2015 Recap

2015 Recap:  This year I...

continued to learn about myself and grow with the help of a therapist
worked through my 9/11 trauma
got a tattoo
started meditating
learned how to do a handstand in yoga
devoted more time to creativity and writing
quit counting calories and weighing myself
restructured my exercise and started working out with a personal trainer
took on 8 new social media clients
learned how to quit - IM Chattanooga 70.3, running, MyFitnessPal

There is a scrap of paper in my wallet that says, "Never measure your strength by how long you can remain." I'm proud of my development this year and excited for 2016!

Meditating and Shit

I'm not really going to talk about meditation because I don't think I can talk about it in a way that does justice to how much it has helped me. But... I tried meditation a year ago, had a bad experience and decided it wasn't for me. I've had a lot of trouble understanding the point of meditation, as well as how to do it. I like to do things that have instructions and a reward at the end. Meditation is neither of those things.

After a lot of discussions with smart people, I started to understand meditation. I've been doing it every day for about six weeks now. While it is helping me tremendously, some days, you just feel like shit. This week has been crap, and yesterday in particular was a doozy. I went to sleep in a bad mood and woke up in a bad mood.

I meditate in the morning before my brain turns on and before I get online. This morning I was too agitated to meditate, so I checked my email. John had sent this hilarious video in the middle of the night. I normally wouldn't have seen it until later, but I checked my email this morning instead of meditating.

It was exactly what I needed to see/hear. I laughed until I cried. And now I feel totally fine. Maybe I just needed to laugh. Or cry. Either way, I feel better. Also, if I ever become a yoga instructor or shaman, you bet your ass this is how I'll roll.

Enjoy (NSFW):

What I Wore: The Grammys

When John and I made the decision to fly to L.A. for the Grammys, I immediately panicked about what in the world I was going to wear. And that was when I thought I only needed one outfit - HAHAHAHAHA. Turns out, I needed a minimum of two outfits: one for the nominees reception and one for the awards show. I knew I was in over my head and enlisted the help of my friend Anjeanetta, who has YEARS (15?) of retail and styling experience both here and in New York City. She knows me well (we've been friends since college and were roommates in NYC) and knows my style, comfort level and what works for my body.

We started by setting up a Grammy Pinterest board. I pinned some looks I liked and she told me where to start looking, e.g. ASOS, Nasty Gal, etc. Once we had a board full of potential outfits we met over coffee and decided what I should buy. We initially decided I would wear a black dress to the awards and a jumpsuit to the nominees reception. The reception was business casual and the awards were black tie.

Anj liked the idea of me in a floor-length black dress with some kind of interesting detail, and potentially paired with a black, leather motorcycle jacket. Shockingly, this dress existed, and I bought it. Thank you, ASOS. The jumpsuit however, proved harder to find. I didn't want to buy one online without knowing what it would look like on my body, so I went to Target and tried on a few. Meh. There was this gold blazer/black leggings look on Nasty Gal that I loved, so we scrapped the jumpsuit and went with the blazer/leggings look.

Unfortunately, the Nasty Gal blazer was sold out in my size, but I was sure I could find one, so I started hitting the thrift stores hard. My search paid off. I found a gold Calvin Klein blazer in my size and in like-new condition for $8. Then I went to Target and bought a white t-shirt and pleather leggings. This entire outfit cost $38, which is hilarious because the borrowed shoes and purse I wore cost more than my airfare to L.A. True story.

Once I had the two outfits, I went over to Anjeanetta's and she styled me. I don't own fancy lady shoes, so Anj generously, and very trustingly, gave me a pair of Louboutins and a pair of Celine heels, plus a Chanel bag and a vintage Balenciaga clutch. Y'all, I'm not even kidding, I carried all of this on the plane because I was terrified the airline would lose my luggage and I'd owe Anjeanetta $7,000 in accessories.

Side-note on the dress: Anj had me order it in a size 12 (I'm probably a size 8) and have it tailored down. This is not something I would have known to do. Now granted, the alteration cost more than the dress, but it was money well spent. That dress fit like a glove. I got compliments on it all night. No one could believe it was from ASOS. (I used Elegant Alterations in Green Hills.)

I LOVED all of my outfits. They were perfect. I never felt over or under dressed. The Celine heels did amazing things to my legs in those pleather leggings. They didn't even look like my legs. I felt real fancy and real cool. I loved my dress so much. I never even put on the jacket because I didn't want to hide the dress. And aside from having to free-boob it due to an undergarment malfunction, I was totally comfortable, which is hard to pull off not only in black tie, but in an outfit I literally wore from 9:30/10:00am until 2:30am.

Anjeanetta, thank you sooooo much!!!

John is going to kill me for this, but he looked so good!! He wore a suit by Billy Reid, styled by Shelly Colvin. Shelly, girl, THANK YOU!

P.S. I went to the Grammys! Part One.

P.P.S. Seriously, I went to the Grammys! Part Two.

L.A. Wrap Up: Grammys Edition, Part Two

When I left you, John and I had attended the Special Merit Awards and Nominees Reception on Saturday night and were getting ready for the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Fact:  there are 86 Grammy awards and only 11 are televised. John was one of the awards given out earlier that day in what is called the Premiere Ceremony. I thought this would be at a hotel ballroom and we'd all be sitting around big tables. John Waters was going to there and I told everyone I was going to take so many secret pictures of him. Well, turns out, not at a hotel ballroom. No, our ceremony was next door to the Staples Center at the Nokia Theatre, which is what would happen if Ryman Auditorium and Bridgestone Arena had a baby. It was huge.

We sat down and read on the program that John's award was number 12, so we were going to know if he won real fast, like in the first 30 minutes fast. I looked around at the enormity of the event and the enormity of why we were there, and started crying. I tried to tell John that I was proud of him, but I couldn't talk and we both started laughing.

John is a mastering engineer and was nominated for his work on There's A Dream I've Been Saving:  Lee Hazelwood Industries 1966 - 1971 (Deluxe Edition) in the category, Best Historical Album. John was nominated along with the box set's 3 producers:  Matt Sullivan, Patrick McCarthy and Hunter Lea. This was great because it meant we went through the whole weekend as a group of 8, which was a lot of fun, and also, way less intimidating.

They really did get to John's award in the first 30 minutes. I couldn't believe how fast it all went. I started crying again as they read the list of nominees and I heard "John Baldwin, mastering engineer", but then they read another name as the winner. I was stunned for a minute while my brain processed what just happened. We had met the winner at the reception the night before and we were happy for her, and listened to her acceptance speech, and then we all just kind of looked at each other, shrugged and left. We walked outside, found the closest hotel bar and stayed there until it was time for the Grammys.

(From L to R:  Alec Palao, Hunter Lea, Patrick McCarthy, Matt Sullivan, John Baldwin)

I had initially intended to walk the Grammys red carpet to A) see a red carpet in person, and B) see some crazy celebrities up close. But... mojitos. We lost track of time and barely made it into the Staples Center before they closed the doors. We sat down and the show started almost immediately. AC/DC started playing and it was so loud and so over-the-top. I started laughing and couldn't stop, and kind of started laugh-crying. It was just so ridiculous - the performance and the fact that we were there.

Seeing an awards show in person is really weird. Most of the stuff you see on television you don't see live because the host and most of the presenters are mic'd for television. So there are these screens that drop down and show old performances to keep the live audience entertained during all the transitions. It's bizarre. But we had great seats and the show was 80% fun.

After the awards show, we all walked next door to the Convention Center for the after-party, which John described on Twitter as, "Mary Poppins / Transcontinental Railroad themed". It was kind of like Bonnaroo, but in a convention center. There were all these different rooms, with different stages and different themed performers. Gloria Gaynor performed - ? None of it made sense. But hey, open bar! Honestly, it was a much needed opportunity for the guys to regroup, refocus and turn those frowns upside down, which we did. Until 2am.

John and I have joked about how we'll tell people about the Grammys because it's going to be so hard to do without sounding like assholes. It is hands-down one of the most important things that has happened to John's career, but the actual event was a total circus that kind of didn't mean much. We met a lot of people over the weekend who nodded knowingly upon hearing that it was our first time. I get it now. It's definitely something you do when you get nominated, but you only do it once. And I'm only talking about the televised Grammy Awards show, not all the other stuff. The weekend itself and all the nominee events that John went to are 100% worth the airfare, but the actual awards show? Yeah, once is probably enough.

Full Grammy photostream here.

P.S. Missed Part One? Here you go!

P.P.S. You better believe what I wore to the Grammys got it's own post.

L.A. Wrap Up: Grammys Edition, Part One

Oh hey, did you know John and I went to the Grammys? You probably didn't know. I kept it pretty under wraps. Kidding! It was obviously the most I've ever talked about anything in my life. File under: duh - John got nominated for a Grammy. Over the years, he's worked on a lot of projects that have been nominated, but this was the first time he, himself got nominated. So we went. We were there for five days, stayed with a very generous friend in Los Feliz, HAD A BLAST, and would move there tomorrow if we could afford it. Here's how it went down.

On Friday we had breakfast with our Light In The Attic friends at Little Dom's. I had buckwheat polenta and sat behind Aziz Ansari. It was very L.A. Aziz was with John Cho and a girl I couldn't place. I didn't take a picture because he was literally 2 feet in front of me and there was no way to pull it off. You're welcome, Aziz.

There was an event on Friday night for the nominees in John's category. I had already made plans with my friend Dawn, so John and I parted ways for the night. I went and hung out at Dawn's Hollywood apartment and then we did a little shopping, drank a little wine, and she took me out for ramen. Holy crap, L.A. ramen!

On Saturday night we had the Special Merit Awards and Nominees Reception, which everyone told us was the biggest event of the weekend. We had to be there at some crazy time, like 2:30 or 3:00, so it was a short day. We were cruising around looking at stuff when we passed the food truck zone and the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits. We shockingly found a parking spot, so we ate sandwiches from the Banh In The USA truck (delicious) and then walked over to the tar pits.

P.S. John wants you to know that La Brea means "the tar", so we're all saying "the the tar tar pits".

We left the the tar tar pits and drove to the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for the awards and reception. I got real excited when we got there because there was a red carpet and paparazzi. I excitedly sent the tweet, "Celebrities!!!". Turns out, it was just Jane Fonda and Barry Gibb. But still. It was really cool. Once we were seated, they started the program by having all of the nominees stand up and John got to stand up and have the whole theatre clap for him. I may have cried.

The nominees reception afterwards was super awesome and super fancy, though some chairs wouldn't have killed them. My feet still hurt. But there was all this food, an open bar, even a Grammy merch table. There was a special room just for the nominees and they got their nominee medallion and their official Grammy photo taken. John said when he signed in, the name directly under his was Beck. (Beck wasn't there.)

They had food at the reception, but I couldn't really get to it. When I finally did, I put two giant shrimp on my plate and then promptly proceeded to shoot them across the room. Wet plate, wet shrimp, dry fork - didn't work out so well. We left the reception and grabbed dinner at Canters Deli before heading out to the Santa Monica Pier. We walked around the pier, walked out to the ocean, and then headed back to get some rest for our big day on Sunday.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Sunday was nuts. John's award was in the Premiere Ceremony that started at 12:30pm, but we had to be there at 11:00am. And then the big, televised awards show started at 5:00pm, but you had to be inside, in your seats by 4:45pm. Then! The Grammy after-party started at 9:00pm and went until, well, in our case, 2:00am. Yes, I stayed out that late. Yes, I'm still tired. No, I still can't feel my feet.

Impromptu decision:  I'm cutting this post in half. It's already too long and I still have 1,000 more words to write about Beyonce. Next up:  John's ceremony and THE GRAMMYS!!!

To be continued.

P.S. Here is Part Two of the story.

P.P.S. What to wear to the Grammys is A THING. So I wrote about it.

Weekend Wrap Up: Chili Dog Birthday Edition

Is it Wednesday already? Oops! Let's dive right in. Remember Gone Girl, that book I read and said I wanted to punch in the face? Well, on Friday night, a small group of us face punchers gathered to drink wine, eat delicious pizza and watch the movie adaptation of the book. I liked the movie, but full disclosure, I'd watch Ben Affleck weed-eat for two and half hours. I still standby my review of that terrible book, but the movie is good.

We have a birthday in the house! The initial plan was a low-key, 'Hey, we'll be at The Stone Fox. Come by and say hi!', but The Stone Fox booked a private party, so... a house party it was. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday and I meant to go for a bike ride, but I never made it. I cleaned my house and made browned butter chocolate buttercream cupcakes instead. I'm fine with my choice.

When we were in Arkansas for Christmas, John had the epiphany of his life: you can make, and eat, chili dogs anytime you want. So I decided to make chili dogs for his birthday. No one would eat them sober, so the chili dogs just sat there, taunting me. But as the bourbon kept flowing, people's chili dog inhibitions fell away, and then, like magic, I looked around and everyone had a chili dog in their hand. John ate like five. I'm not even kidding. It was amazing.

Jessica, who shares my gift of thrift, gave John the Ten Commandments. Why? Because she's awesome. John, ever the Boy Scout, went out to the garage and came back with not just a nail and a hammer, no, he came back with a picture hanging kit and securely hung that plaque on the wall. (It's still there.)

Oh, Sunday, the day of lost workouts. Did I get up and do my long run? No. Did I go to my 90-minute masters swim? Nope. Did I sleep late, make poor food choices and go thrifting? Yes, yes I did that. I obviously didn't buy this, but it's a $5 Diane Von Furstenberg sweater vest. I feel like everyone my age owned a department store version of this in middle school, probably, as my friend Casey points out, from either Esprit or Liz Claiborne.

True story: when I moved to NYC, I bought this fancy purse at Bloomingdale's that I LOVED. It was one of those early 2000's Sex & The City saddle bags that fit right under your arm. I couldn't afford Christian Dior, so I bought an Esprit one (tomato, tomahto). The fabric was red, black and white paisley and the foldover flap was black patten leather. I loved it! I called it the paisley hotdog. I kept that purse for years because I wanted to always remember the first fancy thing I bought myself as a New Yorker. There are assuredly two years of pictures of me carrying that purse. I'll try and find out for #tbt.

Weekend Wrap Up: Vaping, Baking and Barking Edition

On Friday afternoon, I did a photo session (shoot?) for my business website. Because I don't half-ass anything, I asked my friend Gio to do my hair and makeup. It's the best I've ever looked. I'm talking Kardashian-level contouring and highlighting. It took 2.5 hours to get me there, but man. Gio - thank you!

I worked with photographer Brian Risse, who some of you may know as Mr. Courtney Krampf. Brian spent about 2-3 hours shooting me in/around my house. Lot of prop changes, lot of outfit changes. Speaking of, shout-out to my girl Anjeanetta who came over earlier in the week to style my outfits and accessories for the shoot. It takes a village, people.

On Saturday, I put my dancing shoes (literally) and my santa hat in my cute, new Light In the Attic tote and headed down the road to Delinquent Debutantes for my Santa Baby Burlesque workshop with unicorn to the stars, Freya West. I had so much fun!!! It took 2 hours, but Freya taught me a 3 1/2 minute dance routine to "Santa Baby". Believe it!

Little known fact:  Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for recording engineers. John Baldwin basically doesn't sleep in December. On Saturday night, he needed to pick some stuff up in East Nashville, so we grabbed ramen while we were over there. Yes, this is my second time in one week. I'm addicted!

On Sunday morning, I drove to Brentwood to meet Melanie and Jessica for a 6-mile run on the greenway. Afterwards, we spent easily 20 minutes taking pictures of ourselves with this bear. I call this one, "Bearly" Made the Podium. Ba da bum!

I ran a few last minute Christmas errands and then went home to bake all the things. And eat too much of the things. One day I'm going to get salmonella from raw eggs, but until then, COOKIE DOUGH FOR LIFE.

I was listening to Christmas music while I was baking (duh). John had ran out to get more vaping supplies (I know). When he got back, this hilarious Stephen Colbert Christmas song was on that we both love, so he grabbed his guitar and sat down and learned it. Our house is real ridiculous sometimes.

Weekend Wrap Up: Holiday Half Edition

Re: my last blog post. I hope to one day be the kind of person who's not surprised by the quality of people around her. I didn't know what I needed when I wrote that blog post, but now I know what I have - an enlightened, loving, supportive friend-tribe. Today I have a heart filled with gratitude, not sadness. Thank you.

On Friday, I helped my friend Carolyn set up her booth at Porter Flea. I know nothing about the craft fair world and was astounded at how much work it is to be a vendor at one of these things. It took both of our cars and hours of work to get her set up. But it was a lot of fun. And! She gave me a necklace for my time! I took The Archer, which is her top seller and currently sold out (unless you snagged one this weekend). My second fav is The Mesa, which is still available (but hurry).

So the other thing that happened on Friday is.... MY HUSBAND GOT NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY!!! This is his first Grammy nomination!

Late Saturday morning, I ran my 6th half marathon, the Team Magic Mt. Juliet Holiday Half. As you can see, a lot of my East Nasty friends ran it, too. My goal was to run a 10:00min/mi and finish in 2:13:00, but my knees gave out and I did a walk/run for the last 2-3 miles. I still beat my best time (2:34:00) by 12 minutes with a new PR of 2:22:00! My average pace was 10:46min/mi, #HAM!

It was a late race. I didn't get home until after 3pm, which gave me just enough time to ice my knees, shower and head to Mary Katherine and Marshall's holiday party. I usually dress up for this shindig, but A) none of my dresses fit me anymore, and B) I didn't trust myself in heels 4 hours post-half marathon, so jeans and Converse it was. Oh, and my new Acorn and Archer necklace.

Yesterday was super chill. Either I'm unusually sore from my race, or I've forgotten what it feels like to be sore. Regardless, I could hardly walk yesterday. John took me to brunch at The Stone Fox, which was DELICIOUS, and then we just lounged around the house all day.

Pssst -- I have a big, fun, surprise blog post coming up tomorrow morning, so stay tuned!

Weekend Wrap Up: Hey Girl Fitness Pal Edition

I never drink anymore, so after 1.5 beers at my friend's going away party on Friday night, I was craft-beer-drunk and convinced that I made up the best MyFitnessPal deviation yet:  Hey Girl Fitness Pal.

It all started when I couldn't quit eating the chocolate cake at the party. I made a quip about not logging that into MyFitnessPal and then I said I wish MFP had a 'Hey Girl' function, like 'Hey girl, it's okay you ate all that cake. Didn't you run 2.8 miles this morning?' I thought it was the funniest thing I've ever said.

My friend Chatty is moving to Belgium. We gathered at Fat Bottom Brewery on Friday night to say our goodbyes. This pictures is terrible, but it's Lana, Mary Katherine, Chatty, me and Marne. I'm smiling because I'm high on chocolate cake and my own sense of humor.

Sanctuary Yoga celebrated their 10-year anniversary on Saturday with free classes, so I jumped on that. Hey girl, that chocolate cake isn't going to work itself off. After a great 90-minute class, I drove to Performance Studios for Halloween miscellanea. Behold, the wall of animal masks, the scariest part of Performance.

After a few more errands, I was STARVING, so I called my friend Carolyn and we met for pizza at The Farmers' Market. This is the margherita pizza at Bella Nashville. I like to add a farm egg and chili oil. It's kind of my favorite thing to eat in Nashville.

My homegirl Freya had a show on Saturday night via Music City Burlesque. It was their big BOO-lesque Halloween show. Initially, a group of us were going, but it sold out before everyone bought their ticket, so Lana and I went and had a blast. We had thai food beforehand because, 'Hey girl, aren't you doing a long run in the morning? Get the egg rolls.'

I needed to run 7 miles on Sunday, so Lana offered to run with me. Because I can't do math or create routes, I accidentally took us on an almost 9-mile run. Whoops! But we did see some awesome Halloween decor. Richland Park's Halloween game is on point!

Sunday was Baldwin Costume Day. OBVIOUSLY, we fueled up at Secret Bellevue Cheesesteak. Obviously. Then we went to every store that exists to get the materials for John's costume. Because once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout.

This went on for a long time, like probably 10 hours, but it's mostly done. I kept teasing John, asking how many Boy Scouts badges he earned for Halloween costume construction. I hope you're all prepared to see the insanity that will be John Baldwin's Halloween costume.