{30th birthday weekend recap}

My 30th-birthday-eve was almost just as special as my actual birthday. The girls at work got me a super-sweet card and brought in food in honor of my bday. Totally low-key but so nice that they thought of me. I’m very thankful for my coworkers—they are such as nice group of young women, with whom I have tons in common. Thank you, girls! I came home to pack and prep for an overnight trip to Nashville, Tennessee. After delish garlic bread pizza and some cabernet, Paul and I headed to the local theater to see Juno. (I recommend the movie if you haven’t seen it.)

Nashville was a great mix of kicking back, looking around, and having fun. Plus Paul and I love road trips—having four hours to talk and eat sour Jolly Ranchers is always a good time. We got to Nashville pretty early since we forgot about the time change, so we headed a little south to cute little downtown Franklin to eat at Merridees, which has the BEST baked goods. We walked in a few shops but it was so darn cold this weekend (25 degrees), being outside was pretty un-fun. We stopped at the Belmont Mansion for a little historical tour.

The tour was pretty interesting, but one of the women on the tour with was SO annoying...she asked about a million stupid questions, most of them asking if the wallpaper was original (after about the 10th “no” she would have figured it out).

Anyway....we headed back up to the hotel for opening presents and taking naps. (Thanks, mom, for the super cute Amy Butler bag!).

Paul did a great job surprising me with some really great gifts. What a sweetie! That night we headed out early this rather well known , but small hole-in-the-wall kind of place called the Bluebird Café. It was SO much fun—way more than I expected. Four singer/songwriters played some awesome country music (way better than the crap they play on the radio) in the round. And we sat about a foot (literally) from the musicians. Not only was the music really good, but so was the company. I was dreading having to be social with other people at our table (I was really tired...and I don’t like people all the much). Some girl who knew one of the musicians came along and sat at our table. She was really nice and asked some questions but I just felt really awkward. And then it turns out she lives in Nashville but she’s from Orange County and went to EV Free. Small world! We chatted easily after that. I had planned to go out after the Bluebird, but it was so much I figured nothing could top it, so we just kicked back at the hotel.

I woke on Sunday morning to find the bed empty (Paul was downstairs reading so he wouldn’t disturb me) so I did some more kicking back, drinking coffee and watching tv. By the way, I have to mention Paul did a great job picking the hotel...I highly recommend (at least the one in Nashville) the Spring Hill Suites by Marriott. The rooms were really nice (suites) and only $90! Plus they come with two free bottles of water—wow! About 11am on Sunday we headed to the Pancake Pantry, a Nashville tradition. We were expecting the line that greeted us when we got there—unfortunately, the line was outside and it was 25 degrees, but it was worth it.

After cinnamon and sugar pancakes (yum!) we spend some time browsing in a used bookstore, then drove out to the Hermitage to tour the home, tomb, and grounds of Andrew Jackson, 7th US president.

I noticed they kept the mention of the whole Indian removal thing to a minimum, but the place was pretty interesting. By they end of our two hours, much of it outside, I was pretty frozen and ready to head back to Cincy. Which we did.