IT'S MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY!! And I never wrote about when she came to visit me in Nashville. And less than three weeks from now, she'll be in Nashville again for Matt's and mine's wedding! Crazy. Crazy. Craazzzyyy. I still can't believe I'm getting married. Annemarie (who's getting married less than a week after me) gave me a good metaphor of what it feels like to be engaged: it's like when you're planning a big trip, and you've prepared, and you've officially got the ticket, made all the arrangements, but until you're at the airport, or on the flight, it doesn't really hit you. And it's a one-way. No turn-backs. That's kind of how I felt until a couple weeks ago when I moved out and I started to realize what was happening. But until you take-off and land, you're still in a weird anticipation mode. You can look at a bunch of pictures of Europe, research a lot about it, but until you are there, you can't say for sure how you'll feel about it. That's how I feel about marriage right now. Excited. Nervous. Not sure what it will be for me. What Matt and I will be together.

But anyhow. My mom. Best mom ever. I just love her so much. And I was so so happy when she made arrangements to come out and visit me. Usually I'm traveling to Los Angeles and spend time with her there, but there's always so many distractions and things to do. So her being with me, getting some time off work, and really spending 24/7 together for a couple days was the best opportunity to spend quality time. And she, I found out, has more energy than I do.

That Saturday, we went to a flea market early in the morning (where she got me this awesome bike that I love!), saw a wedding venue in the later morning, and then went down to Franklin and wandered around The Factory, so by the late afternoon I was rightfully exhausted. I really just wanted a nap. And I can't even take naps. But she was all geared up to do more things! Now I know how my friends feel on trips that I plan. We compromised — she let me relax for awhile while watching one of her favorite movies: Sing Street.

In addition to Saturday's adventures, we also explored Centennial Park and the Parthenon (I made her sit on one of those cool swings with me), The Ryman (we went on the tour and it was SUCH A BLAST! — they have a video that makes the money on the tour worth it alone, it was like a Disneyland experience), Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, downtown Nashville — including the pedestrian bridge, and — my favorite part — seeing a farm show at my first Tennessee home: Sugar Camp Farm. That was one of my mom's favorite parts too. Sugar Camp Farm is in Bon Aqua, about an hour west of Nashville, and it's mostly farmland and country side. Lizzie took all the show guests on a farm tour, and then we sat outside on their porch and listened to all the amazing music. One set of musicians was from Australia!

Her actual favorite part though was going to the drive-in movie in Summertown. She said the last time she had gone to a drive-in was when she was a kid.

It was pretty sad when my mom left, but I was really grateful for our weekend together. My efforts to convince her to move here proved to be unsuccessful. She would continually say things throughout her stay like "this reminds me of [any other place]." The real kicker was at the point she said, "Nashville's nice, but it also makes me grateful for where I live." *cue tears and begging her to reconsider* I don't think it helped that within the first four hours of her arrival, we encountered four major highway accidents.

I guess Tennessee speaks to people differently. I knew it felt like home and somewhere I wanted to live as soon as it started pouring on me while touring Vanderbilt campus way back when I was looking at colleges with my dad. My mom said that's how she felt when she came to southern California.

We're all where we need to be. And my mom will be here in t-minus three weeks!

Happy birthday mom — I appreciate you more than you know.