I can’t wait!  And I’m really bummed that I didn’t know last night was Jurrasic Park.  At any rate, there are some GREAT movies this year.  Dirty Dancing, The Goonies, Shrek 3.  Get out to Centennial Park and have some FREE fun.  Yay!

May 28

Spielberg’s original raptor spectacular is pure dino might! – Jurassic Park-

June 4

In Hitchcock’s attack of avian terror, you don’t eat wings – the wings eat you! – The Birds-

June 11

Do the Truffle Shufle in this buried treasure of ’80s cinema! – The Goonies-

June 18

Nobody puts Baby in a corner – not when she’s having the time of her life going crazy for Swayze! – Dirty Dancing-

June 25

Go donkey-tonkin’ with the good-time ogre, now thrice as mean, green and unclean! -Shrek III-

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA lately… am enjoying every minute of the beautiful spring we’ve been having here in Nashville.  Flowers blooming everywhere, and the brightest green on the trees that I’ve seen in several years.  We’re due for a beautiful year, folks!

As I mentioned in my last post, last weekend was my childhood friend, Sarah’s, wedding. For the last two years, she’s been in Southeast Asia working with Tibetan refugees. While she was there, she met an American who was also in the ministry there and they fell in love (awww). Now back on furlough for at least a year and a half, they planned their wedding to incorporate the culture that they’ve come to love and call their own. It was so unique and was really pretty. Sarah redesigned her mother’s wedding dress, but that was the only traditional American wedding item. The bridesmaids and groomsmen wore traditional Tibetan formal outfits, groom and groomsmen wearing coats, and bridesmaids wearing raw silk dresses. Both outfits are called chubas. Sarah and Nathan even designed their wedding invitations over there. The wedding was so beautiful and reflected who they are, what they believe and their future ministry together as a couple on the mission field. The reception was great, too. They’d flown in Yak meat (yes, as in, “two sherpas and a yak” kind of yak) and had Yak meat dumplings at the reception. Kinda tasted like sausage. lol. Anyway, I’m so happy for them. Here’s a picture at the wedding of all us girls who have stayed a good group of friends since grade school! (Becca, Amy, Sarah, me, Mindy)

Ok, my posts haven’t been frequent this week, but I’ve been suffering from all of this pollen in the air.  Thankfully, things have started getting better.

I’m now sick with a fun stomach virus!  And I’m a bridesmaid in a wedding this weekend.  Won’t that be interesting?  Ugh.  I am just hoping I can make it to the rehearsal dinner.  My very dear childhood friend, Sarah, is getting married.  I’m so excited and happy for her.   We’re actually wearing raw silk dresses made in Tibet… she and her fiance are missionaries to Tibetan refugees in Asia, so she wanted to incorporate that into their ceremony.  I’ll post some pictures of the wedding next week!

Sorry that I didn’t post this one over the weekend… I was buried in potatoes. I had the arduous chore of making potato salad for my family’s Easter dinner. That meant chopping 10 POUNDS of ‘taters, roasting them in the oven, and then actually making the salad.

At any rate, here is my final post about my trip to Maine that, even now, seems a distant memory though I only returned one week ago. Ergh.

As I arrived in Freeport, home of L.L. Bean and, apparently, every outlet store known to man, I was a bit disappointed. The town’s center had such huge potential to be adorable, but to me it looked like someone took the “cute-ness” of Gatlinburg, the outlets of Pigeon Forge and smooshed the concept together to create the little town. It was basically cute storefronts for Gap Outlet, Coach Outlet, Nine West Outlet, etc. And of course, the L.L. Bean campus took up half the town, but it was incredibly impressive. They have at least four buildings open to the public, including a HUGE retail store, an outlet and a hunting/fishing store.

But on to the nicer stuff… I spent Saturday – Monday at the Brewster House Bed & Breakfast there in Freeport, and the home and the hosts could not have been more pleasant – plus, the breakfast was as good and gourmet as it comes! As in Ogunquit, I stayed in a home that was built in the late 1800’s, and it was gorgeous. If you’re ever up Freeport way, I highly recommend staying at this B&B – the owners are some really neat people, too!

I drove down to Portland on Saturday evening for an interesting dinner at a place called Hugo’s, where one of their menu items is called Pig Head Tangine, and it’s not a figurative dish, people. Blech. Anyway, I had some odd dishes that were surprisingly good. Beet and horseradish risotto sounds pretty disgusting, but I wanted to lick my plate when I was finished! But I digress. The main reason I brought up Portland was that I attended a performance by the Portland Symphony Orchestra that night, A Tribute to Henry Mancini, guest conducted by Bill Conti, who has directed the music at 20+ Academy Award ceremonies, wrote the music for Rocky, Falcon’s Crest, Dynasty, Cagney & Lacey, etc., etc. They performed Conti’s music until intermission, which was lots of fun because he’d tell stories about his experiences in Hollywood between songs. The post-intermission, all songs were devoted to Mancini’s work. I have really loved Henry Mancini’s music since I learned to play the Theme from Love Story on the piano back in high school. I think many of you would be surprised to learn that you know a lot of Henry’s music, you just didn’t realize he wrote it. He wrote the music for The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Hatari!, all of the Pink Panther movies, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (including the song, Moon River), High Time, Love Story, Charade, theme song for the TV show What’s Happening!!, and so much more. If you haven’t listened to his music, I highly recommend checking some out on iTunes. My personal favorites of his are Moon River, Theme from Love Story, Baby Elephant Walk and Frish Frosh. I thoroughly enjoyed this evening at the symphony and was impressed that, for such a small town, Portland would have such a wonderful symphony.

Here are some more pictures from the trip – btw, make sure you click on the photos to see the full size, because the tiny preview pictures just don’t do them justice!

Brewster House B&B (second story bay window on the front of the house was my room!)

Portland Coast

Around Freeport (some of the quaintest little homes!)

The next leg of my trip took me to Kennebunkport, a very quaint little historic coastal town, settled more than 350 years ago, that is home to some of the most beautiful seaside homes I’ve ever seen. It is also the location of President George Bush Sr.’s vacation home, called Walkers Point. Another highlight of my trip to Kennebunkport was to visit this architectural phenomenon called the “Wedding Cake House.” I also visited St. Anthony’s Franciscan Monastery, which was so quiet and beautiful in the snow.

Town of Kennebunkport

Wedding Cake House

Coastal Homes (first photo is the Bush Retreat, Walkers Point)

St. Anthony’s Franciscan Monastery 

Now, I have to write a bit more about these photos and this place.  Seeing it covered in snow was so serene.  Being a protestant Christian, some of these icons and things don’t necessarily line up with what I believe, but what a quiet, beautiful place and, being the only one outside while I was there, all I could hear were my feet crunching the snow on the ground, and the soft sounds of snow melting.  The outdoor altar and place of worship was very gorgeous – you can’t see it in this picture, but in the trees around the altar, there are statues of animals, wise men, shepherds, Mary & Joseph, etc., and in the snow, it just couldn’t be any more gorgeous.  I couldn’t get shots of the statues, though, because the place was so surrounded by snow that I couldn’t walk up close enough to take the pictures.  I was quite disappointed that I didn’t see a real live monk with the brown robe and all!     Oh, and one other thing that I noticed, all through Maine, was that they keep their Christmas decorations up through March!  LOL – guess Tennessee has something in common with those Yankees, after all!

Ok, I’ll have one more post this week about my trip… the next one will be highlighting my stay in Freeport, ME, home of the great L.L. Bean.

For my first stop along the Maine coast, I stayed in Ogunquit, a beautiful little coastal town with one of the state’s few sandy beaches (most are rocky). Had a delightful stay at the Puffin Inn for two nights in my little attic hideaway room that was oh-so-cute and had the most charming bathroom. There was a bit of snow on the ground when I arrived, but not a ton. My last morning, Saturday, I awoke to the quite sounds of snow falling, looked out my six little attic windows to find a true winter wonderland. Has anyone ever seen a beach when it snows? GORGEOUS!

Puffin Inn

It’s amazing how different the water looks on different days.  My first day was sunny and the water was a beautiful deep navy blue.  The next day when it was snowy, the water was a foamy white!

Around Ogunquit, Marginal Way (beach path), Perkins Cove 

Ok, I’m really sleepy now, so this is going to be quick… here are a few lighthouse pictures from my trip to Maine… the first one is my favorite, and it’s of the Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth (click on picture to see full size version – it’s much more spectacular!)

No, I’m not dead.  Although I think several people were wondering if that hip hop class just plumb killed me!  This blog is coming back, and with a vengeance!  This week I’ll be blogging all about my trip to Maine, and next week watch out for a new approach – I’ll have a subject to be tackled each day.  Watch for the subjects’ unveiling this weekend, and enjoy!

Inspired by Britney’s horrible “come back” performance on MTV’s Video Music Awards last night, I have decided to pick up where she left off and steal her fan base from her now that she’s left them ripe for the taking.  Ladies and gentlemen, I have enrolled in a “hip hop funk” dance class.  Yes, you heard me right.  Get ready, this time next year, it’ll be ME opening at the VMAs.  (I can lip synch better than her, too, and all of my hair is real)

 Ok, so in all seriousness, I have truly enrolled in the dance class.  Last week, my friend from work, Olivia, asked me, quite out of the blue, if I’d like to do a hip hop dance class with her at Vanderbilt.  (Back story – I’ve decided to be more spontaneous, and a few weeks ago I told myself I’d agree to do anything that remotely sounded interesting {ok, WITHIN REASON, people} if someone invited me, so that’s how I got suckered into this)  So, I decided to fork over the $95 for the 12-week class.  Ok, why are you laughing as you read this?  I mean, seriously.  STOP LAUGHING.  My parents laughed for five minutes straight when I told them, Rebecca thought I was kidding, and Lindsay asked if there would be a video camera present and could she purchase a tape.  WHAT?!?!

Come Thursday night, people, you better watch out – Darren’s Dance Grooves ain’t got nothin on Susanna’s Dance Grooves.  Oh, and please pray that I don’t pop a hip/knee/ankle/Lord-knows-what out of joint!