I Love Nashville

I’ve posted before about how my kids have napped beside the kids of country music stars at preschool. Well, yesterday I bravely entered the armpit of Bellevue (aka the Bellevue branch library) with the two boys. Again, they were begging for a Scooby-Doo book. I figured I could maneuver the online catalog pretty quickly and decided I would take my chances on the initation of Armageddon if they were to run wild while I was scrolling through the library catalog.

I had just located a S-D book when a little girl walked up to us. I recognized her and her mom. She remembered my boys from preschool and wanted to say hi. Her mother is country singer Lari White, who also happened to play a role in the movie Cast Away (the woman who drew the wings on her packages and Tom Hanks’ character intercepted them). I, of course, knew who she was instantly. But I totally played it all cool and had a mom-to-mom chat, because you know, she is well, a mom.

And I just kind of loved that little chat we had. And I just love that in Nashville, Tennessee, you bump into regular ole moms in the armpit of Bellevue.

Tonight, I was so tired from working one of my four part-time jobs. I came home and every piece of meat I had was frozen solid and we had Hamburger Helper last night.

We decided to eat at the Loveless Cafe. I had actually never been, but I totally loved it. It’s really so neat that this uber-famous landmark is—literally—in our backyard.

And just as we were getting out of our car in the parking lot, a friend from the boys’ preschool and his mom hopped out, too. It was such a fun, happy thing. And so, we ate with them and got to know them better. In the process, we discovered connections to friends of their family. That’s always fun, isn’t it? To realize you know someone who knows someone who knows someone? About mid-way through the meal, one of the teachers at the boys’ preschool walked in with her husband. We all laughed because we enjoyed seeing friends we recognized.

This is why I love living in Nashville, especially our little southwestern corner. It feels so familiar. I LOVE bumping into friends from school, church, and the Y at the grocery store, restaurants, and the pharmacy. I love that I pulled behind BlondeMomBlog in the car rider line at our daughters’ school yesterday and hopped out to have a face-to-face chat (we had never met in person before). I love that the grandfather of my boys’ “best friend” (a precious little girl) and my father-in-law once worked together.

I think these little experiences have got to be a wonderful shadow of what heaven will be like: an endless excitement of seeing loved ones—and knowing them completely—and enjoying all that goes with that.