beach cover up, even though it's being marketed as a dress at another store. Because I have towels bigger than that. 

And don't give me the whole clubbing or party dresses "needing to be short", because guess what?

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda & Charlotte proved you wrong. Call me old fashioned, but I think I'll stick with my classy dresses - that my ass DOESN'T hang out of. 

Home Sweet Home

Today on my way to my sisters house, John Anderson's "Seminole Wind" came on, and made me incredibly homesick. I've been in Nashville for 18 & love it - and probably couldn't ever see me leaving, but I'll always love my FL! 'Seminole Wind' has the line "blow blow from the Okeechobee" that always hits me because I grew up about 60 miles from Lake Okeechobee.

I grew up in a little town called Sebastian, just outside of Vero Beach -- which is where my sister lived, so I spent so much time in both, they each hold a special place in my heart.

 I looove this. It has everything I love about back home. My mom worked at a Grove, so I'm an orange & orange juice snob: Nothing but Indian River Oranges for this girl! 

As a kid on the Atlantic Coast, I spent a lot of my time outside. Riding bikes, going to the beach, reading out by the pool, going down to the rivers to look for Gators - we were constantly outside. I'd say kids today never go outside because of all the technology, but I had mine too -- hello, weren't discmans the greatest things ever?! I could pop in a PL cd & get lost in riding my bike forever! (Maybe getting lost in riding my bike wasn't the greatest idea -- I used to ride my bike barefoot & am still scarred from the memory of running over a snake without knowing it, only to feel it pop up and rub into my foot! I've never pedaled so fast in my life!) 

Sebastian

All this leads to: I've spent much of my Friday night looking up flights for my visits home this year. This once a year, sometimes skipping a year, is going to come to a stop soon. While I certainly don't miss stuff like the hurricanes - I miss the stuff I can't do in Tennessee. I know the beach is the first on everyone's  minds, but I miss those days at the river with my sister trying to spot the Gators -- and once we spotted one, guessing how long we thought it was!

And now that I've played the reminisce game, it's time to book some flights! 

Sunday Social Time...

This has been a super busy weekend, so let's be honest: my plans today involved NOT getting out of bed until almost noon & staying in my pj's all day. I may or may not be watching movies all day too -- I mean, they ARE airing a Dolly Parton marathon because it's her birthday. What else should I be doing besides watching Steel Magnolias & Straight Talk, right!??

Don't judge me.

It's Social Sunday time -- this week it's all about 3's!

1. Top 3 favorite kinds of food 
Italian, Breakfast (I could eat breakfast for every meal every day!)  & Southern - I live in Tennessee, Southern Cooking is totally a "kind". 
  
2. First 3 things you do in the morning 
Put contacts in, check email/FB/all my other networks, and usually put on music - I can't get ready without music playing.
  
3. Last 3 things you do at night 
Check email/FB/etc, verify three times my alarm is set (apparently I'm paranoid?!), and watch one of my shows on Netflix
  
4. 3 TV shows you NEVER miss 
Shows on now: Once Upon a Time, Scandal & Dallas - seriously, I'm ridiculously obsessed with these shows. They are all three on a winter hiatus right now and it's driving me crazy!
  
5. 3 places you want to visit 
If I'm going with places I've never actually been before...
Grand Canal - Venice, Italy - I mean, LOOK how gorgeous this is. I want to be there. 

Vancouver, BC....we're going this fall, I can't wait!

Paris

6. 3 people you can always count on 
My bestie, twin cousin & my sister!