Hotmail, I think we should break up

I know that you and I have been together since I was 18, but things have changed. You were so young and cool then with your little red stamp! I remember it had an 'H' paving the way for the future. You were so cutting edge, so 'in the now'! You showed up, just when I needed you and you didn't bring your baggage into the relationship. Granted, I had to choose this totally weird name to be with you, but it was worth it then. I mean, the other option was my University's crap email system called PINE. Which some idiot hacked and spammed the life out of everyone, making it unusable. Yes, even in 1996. I know. It was was a sign of things to come.

Oh the innocence of you. What we had was so sweet. No MSN or crazy microsoft gradoo hanging around. It was just the two of us. I loved you hotmail! Little did I know, not long after we met, you began your sordid little affair with Bill and all his money!! I'll never understand your relationship with him. He's such a NERD!! I guess money can make you turn a blind eye when you are in bed with a geek. But even your secret big bad sugar daddy forgot to pay the light bill and where were we Christmas day, 1999? IN THE DARK!! Even I know not to trust a sugar daddy.

Your attempts to change for the better never worked. You said you installed a security system, but your "security system" was really your idiot friends standing guard at our front door, shoving everyone I know and love aside and making them wait in the yard. I had to go outside and and escort them in myself!! Even if I took the time to point out my friends to your guards and say, "Let this one come see me. Remember, she has on a green shirt and jeans and her name is Julie"...well, then every moron who showed up in a green shirt and jeans your idiot guards just let in the door, but still stuck Julie out in the yard, waiting. Forever. Until she went away after 5 days. It was rough, but we got through it. "At least," I thought, "he's trying!"

You went and got help. Tried to grow with the times and the next thing I know, you are coming home in flashy silk suits with a stray blond hair stuck to the lapel. You fixed your teeth, dyed your hair, went on a diet and I never saw it coming. Ok, that's not true. I had a small clue when I saw the icon of things to come. I just didn't think that she'd show up and shove me out the door! Hotmail, if I had wanted your stepbrother Outlook, I could be wit HIM. But the truth is, I didn't want him. I wanted you.

So I guess people change, they grow apart, they create mergers that the other partner isn't happy about. I put up with the MSN thing and the teasing about your name and how hotmail could be 'hot male'. I was FAITHFUL Hotmail! Why Hotmail!? All my friends left. They got gmail or yahoo or other cool new endtags to their emails, but not me. I stuck around. And this is the thanks I get in return?

Fine, be 'live', be 'cool', get that windows logo tatooed to your butt! You can have all the younger crowd swarming around you, but they will never love you like I did. This generation is fickle. You are always going to have to dye your hair that color. They'll never let you grow old gracefully. Someday, when you are tired and aching with the gadgets that load you down, you are going to look back and ask yourself, "Why did I ever let her go? She loved me for who I was!" but by then, google and I will have settled down, raised a family and I will have forgotten about our life together...almost.

Waxing poetical

Walking to Fido,
the warmth of a mug of tea draws me
down the street.
I am struck by the silence of
the rush hour traffic,
clogging the pavement.
Nothing but the pulsing purr of
hundreds of cars lined up,
headed home.

I wrestle my umbrella from the hands of the wind
Avoiding, the puddle that threatens
to soak my socks through the holes
in my Mary Jane shoes.
The cuff of my pants
dips a finger
in a passing puddle
and flicks
a cold drop on my bare ankle.

The push and pull of this bi
polar autumn continues to
confuse the trees.
The Debutante maples
early to the dance,
showing their orange and red too soon
are now browning wallflowers
to the new crop of girls,
sugar maples flaming and bright.
Too cold to stay green,
to warm to let go,
they held on to their leaves
too long
now they rot and fade brown
on the branch.
Between the scorching
drought of the summer and
the sodden, undecided days of the
coming winter,
more tall hickory trees decide that
it must be spring.
Surely that's the better choice.
Their tender shoots of green
know not
the frozen doom that awaits them.
Shivering like new babies,
naked in the frost.

On the post,
the bright white man light
and the descending third
that repeats its electronic call
tell me it's time to
cross the street.
The light changes red to green
the quiet sea of brake lights
becomes the crashing ocean,
rolling waves on the beach
in passing rubber and wet pavement.
I taste exhaust in my mouth
I breathe through my nose to
filter what makes its way
past my vocal chords.

The delicate chill of the
gust of wind
shakes the rain
from the leaves and
brings a shade of pink to my cheeks,
blushing as though a lover
has caressed them and
brought heat,
not chill
to my face.

The bus squeals its arrival,
the pavement turns to bricks,
the awning up ahead tells me that
warmth,
tea,
and the soothing buzz
of quiet conversation and
carefully chosen
eclectic music
are near and
I can lose myself in a
deep booth and
put pen to paper.

Evans House update

After much thinking about it and going through the ringer lately, Matt and I have decided that we don't need to separate again. I have been working really hard on not losing my temper over everything and Matt has been really working hard on making time for me. I really have enjoyed reaping the benefits of years of therapy lately. We forgive more quickly, talk about our feelings, practice kindness, take responsibility for ourselves...It's really nice. Yes, there are still the bumps in the road, which sometimes I sit down in front of, sob, and swear they are mountains. But all in all, it's on an uphill climb. Our life together is kind of like the stock market. Dips and peaks with a couple of crashes, but over all and over time, the trend is definitely upward.

It's coming up on my 31st birthday soon and I am having a big cookout on Saturday. Last year, I spent a lot of time struggling with being 'old', although I am not old. It was more about leaving the image of youth behind. I didn't know how to be anything BUT young. It's all I'd been, all my life. This year, I am not so freaked out. I am loved as I am, I am smart, I have experiences now that I never had in my youth. Being in my 30's is not so bad. In fact, I feel like I am finally hitting my stride! I dress in a way that makes me happy. I live in the world in a way that makes me happy. I don't struggle with "who am I?" much any more. I find myself to be beautiful, where in my teen years and beyond, I looked in the mirror and saw myself as lacking. I am not so afraid any more. Not that I think I can handle everything, but the knowledge that I can't and that it's OK, is a restful place. I'm no great politico, although I am still terribly opinionated. I am no supermodel, but I take care of my body and don't despise it. I am not one of the most brilliant minds of my time, but I like how I process things and am proud of the music I write and the little blurbs I write here. I like that I am still growing and changing and becoming the woman I was made to be. It's not really such a bad life.

As for the house, we move downstairs so we can start work on the upstairs. For now, the nasty carpet up there will serve as a drop-cloth as we fix the places where the plaster has come off, repair some of the woodwork and paint. No big renovation plans yet. The bathroom will have to be updated (or something! We haven't decided exactly what yet), since it is not very usable right now, but other than that, it's pretty cosmetic work. Then the carpet will come up and redoing the floors will begin. It'll be quite a job, but that's off in the future and for now, it's kinda cozy living on the bottom floor. Like going back to 2 bedrooms!

One last note...Matt has been a contractor with his Employer since February and this past Friday, they offered him a full time position!! He has worked his butt off to make that happen, so praise where praise is due. He is so excited and I am so happy for him. It's a good thing we are staying put this Holiday Season...the changeover in pay schedules will be a little tight! Overall, we are grateful and excited.

See you at my party!

Office Drama

Yesterday, one of my co-worker's son was in the office after school. When his mom went to get the car, he passed out. I and another were first responders and all those years as a nanny, combined with all those years as a lifeguard kicked into action! I didn't freak out. We called his mom, and 911. He got taken to the Emergency Department and is still there this morning! He keeps blacking out for unexplained reasons.

After the EMS came, the office cleared out like a ghost town. When I asked about that this morning, I came to understand that most people in my office don't have children and have never had to deal with a medical emergency. They all kind of freaked out. Me, I was in my element. I guess I do have some strengths. They may not be office policy and knowing all the rules for being P.C., but I have something to bring to the table and I am glad about that.

Then again...

Apparently writing in Spanish jumps you up a grade...

Man...

WHY?!! WHY?!! I iz smart too!
Well as a side note, I hear that newspapers are written at a 6th grade reading level, so at least I am accessible.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it's because I purposefully misspell things to make a point or to write kitty pidgin.
Por Ejemplo: This is s n f! (which it is not) OMG Mom! It's NBD. (and that's what I have to tell myself.
Yup. That's it.

Nashville Chamber Orchestra +Stevie Wonder music +Choir = AWESOME!!

The majority of transient musicians I know are not from around here and thus, don't stick around for the Holidays. This year, we are doing something a little different and are taking a break from holiday traveling. This also means, for the first time, EVER, I'll be here for all of the Nashville Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year hoopla. Plus, I get to sing. I got invited to sing with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (NCO from here on out...that's a lot of typing)Choir for their Thanksgiving Celebration -- Songs in the Key of Life. For any of you unfamiliar with that title, it belongs to one Stevie Wonder. It was a double album that came out in 1976 (so MANY good things happened to the world that year...like the birth of ME!) and if you think you don't know it, you do. It's been the background to your life and you never even guessed! This was one of the most incredible albums that Stevie put out, the press and the public thought so too and bought it in stacks! But I digress...

The NCO, along with soloist and a gospel choir is performing songs from this album as well as some other pieces for their Thanksgiving Celebration as a part of their 07-08 Adventure Series
and let me tell you, it's gonna be INCREDIBLE!! If you want to attend, here's the skinny:
When: Friday Nov. 23 AND Saturday Nov. 24
Time: 8pm
Cost: Starts at $19 and goes to $69 - SEE P.S.
*Cabaret-style table seating on the main floor, with food and beverage service*
Eat and be cultured!!
Where: Schermerhorn Symphony Center
One Symphony Place
Nashville, Tennessee 37201-2031
map

PS. If you are my friend and live round here, I can get you a discount on levels 1,2 and 3(mid-range pricing, not the cheap seats). Just ask me. You know where I am. BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT SOON!!!

Oh Martha...

I am a living, breathing, juxtaposition of incongruous things, and I like it that way.

There's the tomboy holdovers from my youth: (some aren't tomboy, just cool stuff)
I love dirt, I love messes, I love not bathing for days...well, not love, but put up with for the sake of sleeping in 20 minutes, I love books about making things, I love Making the things in the books, I love fishing (though the worms make my stomach flip over), I love swimming in any sort of body of water, I love soccer, I love running around with my dog in the passenger seat, I love home improvement, I love tools, I love working on my Volkswagen, I love 'puters, I love photography, I love yard-work and hammering things and building things. I love jamming on my guitar, I love going to rock shows, I love camping and making fire!

Then there's the 'girly stuff': (not promoting the stereotype, just putting a division up in myself that amuses myself)
I love tea parties and long for my own set of china, I love sewing, I love knitting, I love baking, I love cooking, I love crocheting, I love embroidering, I love mopping, I love vacuuming, I love scrubbing the bathroom (oh the cleanliness of it all!), I love round things and shiny things, I love to make jewelry, I love to paint pretty pictures, I love to buy fresh flowers for my house, I love parties and dressing up (although my feet get so mad at me for wearing high heels) And finally I love Martha.

Against all odds, I love Martha!! I could spend hours on her website and flipping through her magazines about how to make things and make things beautiful. So what if she is a snarky know-it-all who's bourgeois taste in recipes (simple supper my eye) makes her magazine recipes something I am sure to never try, is a convict, wore a very apropos costume this year and not very nice. I don't care!! Say what you will. She's just so very clever!! I can't help myself.

Fully expect to get wads and wads of hand-made gifts from me all you out there. I may just quit my job to stay home, bake, and blog. I promise not to get any car grease on them.

Nashville...but not

Fox had a new show on called Nashville and this weekend, just for kicks, I watched it online. The result was like walking around downtown stoned out of my head! There were all the familiar things about my town put up with all this plastic people and strangeness! What's that show...The Hills on MTV! That's what it reminds me of!! A faux reality TV show!! All this crazy manufactured drama with the HUGEST HAIR I have seen since I moved here from Texas. All the girls on that show, even the "extras" are blond with huge white teeth. They must have gone and culled Graham Central Station on a Saturday night! I was waiting for Fido and other cool places to show up on the screen, but alas, they stuck to the stereotypical places. Key locations I saw were been Loser's (which I've never heard of), the walking bridge, Tootsie's, and lots of drive-bys of downtown, also this apartment complex I have walked by a zillion times on Belmont Blvd! Surreal. About halfway through the first episode, I was thinking "I'm sure how I feel about havin' my town bastardized in this way."

It's a good thing I don't have to wonder about those feelings any more since the show has been taken off the air. I did a little boogie dance when I read those words in the forums. I began reading them when I realized there were only 2 episodes and at this point in the season there should be more posted.

So Nashville's rep was saved by low ratings!

Our Side's Krunker than Krunker than YO SIDE!!!!

Barefoot Republic attenders will get the title.
I happened to be tuned to Nashville Public Radio (NPR) this morning about noon on my way back from the grocery store and The Splendid Table was on the radio and wouldn't you know it, East Side Fish was being reviewed!! I had heard a rumor of this to come, but wasn't particularly intent on looking up the exact time of airing. We have long driven by the little fish shack on Main Street and giggled a the sign which read "The Krunkest Fish in Town." They were loathe to call it ramshackle, but I'm not. It's just another testament about not judging a book by it's cover! I laughed at the endearingly uncool way that Jane Stern talked about it being "Krunky," and how she had to be informed about the hip-hop meaning of 'krunk' which as several meanings (85 so far in the Urban Dictionary) but has come to mean, according to Michael Stern "extreme" or "the best" etc.
You can listen to the review here.

Yeah East Nashville!!! I love our hood.

My very own lols

I've been making our pet pictures into lols (why not...I got time!). If you don't understand, click here or here. But there also is this HI-LARRY-US site called lolgeeks, and since I have one of my very own of those, I am making lolgeeks wif the husband photos.
Here's one:

foodz
Originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville

This one is a lolgeek waiting to happen. I can't pass it up! It's too good. But it needs some pidgin added and I am stymied...any suggestions?

Da Boys
Originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville

I love our friends.

Andy's Birthday Party
Originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville

Look at these guys! So happy together. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see Matt with his guys. Aren't they cute?
I goes like this from left to right:
Paul, Matt, Andy, and Kevin.

All of us (wives in order of attachment to fellas above: Christy, Me, Allison, and Melissa) (here's most of us) get together on Friday nights to watch Stargate: Atlantis. It used to be just Stargate and then they spun off the Atlantis series and THEN the first show ended so they carried on with Atlantis.

When Matt and I met he said he watched this show called Stargate and I replied "Like the movie?" Little did I know I would be hog-tied and forced to watch season after season after season!! Not really. We were newly weds...I did it for love! I had to catch up on 6 or 7 (can't remember now) seasons so I could know what was going on when we went to Kevin and Melissa's house for Stargate Night. I was DREAMING new episodes at night...seriously!

And so it began.

Almost 3 years later, we are still spending Friday nights in Smyrna watching the SciFi channel in Kevin's bonus room o Star Wars Stuff. He's a bit of a fan. We are quite the crew. Usually the fellas start out with VG's until the show starts and then we all watch the show (the women keep tabs on the highlights while kniting, crocheting, gabbing a smidge, playing with Annie when the Hilchers are in town, being generally amused by Jayden, and then get shushed for the riviting parts who are randomly discussing the plausibility of the plot line etc.)

It's not bad having friends, is it!

Problems with Jayden's link? That's because she is a minor and thus I have made her photo on flickr private and available to only those who ask to be my friends or family on www.flickr.com. It's free. Don't be shy!

OMG technology!

work, originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville.

The days are getting colder. It was quite chilly standing at the bus stop today. I was glad for my 2 fleeces and gloves and a hat I made. Once I was actually on the bus, I melted like ice-cream in hell, but that is beside the point. The one great thing about Matt when he sleeps is that his body temp must rise to 104 or something, because it's like having a great, hairy water bottle next to me. I loves to snuggle up in the nites... Plus I can never extol the virtues of the goose down duvet (we don't need no stinking sheets) enough. Perfect for all seasons! Bus activities today included: working on my new knitted Tam. I made one in blue, but it turned out too big and not deep enough. It doesn't stay on! So its back to the drawing board, or needles or scrap paper...whatever it is I use to make up and edit new patterns! I digress.

Anyhoo, back to my post. So my new temp assignment has been, erm, strange, to say the least. Yesterday I sorted and inventoried old electronic equipment, including this:

Thinkpad 300 - with sticky stuff...ick.
Originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville



and This:

Toshiba Satellite Pro 425CDT-yeah baby!
Originally uploaded by Ariana in Nashville



which as you can see, don't so much resemble laptops as BRICKS!! If not bricks they are of "lappy" fame.



Quite the education. Then I spent the next 4 hours trying to break into a passworded computer, Brand name: Kaypro. Have you ever heard of a Kaypro? I had not. "Large University-Type Institution" must have gotten them on DEEP discount.
So hacking the Windows XP was not so fun, but v. challenging and I beat it!! I was so proud of me. I iz smart too! The reason why I cannot post pics at work is because of the EXTREME oldness of my work computer. Ok, I am being a little harsh. But when the front of my "large Nashville based distributor of computers" Brand computer has 2 USB ports on it, but the 'puter doesn't supply enough power to those ports to run a 256MB FLASH DRIVE, we are verging on obsolete, in my opinion. I miss my old assignment technology. At least there I had a lappy that could run a flash drive, could port in an external hard drive, had a place to insert my wee SD card to upload photos while on "Large University-Type Institution" time (JK if you are watching...I was on a break! Really!)

Working for a living... every day

Life in the fast lane...I have a job now. A real job, where I have to get up, put something on besides jeans and sneakers and go to WORK. I will never understand work. Here's my synopsis. I've made it into a flow chart, just for clarity. You can never have enough clarity.

Click on image to enlarge.
So this is my life. I can't say I am always pleased. I don't know how to dumb down or slow down or smile and nod when people are treating me like a drooler. Thus...I quickly work myself out of a job and need to be reassigned!

Home again Home again..biggity bog...

Well, the good ole boys from Lexington brought me back home last night. Grubby, tired, shame-faced. They kept me entertained for about 2 hours with a string of the thickest drawl you've ever heard. I thought Texans were bad. This stuff is so thick I could spread it with a knife!! Matt and I decided to go back to sharing a car until we can fix this one. I'll have to save up though. It'll be a doozy to do. Good news though. I was driving to Longview to work at Day Camp for First Christian Church. It's the camp I went to as a kid and then came back as a junior counselor later. It is lots of fun for little kids! Too bad they don't let them swim in the lake any more. Anyhoo...a kind benefactor paid for my plane ticket down there so I could do music for the kids. I am so excited!! At least I'll get to see family and perhaps have a little fun in the process.

Matt is enjoying our new house. He gets his own office. (I still have a squishy chair in the corner of it so we aren't too far apart) He had a bunch of guys over today to play video games. He thought he'd be on his own by now!! I was supposed to be gone! He and Freckles hang out up here and bond. She's a big fan of the ratty carpet that is in our new house...ick! It's gonna be the first thing to go.

One last thing before I go...My good friend Christy is opening her own shop and will be carrying a line of cool jewelry by yours truly!! Check it out!
www.shopghia.com

I can't be Stuck!

As much as I would like to be in Texas right now, I am sitting in Lexington, TN with my little orange VW bug. I was so proud to finally own the car of my dreams, but here I sit with the cold (hot actually, that's why we're like this) hard facts. My bug can't hack road trips any more. We have to get hauled back to Nashville. Little Naartjie got overheated and began to ruin her own engine! So it's a rebuild for us. In the mean time, I am bummed that I can't do my road trip. It was going to be Longview, Austin, Longview, Houston, Dallas and home. The whirlwind tour. I have a niece to meet and family to see. I can't be stuck!!!

Muh muh muh moovin'!

Hey folks and friends, we are packing up our stuff and moving to, not Bever-lee, but a few streets over. After this Friday, pending an inspection Matt, Freckles and I will be moving to a house. A house of our very own! The apartment life is losing it's savor as the days inch closer to our inspection date. I was having a bout of the pre-buyers remorse until I got a phone call from our evil apartment manager who informed us that the dog that we have had for a year is violation of our lease (along with the 8 other people in our 12 unit building who have pets and have had pets since we moved here 2 years ago) and she'll have to go... What's the deal with the crack down?! I think my dear dog is worth losing my deposit over, don't you? She ain't leavin'!!! We'll send out our new addy as soon as we know it's all final, which should be in a week or so.

As for this little blog for fam. and friends, I'm going to be transferring it over to a different format and getting rid of the whole MS FrontPage craziness that doesn't work for people with Macs. So we might drop off the planet for awhile, but we'll be back soon. I'll be blogging on my summer adventures and putting up photos. For those of you who don't know, it is an emerging plan to travel over the US this summer, singing (although not a formal tour) seeing friends and babies of friends that have been born while I've been away, camping with Freckles my girl-dog, driving down the coast of California and retracing route 66. That's the plan so far. Not sure what will happen after that, nor are all these plans fixed in stone. Life changes and our needs change with them, but this is the tentative plan. So if you have a couch for me to sleep on, I'd love to visit. June 1 is the kickoff day. Check out our photo page for a picture of my choice of transportation!!! Her name is Naartje (pronounced Narchie)

Upon our Anniversary

3 years. Can you believe it?! I can't some days. I had an interesting conversation with a friend about marriage and whether it is really the be all, end all for singletons. I used to think so, but 3 years in, I gotta tell ya, that is a bunch of Hollywood bunk!! Not that Matt isn't fabulous and it's nice to have him around, but he didn't complete me. In fact marriage is more like holding a mirror up to yourself in bright daylight with no holds barred about your defects, oh and you're naked. I used to laugh and tell my friends, "Wanna find out what a bitch you are? Get married." It's true. It'll bring out the very worst of you. It'll bring out the best in you too. Yet most of us know our own strengths, but have heretofore been less that willing to face any defects. For example: I'm one hell of a perfectionist coupled with a huge sense of being "less than everyone else"- translation? I never try anything too new or scary for fear of failure. I'm a bit of a nag, a horrible housekeeper, I kick at night, don't like to share, always want the last serving of ice-cream, I want my own way almost all the time and HATE HATE HATE losing an argument. How's that for hard to live with?! The list goes on, by the way. That's just a taste. But here we are 3 years later and actually happy. A friend once said, concerning couples therapy, "Go early and often." We took that advice and I had a moment of seeing progress in us the other day. We were with our realtor and Matt and I were goofing off. I called him a name like "dork" or some such thing. He said, "Please don't call me names, honey" and I said I was sorry. I didn't thing anything of it, but our realtor (married with 2 kids) said "Wow. You two give me hope." I never thought our marriage would give anyone hope. I mean there have been times when I can't stand Matt and I am certain he can't stand me either. I can't even stand me in those moments! Anyway, here's to our couples therapist and all the other friends and family members who have helped us get this far! We couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you!

Home again Home again..jiggity jog!

We survived the craziness of the holidays and are home safe!! Matt and I drove to Longview, TX (9 hrs) for the biennial trip home for Christmas and brought home with us a bouncing new (new to use) pump organ. It was my Grampa's and I inherited it from him. Not that he's not around any more, he just downsized and had no room for such a huge thing. It is actually much smaller than I remember, but then, I was shorter back then. A u-haul trailer and a very clever husband were instrumental in bringing it home. I am not the best at driving a trailer, but those old Best Buy skills came in handy for him. Anyhoo. We are home safe and it was a good trip. I have lots of photos to post on flikr. Ah, how I long for internet back at the house!! Merry Holidays to all!!

Merry Christmas to all...and to all some eggnog!

I know you like our new page for Christmas!! We are sending out all of our E cards for the holidays to all of our friends far and wide in the world, but the people who live in town get English toffee...It's so not a fair world. Matt and I are doing great this year, along with Freckles who came home to live with me again this May. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Freckles Saga, I (Ariana) moved to Nashville in 2000 and was living with my aunt and uncle in Hendersonville (the country! but still "Nashville") and this little freckly dog showed up in the yard to play with their dogs. Her owner never claimed her and I didn't want her to go to the pound so I became a dog mom. Weird, I know, because I am not a dog person. But I am a Freckles kind of person. So many years and travels with both country and apartment living and what was intended to be a brief stint at my parent's house in Texas that turned into YEARS, (I am so fired from being a dog mom) she has come home and lives quite happily in her hugemongous crate that we call her "house" and that takes up half of our kitchen. If we could use it as a table it would be bigger than our current one. She had her 7th birthday, along with my 30th. It was quite the shin dig.
Matt and my friend Christy planned and pulled off a huge party with a live band (talented friends playing) along with dancing, food and what else, a pinata (sorry Spanish speakers. my computer no make that nnya thing)
Many of you didn't know, but Matt and I were separated last Christmas for reasons that we have discussed at length with our therapists. I didn't even write about it here. There would have been too many questions to field. But we are happy (most of the time! I mean come on...it's marriage, not a walk in the park) and are really enjoying celebrating this year together. We decorated our little East Nashville apartment with lights and hung our stockings on the bookshelf...I think we might skip the tree this year.
So a very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!!