July, 2011

...now browsing by month

A Royal Wedding in Edinburgh!

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

So in case you didn’t know, there was a royal wedding today in Edinburgh. Zara Phillips, Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter, married Mike Tindall, England’s Rugby team captain. [And GRACIOUS if you see his face you can tell that man plays a hard hitting sport. Yowsa.]

And since it was a gorgie-poo day in Edinburgh, and since I live in Edinburgh, my roomie and I walked down to where the hoopla was happening.

Vlogging ensued.

A few notes of interest:

- I’m terribly self-centered when I’m videoing, often cutting poor Becky head off or in half or the like. It’s shameful. Forgive my selfishness.

- Becky is a natural. An absolute natural at vlogging.

- Accent identification: Becky is English, Rich is Northern Irish.

- I’m just learning how to use iMovie ’11, so forgive my lack of knowledge/editing skillz.

- I’m kinda short, forgive my lack of view.

Now on with the ssshhhhooooowwww!

Welcome to my new life. Is it an exaggeration to say I rubbed shoulders with royalty today?

Well, we shared air. That’s enough for me.

Y’all have a great weekend.

Posted in Scotland | 37 Responses »
Tags: Mike Tindall, royal wedding, Zara Phillips

Top 5 Friday: Foodie Blogs

Friday, July 29th, 2011

I’ve decided that I want to add more foodie blogs to my google reader. [Our grandparents would totally not understand that sentence.] I have a few that I read and LOVE, but I want more More MORE!

With my new I cook or I don’t eat situation, I want to see pictures of beautiful healthy food and think, “I could make that” and then walk down and get the groceries I need and then make it. Shazaam. Like that.

. . . . .

Here are my five favorite foodie blogs that I already read…. you may love them too!

#1. Pioneer Woman

Don’t we all? Let’s be honest. There’s not an internet nerd out there who isn’t subscribed to her. Her photos. Her recipes. They are beautiful and delicious and sometimes less than healthy. But I love her.

#2. Joy The Baker

Lots of friends in Nashy love this blog and about eight different friends sent it to me in the same week. I was all, “Hey Joy The Baker… how did you just manage to invade our city?” She’s super cute and takes great photos and I’m pretty sure we’re gonna end up being friends. Only time will tell.

#3. The Perfect Bite

My friend Debbie runs this great website. She is way more adventurous than me and uses super cool ingredients. I read her blog mainly because I want to like the variety of foods she makes. Everything looks so beautiful. And yummy. Annie Parsons loves her. That’s enough proof for me.

#4. Dinner A Love Story

I love this family. They are funny and kind and interesting and if I was to live in New York, I would definitely invite myself over for dinner. Jenny often has different varieties of the same recipe, making it work for everyone in her family. As a lover of leftovers, that’s great for me too. She also has an amazing book out, Time for Dinner, that I highly recommend. [But we're talking websites, Annie. Stay focused please. Sheesh.]

#5. Little Brooklyn Kitchen

Some friends of mine in NYC run this blog and it just holds a special place in my heart. They have simple recipes, perfect for 1-2 people, and it’s vegetarian – though not the way I eat, it’s nice for sides and good ideas. And I think the pictures are really well done.

. . . . .

YOUR TURN!

Who is your favorite foodie blogger / recipe website ? [Also- cooking for one can be a challenge... any thoughts on that?]

Posted in That's delish., TOP 5 FRIDAY | 19 Responses »

Inciting incident.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

When I read Don Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, it kinda changed my life. Great books will do that. I would insert about fifty quotes here if my copy of the book wasn’t in some storage unit on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. [Books are heavy. Very few made the trip to Scotland.]

But the one quote from Don that doesn’t leave my mind is the quote about an inciting incident.

“…the inciting incident is how you get (characters) to do something. It’s the doorway through which they can’t return, you know. The story takes care of the rest.”

Because my dear friend Bianca was brave yesterday, and because it’s been on my heart a while, I’m gonna talk about it.

I am so not good at this eating healthy, working out, treating my body well thing. I mean, I am SO not good at it.

And I think about it every day.

I worry about fitting into bridesmaid dresses that are already hanging in my closet and I worry about caring too much that it becomes an obsession. The scale calls my name from across the apartment and yet when I avoid it for months at a time, well, NO good comes of that.

I try and I fail and I try and I fail and I go to a counselor and I try and I fail.

But I don’t quit. Maybe I’ll fight this every day for the rest of my life, but I will fight it. I won’t quit.

It stinks.

One of the best parts of living in Edinburgh is that fast food and eating out isn’t as much of an option here. It’s just not the culture. People eat at home. And I, well, since I don’t have a car [I wouldn't know what to do with it even if I did] and don’t really know my way around this neighborhood, I have an inciting incident on my hands.

I am being forced to cook.

No more Baja Burrito. No more Coke icees from Burger King. No more Frothy Monkey.

It’s just me. My kitchen. And my Tesco Metro.

Being taken out of my drive-around-eat-out-with-your-friends life and set in this walk-around-and-eat-at-home life has forced me through a doorway, as Don says.

And I’m grateful.

I’m not getting all crazy and diet-y. That doesn’t work for my soul. It’s not healthy.

I just want to be healthy.

I love to cook and I’m pretty good at it. I just have, in the last few years, untrained myself. I have created an eat-out habit, and that’s not super healthy. And by golly, Edinburgh is gonna break it.

The cool thing? I can only buy what I can carry [I am such a city girl]. So I stop by my Tesco Metro about once every other day. Fresh fruits and veggies. Less processed stuff. And my budget is squeezed tight, so I’m careful not to buy ridiculous things.

We had some foibles the first few days, but I’m in the swing now.

Today’s masterpiece? Marisa‘s chicken and gnocchi.

For a learning-to-cook-again girl like me, this was perfect. I grabbed a roasted chicken, a head of broccoli, potato gnocchi, Parmesan cheese, and low fat tomato sauce [I just read that as "tom-AH-to"- the Scottish girl that lives in my head is back].

Shred the chicken. Cook the gnocchi. Steam the broccoli. Combine everything and eat.

Delish.

It’s a good start. It’s not life changing. I’m not a cooking caterpillar that will soon become a butterfly.

I’m just a real girl who has real issues, even after she has written a book about loving yourself and living a well-rounded healthy life. [Sheesh.] But just like Bianca, and maybe just like you, the issue of eating right and choosing exercise follows me from meal to meal and city to city and country to country and there are wins and there are losses.

But here in Edinburgh, things are a changin’.

I’m grateful for this inciting incident. More grateful than I can say.

Help! Got any food blogs that you love to read? Or any recipes on your own blog that you want to share? Link on, linkers. I’d love to read!

Posted in Get Fit, That's delish. | 31 Responses »

Confused in English.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Hi friends. For starters, how great was Lois’s post on Friday? I know. I’m still impressed.

Secondly, thanks for all your prayers last week while we were at camp. It was an amazing week. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but the American team did. So once they recover from traveling I’m sure the next item on their to-do list will be uploading pictures to facebook that I can immediately steal for the blog.

So. That’s the plan.

[There are a few pictures over on the Scotland Team blog... so that could be your appetizer. Don't want you starving or nothin'.]

Now onto today’s topic:

How I Can Still Be An Idiotic American

Even When The Country I Live In Speaks English

. . . . .

Anecdote #1. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.

I went to the grocery store last week and purchased a chicken dinner from what I thought was the cold foods sections [vs. the frozen food section]. I popped it in the fridge and planned to eat it. I didn’t have time to eat it before camp, so when I came home, I assumed my roomie had thrown it away. [It had been 10 days... it needed to be done.]

I said, “Hey, did you throw that chicken away?”

She said, “Yeah, I mean, it was old and it was supposed to be frozen.”

With a quizzical brow [you're welcome], I said, “Wait. It was? I thought it was just refridgerated?”

She said, “Uh, Annie. It said FROZEN DINNER across the top of the box.”

Right. About that.

. . . . .

Anecdote #2. Bus stop.

I took the bus to Esther’s house a few days ago. Being that it was my first solo mission, I pulled out the bus map and traced my route repeatedly until it was memorized.

I walked out the door with my head held high, knowing this was going to be an absolutely massive success.

I got on the bus and IMMEDIATELY realized that I had made a fatal error. I had learned my “route” backwards- I had learned it as if the buses travel on the American side of the road instead of the British side of the road. So I knew every bus stop on the right side of the street, but I was traveling up the left side.

Impressive, eh?

Luckily, I had a map in my purse [obviously, because I get lost every day], so I just pulled it out and followed stop by stop, playing Russian roulette with the appropriate time to get off. [This led to a lot of stand up- sit down-now?-squat-stand-here?-sit movements that I'm sure were entertaining for everyone on board.]

I survived and arrived. And unfortunately, a friend drove me home. So I didn’t even get the chance to use my vast right-side-of-the-road knowledge.

. . . . .

Anecdote #3. But they smelled good.

After camp, it was time for laundry. You may have seen on instagram that I posted a picture of my clothes line-drying in the kitchen.

Well. Before the line-dry comes the wash. My roomie stood beside me and showed me how to use the machine. I pulled out the liquid soap that I had purchased and asked which slot is for soap.

“Uh, Annie. That’s fabric softener.”

So I literally was about about to wash my clothes with zero soap and a whole heapin’ mess of fabric softener.

In my defense, I have read every piece of text on that bottle and NO WHERE does it say fabric softener. Of course, no where does it say detergent either, but that’s neither here nor there.

Luckily, there was detergent in the house, so I borrowed a few scoops. So yes, my clothes are actually clean and, for the first time in my life, line-dried AND fabric softened.

. . . . .

So. There is your proof that I can be a huge idiot no matter the address. I know that this is first world stuff, my life is NOT hard, but it’s just funny to think how different cultures can be, even when things would seem so similar on the outside looking in.

Lucky for me, the Starbucks on the street makes a no water soy chai latte that is beautiful in any language. I’m heading there now.

Posted in Scotland | 6 Responses »

Top 5 Friday: Meet Lois.

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Y’all are gonna love this. My friend here, Lois, asked if she could do the Top 5 Friday post. I don’t know if this was to stay up past bedtime at camp or what, but I’m actually ridiculously impressed with her blogginess. Also, she knows me well, as you will be able to see. Can’t wait to hear your responses in the comments!

. . . . . . . . . .

Hello, I’m Lois, and I’m a camper at the Youth Camp where Annie is speaking this week in Scotland. I came up with a Top 5 Friday idea that I had to tell Annie before I completely forgot my brainchild, and after telling her she said: “You can write it!” So here we are.

To go with the camp theme, I came up with Top 5 Camp Quotes! Basically, it’s the 5 funniest and meaningful things I’ve heard this week, be it from Annie or from other campers. Let’s do this…

1) A pop quiz….

Annie – “So what animals roar?”
Everybody – “LIONS!”
Lois – “Sheep!”
Annie – “Oh. Wow. Hey, Lois, how’s school goin’ for ya?

So, let me give you a bit of back story for each of these quotes, in order for y’all [look at me, I'm in with the American lingo] to understand the context in which the quote came about. As you know, Annie is our speaker this week and the theme is Unlock My Roar so it only makes sense to ask what animals roar. I see the question as an opportunity for Teacher Annie to make an appearance. So Annie asked this and I was in fits of laughter, not because I was embarrassed by saying ‘Sheep’ but because I graduated from high school last month so I guess you could say school ain’t going too well.

2) Jordan- “There ain’t no party like a Holy Ghost party, cuz a Holy Ghost party don’t stop!”

Some of you guys might know the song from which this phrase comes [I learned that Cory Asbury is the artist behind it]. I didn’t ever hear this and until hearing the song last night, I thought Jordan had made the phrase up herself! Jordan is an inspirational girl who has just recently returned from the States and she, along with three other campers here, participated in Riverstone’s Summer Camp. The camp over in the USA is what I like to call the mother camp of this week here in Scotland. Our camp has been going for five years and every year we are blessed with such a committed team of people from Riverstone and StoneBridge church who are so inspirational to my fellow campers and I. [I'm getting deep, I was saving that for the end. Sorry 'bout it]

3) Annie – “You can never be free if you don’t talk about your chains.”

Can I get an Amen? Annie spoke about this on Monday night and the Lord pulled on my heart-strings and told me there and then to get prayer about what’s been holding me back from Him. Since Camp 2010 ended last year, my relationship with the Lord has been rocky and thanks to Annie’s inspirational words this week, I can gladly say God and I are back. on. track.

4) This isn’t a quote as much, but it’s something I think is quite a serious yet silly argument. I want y’all to tell me in the comments whether or not you think pancakes and crumpets are the same thing. For those of you unfamiliar with a crumpet, it’s a flatter version of a pancake with holes in it. If you want my personal opinion, I like crumpets better. Some of the younger campers and I were having this debate over lunch as we ate crumpets/pancakes/whatever you wanna call ‘em. We wanted to get it clear so that the Americans went home proudly saying they knew their crumpets from their pancakes. [I just stopped and looked back at that paragraph thinking "Annie's readers are going to be like "Whaaaaat on earth is this girl talking about?" I'm not usually this crazy, just ask Annie.]

[Hi. This is Annie. Yes, Lois is this crazy. And I'm loving this post so far. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogger....]

And finally…

5) Annie – “When I look at you, Lois, I see someone who is a joy to be around and I see a leader.”

This meant a lot to me. When spending time with the Lord on Monday, He gave me a phrase that literally made my jaw drop. He said : “Learn today, for one day you shall guide, one day you shall lead.” I was scared to share this with anyone that day, and took the day to think about it and try to take some meaning from it. If there’s anything I’m passionate about, drama and leadership are definitely up at the top of my list [next to Irn Bru, I'm really passionate about Irn Bru]. I mentioned earlier that I graduated high school back in June, I’m taking this summer to get myself back on track and ready to head to Liverpool in September to study drama [if I get the grades. I'll let Annie know how I do on August 4th]. Leadership is always something I’ve been interested in, I love to teach people things and guide them with situations; the feeling of accomplishment when I learn that my guidance has impacted somebody’s life just makes me want to guide more and more. Annie saying this to me has really touched my heart this week, and this is going to act as a great transition into my conclusion-ending-thingy.

Since I last saw Annie back in July of 2008, she has done wonderful things. As a reader of this blog myself, I’ve read her adventures as she’s moved to Nashville, written and published a book and even attended the Grammy’s. [Have I read her book? No. But it's on my list of books to read over the next 12 months, next to the 11 books I got a list of earlier!]

I love Annie for what she’s done to my life this week, really really love her. Our friendship means a lot to me and having her in Scotland to talk to about what the Lord has shown me this week has been amazing. Annie Downs, you are my hero. [I know she's going to see that last sentence. She has to format this because I reaaaaaally don't know how. Hi WordPress, I'm new.]

[Thanks, Lois. I love you too. For realz.]

So tell me, what are the top five funny or inspirational things you’ve heard this week? Also, Crumpets and Pancakes: Are they the same? I need to know!

It’s been great guest-posting this week, but I better dash…lights out was an hour ago.

-Lois

Posted in TOP 5 FRIDAY | 17 Responses »

Summa-summa-summa Camp 2011!

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Yes? Anybody? Will Smith reference?

You’re welcome.

This week I am at camp with our dear friends from Potter’s House in Western Scotland.

Hence the reason AnnieBlogs is a quiet place…. perfect for reading or studying or taking a nap.

I won’t be back here until after camp, but if you want to keep up with us, there is a CAMP BLOG and there is a chance that they will be live-streaming the evening services starting tonight [since we just got wifi today] so you can watch along with us.

Remember the time change. It’s a biggun. We’ll be live at 8pm Scotland time…. 3pm EST, 2pm CST, etc.

And by 8pm Scotland time, what I actually mean is “we’ll be live whenever the evening activity is over.”

Tonight’s evening activity: a dance where everyone dresses up like an old person or a baby.

Because if nothing else, it will be hilarious.

Your prayers are appreciated as I am the evening speaker this week. It’s been a BLAST so far, God has already done some amazing things, but we want MORE.

Proverbs 28:1

“The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

Posted in Scotland | 5 Responses »

TOP 5 FRIDAY: That’s fun.

Friday, July 15th, 2011

TOP 5 FRIDAY is when we each list five of our favorite things, depending on the topic. Feel free to join in via the comments or by posting on your own blog and linking back here. Play along. It’s Friday.

. . . . .

This is going to surprise absolutely no one, but I love having fun. I seriously do. And I love when other people have fun. And I love when fun things happen and I’m around.

Pretty much, I’m a hound dog sniffing out fun on a daily basis.

To be cheesy and a bit serious- I think fun is important because it is in the fun that you get to know people and build trust and as much as I love having serious conversations that build friendships [and I do], I find fun to be… well, more fun than serious conversations.

[I've reached that point in typing the word "fun" where I am not sure I am spelling it correctly... do you know what I mean? Does that happen to you?]

Onto the list…..

TOP 5 THINGS THAT I THINK ARE FUN!

1. Zumba.

I’ve told you this before, but I think Zumba is the most fun exercise I have ever done. In fact, I’m scouring my corner of Edinburgh for a place to take classes. Also, I wrote an entire post about Zumba over at (in)courage. I would go to a Zumba class every day if I could. Maybe I can here- I just haven’t figured out where yet.

2. Surprise Parties

I think surprise parties are so so fun. I actually prefer being on the giving end vs. the receiving end of surprise parties because I love the moment when the surprise-ee walks into the room. I think it is really fun to see everyone get together and get quiet and your insides get butterfly-ish and it’s a really good time. I also really enjoy surprise engagements, surprise homecomings, surprise celebrations of any kind.

I’m kinda like this woman. And. I love parties.

[I can't see this video because it only plays in the US, but I know the skit pretty well and it is funny. 2 things: if you Americans can't see the video, please let me know and if there is a cuss word or anything super inappropriate that I'm not remembering right now, please let me know. ]

3. Summer trips to Dairy Queen

Here’s the epitome of that fun experience: You spend the day on the lake, you’re still in your swimsuit, your skin is a little crispy, but not burned. Everyone loads up in the car and you pop over to Dairy Queen. Maybe everybody has on shoes, maybe they don’t. [I definitely don't.] And you have just enough change for a dipped cone. So you get it and sit outside with your friends and laugh as the sun sets and you realize that these are the things that you’ll write about someday. That’s really fun.

4. Nerf guns

I love shooting people with nerf guns. It’s not that I’m violent. It’s just that the variety of nerf guns leads to a variety of shooting experiences. And people don’t REALLY get hurt, they just get bumped. I think when I grow up and have a husband and a house full of sons, we are going to use nerf gun wars to solve all household problems.

5. My friends being friends with my friends.

This is one of my very favorite fun things ever. I love when one group of friends meets another group of friends and they decide to become friends. It sends me over the moon. I get giggly when I see it happening. [This is actually one of the reasons I did YouBlog a few years ago... because I wanted you guys to all be friends!] There is something ridiculously fun to me when person from group A and person from group B see in each other what I already see in them. And then they are all, “Wow, I like you.” and they are buddies.

If my friends ever fall in love with my friends? Well. I die a little. In the good way.

. . . . .

There are a TON more things that I think are fun… but these are the first ones that come to mind. I mean, cooking is fun, going to the movies is fun, koosh balls are fun, watching The Bachelorette with a crew of girls is fun, floating down a river on tubes is fun, decorating the Christmas tree is fun.

Someone stop me.

We may be doing this list a few times.

YOUR TURN!

What do you think is fun? Any noun will work- a person, a place, or a thing… or an experience… or whatever you want.

One of my besties, Amber, is REALLY fun… I can’t wait to see her answers to this. Also, I think you are really fun. So hop into the comments and tell us your favorite fun things!

Posted in TOP 5 FRIDAY | 31 Responses »

My home: Scotland style

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Since I am severely jet-lagged still and my face would scare children, I think I’ll just show you a few pics of my living sitch.

[That's an abbrev for "situation" -- I don't love it, but it makes me laugh. So. There's that.]

Because my friend Molly really hates when I tell the internet my home address, I’m just going to show you pics from inside of the flat. Cool? Also, I have 2 roommates who, in the first 48 hours, seem totally great. But since they didn’t really sign up to be “blog topics,” we’ll leave them out of this for now.

Here’s the thing. I’m not a city dweller, per say. So when I have four locks on the door and someone is waiting for me downstairs and I can’t get the door open because I don’t know which lock to undo, I am quickly reminded that I am out of my element. [Also, I thought I was going to be stuck in my house forever. I eventually figured it out, but I did almost rip one of the locks off the door. Oops.]

This is the living room. I can’t remember what they call it- “the lounge” maybe?

And here is the kitchen. So cute, right? See the dishwasher? See the washing machine? See the dryer? Nope. You don’t see the dryer. Because there isn’t one. Oh, I’ll survive just fine. I’m merely helping you understand why my unmentionables will be hanging from the drying racks around the home.

And this note was on the board the day I arrived. Words are definitely my love language, so they nailed it on this one. Sure, I moved in with strangers. Is that not normal? [I'm kidding sorta. We had mutual friends. Don't freak out. And kids, don't live with strangers.]

And here is my room! So cute, right? And. Just so you know. There is a cat that lives outside my window and she thinks it is cool to scream her brains out around 5am. Today, I literally thought she was giving birth. [She wasn't.]

So this is right when you walk in the door. If you turn to the right….

My dresser, filled to the max. Dear heavens I brought too many clothes. I mean, sure, I’m here for five months, but still. Also, I hope you home decor folks appreciate my use of the ladder as a bag display. [I'm also using it as a towel rack, but I took them down. It's weird to look at other people's towels I think.]

If you turn right again, this is right next to the door- my wardrobe. Like a closet, but cooler. And yes, I hope you are totes impressed with my suitcase storage. Trying to get that monster up there was laughable. Sorry you missed it.

Turn right again [and by "turn right" you get that I'm literally rotating, right? Not like "walking around" so much as just "spinning around." Cool. Just making sure we're all on the same page.] Appreciate the trendy wave mirror. It was here when I got here. So. Also, the radiator where I forgot to remove a towel. Sorry. It’s weird, I know.

On the other side of the room, I have this cool mantel. It doesn’t have space for all my picture frames, so I’ll be rotating them out… I have about four more in a drawer. Sorry. I love my people. And yes, I do have two copies of my own book up there. Don’t hate.

And that yellow book? It’s my photobook from my 30th birthday party. I look at it about every day. It was beautiful, thrown by my best friends, and full of those dearest to me in Nash. So, what I’m saying is that it’s a cry fest every time.

Of course, I couldn’t leave home without these. Go dawgs sic ‘em.

And an upclose of my duvet cover. You’re welcome. It only cost £10 [which is like $14.50], so thank you, Ikea, for being cheap and cutesy.

So there you have it.

The magazines on my bed are all about two things:

Edinburgh Festival, which is the whole month of August and some of September. I want to be prepared for all the good times, so I’m doing some reading.
Cell phone plans. Sheesh.

Sorry if this post was super boring to everyone except my Mama. HI MOM!!!

See you guys tomorrow… my first TOP 5 FRIDAY from Scotland. Booyah.

Posted in Scotland | 24 Responses »

My eyes are open.

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

But they are burning.

It’s midnight in Scotland. I’m pretty good about tricking you guys into thinking I post every day (ish?) at 5am when really, as you sleuths out there know, I usually actually write it the night before and autopost it. But how shall I do that when I am 6 (ish?) hours ahead of you?

These are things I do not know.

So today, I will write and I will press publish. And you will read a new blog post after dinner instead of with your morning soy chai latte.

Hello. Good evening, America. I live in Scotland.

I have been awake for approximately 35 hours and I keep shutting one eye and then the other one as I type. Which, actually, is going to make this post a) more hilarious because I’m delirious and b) take a million years to finish.

Jet lag has me by the nostrils and is swinging me around like a rag doll.

Now that I have actually arrived, the goodbyes are finished and the packing is done, I keep getting this question: “How are you feeling?”

My answer? “Yes. I am feeling. Everything. I am feeling every emotion possible.”

Because I might be.

I’ve cried my eyes out the last week and then I sat at dinner tonight with three of my Edinburgh friends and laughed hysterically. I check my email constantly to see if I’ve heard from anyone at home and yet I teared up with joy when the plane landed.

I love Edinburgh.

I love Nashville.

I love Marietta.

And I wish I could pick at least one of those cities to hate with a mighty passion.

But for now, I will just have a divided heart that is always 100% happy to be right where I am and 78% brokenhearted to be missing time with my friends/family in other cities.

To keep today’s jet-lag sleepy time for Annie rambling at a good pace, here are the things I did today:

I got picked up from the airport
my friends dropped off at my new apartment
I unpacked all THREE suitcases and my carry-on [I know. You're impressed.]
had a “cuppa” [a cup of tea] with one of my roommates
took a shower after the roommates left, only to realize that I do not exactly know how to make the water hot. So that was neat.
snoozled for like 24 minutes… just a wee while [Scottish talk. It begins early.]
went to Ikea with my other roommate and bought sheets and a duvet cover.

Which, I need to interject here. My friends in Scotland don’t use top sheets. Just fitted sheet and duvet. I do not love this fact. It means a lot o’ duvet cover washes- which in a house of NO DRYER means quite a process.

I am American and I believe in the freedom to have a top sheet if you want one.

I want one.

Back to my day.

I met up with Esther, Harry, and Luke for a four hour dinner that could not have been better
I get home about 20 minutes ago and thought, “Oh sheesh! My blog friends! I forgot to tell them I am here!”

So there you have it.

I am here. My eyes are burning and I am about to pass out from exhaustion.

But I am here.

Hello, Edinburgh. Good to see you again.

Posted in Scotland | 30 Responses »

Feathers.

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Y’all know I’m usually on the ~~front line~~ back line of fashion trends and that may be the case today as well. But I am now the proud owner of feathers in my hair.

Also. Let me just go ahead and say. I’m sure these are not real feathers from real birds. No way. The colors are too crazy. These are fake feathers. But I love them just the same.

These feathers are put in your hair just like extensions, except, you know, they are wildly colored, not matching your own hair. Do you love or WHAT?!? We live in a funny world.

My hairstylist, Anna, is also a good friend and she was all, “Annie. What colors do you want? Let’s do this thang!” And I was all, “It’s almost my birthday. Let’s do blue. I LOVE BLUE.”

And then she proceeded to put the blue one in. A vivid and fluffy and totally Annie blue one. And then she put in a yellow one. And then, just for good measure, a brown and khaki striped one.

I. Know.

I love them too.

[And by the way, when my hair is down, you can't see all the crazy of the blue. So don't worry- it doesn't look that out of place. I think you were worried. Don't be.]

Back to the feathers-in-hair situation. I’m a bandwagon trendy kind of girl- if everyone else loves it, I usually do too… at some point. And that is definitely happening here – as in, I may have missed the arc of popularity, which I am okay with/used to, but better late than never.

But these three feathers mean more to me than just being trendy.

[You're gonna have to go with me on this one. It is a bit of a stretch when I'm explaining it, but it makes total sense to my heart...]

I leave Nashville this week and I won’t be back until December. I am super excited about the opportunity to go to Scotland, but I am also SUPER DEE DUPER sad about leaving Nash.

I love this place. I love these people. I love them so much.

And every time I look in the mirror, I now have a bright happy blue reminder of my home. I’ve been marked by my people and no matter where on Earth I go, I look like I belong in Nashville. I look like my people.

Maybe it feels like a tribal marking.

Maybe it feels like blue skin from The Hunger Games series.

Maybe it is just a simple reminder of home.

My emotions calmed significantly today and I thought about the feathers. I’ve been HIGHLY EMOTIONAL DEAR HEAVENS for the last two days, but something about these feathers said to my brain, “this is your home. You fit here.”

And these feathers remind me of home. Of my people. Of arms wrapped around each other and laughter and serious moments. Of hugs and I love you’s and the gift of community that I’ve been given. Of these friends who showed July 4th what a real celebration looks like and of the other friends in this town that have also grown to be family.

So forgive me if blogging is a bit scarce for the next week-ish. Thursday is my birthday [yay! 31! I love my 30s! seriously!] and then I leave Nashville on Friday and then I fly to Scotland on Monday.

The next few days are filled with meaningful dinners, hugs whenever I want, celebrating brand new engagements [three this week!] and brand new pregnancies, birthday meals, and tears galore.

I’ll be that magic combo of mourning and celebrating, crying and laughing, and pretty much being a complete hot mess.

Doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging, what with the crying and laughing and packing and hugging and goodbyes and all.

Pray for me, if you will. I’m grateful for the opportunity to live out the truth that God means more to me than anybody else, but leaving my friends is breaking my heart.

I’m also grateful today for these crazy feathers. Because I know when I see them, I will think of Nashville. And home won’t feel so far away.

Posted in Ze Bloggy Goodness | 43 Responses »