... and now the good.

So, you've heard all about my slightly world-imploding news. Yeah, not so much fun.

However, with the bad, came the good. It was quite the bipolar week, lol.

First of all, my 26th birthday was Tuesday (August 25th). I went to work and was treated a bit like a princess, with "Happy Birthday!!!" being spread all around. A couple of my friends gave me some lovely cards and presents. SOOOO nice of them! J bought me lunch. My mom even stopped by with flowers and cookies from the Great American Cookie Company (a favorite of mine and several of my work buddies).

Throughout the day, I received several text messages, phone calls, and "Facebooks" from my friends. It was awesome.

After work, my family and I went out to dinner (so yummy). Then, we came back home for cake and presents.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake.... delicious!

With the craziness of my new job, my mom told me she wanted to take me on a trip for my birthday. I knew I was going somewhere, just not where. I found out on my birthday that I was going to one of my most favorite places ever.... NASHVILLE!!

I posted just a couple weeks ago about how much I love that city!

Before leaving on my trip, I also got to visit with one of my best friend's... Meg and her precious baby, David. It was literally right after saying good-bye to "The Guy" and she was so helpful and supportive. Once she let me talk and talk, then we got to move onto other things. David is such a sweet baby and was flirting with me the whole time!

Friday came and we were leaving on a jet plane!!! Once we arrived in Nashville, mom and I decided to drive around and look at the houses. They are incredible.

Don't be fooled by these "townhouses".... they are over 3,500 sq ft each and will cost you a cool $800,000, lol.

How would you like to live in this monstrosity? It was only set you back $4,000,000.

As we were driving around, we found this gem....

LOL, my mom was like, "This is awful!!! Look at those gold notes! Look at the gate with those lions? How gaudy! Who would do this to their house?!"

"Little Jimmy Dickens, Mom."

"Huh?"

"Look at the mailbox, this is Little Jimmy Dickens house."

She goes, "Holy crap!!! Take a picture!"..... lol!

After driving around and then checking into our hotel, we went out for dinner. If you're ever in Nashville, go to Demo's. It's FABULOUS!

Ask for Maurice..... he's the best there is....

So, yeah, Luke Perry was sitting in the booth next to us. Did we notice? Nope. Not until he got up to leave.

Maurice sure noticed, lol. He got an autograph and note from Luke and was nice enough to let us take a picture with it.


We walked around for a while. Some drunk people let a street performer jump over them. Clearly, I was sober and thought it best to take a picture.



Karaoke-singing bartenders......

On Saturday, we explored some more.

I thought this was amusing and inventive, lol. Yes, that is a Little Tykes bumper.....

Have I mentioned just how much I LOVE snow cones? I thought this was genius, lol.

We also ate at The Pancake Pantry. The best friggin pancakes on the planet!

See this line? This is at 1pm. You should have seen it at 11am, lol.

Isn't this gorgeous? I thought it looked like something out of 'The Notebook."

Saturday night came the REAL reason we went to Nashville........

.... to be continued, lol.