Go Get Our Girl

yesterday one of my very best friends packed her bags.  she shut down her computer, turned off her phone, found a seat on a plane, and started the beginning of the end.  this morning she landed in ghana and, at this very moment, is at an orphanage taking custody of her daughter for the very first time.

her husband (who had to stay behind here in tennessee for work) just texted me and said that he is so excited he thinks he might throw up.  that's how big today is.  

after years of screened in porch dreaming, thousands of hours of blog and book reading, and 3 trips to africa, her eternally long and consistently grueling pregnancy-esque waiting game is finally in the home stretch.  

today she takes custody of her daughter and forever removes her from a government run orphanage.

today she and her mother bring sweet baby abi back to a hotel that will be home until all of the proper documents have been finalized.

today we pray that this process is swift.

today we pray that undetermined time means weeks, not months.

today we pray that her daughter's body and spirit are nurtured through her care.

today we pray that her sense of humor stays intact.

today we pray for the flexibility to roll with the punches.

today we pray that tomorrow is just as good.  because today is a good day.

my dear friend,

be safe.

be brave.

go get our girl.

xo,

m

read more about mae's journey here.

Sinatra (No Relation to Frank)

breaking news : it feels like fall in nashville.  fiiiiiiiinally.  you can now expect a solid month of me being in a (mostly) great mood.  sleeping with the windows open and oversized sweaters and scarves and bonfires and new soup recipes and changing leaves and, my favorite, boots + leggings.  because any day you can get away with not wearing pants is a good day.

so yes, fall is here.  and this weekend we rang it in, framily style.  my friend, jason, has the first track on the new little big town record.  if it's not a single off of this record i'll scream.  gobs of country music goodness.  everybody go get pavement ends right.now.  to celebrate his success we toasted the occasion with a a few adult beverages and a giant posterboard of the liner notes with his name on it.  

the man of the evening

we filled it up and everyone behaved themselves.
not a sharpie mustache in sight. 

josh and i snuck out early to meet friends of ours that were in town from ashveille, north carolina for a late dinner.  don & alex are always a guaranteed good time.  plus they are the reason that josh and i met... so when they say 'family sized portions of italian food?', you say 'yes'.

saturday morning josh and i drove 3 hours north for a quick weekend away as part of our vacation-our-butts-off-before-we-adopt-4-kids initiative.  our destination?  louisville, kentucky.  our mission?  to see my good friend and bandmate, steve sinatra (no relation to frank although i've been known to tell girls he is his grandson when i'm playing wing woman), play drums for hunter hayes.

this is one of the only pictures i have of us at a show where my butt isn't directly covering his face.  you're welcome.

saturday evening was one of those moments that slaps you across the face with some perspective.  i watched one of my friends play an arena.  an arena.  full of 17,000 people. his mug was plastered on a 20 foot tall screen as thousands of shrill teenage girl voices screamed in my ears.  

18 year old megan would think 29 year old megan has it pretty damn good.

um yea, the stage picked up and moved across the audience.
i was absolutely certain it was going to fall.  8 cables my, *ahem*, ass.

this kid.  local hero.  had a sign that said "carrie, be my first kiss".
congratulations, son.  you just peaked.

love x 4

local brew.

how was your weekend?!

xo,

m

Odds and Weekends

well kids, labor day weekend has come and gone and i am ready for fall.  ready to pack up my white pants and pull out my oversized sweaters.  ready to trade weekends on the lake for double feature drive in movies with apple cider.  ready to pop in a dvd that simulates a fire and sit beside it as i watch the lawn boy rake the leaves through the window.  bring it on.

to commemorate the beginning of, arguably, my favorite season, i found this beauty yesterday at one of my favorite local consignment shops:

                           

 

100% cashmere... 100% free.  yep.  free.  see that $200 tag?  see the july date of arrival?  in consignment world this is considered old merch.  i asked about it at the desk and they said they'd mark it down 75%.  uh huh.  you heard me.  now, $50 i can work with.  i used a 50% off scoutmob deal (scoutmob is my jam, y'all. check them out here) which brought it down to $25, then paid for the remainder with credit i had in my account from consigning clothes of my own.  i don't think i have ever been so proud of myself.

well, i was pretty proud of myself until my dry allergy eyes and i went looking through the linen closet for some eye drops and found these:

ummm yeah.  they expired A DECADE AGO.  which leads me to the question, how may times have i moved them??????  one, two, three, four... FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES.  ew.  somebody call a&e, i just found the subject for their next episode of hoarders.

so i must have spent labor day weekend cleaning out my linen closet and not watching 11 episodes of breaking bad in my yoga pants so in case someone came to the door they would think that i just got back from working out and wouldn't guess that i was a lazy slob, right?  wrong.  i justified sitting on my duff all weekend by the fact that the past few weekends have been chalk full of busy goodness.

my parents came to visit.  it was globs and globs of fun.  we ate our body weight at every meal.  we toasted to our growing family after josh and i dropped the "hey, we're for sure adopting 4 kids, capiche?" bomb.  we went to east nashville's annual tomato festival and we drove around scouting out some of the houses josh and i are looking at.  it was parental perfection.  also, i really so love that i can now, as an adult, count my parents as friends. i love their company.

josh and i started operation-vacation-before-adopting-a-zillion-kids and ran away to a lake house.

he had to leave on sunday to get back for work so my friend mae joined me for a couple of days of writing and eating meals strictly made from items purchased at a gas station (don't worry, i put broccoli in the velveeta so it was totally healthy).

(just in 'queso' you need more pictures of beautiful smith lake to drool over, here they come..)

our 'framily' spent a day on a lake in tennessee in a beat up old jalopy of a pontoon.  it was all fun and speedos until a monsoon of a storm had us racing back to the dock, dodging lightening all the way.  we were promptly escorted into a covered tool shed which our collective weight immediately started to sink.  of course.  

so labor day weekend?  labor day weekend looked a lot like house hunting on our phones over burgers and beer... in between episodes of breaking bad, naturally.

how was your labor day??

xo,

m

Friendly Reminders

i just got the following text from my friend, sara...

maybe it was just her being sweet, and maybe it was a friendly reminder to set my alarm clock tomorrow morning.  either way, thank you ra!!!  you da bestest.

Mary Susan Balboa

the other day my friend, mary susan, came over for coffee.  at 9am.  in her pajamas.  and we maaaaaay or may not have both climbed into my bed and talked for two hours like teenagers.  judge away.  it was fantastic and we will absolutely do it again.

out of the blue she asked, "if you could have any other accent what would it be?"  without hesitating i answered, "english.  if i sounded like adele i would walk around all day just listening to myself."  i asked her the same question and she said, "i've always wished i sounded like i was from the bronx.  how ghetto is that???"  my 95-pounds-soaking-wet-blonde-hair-blue-eyed friend responded to my fits of laughter with, "when someone from the bronx is talking to you, you WILL listen to them."

tru dat.

Tom Petty Was Right

the waiting really is the hardest part.

my friends sean and mary susan just returned from a trip to ghana where they got to meet the sweet baby girl they will be bringing home in 2012.  

now, they wait.  but waiting is an understatement.  while they anticipate, expect, hang on to their hats, hold on, hole up, keep their shirts on, lie low, look forward to, sit tight... wait for the day they can bring her home, we pray.  may she feel loved.  may she feel safe.  may she feel wanted.

29

this week i turned 29.  i'm not really sure how that happened.  i JUST finished college in boston.  i JUST signed my first publishing deal.  i JUST felt weird about turning 25 because it meant that i really had to get a handle on this whole grown up thing. 

a few months ago i started putting together a "30 before 30" list.  basically a bucket list of sorts with things i want to be able to say that i've done before that big, ugly number attaches itself to my name.  there are big ticket items like "mission trip to africa" and "sky diving" and then there are a handful of smaller ones like "food fight in a public place" (you know you want in on that one).  somewhere around #20 on my list i started having a hard time coming up with things to include.  this got me thinking.   i might have already knocked some of this stuff out... i mean, i got to do some pretty amazing things this last year.  some more obvious than others and some that would have never crossed my mind to include in such a list.

while i don't necessarily love that i now regularly discuss how fast the years are going by, i am thankful that my 29th year here allowed me to be a part of the following:

- i went cliff jumping.  and i can't wait to go again.

- i bookended a gig in northern california with a trip by myself to napa valley.  i stayed in calistoga, watched a sunrise AND a sunset, ate an amazing meal at JoLe, and spent 2 hours in the spa.  i also said "yes, just me" more times than i care to count.

-  i went to NYC at Christmas time.  it was pure magic.

- i held 8 pounds of pure happiness and celebrated preston adeline insogna's safe arrival with my friends jonny and liz.

- i cried for 15 straight minutes on the phone when my friend mary susan called to tell me that she and her husband were finally matched with a baby in ghana that they will be bringing home in the new year.  sweet baby abi, i can't wait to meet you!

- i popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.  by myself.  it's the little things...

- i got to explore west texas.  spent a long weekend in marfa, tx and felt like i was living in an episode of friday night lights.  success.

- i watched a handful of old movies.  "your girl is lovely, hubbell".

- i started keeping a prayer journal and discovered that starting my days on both my front porch swing and a note of gratitude is really good for me.

- i started a rock band with some of my favorite friends and the best musicians i know.  world, you betta watch out for jameson!!!!!

- i had the privilege of helping a very special friend navigate her way through her final days of a long and grievous battle with cancer.  it was the most cruel and beautiful thing i have ever been a part of.  she changed the shape, size, and condition of my heart.

- my mom came to visit me in nashville.  i love getting to see her without having to pack a suitcase.

- i spent 2 full uninterrupted days at a beautiful house in monteagle, tennessee with 10 of my girlfriends.  top of a mountain + sweatpants + home cooked meals + wine = perfection.

- i spent a ridiculous amount of money on a pair of shoes that i didn't need.  everyone needs to do that once, right?  shhhhhh... that's what I'm telling myself.

- i got to see my oldest and best friend in the world 6 times this year.  that's a record breaker in the decade that i have lived anywhere from a 14-26 hour drive away from her.

lucky girl, party of 29 year old me.

Joe James

for a year and a half the first of my younger brothers, joe, lived with me here in nashville.   my dad helped him move in and gave us 4 days before he predicted bloodshed.  based on our relationship in high school this prediction was not too far off base.  we proved him wrong.  we didn't get into it until the week he was moving back to minnesota.  you know... bickering in front of our friends about trivial things while they all laughed understanding that we were fighting because because he was moving away and it made both of us sad and we just didn't recognize it blah blah blah.

for the last 2 months he has been back here in nashville launching a new office for his company.  i have loved having one of my best friends close by again.  it really is a very cool thing to get to do life with your sibling when you are both adults.  he is a funny, intelligent, well traveled, open minded, curious, loud, independent, caring man and i am proud to call him both family and friend.

i love you baby brudder.  nashville and i will miss you.  again.

"How Do You Say 30 in Mexican?"

saturday we celebrated my friend Jason's 30th birthday and surprised him with a white mariachi band, texas college football, a smoked pork shoulder, a lot of tequila and a little projectile vomiting.  because nothing says celebration like projectile vomiting (said vomiter will remain nameless to ensure that we continue to be friends in the hope that i will get to witness them do this again).

here are a couple shots from years past... it's amazing how much we have and haven't grown up.

happy 30th birthday, jas.  

nashville would be a different place for me without you in it.