A Real Life Fairy Tale

The Royal Wedding was absolutely something to see this Friday morning. Not only did the London sites bring me back to my days studying abroad there, but the absolute romanticism of this much anticipated event stirred the little girl inside of me wide awake with wonder. This morning I felt just like I did as a little girl waking up to fresh fallen snow on the ground. I was so excited to see what the gorgeous Kate Middleton would be wearing, to see the nuptials on replay and to channel the little London lady I once was. It was the perfect start to a great Friday, and makes me feel even more excited to have a little fairy tale of my own unfolding.

Let's first talk about the incredible dresses Kate wore (while on the topic - please explain to me why her name is Catherine but you spell Kate with a "K." Royals can get away with anything...) made by the Creative Director of Alexander McQueen - designer Sarah Burton. The first gown was absolutely breathtaking. I just love the lace sleeves and I love this picture of her and her sister Pippa, because it is so sweet and makes me think of my Lynnie. I cannot imagine how nervous she must of been walking into that church - the pressure of this day is a lot when you do not have an entire globe of people watching you. And yet, she was as poised and demure as ever.

With this picture to the right- let's please comment on how she has the smallest waist on the planet. There has got to be a corset going on under there. I am picturing the scene in Titanic with Rose and her mom sucking her in like crazy. Either that or she doesn't eat. There is absolutely no way she can breathe. But she is lovely as ever. And she is smiling so we know their is some kind of air supply going on -  impressive.

Overall it was such an epic and beautiful ceremony and while I must admit, I am glad for the hype to quiet and for us all to refocus back to important news and real life, it was fun to escape into this fairy tale bubble for a day.

Oh Kate. Even though I want to spell your name with a C,  I totally have a girl crush on you. William is a lucky man.

Freaky Friday.

Not appropriate for the workplace?

It has absolutely been one of the those giggly, everything is funny, nothing feels focused, and time is moving as slowly as can be all day today. At one point, I even mouthed the F bomb. At my awesomely PC company, doing so is what defines an employee as having "a day." I was seriously considering going into the conference and throwing myself a dance party to shake the Friday fever I was feeling - I am just so antsy! Then I remembered that the conference room walls are all glass and thus my rendition of the Oops I Did It Again choreography would be visible by all. So I regrettably had to change my plans in the interest of professionalism (and due to the fact that I forgot to sport my red cat suit to work today - a must for any true reenactment).

Instead, during my lunch break I found a couple of fun things I would like to share with you all.

You all know by now that I am in love with the author Emily Giffin and thus even more excited for the premiere of her first novel adapted to film, Something Borrowed. I am not a huge reader, but I have read the novel more times than I can count and my sister and I are so excited that often while discussing it, we start wheezing because we forget to breathe. Typical sister behavior when on the topic of things we love -  Cheese. Disney World. Christmas time. Celine Dion. And now, this film.

So while browsing Emily's fan page as I do on a daily basis, she posted this new Yahoo movies feature on the film. Highlight of my day. When I go home for Mother's Day my sister, mom and I are all going to see this together - opening night. Most likely, we will then proceed to see it again on Saturday and Sunday. You will not want to miss this one (or the blog post rave review following the viewing).

I know it's a stretch...... keep squinting.

Other fun things I realized today: If you squint and use a little imagination, this picture from people.com of Anne Hathaway who will be playing Judy Garland in the biopic of her life, and me - super imposed next to it thanks to facebook and a screen shot - look a little bit (just ever so slightly) similar. Listen, I realize this find makes me delusional, self absorbed and as shallow as a kiddie pool, but that is what this day has come to.

Do you understand now the gravity of the situation?

It's the future I can see.

I think I am slowly losing my mind. Either that, or all of my common sense is being replaced by an enhanced psychic ability, since I often think I have something a little stronger than women's intuition.

Truthfully, simple things like remembering to bring my dress to the gym so that I actually have clothing to wear to work other than my hot pink and white striped towel have become increasingly more difficult. Yes, this morning, I forgot the dress that was hanging in my closet and found myself in the locker room with just my under garments and some high heels. And no. The street corner is not my place of employment. Trip to Target, 50 bucks, and 20 minutes late to work later I look smashing in a pencil skirt and sweater.... But despite the "new outfit" hop in my step, the whole office knows this outfit is covering up my shameful early-on-set dementia.

Disney can now make a show about me.

Meanwhile, as everyday things slip through the cracks, I am noticing my more obscure thoughts are becoming premonitions. Just the other day, my sister had a dream, and that same morning before she told me about it, I had lingering feelings on the exact same topic. And the other day I was thinking about someone I hadn't seen in ages, and five minutes later I ran into her. Or I will search for my phone to call someone, and that same person will be calling me. There are so many more of these "That's So Raven" examples, but of course, because I am losing my common sense memory, I cannot remember them to prove to you that I have a gift.

Maybe it is the Spring fever hitting me now that the weather is finally beautiful. Maybe my brain thinks I am a natural blonde. Or maybe my brain is honing my fortune telling skills.

My guess, its the latter.

Epical.

Remember me? I know it has been a while. First and foremost, check out this web site we just launched today and you will understand when you page through how amazing it is as to why I was extremely busy at work last week executing the big reveal. This site has been my baby for the past few months, and I am really proud of the entire team.

With that being said, I have been more "lost" than "found" on here because I have been completely swamped and thus wanting nothing to do with a computer after work hours. But trust me, I do realize that if I intend to ever have a real following I am going to have to actually update my blog. But sometimes I don't feel motivated because I am pretty sure my following is like - ten people. But for you ten, I get it - my absence is boring, and I can relate. There is nothing that bugs me more than clicking on some of my favorite blogs and re-reading the same static entry I have read three or four times over in an attempt to unearth something new just to put off the next thing on my to do list.

One of my absolute favorite blogs, which I highly recommend is the MODG blog. She is a brilliantly hilarious new mom who says exactly what is on her mind, but she needs to get some sleep and start updating more or I am going to trade her in permanently for Style Me Pretty even though it sometimes makes me feel pathetic for living vicariously through complete stranger's fairy tale weddings. Anyways... I digress. Back to MY blog. You know, the one you are reading right now.

So problem identified - I need followers. (Mom, I love you, but you kind of don't count). So how to make that happen, you ask? Well, one of my awesomely hilarious friends is always looking for way to make money through the internet, particularly fascinated with how people can make money through blogging. He says there are a couple of key rules to gaining followers and in turn, becoming popular enough to merit advertising which is what makes the big bucks.  
And I have realized I do none of these things:

1. Find a niche - write about something interesting and different with a lot of visuals, because just like toddlers, readers like pictures. I babble and paste in generic google images, and thus have no niche.

2. Write consistently. Um.....

3. Solicit your face off without shame. Listen, I am all for sharing with friends and family, and even strangers - they don't actually know me, so whatever. But something about pasting this all over my facebook feels wrong. Not quite sure I want that evil chick from middle school who friended me simply to page through my pics and see if I got fat in college to get all click happy and end up reading my word vomit. Or, better yet, the guy I just met who wants to date my internet identity before actually asking me out - the real human being - (this is what we have come to....). This lack of control makes me very nervous.

See. Generic. Thank you google.

But I am determined at some point in my life to do all three of those things, and well... become really famous. And today I got one step closer to that goal.

At the end of the day I was having one of my usual banters with this same awesome friend who is sweetly oblivious to some of the normal activities of being in your 20's (and pretty much pop culture in general) and thus thinks I have a really exciting life. He asked me about my weekend and when I told him I attended Tim McGraw's sister's bday party (no, sadly Tim was not there), his face lit up with interest as I bragged about how "epic" it was - a word I throw around a lot to make myself feel a little more... well... famous....

It was then that we had our epiphany and came up with a word, and in turn, the domain name of my yet-to-be-famous blog. Yes, together we invented the word "Epical" - which is his way of describing my life -  Epic yet typical, because the "Epic" happens so often it has become routine.

Epic + Typical = Epical. 

(Let me follow this up by saying my life is not all that epic, as I am sure you have determined via this blog. To put this into perspective, this dear thought my client's name was Lola when I said "Whatever Lola Wants," and didn't know what the word "Beotch" means).

So we officially coined the term Epical, and much like how I imagine the creators of "Branglina," or "totes" felt, we felt absolutely brilliant. But then we googled it and realized it was a real word meaning constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary "epic tradition." Frown face. So we pretended the past 35 seconds didn't happen and we didn't consult Webster, which restored our joy and overall feelings of awesomeness. On the brink of magic, we immediately checked to see if Epical.com was taken because that is the url he thought would be most appropriate to exploit my rants to make money (I agreed with this, and also agreed that he will get half of our profit for being my inspiration).

One problem. Epical.com was taken.  What the crap is that? That is barely a website. That is like a bizarre list of generic crap that for a second makes you think the url is not taken. Thus, we are pretty sure we can write a strongly worded letter and steal back the domain name. And if we make that huge effort and Epical.com is ours, I am going to have to find the time to find a niche, update more and solicit myself. And probably do some cool things that I can actually write about so that I am not trying to interest you by writing about what I should write about that would actually be interesting. Do you follow? Gosh, this is turning into a lot of pressure.

That is me. The author of Epical.com.

The real truth is, I figure if I do this, and I become famous, then maybe I can be on Dancing With the Stars.




Busted.

Spring Cleaning.

2006 - clearly missed my calling.

Another week has gone by and only one day out of those 7 days was warm(ish) and sunny. One. Day. Ugh. I get that I talk about the weather more than I talk about anything else on this blog and it is probably getting tired and highly unoriginal but THAT IS HOW BAD IT IS. I am praying this weekend is the start of Spring instead of yet another tease - I don't want a Spring snack. I am starving and I want the whole buffet. And I want it now. My closet is full of clothes I prematurely switched out two weeks ago and they are lonely. But good news - this weekend is supposed to be beautiful and warm and I absolutely cannot wait after the days of rain and cold we have had. Listen - I realize I have a charmed and blessed life. And knowing this made me wonder why the first hour of every day typically makes me feel like I want to crawl in a hole and quit life. I am certain it is because the only people in Nashville who are truly happy right now are the weather people who are celebrating the ease of their profession - all they have to do is predict rain and 99% of the time they appear brilliantly accurate. Dear precipitation. We are not friends. Stop trying to hang out with me. 

I am currently sitting down on the couch watching the Elton John episode of American Idol which has been very entertaining - One girl is belting out "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me." I can relate. And Randy - stop with the "pitch" comments. It is like he has nothing else to say. Dawg. MIX IT UP. Get a thesaurus and find a new way to cover up the fact that you don't actually have anything intelligent to say. He just threw out the word "modulation." Pretty certain he doesn't know what that means. He really should just let JLO talk for him. Jenny's rock.

I also happen to be whitening my teeth with these blue trays I bought from CVS. Yes, I put my trust in a generic brand to save ten bucks and now I look like a smurf peed in my mouth. It is funny how I am frugal with a pharmacy purchase but I will drop ten bucks like it's a hot potato (or FOR a hot potato) when I am ordering at a restaurant. Food trumps all in my life. As for the whitening - we'll see how this goes over. Already it has been a big hit - my roommate came home to an alien mouth and was slightly startled. I mumbled that in an effort to find brightness in my rainy life, I am whitening my teeth. This is the kick start of Spring cleaning for the self. I have been considering doing a body cleanse to help with my "must-have-something-sweet-after-every-meal" sugar addiction, and my caffeine overload from the three cups of coffee I have a day, and I figure I might start with something slightly less radical. Sitting on a couch with blue trays, not nearly as hard as getting my nutrients solely from liquid for seven days. Baby. Steps.

I also plan on getting some sun this weekend to give my skin a slightly less translucent hue and remind my cells what not being vitamin D deficient feels like. I am also very excited to mix up my workouts when it does get warmer and I am not trapped prancing in a war zone of elliptical and cardio machines at 6am regretting downing half a tub of cool whip the night before without thought. Don't judge. It's fat free.

Spring's little light, Everley.

Now that I have spent the last few paragraphs being embarrassingly self-absorbed, I want to leave you with an update on sweet Everley Burton - the miracle baby! Last Tuesday I shared the amazing results from Everley's surgery and yesterday the Burton family got the results from her pathology report - the surgeons completely removed the tumor and the chances of it returning are very small (this means it is time to call up Anne Hathaway to play me in the movie). They don't anticipate she will need any treatment. This news is another reminder of how good God is and how incredibly small the little woes in life are. The rain, a difficult client, a tired morning, a cool whip overdose - nothing can trump or shade this blessing. 

She has been the true light of my Spring season, and perhaps all of the rain is God's way of illuminating her just that much more. 

To Everley, with love.

The past couple of days have been beautiful outside. As intended, I took the weekend to breathe, pray and take care of myself. I saw a great movie Limitless (it will blow your mind), went to the piano bar Big Bang with my roommates and enjoyed music, shopped some great sales and had such an incredible night at church with my small group. I have finally kicked the relentless cold that plagued me for weeks just as the sun kicked the rain out of the sky - perfect timing. I slept in, ate healthy, and even cried which is a rarity for this emotional fortress who didn't even cry at the movie The Notebook (I know... there is something wrong with me. You can pick up your jaw now).

It would have been the perfect weekend of restoration, with the exception of the worry in my heart for baby Everley Lauren - my coworker Ginny's sweet baby girl who was prematurely born via C-Section Friday morning at only 34 weeks. The baby had an extremely rare baseball-sized tumor in her abdomen which caused premature labor and propelled the Burton family into a waiting game of anticipation of their child's projected 8-hour long surgery to attempt to remove the tumor (scheduled for this morning). They called in a team of specialists but the family had no concrete answers with a case so rare. Ginny, Sloan and their family, all weekend long, had to just wait and see.

A waiting game of any kind is never like scrabble or Yahtzee. You don't get to roll some dice, say "Uno" or shout "Bop It." The stakes are high and the emotions are even higher. You simply sit. And wait. Pray. Cry. Push away doubt. Cling onto hope. And pray some more. There really are no winners in a waiting game. Instead, you feel as though you are suspended in mid-air somewhere between the best and worst case scenario. And like peanut butter and jelly, doubt is a waiting game's best friend. You will never find them apart. So unlike the delicious pairing of my two favorite spreads or a round of Twister, I do not care for waiting games or doubt. I simply do not want to play.

I am an instant gratification kind-of-girl. I need answers. I like closure. I seek clarity, and rarely settle for less. Waiting does not fit into any of these categories which merely points out the lack of faith I often have - especially at times when I need it the most - times when you hope for a miracle but feel it slipping through your hands all at the same time. I am sure this is exactly how the Burton family felt this past weekend as they were forced to play the most unimaginable waiting game of all. Their strength is absolutely inspiring. I am not sure I could have held it together as well as they have. I saw Ginny last night - the eve of the most frightening day of her life - and she was taking care of her two little girls, mustering a smile, and as faithful as ever. Her and Sloan will forever be an inspiration to me.

Ginny and Sloan as they found out Everley was going to be okay.

I am so happy to report that Everley's surgery went remarkably well and she is stable with the entire tumor removed - basically the absolute best case scenario we could have asked God for. The surgery began this morning and took half the time they thought it would! It turns out the tumor was covering the entire left kidney, with the right functioning perfectly, so they removed the left kidney, and a little piece of the pancreas and they were able to get the entire tumor removed. We got the call around 2pm at the office and the relief was like running into the ocean on a hot summer day. I was overjoyed. And with a happy outcome such as this, I truly hope this story makes it into an episode of Grey's Anatomy or at least a Lifetime movie ;). And if it does, I have a request: I would like my two-minute cameo during which I declare to the entire office that Everley is going to be okay with tears streaming down my face (in the middle of the work day...) to be played by Anne Hathaway :) (something tells me she can handle this kind of epic emotion).

Stories like this remind us all of how sweet and precious life is. I cannot stress enough how much this little girl has taught me already. Hoping and praying for her has strengthened my relationship with God, my parents, my small group and reinstilled the importance of living in the moment and not taking the people you love or the life you are given for granted - not for a second.

That's me. And my birdie friend.

In this moment, I sit on my porch, watch the white flowers on the newly bloomed trees sway in the breeze and listen to the birds tweet and I feel nothing but joy. I literally feel like I am in the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah music video because I am just so happy. Not even the pesty bee circling the porch or the sound of rush hour traffic from the nearby highway can take away my peace. This peace is refreshing. This peace is a sigh of relief. This is the peace that comes from an answered prayer. 

Thank you for those who knew and prayed for the Burton family and for being a support system for me in turn. Never forget the power of prayer and how amazing God can be. I felt so fortunate to have the people in my life supporting the Burton family and praying for them. And once I wrap my arms around that sweet little girl, I promise to tell her how many best friends she already has and what a miracle she is. I will tell her what incredible parents she has and how much we all couldn't wait to meet her. I will tell her how much God loves her.

And of course, I will thank her for finding the strength to stick around.

Sunlight and Shadows

After a weekend of going out with the girls, laying in Centennial park and soaking up the 7 hours of sun we saw last Saturday, capped off by another great evening at church with my small group, I headed into another week - and an eventful week at that. No tsunamis or honey nut cheerio binge fests thankfully, but still eventful all the same.

The roller coaster started off on Monday night. After a busy day at work catching up, I sat down to watch the much anticipated "most dramatic rose ceremony ever" in which Bachelor Brad Womack - infamously known for not choosing anyone his first season on ABC's hit The Bachelor - chose Emily Maynard (Carolina girl, single mom, beauty queen) to be his bride to be. If only it were that simple. They seemed so in love, only to admit that during the airing of the show, they have had "volatile" fights, broken up, and do not know where they now stand (shocker seeing as they only knew each other in lala land where Champagne is nutritional and making out is like breathing). Despite all of this, the couple are trying to make it work and are both on the cover of People magazine this week. Now, don't get me wrong - I love reading up on my favorite reality stars - but the fact this cover, among two past covers of Charlie Sheen "winning" trumps coverage of the tragedy and nuclear war zone that is Japan baffles me. I am sure Emily and Brad's chemical romance will sell more mags than the actual chemical reaction affecting an entire country, but still embarrassing all the same.

Tuesday was a typical work day, and the start of the sun finally deciding to get its head out of the clouds and bring happiness back to the world. Weather is typically a small talk topic brought up as common ground to diffuse silence in a conversation, but in my world it has been my daily focus. Every moment of sunlight reminds me Spring is finally in bloom and I can kiss the miserably cold dark ages of winter good bye. Good. Feeling. That night I went to see Cheryl LuQuire perform at Tin Roof - she was absolutely incredible. I am telling you - she is going places. Amazing. Made me wish I had the voice to be a singer, but then again, grateful I am not good enough for the possibility because what a tough business that is to crack. Especially in the town where everybody sings, and only few make it. 

Wednesday the day was absolutely beautiful but it is also when I realized my body was not happy with me. I have been going and going in an attempt to not be a grandma, when in fact, I really just needed a PJ night with DVR. Good decision and a good night to catch up on Glee and fall in love ever further with The Warblers.

Yesterday was even more beautiful then the last, so decked out in my green outfit I enjoyed this wonderful holiday in which being 1/16 of everything / having no idea of my actual heritage came as a great excuse to claim Ireland as home and party with the girls. 

We had a fun night but everything was shadowed by a huge dip in the week. Early afternoon my office got some scary news that my coworker who I absolutely adore and is 34 weeks pregnant was hospitalized because of an abnormal growth found in the baby's abdomen. This breaks my heart because she is one of the most wonderful people and my Nashville big sister. My heart is breaking for all she is having to go through. Please pray for her as we wait to find out how everything goes today.

Which brings us to right now - TGIF. This weekend should be beautiful so I hope to get out there and enjoy it, focus on being healthy, making good decisions, perhaps a little pampering (pedicure is a must now that the pups are seeing daylight) and prayer. My focus is on the baby and on God, which is perhaps why this entry is merely a chronicle and not a comedy hour, but I hope you find it enjoyable all the same.