Woosahhh.....(thank you, Jen!) and lots of Nashville STUFF

So...life is about to get back to normal...dogs, work, school, Charlotte...and as happy as I am that most of my commitments are behind me...I have to say we had one heck of a good time in Nashville!

After being cooped up and unable to gt to work for 3 days...I was SUPER ready to take a vacay!  We picked up my mom and dad's dogs early and Patrick was able to take off and come with us Thursday after all!  We settled in with the pet-sitter, and hit the road by 8:30 am Thursday!!!  The ride was quick, beautiful and uneventful. We saw the coolest icicle clusters along I-40 on the trip Northwest.  We were thankful not to encounter any inclement weather on the road in our little hot rod!  After a quick pit-stop, we made it to Nashville in about 6 hours! Yeehaw number one for the weekend!

Following checking into both our room and the hospitality suite at the Loew's Vanderbilt, we met my sisters' family-to-be at PF Chang's (my FAV chain restaurant) for a nice family dinner.  Then we went to the Bluebird Cafe (my favorite spot there) and watched a quartet of singer/songwriters jam out. The proceeds went to the local Hospice Charity and they played songs they had written for big namers like Rascal Flatts, Randy Travis and Martina McBride! What a treat! I had to get not only a souvenir tee but a SIGNED poster as well! Looking forward to framing that baby!

Friday, we got breakfast in bed, then I headed out with my sisters, Jill and Sam, my mom, Sandy and Jonah's sister, Shara for the Mikveh (sometimes spelled Mikvah)!  It was performed at the Orthodox Temple solely by Jill immersing herself completely under water 3 times and then reciting a purification prayer.  She has to remove all jewelry and even make sure that beneath her nails were clean in order to proceed! It was WAY cool! 

After the ceremony, we dropped off mom and picked up Julie, the Matron-of-Honor, and my sisters' best friend. We headed to a very nice salon where we all got spa manis and pedis!  They even served us white wine while we were being treated!  Following this, we ate a quick bite at a yummy little joint called, Kalmata's.  I really enjoyed my Greek salad and falafel pita! Mmm, mmm,mmm...from there we headed over to tend to Jills' brows, then to her and Jonah's where I had the triple pleasure of meeting Matilda, visiting with jack and Jonah and seeing her cool house for the first time!  They had even painted canvases of their dogs that were part of the decor! Tres impressive!  I have to say though...I saw a sense of humor in them that I did not know existed until I saw the famous "family photo" they picked up at a yard sale!  Words cannot describe this picture [insert imagination here]. (I took the opportunity to put  photo of myself with Jack and Matilda below).

After heading back to the hotel, with Jills' goodies in tow (and getting to drive her manual car while she side-seat-drove me back)...lol...we got ready and reconvened to head out to Friday night services at the Temple where they were to be married in just 2 days...the wedding blessing was awesome, as was the fact that they had a former Bar Mitzvah re-do his Torah portion a year later (whew!). We mingled for the Oneg and headed back to the hospitality suite and then out to Honky Tonk Row...I don't know which was more fun...the (explicit) cab-ride there, being there (with my dad in his one-size too small cowboy boots and get this-CROCODILE DUNDEE-hat) or the cab ride back with the majority of the wedding party!? All I know is I snuck my gin and tonic out of the bar, snuck in the hospitality suite and filled a cup with goldfish, put pictures on facebook and went to bed alone...only to wake up with Patrick back in the room and gin and tonic and goldfish all over the floor the next day!!!! O-M-G...

Saturday, I met my brother, Adam, and sister, Sam, for a quick coffee to finalize our speech where we roasted, I mean, toasted, Jill later that evening during the rehearsal dinner!  After our quick meeting, we got ready and I drove myself, my mom, my sister, my aunt (Barbara) and my grandmother (Ma) to the Hermitage Hotel for the Bridal luncheon. Guess what? The Governor was being in inaugurated on the very block in which lied the hotel where we were to dine, so we had to get a valet to come get Ma from the car and wheelchair here about a block to the luncheon!  Sam and I parked and went inside to meet with the ladies of the party: Sam, Mom, Ma, Barbara, Gloria (Jonah's mom), Laura (Jonah's sister), Shara and then the "Six Feet" from Chapel Hill - Jill, Julie, Ashley, Rachel, Kim and Suzanne! What a great group and what a delicious luncheon!!! Good job Jilly-bean.  My gracious sister presented us all with dove-gray shawls, necklaces (mine in which I wore in the wedding) and aprons! Hand-picked to match our styles and special to Jill because she loves to bake, naturally, in an apron!

Post-luncheon, we GPS'd ourselves to a Kroger (yep, they still have those in Tennessee) to grab more beer and soda then did a drop-off/pick-up at the hotel. Sam and Mom went in and Patrick came out. Then we dropped Ma and Barbara at the salon so Ma could get her hair-did and we braved the mall!  Get this folks...Nashville, TN only as ONE, yep, ONE, mall!  Needless to say, we were in and out quickly and back to grab Ma and Barbara!  After being side-seat-drove again by Patrick, we finally made it back to get ready for the rehearsal. I was running late because of all of the errands I had done and Adam was running late because his had a slide-show hiccup (really were are both probably just perpetually late). They had to hold off the rehearsal 30 minutes for us...oops! And the whole thing didn't even take that long! Good news: we made it to the rehearsal dinner in time and did I mention the rehearsal was only 30 minutes???

Well, sorry folks but....due to all of the hard work I just put into all I have reported thus far...chapter two...Rehearsal Dinner to getting back into my groove is going to have to be continued....g'night ya'll!!!

Dara