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Happy Monday! This weekend one of my favorite friends got married to an equally beautiful person. The wedding of Charles and Carrie Beth was a special one, full of love and happiness. They asked me a while back to read during the ceremony, which I gladly accepted. I didn’t really start getting nervous until Thursday or Friday, but it was more excitement than anything else. One of the readings was a Shakespeare sonnet (116), which I had to practice a lot to get right. It was very helpful to read the analysis to understand exactly what I was saying. Have you ever gotten so nervous that your knee caps start to shake? 
This is exactly what happened as I was reading in front of the 200+ in attendance. But from what I can tell, no one else seemed to notice, thank goodness. I tried to remember that it wasn’t about me, it was about the celebration of two dear friends coming together in love. And they couldn’t have been more happy. It’s people like them that stand as a constant reminder of what true love really is. I remember the first night that sparks started to fly between them – it was two years ago at the Artwalk after party. Charles walked up and introduced this glowing girl, and I could tell instantly that there was some magic happening. The rest is history, as they’ve been inseparable ever since. They both share a passion for adventure, food, music and travel. It is truly a match made in heaven. Congrats to you both!
Last night while trying to go to sleep, I couldn’t help but think of what a wonderful weekend it had been. Getting to spend time with James, hanging out in hammocks with Micah, and enjoying the company of friends almost every day made my heart smile. I just can’t seem to get enough of the people I love the most. Even my sister Rachel and her husband David came out on Saturday night for a few hours. They will be moving soon to Florida again, so it was nice to get to love on them a bit before their lives start to get busy with the transition.
I am in serious awe of this year so far. I would like to bottle it up and send it to myself in the future whenever I might need a smile. The note attached would read as follows: Hello from 2012! This has been one of the best years of your life. You love others equally as much as you are loved in return, and life has given you many gifts. Remember the moment when you met that special someone at Rojo? Or when you shared Gulf shrimp with a dear friend on a summer evening? Not to mention your sister’s wedding in Greece, or skinny dipping in the Cahaba River. Kisses, kitties, Atlanta, family and friends….this is the way your life should be every year. And if it isn’t, then eat a coconut popsicle and call me in the morning (after your 5 mile run with Vero, of course). This will get you heading back in the right direction.
Steel City Pops with Micah…. made it just in time before they closed. Photo by Micah
Charles & Carrie Beth – Photo by James Little
Emily, me, and Jill at the rehearsal dinner!
James and I.
My wedding date.
It’s LK and hubby!
Dan playing Jenga at Good People for the Artwalk fundraiser. Photo by James Martin
Dinner with Micah – fresh Gulf shrimp at Avondale Brewery.
This weekend I went to Columbus, GA to spend time with my dear sister Christy and her family before she has baby #2 in exactly two weeks. She amazes me with her ability to keep up with a two-year-old while being 9 months pregnant….makes me think about how my mom did it with four children. I wonder if by the time Rachel and David came along, Christy and I were old enough to help a little? But still, four kids is a lot to take on. Then I begin to imagine having seven boys like my grandmother West did, whose 94th birthday is this week. That woman needs to be made a saint, and stat. Hearing about Birmingham when she was younger sounds like a whole different world. She talks about riding horses up and down Lakeshore Drive when it was a dirt road, and about how her first house with my grandfather was appraised for $75 in scrap lumber when they first bought it (which is the second oldest in Mt. Brook). She loves to say that the only time she went against her own father’s advice was to keep the house instead of tearing it down. Instead, they just added compartments on to it as their family grew. It still stands to this day, but probably not for much longer. It will be sad to see a part of our family history go away. Maybe a piece of it can be saved somehow by the next owners of the property.
I got the honor of being present when Anna Banana was born just a little over two years ago. I’d never witnessed a birth before, except for on the TLC channel. 
It was so surreal…. Christy was such a trooper, and the doctor was so calm. Anna came out very peaceful, eyes wide and taking it all in. It happened much quicker than I thought it would, and without any real drama. It was such a beautiful thing to be able to witness, an experience that I will never forget.
Speaking of beautiful moments, this weekend is the wedding of my dear friends Charles and Carrie Beth. I’ve known Charles for many, many years…we met back when I did my short film Piece of Cake in 2006, and he wrote a semi-review about it on his blog. We discovered that we had several mutual good friends, and the rest is history. Charles and Carrie Beth officially started seeing each other a few Artwalks back, and I think it is fair to say that they hit the ground running almost immediately. They have an amazing connection that is immediately apparent to anyone who lays eyes on them. Since then, I have spent many dinners with the two of them talking about life, hopes and dreams. A few months back they asked me to do a few readings at their ceremony, and I gladly accepted. If I can manage to hold back the tears, I know I will do a good job for them. Cheers to you both!
Yesterday evening while doing a short Sunday run, I ran up my last hill to the top of Cliff Road which overlooks the city. The sun was setting behind Birmingham, and there was a beautiful light surrounding the city. I stopped for a moment to absorb the beauty and take it all in. That’s when I began to imagine loved ones gone in the light itself, and felt a strange comfort. Birmingham looked so small in comparison to the sky surrounding it, this beautiful wash of bright colors constantly changing as the sun was setting. I thought about all of the people underneath the sky, and all of those who were now in it. I wonder what they know that we don’t….and if they can hear our thoughts and questions. It was an amazing sight to see and made me think about what might happen to our spirits when we leave this earth.
It is fair to say that a lot of meaningful life moments are coming up in the next few weeks, and I am completely and utterly grateful for each one of them. Thank you to whoever is looking out for me in the sky.
Swimming with Anna
The Anna Banana
Niece #3 will be here in 2 weeks!
I am back from GREECE!! Thank you all for understanding my lack of writing while I was gone. I am back on a regular schedule now – Monday through Friday as of this very moment.
If I’d known that I could tag my photos on Instagram and they would appear all on one pretty page online… then I would have done it before I left!! But alas, I just figured it out yesterday thanks to a certain James Martin. You can view all of my Greece photos by clicking here! There was also a whole set of photos that I took with the paper James (PJ)…so I will post a few of those in tomorrow’s entry.
Travel changes you. I feel like I’m an upgraded version of the person that I was before I left. We live in bubbles from day-to-day in our normal lives: our work bubble, our social bubble, our food bubble, our experience bubble. When we go somewhere new, we pop them. You learn that life can have so many different variations and paths. It is interesting to see what someone chooses to do who lives halfway across the world. A lot of the hotel workers where we stayed in Santorini only live there 6 months out of the year, and for the other 6 months some of them travel or go back to there respective homes in other countries or parts of Greece. And it’s not like they were super young, either…it is just a lifestyle they choose to have. I admire that. There is something to say about permanence though, and growing a life from the ground up. I enjoy having some sort of normalcy and routine, but maybe that’s because it’s all I’ve ever known.
One person in particular stands out from my trip more than anyone else – and that was meeting my new brother-in-law’s sister Jennifer from Wisconsin. We had never even met before our rendezvous in Greece, and we hit it off instantly. We ran across the Santorini vineyards, drank wine, ate wonderful food, and overall acted like we didn’t have a care in the world. We also experienced a similar bonding moment together when our two siblings married each other. There was an unspoken sense of happiness, nostalgia and overwhelming emotion when we got back to our hotel room that night. Neither of us said much, just understood exactly what the other was feeling. Big life moments like that make you realize that time is indeed always passing by. You live for the moment when a loved one gets everything they deserve, but you also know that once you’ve experienced those big chapters they aren’t likely to happen again. I miss seeing my baby sister Rachel as a child, what a sweet little angel she always was. Now she is a grown woman with a life of her own. We are only left with memories of what used to be. There are so many wonderful moments ahead too, I know this. More memories to make with my sister and her new husband as a family. But I will never forget getting to fix her hair and doing her make-up for one of the most important days of her life. :) I will remember that forever.
Rachel and I on her wedding day.
I have a lot going on these days behind the scenes…putting pieces of a puzzle together to make something very important and exciting happen. I’m only missing one part of the picture, but I know it is going to all come together very soon. Have you ever just had a gut feeling that something was the right thing to do? That’s how I feel right now about my near future. It’s a little hard to contain my excitement, but I need to hold off on the celebrating until I get all my ducks in a row. And most of them are in line as we speak.
Another exciting thing happening in April is my sister’s wedding in Santorini, Greece. I can’t wait to set foot on the plane… that’s always when my vacation begins. My brain turns off, and all my cares are left behind in the dust. I learned over the weekend from my friend Laura (who is an international flight attendant) that the beaches of Oia (where we will be staying) are basically nude. Ha!!! The weather will be nice and warm, but too bad the water will be frigidly cold. I believe that we have a pool at the place we are staying. I’ve never been to a nude beach… so that will be a new experience. And who knows, maybe I will partake! The things I am looking forward to the most are experiencing the culture, eating authentic Greek food, drinking wine (which I hear is hit and miss) and just being present in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We only have 3 full days there, and one is the wedding itself, so time will have to be spent wisely.
This week I have a whole bunch of nothin’ planned… and it’s just what the doctor ordered. I am going to take advantage of this time to eat well and exercise. I want to start working out my upper body again since I’ve been neglecting it for the past 5 months or so. It is so wonderful having those few extra daylight hours in the evening to be outside. I’m turning the little alley outside of my mini house into my own personal fitness center. 
I want to start doing sprint repeats out there, as well as some meditation before calling it a night. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
The future bride-to-be doing a little research.
Beautiful archway in English Village next to where I work. My grandparents (West side) used to live here back in the 1930's.
Yesterday over my lunch break I went to watch my sister Rachel try on wedding dresses along with my mom and grandmother. I’ve been to so many things like this before, and it is always a magical moment when a girl finds “the one.” Rachel had been to several places already before yesterday, but nothing seemed to click. It was about dress #7 yesterday when she finally turned around to see herself in the mirror, and we could all see it written on her face – it was her dress… the dress she’d wear in Greece next year to marry David. My mom teared up, and Rachel did a little happy jig (which I’m proud to say I captured on video). It was a fun time. There are two things that I really love about weddings – wedding dresses and wedding cake. Those things make me smile.
I am so excited about going to Greece next April to see her & David get married, as well as exploring a country I’ve never been to before. We will be in Santorini, which looks a lot like the Amalfi Coast in Italy (my favorite place in the whole world!). I’m actually trying to decide if I want to visit Italy as well since I will be so close, but there are so many other places close by that I’ve never seen before that I should probably visit as well. I won’t decide for the next few months though, as I have until November or so to make up my mind.
I am lovin’ that it is Friday… it couldn’t have come any sooner. This weekend is Artwalk, another favorite event of mine here in Birmingham. As a matter of a fact, I will be reading tarot cards in the entertainment area on Morris tonight from 7-9 if anyone wants to pop by and say hi! Looks like the weather is going to be great and I know they will have a wonderful turnout. Tomorrow during the day I am going with a friend to a Birmingham Southern football game, as her fiance is one of the head coaches there. Tomorrow night is a work event at Alabama Adventure that I have to attend, and I may stick around afterwards to play. There is also an Artwalk after party that I may go to depending on how the evening unfolds. Last but not least – Sunday my friend Rebecca and I are putting the final touches on our creative project that we hope to launch next Monday.
The biggest priority of the weekend though is to get some sleep and start back up on an exercise program, which I am really excited about. I’ve maintained a low-level of fitness for the past month or two (which has been nice), and I am ready to start training again for my sports goals in 2012. Plus, the weather couldn’t be any better here for getting outside and breaking a sweat!
Last night I had the honor of attending the beautiful wedding of my friends Kimmie & Brock. It was the perfect night to sit under the stars and celebrate love. After that, I headed over to the Mali debut/Rock Band party over at James & Emily’s house. I had an awesome video to share of a group of us singing “More Than A Feeling”, but I can’t seem to locate my iPhone this morning (shocker). Somewhere between waking up and writing in my blog I’ve misplaced it. That just means I will have to post it tomorrow! And it’s pretty hilarious.
For those who celebrate – Happy Easter! We are having a family brunch this morning since everyone is in town, then after that I plan to have an active afternoon while also catching a decent nap. Sounds like a great day to me!!!!
- Baby Mali – Photo by Emily Brown
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- Baby Mali – Photo by Emily Brown
