Puppy Palooza

I'm just gonna tell you now, this post comes with a medical warning: 

If you have a heart condition, proceed with caution. 'CAUSE YOUR HEART MIGHT EXPLODE. 

Yesterday, Tom Hanks and I went to visit Meredith and Ollie, the brand new baby 4 month old King Charles Cavalier. Meredith and Ollie live in Charlotte, so we try to get together as often as we can! 

Tom Hanks took Ollie his favorite toys, Kong's (what we call) "Tiny Balls," and hilarity ensued.

These puppies had a big day. 

First, they met:

Then, they went to lunch:  

They shared a water bowl: 

After lunch, it was play time back at Meredith's. 

Tom Hanks watched me play with Ollie in despair (this is taken over the top of TH's head): 

And after we left, it was naptime. Because they just got worn slap out, you guys! 

All around, a delightful visit in every single way. Tom Hanks has never been around a dog as teeny as Ollie, so that took a second of getting used to, but toward the end of the day, Tom Hanks was laying down and letting Ollie climb on his back. 

Next time, I would like to train Ollie to ride Tom Hanks around like a horse. Because that is seriously what their proportions are like right now - a doggie and a horsie. 

...apparently I talk like a baby when I'm looking at puppy pictures. I CAN'T HELP IT!! 

It is one of the great gifts of life to have incredible friends, and to have one so close in a state where neither of us has any family or friends is so huge. I am so grateful for Meredith, and if I had to speak for him, I think TH is also very grateful for Ollie. ...once he gets over his heartache that I was petting another dog. 

Happy Tuesday! 

Last Saturday Night

It's Monday, everybody! Hooray! 

Tom Hanks and I have a very exciting day planned - we're heading to Charlotte to see one of my very dearest friends, Meredith, and her new puppy, Ollie. Neither of us has met Ollie yet, and I'm REALLY excited to get to see them/a little terrified TH is going to crush baby Ollie with his excitement. Remember the gentle giant Lennie in "Of Mice and Men?" Right. 

This past weekend, Jordan and I took a day-trip to Huntsville for my other favorite Meredith's wedding. Meredith Ervin, my big sister in Chi O and one of my all-time role models, married her sweetheart Cline on Saturday night, and we were so thrilled to get to be there. 

I thought I'd share some pictures from being reunited with a crazy bunch of friends/crazy people from college who I love, love, love. 

Note: Katie is not actually drunk in that video of her eating pasta, but the caption is too good to resist. That may be my favorite thing that happened all night, except, you know, Meredith getting married. 

Hope you guys had as much fun as we did this weekend! Every so often, it's good to just cut the hell loose. 

Wish Tom Hanks luck and good manners as we travel today - tomorrow's post will be full of puppy pictures. What could be better than that?? 

My Favorite Song

There's a show on XM called My Favorite Song hosted by John Benjamin Hickey. I've been falling in love with it lately. On the show, the host has different celebrities fill out a questionnaire detailing their favorite song in different categories, like Favorite Sad Song or Favorite Workout Song, and then they come on the show to elaborate. During the interview, as each song is brought up, it's played over the airwaves. 

It's really great. It's so interesting to hear them talk about what songs they love and why - I've heard Sarah Jessica Parker, Tom Hiddleston, and Ellen Burstyn. It kind of reminds me of a very short, music-themed version of Inside the Actor's Studio, but without creepy James Lipton.

So this morning, I thought I'd share my list, according to the categories that John Benjamin Hickey asks his guests. I wish I was sitting down with each of you to hear yours! 

Favorite Workout Song

This is such a cheesy choice, because this song is kind of terrible, but this is the song that I listened to over and over while getting in shape for mine and Jordan's wedding. I always played this song at the very end of my run, when I was really exhausted, to give me that last burst of energy - every time I heard it, I would imagine everyone dancing at our reception and how exciting that would be! 

Favorite Rock and Roll Song

Because it's just fantastic. This song reminds of why the word "epic" is used to describe music. It makes you feel like you can fly a little bit. 

Favorite Love Song

Had to include both versions. Both these women are so iconic, SO incredible - changed music in their own rights. This may seem like a clichéd choice, but it's only because these songs have become so popular since they were released. Go back and listen to these songs as though you've never heard them before and just sink into having your heart melted. This song is transcendent, every single time. 

Favorite Happy Song

This is one of those songs that, for whatever reason, is stuck in my head almost every single morning that I wake up. Half of it is probably because my dad used to sing this around the house growing up, and the other half is because it says, "Gotta get up, gotta get goin'," in the first lyric. Either way, this is an easy choice for me - this upbeat cover by one of my all-time favorite, if not terribly well-known, artists is just about as happy as it gets. It reminds me of growing up with parents who made sure Parker and I were well-versed in all kinds of music, not just (almost never, actually) Top 40's. 

Favorite Song From High School

Oh MAN. The first four bars of this song take. me. BACK. This song technically came out when I was in middle school, but it represents high school for me in so many ways. My friend Jennifer and I called this our "pick me up song," and every time it came on, we'd dance around like lunatics. This also opened up a deep obsession with Jimmy Eat World for me that lasted about 5 years - their subsequent records, Futures and Chase This Light were just so freakin' major within the four walls of my white '94 Ford Explorer. This song is high school wrapped up in a bow. 

Favorite Song to Dance To

May seem like an unusual choice, but this song is the first song I learned to how to do a line dance to at Camp Sumatanga, which was a HUGE part of my adolescence. Every time I hear this song, no matter where I am, even if I'm sitting down, I do all the moves from the line dance that I learned when I was 13. 

Ski, ski, ski, ski, ski ski ski ski TREE! 

Favorite Sad Song

Really, I could go all day on Favorite Sad Songs because I am #emo. No, but really, I could - so many of my favorite songs ARE sad songs. I think it's because when an artist writes a sad song, they mean it so hard - it just grabs you by the guts and won't let you go. 

Live Oak is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard, and Jason Isbell, being the other-worldly lyricist he is, slays me with the line, "There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be - and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me. And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around - could it be the man who did the things I'm living down?" 

Come. ON. 

Ghost in this House is not only one of my favorite sad songs to listen to, but also to sing. It's technically very challenging, though musically simple, and the lyrics to that song paint such a vivid picture of what it means to be lonely without love. 

Favorite Duet

Frankly, just get out of here if you don't like this song.

Something about David Bowie dying recently makes this even more of a FREAKING MIRACLE to listen to. You guys, if there's no other song you play from this entire post, make it this one. Please, make it this one. If this doesn't just tear you apart, you're already dead. 

And for an added treat, here's the isolated vocal from this song, if you've never heard it. Prepare for your brain to be absolutely motherf*cking melted. (Excuse the language, kind of. It's warranted.) 

These two voices, totally a capella, JUST FREAKIN' KILLING IT.

Favorite Guilty Pleasure Song

May or may not know all the words to this. To be honest, the entire album Big Willie Style is my guilty pleasure. It's so freakin' good. I can't help it. So many family car jam sessions rapping to this song. I think learning all the female backup vocals to Will Smith's songs is when I realized I could kind of sing. 

"Cause we see things that you need not see; we be places that you need not be." 

Favorite Christmas Song

All-time favorite Christmas song. And written by a Birmingham-Southern College graduate, to boot. Beautiful in every single way. 

Favorite Live Song

Yeah, okay so here's the story on this one. Freddie Mercury died in fall of 1991, and this was a tribute concert for AIDS awareness organized in his honor that took place in spring 1992. Nobody thought that George Michael, of WHAM! fame, could take on the extremely difficult vocal of this song, but he took it on. 

And he CRUSHED IT. 

Watch this video and prepare to be covered in goosebumps when literally thousands of people clap along to a tribute for a man whose mark on music was indelible. 

Favorite Show Tune

It's a no-brainer. 

The number of times I have sung this song in my car, in the shower, in my bedroom as an 8-year-old in a newsboy cap using the posts on my four-poster bed as streetlights to lean on - I cannot count them. Seriously, hundreds and hundreds of times. This song is such a gut-punch. Before I even knew what it meant to be heartbroken, I knew how to sing this song backwards and forwards. Lea Salonga = my girl for life. 

My dream role in my next life when I'm a Broadway star. 

Favorite Song From a Movie

Did you want to cry this morning? You're welcome. 

Once I had a birthday party where we watched Stepmom and all sobbed our eyeballs out. Since then, it's been a song that my friends and I love and play when we're with each other. A symbol of the kind of closeness that doesn't mind distance or years - permanent, intimate, joyful, wonderfulness that only exists in friendships. 

"If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double, just as fast as I can." 

...why am I crying?! 

Wedding Song

Jordan and I had the good fortune of meeting our wedding band weeks before we got married, because they played at someone else's wedding. We asked them what their favorite songs to play for first dances were, and this was the first one they said. We told them we'd never heard it, so they said they'd play it for us during the second half of the reception and point at us so we'd know it was the song they mentioned. 

An hour later, we were back on the dance floor, and the lead singer pointed at us while the band started playing this song. Jordan grabbed my hand and we started dancing, and (of course) I started crying, knowing this was definitely going to be our wedding song. Four months later, we danced our hearts out and loved every second of it. 

...although I guess you could also say this was a wedding song, too. 

TV Shows: Stream, Skip, Stream.

Jordan and I love TV. 

Well...I love TV. Jordan loves me. SO, by the laws of logic, Jordan loves TV. 

...is that not how that works? Maybe that's why I'm not an attorney. 

Anyway, there's a LOT of TV out there, people. It's crazy, actually, how much there is to consume. And in this age of "on-demand" everything, it's so easy to waste hours and hours of our lives on bad TV. And I don't mean bad TV is bad and makes fun of itself, like The Bachelor -- I'm talking about TV that thinks it's good, but is really terrible. 

 So, if you trust my taste, let me take a little of the workload off your shoulders: 

Here's a "stream-skip-stream" - what you should watch, and what you should pass on. 

STREAM: 

American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson. 

I'll admit, I was pretty skeptical about this show. Ryan Murphy tends to start off a series with this incredible momentum, and then it kind of devolves into ridiculousness (see: Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story seasons 1 through 1,000,000). 

But THIS. This is good. 

If you're around my age, then you probably don't remember the OJ Simpson trial in enormous detail, even if you do remember it. Watching this show is such an interesting take on something that happened in our lifetimes, and that involves people who are still alive today. Murphy has done an incredible job with the casting; while lots of the actors physically differ from the characters they play (Rob Kardashian, a shorter guy, is played by David Schwimmer who's very tall, while OJ, a giant, is played by the teeny Cuba Gooding, Jr.), the performances they give far outshine the obvious physical differences between them and their characters. 

It examines issues like racism and sexism in a fresh way, honoring those subjects without beating you over the head with preachy monologues. Apart from all that, though, it's just plain entertaining. All the major moments in the case - the Bronco chase, the gloves being tried on, Marcia Clark's massive makeover - all this is covered on the show. 

You can stream this show from FX's website with a cable login. 

SKIP: 

This season of House of Cards. 

Ugh. I give up. 

I'll be the first to tell you that Season 1 of House of Cards is one of the greatest recent seasons of any show I've seen. It's so thrilling and intelligent, well-written, well-acted, and if that's not enough, Robin Wright's constant shoe porn is enough of a reason to watch.

But, like many shows, this one couldn't hold onto its integrity for very long. 

Seasons 1 and 2 of House of Cards were gripping and realistic, but Season 3 definitely jumped the shark for me. 

I think my ultimate gripe about House of Cards is that it started as a quality show with a standard for itself, then turned into a soap opera while we weren't looking. Nothing against soap operas, but you can't claim to be one thing and then turn into something else while we aren't paying attention. And Season 5 is really too damn much. 

Without spoiling anything, I can tell you this: while this is the best performance Robin Wright has given in a few seasons, and the best storyline for, the plot line for Frank is so unbelievably absurd that the show, for me, became unwatchable. 

If you do choose to go for Season 5, go in with your expectations low. You'll be handed shocking scene after plot twist after OMG moment, but in the end, it doesn't really amount to much. 

STREAM: 

Fargo. 

No, not the movie. Although you should watch that, too. 

This show is an adaptation of the original 90's Fargo, and that takes place in the same universe. 

You guys, this show is REALLY GOOD. My dad and brother have been nagging Jordan and me about watching it for months, and we're really late to the party, since Season 2 has already come and gone. 

We just finished Season 1 and are truly hooked. Season 1 follows Lester Nygaard, played by Martin Freeman, and Lorne Malvo, played by the freaking bone-chilling Billy Bob Thornton, through their clandestine meeting and subsequent criminal entanglement. If you thought you were freaked out by Angelina showing up with Billy Bob's blood around her neck, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Subtly funny, sharp as a tack, and not for the faint of heart (there's definitely some intense violence), you will never be sorry that you sat down to watch this show. It the fine, quality TV that proves we're living in the Golden Age of Television. 

Hopefully, this will save you time, and turn you on to a couple of great shows if you haven't seen them already. Really wild about both the ones I recommended, and House of Cards? Well, we all gotta go sometime. 

Good Friday: Mary

Good Friday is such a rough day on the liturgical calendar. 

When I was thinking about what song I wanted to cover next with my friend Landon, Patty Griffin's Mary jumped out in my head for two reasons. 

1. The lyrics to this song are truly gorgeous, and reflect this sense of the woman behind the man. Mary, mother of Jesus, brought him into the world, had to watch him leave it. I think my favorite line in this song is the chorus: 

"Jesus said, 'Mother, I couldn't stay another day longer.'
Flies right by, leaves a kiss upon her face.
While the angels are singin' praises in a blaze of glory,
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place." 

It reminds me of the hundreds of times I've seen my own mother stay behind to clean up after a celebration or a funeral or a holiday - and it's humanizing to think about the people who were left after Jesus was crucified. What were they feeling? What did they have left in those three days before the resurrection? 

2. This won't happen until Easter, but there is a part of the Easter story where Mary Magdalene is walking in a garden after Jesus has been crucified. She begins a conversation with someone she thinks is the gardener trying to find out where they've laid Jesus' body, until about halfway through that conversation when the "gardener" speaks her name. 

"Mary." 

For me, this is always a particularly arresting moment on Easter Sunday. Though I go by Mary Catherine, my immediate family calls me, "Mary." Hearing not only my name, but the name I'm called by those who love me most, said out loud by a risen Jesus, is overwhelming for me and makes me cry every single time. The idea that Jesus speaks our names and in that moment, we come to recognize all the things in our lives in which he's been present all along? The idea that Jesus SPEAKS OUR NAMES at all? It's too much goodness. My eyes have to leak so my heart has room to hold it all.

So with all of that, on this liturgically gloomy day that precedes the very brightest day, I hope you enjoy this offering  - all instrumental credit, as usual, goes to the great Landon Heckman. 

5 Things: Life Lessons I've Learned from Gardening.

I am new to gardening. Ask my neighbors. 

Growing up, my grandmother Nonnie always kept a beautiful flower garden. Once we moved into their house and they moved up the road, the garden, unfortunately, became a little bit of a disaster area. 

In Jordan's and my house now, we have three tiers to our backyard; all three feature lovely landscaping, and two have raised beds. I decided that this was something I was going to take on. 

In the last three days or so, Jordan and I have had lots of "real life" things hit us between the eyes. Family members dealing with cancer diagnoses or surgeries, friends passing away from long-suffered illnesses - the kinds of things that always make us take a step back and look at life in a new way. At a certain point yesterday, amidst lots of this news pouring in, I felt the need to be outside for a while. So I started working in the garden, and because the "Big Questions" of life were weighing on my heart, I started realizing just how many parallels there are between gardening and life. 

1. For everything, there is a season. 

"This, too, shall pass." I remember hearing that quote for the first time and thinking, "...what??" But man, how true it is. Standing in this same spot in front of our house only a few months ago, everything around me was blanketed with over two feet of snow. And now, there isn't a trace of cold weather left - only beautiful blooms and signs of spring. The natural rhythm of the world - the growing, dying away, growing, dying away - is such a beautiful reminder that nothing physical is everlasting.

And it's hard to remember, while we're living in a specific season, that another one could ever happen. It was hard to believe, when I had snow up to my knees, that I would ever feel overheated again in the summer sunshine. But seasons change. It's an inevitability. 

Good times should be cherished and savored, bad times can be endured, and every opportunity should be seized, because we don't have forever to decide. It's just that simple.

2. In order for some things to grow, other things must be cut away. 

Pictured above is the peach tree we inherited when we moved into our house last July. I love peaches, and I was real happy to get to have fresh peaches as often as I wanted - peaches on top of my vanilla ice cream? Hello. Yes, please. Once the peaches came in, I remember walking out to the tree with a little basket to gather them, only to discover they were hard. As. Rocks. 

Seasoned gardeners will already know why this happened - it's because the former residents of our little cabin didn't prune the tree before spring. In order to grow full, juicy peaches, you have to crawl up in the tree and cut away most of the buds that are sprouting. Otherwise, the nutrients in the tree will be so split among all of the peach buds that none of the peaches will get enough, and none will grow to their potential. 

Good grief - that's an easy lesson, right? We can be anything we want, but we can't be everything we want. Things in life must be pruned away in order for other things to get the attention the deserve, so that we can grow to our full potential. Whether it's people, activities, habits, hobbies - there are some things that must be cut away so that other, more important things, get all they need to thrive. 

3. Good things are worth hard work. 

With the exception of the grace of God and the unconditional love of our families, there is no good thing in life that comes without hard work. When we moved into this house, the garden was overwhelming. The previous tenants didn't care for it at all, and so it had become wildly overgrown. Weeds were ruling the roost. 

As much as I feel like I've weeded, sprayed, rearranged, weeded, etc., weeds continue to persist every so often, and I find myself back on my hands and knees shoveling out the roots and piling the weeds to be thrown out. 

This is such a major lesson for me. If I'm being really honest and vulnerable, the truth is that there are a couple of things that have always come naturally to me. Because of that, early in my life, I was able to rest on the laurels of my natural abilities and didn't throw myself into working as hard as I could have. What a mistake that was. Not only did I cheat myself out of learning the value of work hard, but I also will never know what I could've achieved had I actually applied myself.  

Disciplining myself in order to achieve a goal is something I had to really learn, and it's a skill that I don't take for granted. Now, there is little in life that feels better to me than being disciplined - setting a goal and chipping away at it - and that is exactly what this garden project is to me. In order to keep a beautiful garden, I have to be constantly disciplined and attentive. And that's okay, because for me, this is something worth working hard on. 

I used to think: If at first you don't succeed, it wasn't meant to be.
But now I know: If at first you don't succeed, it's because you haven't earned it yet. Keep working hard. 

4. Don't jump to conclusions.

Two days ago, I was weeding around a little rock bed we have, and as I reached for the next clump of weeds, I saw a tiny bit of movement. That movement turned out to be the teeniest tiniest garter snake that I've ever seen. 

Having not encountered many snakes in the wild, and certainly not less than an inch away from my hand, I was very heebie-jeebied by this little fella. In my mind, this 5 inch (or less, really) snake was about to somehow Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger into an anaconda and eat me, my dog, and my entire house. 

So I used my snake safety (meaning I immediately fled). But first, I took pictures. After researching it from a safe distance, I discovered that garter snakes are non-venomous, and are actually helpful in a garden, because their diet consists of tiny bugs that can eat away at your plants! 

I'll give myself a little credit here, since snakes can definitely be scary, but the lesson still rings true: there are SO many examples of when jumping to conclusions is a bad idea. Sometimes things that to be appear scary aren't scary at all. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction is a bad one. Sometimes first impressions are flat-out wrong. 

Oh, to have the wisdom to remember that in the future. :) 

5. We are small, but we are special. 

I've heard people say that being out in nature makes them feel insignificant, and reminds them just how small they are compared to the big, wide world. 

And I get it. I know what they mean - when presented with the vastness and the scope of ALL OF NATURE, all of the universes and galaxies that surround our little tiny planet, it's very easy to feel like our lives are just vapors. Because we are small. Here today and gone tomorrow. That part is true. 

But I also think that each one of us is so special. Such a singular creation. In the same way that every flower in my garden is new, and fresh, and will never quite bloom the same way again, so are we, and so do we. 

Get ready for me to sound like one of those motivational posters in your 4th grade classroom. 

Every one of us is unique, like a fingerprint of our Creator, a perfect creation that has never been and will never be again. All living things have this in common. The gift of life is so precious - so fragile - and it demands that we plant our feet firmly and, with every breath, that we make good use of every daily jog, of every belly laugh, of every bolt of inspiration. 

Every flutter of our eyelashes. Each night as we finally crawl into bed. Every mundane lunch. All of it. It's all part of what's wrapped up in a life that can only be ours. Life is happening right now, every day, in every little action and every moment, for as long as we're on this planet. 

So we have to answer the question, "Who are you? What do you have to offer?" Some days, we might answer in whispers. Others, we might answer in a roar. But being alive means that every day, we are living into that answer We're only one person, and we're only here for a short while, but we're the only "us" there will ever be. 

So we have to bloom.