{Celebration of Life}



Manuel and I

 "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years" - Abe Lincoln

Another year older and another year wiser. I was truly excited about what the weekend had in store. It was the celebration of many lives. Michelle arrived Friday afternoon for the weekend of festivities. It was her first time ever visiting me here. I had a great weekend planned. We had two tickets to the Sweethearts for Scholarships Gala that evening. This was the 8th annual "black tie" banquet and charity auction to raise money to support scholarships initiatives at Nashville State Community College. The event was located downtown and hosted at the new prestigious Hutton Hotel for the evening.

There were local celebrities, such as Manuel, one of Nashville's favorite, silent auctions and of course the Sweetheart couple nominated for this years event who preformed after dinner. After the event we met up with Andrew to show Michelle around Nashville. Our first stop was Citizen, that was where "the Dr." and other friends were going after the Gala, and he wanted us to meet him there. The evening was quite interesting, opinions were formed on certain situations and from the actions of people that were around me. I wasn't really aware until I got home, although this was only opinions, I still had to make my own decisions on how I wanted things to happen. If the pursuit was still worth it, what would I do?

The next day was recovery and relaxation before the big party. My little brother came to visit and stay with us that day. We sat around pretty much all day watching movies. The weather that day was quite nice out surprisingly for February. Planning for this night took months. Our guest list was around 150+ of friends from all the birthday babies. Doug reserves us the VIP upstairs room at MAI that night. They were also hosting the i106 Bitterball that night for Valentines Day.  So I remember running around getting ready and trying to decide how the drive was gonna go. Michelle had an idea about getting a limo to take everyone.

So I called and Andrew and he gave me Matt's number to book one. This was a great birthday present from Michelle that night, it worked out for us nicely, because my little brother was able to go to dinner with us. We met everyone at Todd's before dinner where the limo picked us up. There was about 20 of my closest friends that had dinner with us at Urban Flats. I was really happy my little brother could come hangout. The vibes of the table were quite amazing, it was filled with excitement, giggles, love and true appreciation of friendship as we toasted to the birthdays, and enjoyed our drinks over delicious flat breads of our choice. After dinner we finished it off with a cake and candles. When I think back and remember watching the smoke of the candles fade, just looking around at everyone engaged in conversation with glowing smiles of joy, I felt truly blessed to be seated around all of my friends that night. After a wonderful dinner it was time to get the party started, we loaded up the limo and headed to MAI.

.:Party Photos by Carl Gillespie:.

It was quite the disaster when we
 got there. Everything was so disorganized and on top of it all Doug was at home sick. They had booked a frat party before the club opened that night, and were having trouble making them leave to reopen. My argument to them for not letting us in, was that we had a time booked and it was a separate private party, but they made us wait outside. I was NOT happy at all with this. Another issue once we were able to get inside around 11ish was that, we had agreed upon our guest list as no cover that night (which is why went through the trouble of putting it in alpha order with full names) but we were told when we got there that they had to be in by 12 or they had to pay cover. This was unacceptable!! Jake had guests from Urban Flats that were attending when they got off, etc...there were quite a few people coming in after 12 because of prior obligations.

I was so pissed, that we ended up getting it back to the way it was supposed to be but paying the price of running up and down to verify names, because the doors girls apparently didn't know how to read. I was tired of battling with them and wasn't enjoying the night anymore, so around 12 I gave up and headed upstairs. From that point it was all shots, I needed to catch up to everyone. At the end of it all it was great night. I had so much fun and spent time with close friends that I only see every once in a while. The next year of my life was definitely going to be something to celebrate!!

.:XOXO TMARIE:.

.:All Snow and Games:.

February the month of "Love" is always super busy for me, and this year there would be no reason for anything different about that. With Pred's games, concerts, and birthdays, I didn't stand a chance with free time to myself! The first Friday night of the month was my best friend Jake's birthday, just so you can fully understand the way the birthdays roll out for the month it starts with Jake- Feb 4, Brit- Feb 8, Chris Feb-10, Todd- Feb 13, Trever & Kashonda- Feb 16, & Mine the 24th.  We ended up not doing anything that night, because for the past 2 years we have had the celebration for lives with a big birthday bash! But this year would be different because of new friends that have came into my life.  

My first Saturday night of the month was spent 2 rows back from the ice, watching the Preds vs Redwings game!! I went with my friend Craig, he picked me up and we headed to the sold out arena. I was so excited to see the game, I was becoming an avid hockey fan this season. The games were always fun :) and I enjoyed everytime I was able to go. I couldn't believe when we stepped inside the arena how many people were there. It was like a concert. I remember having one of the best nights out with Craig that night. He was a huge hockey fan so we lived it up and cheered on our Preds!!

The first Sunday of the month is always celebrated watching football, its become "America's Holiday." Its when all of America sits down in front of big screen surrounded by friends, football and beer! <-- can't forget the beer or the chili! This year instead of a party, I made plans with the Dr. to get our friends together at Sam's in the Village for some Super Bowl action. The 12 of us all sat around surrounding a table full of beer bottles, pizzas and nachos. The TVs all around the bar were tuned in and so were we, laughing, joking, making new friends. It was such an awesome night. The Dr. and I got along great he was starting to grow on me, there was definitely something about him that I liked. It was strange to think back in December, I had actually went to his Christmas party, was introduced...and we didn't start hanging out until the end of Jan, for some reason people reoccur in our lives and we don't know why. But there was reason why we met and I didn't know why just yet. But, I have to say this was a Superbowl to remember.

It was back to the work week, but no one expected what was about to happen. The weather had been pretty crazy this winter so far. We definitely saw a lot of snowy days, but none of them were like this day. I remember just sitting at my desk watching the flurries lightly fall from the sky. It wasn't something I was too concerned about until an hour later when I noticed the parking lot was fully covered with a white blanket about an inch thick. The temperature dropped so quickly that day which made the roads across Nashville so dangerous. I packed up and headed out which seemed to be the same time that everyone else did in Metro Center. It took me 30 mins just to get out of my parking lot. The roads were so bad that I almost couldn't get my car up the hill, especially with traffic as slow as it was.

I remember my wheels sliding and coming inches from hitting the car next to me. But with the way my Daddy taught me how to drive in snow and years of practice in the mustang, we made it safely to Troy's at Werthan, it may have taken me 2 hours to go 2miles but I made it without a scratch! Now my sister on the other hand. Poor thing took her 5+ hours to get home from Cool Springs. Brentwood traffic was a nightmare on any other given day, but throw snow and ice into the mix and it = DISASTER! I didn't even chance driving that far. But she had no other choice. Five hours later she was still sitting there, so Troy and I were gonna go rescue her, until we got notice the her Boo was coming to the rescue. So with the city in gridlock and nothing to do, Troy and I went to the grocery store for dinner and dessert <-- Brownies yum! I of course didn't have any other clothes so I threw on some over sized sweatpants, a hoodie and Todd's jacket and we set out. Destination - Food! Needless to say we survived that night and most of the snow was gone the next day. Which was a blessing because our big birthday celebration was in 2 days and all that planning couldn't go to waste!

.:XOXO TMARIE:.