Currently

Hey guys! Remember how one of my goals was to post more on my blog this year? I have not been doing very well with that! I'll admit one of the main reasons is my new version of Photoshop is stumping me. I am having a hard time resizing images for the web for some reason, so hopefully I'll figure it out soon! Until then, I'm going to do one of these currently post.
Excited About: This coming weekend we're going up to the Smokey Mountains with some good friends and I can't wait! There are several claw foot tubs and a sweet outdoor hot tub at our cabin, and I'm hoping I'll get to ride go karts and go through a mirror maze.
Reading: I've been trying to read a book called The Historian about a vampire, but it is SO SLOW it has been putting me to sleep within 10 minutes at night so I think I'll give up on it. I'm about 12% in and not much as happened. Tonight I'm going to start Tender Morsels.
Watching: Travis and I decided to catch up on the Walking Dead so we've been watching one episode a night. I love it, and I hate it. I just get so scared! I'm also watching The Bachelor and loving how BONKERS it is. I'm waiting on pins and needles for the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race to start. So soon! The queens this year look really promising!
Working On: I just finished a photo book chronicling 2015, and now I'm going to start 2014. I ordered the first one and can't wait to see how it turns out. It ended up at 308 pages. Remember how I thought I didn't take enough photos last year? Ha!
Listening To: Podcasts as usual. I have been really enjoying story telling ones lately like The Moth. I've also been listening to lots of Beyonce after she put out the Formation single. I'm really sad that I will be out of town when she is here on tour. Why????????
Anticipating: But I'm still REALLY excited about going out of town. While Queen Bey is here in Nashville I'll be out in LA getting ready for DragCon and hopefully meeting RuPaul. I really can't wait!
Loving: We didn't do much for Valentine's Day, but we did go out with out best friends Crystal and Marc to see Alaska perform at Play! She is one of my favorite queens and she was hilarious! It was "open stage night" so we saw lots of amatuer queens and I feel like we'll be talking about it for years.
Here we are with Alaska, look at how tall she is!

Life Lately

The winter here finally got cold so I've been spending lots of time hanging with the dogs, watching tv. Last weekend Travis and I pulled out the sofa bed and spent a few days lounging around watching old favorites. It was so perfect. I'm tempted to pull the bed out again today! (Another snow day!)

I have kind of figured out work things for now. You might remember that I left my job at Whole Foods in September unexpectedly and wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. For now I am kind of piecing it together and working for myself most, which I love! I am doing product demos for several natural industry companies, doing shipt (on demand grocery delivery) and last week I got hired two days a week at a local vegan meal delivery service, My Veggie Chef. It is definitely an adjustment and a little scary to be out here without company health insurance and benefits, but for now it is working for me. I am much happier to have a break from the high stress I was under in the old job.

The most exciting news as of late? Crystal and I bought plane tickets and passes to go to Drag Con in LA in May! Ahhhhh!! We're gonna meet RuPaul! We talked about it casually, then realized that both of us being able to go might not come around again. She is self employed too. So we took the plunge! We are flying in a few days before, and staying a day after so we can hang with some friends and go to Little Japan and just have a great time in general. I'm already saving all I can for the trip. Outfit planning starts, NOW!

In other exciting news, we got a kitty shelf! We have talked about it for years, I'm not sure why we waited so long. The cats love it! They seem to be taking turns on it. Scampi lays on it all day, then Scout and Murray take turns once the sun goes down. 

Travis has hooked me up in the bath bomb department for the winter. Ahhhhh so lovely. The new intergalactic bomb from Lush is current favorite. He got me this "Happy Bathday" tin and stocks it back up when I'm running low. What a man.

I FINALLY picked out a photo and Crystal made me the most perfect wallet ever! The outside (and inside) are so glittery! I absolutely love it. You should check out her shop, Olivia Frankenstein. She can custom make you a wallet with almost anything on it!

Porter has now been with us for five weeks. Like I mentioned yesterday, they have a good lead on a family for him in Maryland. He is our fourth foster dog (though we hadn't fostered since 2010) and the best. Even if he REALLY doesn't want to go out in the snow.

That is pretty much all that has been going on lately.

Life Lately

If you follow me on Instagram you know I just got back from a fun nine day trip to Asheville, NC. I have a TON of photos to go through (I think 16GB? or something insane) but I'm not emotionally ready to tackle that. So here are some shots of what has been going on lately. We have been having quite a summer.

First things first, the day after the Fourth of July we found this puppy in our backyard! Or, Travis found her. She had on a collar that was way too big and leash so we assumed someone must have taken her to see some fireworks and she got loose. We put up tons of signs and posted ads and called all the shelters and vets but no one called about her. She was even pretty good on a leash and in the crate, so it seems like someone had to have lost her.

Look at that tiny thing! She was a little too much for our senior pet rest home so my friend Crystal offered to take her in until the owners called. And no one did, so now she is part of the family! Little Veruca. Look at how precious she is with their dog Scurvy. A match made in heaven.

Our little nephew turned two and we went up to Louisville for his Elmo party.

We've been movie crazy as usual. Did you see Jurassic World? I loved it! It is pretty dumb, which is exactly what you want in your dinosaur action movie. We also went to see Jurassic Park in the park here! That is the only outdoor movie we've made it out to so far this year. I'm sad we missed Coal Miner's Daughter at the Belcourt a few weeks ago!

One of the perks of outdoor movies is Retro Sno seems to always be there. These are sweet tea sno balls with lemon! Yum!

Our good friends Aaron and Valerie visited from California and we all got the matching tattoos we've been talking about for YEARS! We tried to get them maybe seven years ago? But couldn't find a shop that could fit us all in. If you aren't familiar with TCB, it was Elvis' personal motto/symbol and we're all crazy Elvis fans.

A new raw vegan restaurant opened in town and we went to the soft opening. It was good, if expensive. The most amazing thing was this avocado margarita! Have you ever heard of such a thing? It was creamy and delicious and I want to have one right now!

A bar called Canvas hosted a Richard Simmons dance party and you know I was ALL over that. (if you haven't seen my post about the time I got to work out with Richard you have to see it here). People wore workout clothes and they showed Richard Simmons work outs over dance music and I LOVED it. I don't know if we've ever danced that much in public. We were all dripping with sweat by the time it was over. I hope they do it again!

Drag Race fans! Check out this beautiful lady! We went to see Miss Fame at Play and she was so weird and so good! I loved her latex outfits! I missed seeing Trixie Mattel because I was sick (ugh!) but Violet is coming next weekend and I can't wait! Also, did you hear they are doing All Stars 2? Yay!

Even with all the great stuff going on I've been under a lot of stress lately. Which is hopefully getting better. I treated myself to my second ever pedicure. The first was at the Aveda school and was less than relaxing, this one was great, even though I felt totally awkward and didn't know where to look. I also treated myself to a couple new dresses. I always send Travis dressing room selfies asking for opinions, even if he always says "That looks great!"

I'm reorganizing and cleaning and trying to get back on the Kon Mari train. Here is a photo of my "jewelry" collection. It's light on fancy, heavy on cute.

Oh man how did I get this far without mentioned this! We got tickets to see Dolly Parton at the Ryman this weekend! If you are in Nashville you know it sold out lightening fast, but Travis was able to get us two great seats because he delivers there. I can't wait! It is going to be all acoustic and I know I'll cry at least once.

I got my summah gum perk from backing Howard Kremer's Gu Cruise video last year. If you don't listen to Who Charted? that sentence probably makes no sense, so please enjoy a picture of my cat and my linoleum.

Of course I've been swimming like crazy. I'm getting tattooed next weekend (at a convention by someone from out of town. I don't usually get work done in the summer) so that will put the kibosh on swimming for a few weeks. Here is a photo of me as a mermaid pretending to drink from a big cup. I love that stupid underwater camera.

Nashville Pride 2015!

Travis and I went downtown to check out the Pride festivities last weekend.We had planned on walking in the Equality March but were a little late. The mood was amazing since the Supreme Court had made their ruling just days before. There was a huge turnout for Pride!

We saw these cuties, Hank and Cupcakes. I loved their stage set. We watched some shows at the drag stage, spun a few prize wheels, kissed bunnies at the Clover Patch Sanctuary tent (they were giving out "I love buns" bracelets!)

Miss Jaidynn Dior Fierce was the MC. Any RuPaul's Drag Race fans out there? She was on this season. I was so excited to see a hometown queen! I don't know why she chose to wear that terrible leather and lace outfit after it was bashed on the main stage on Drag Race. But she performed my favorite RuPaul song "Sissy That Walk" so I can forgive the outfit, haha.

We played pin the mustache on John Waters and put our names in for free tickets to his holiday show. I hope we win! We went last year and had a blast but it is a little too expensive for us to justify going again.

I had heard rumors that the Grilled Cheeserie food truck had vegan options and finally got to try it out. Grilled rice cheese with avocado! It was so so good! Travis got grilled mushrooms and caramelized onions on his.

There were tons of animal adoption groups there! I loved petting all the puppies! Travis got a Nashville Grizzlies rugby shirt and lamented that he has too weird of a work schedule to be able to play on the team.

We had a really great time and I'm so happy the national government took a huge step forward in recognizing basic human rights. There is still a lot to be done, but you have to start somewhere. I really thought it would be YEARS before gay marriage would be legal in my state.

We missed this moment of the day but I lived seeing the photos pop up on facebook. Here are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence blocking the tiny group of protesters from the event. Happy pride and here's to more advances in the year to come!

Recently

Here is what we've been up to while I've been busy posting thousands of vacation photos. Summer is drawing to a close and I'm trying to get as much as I can out of the last bits of nice weather. I'm really hoping I'll be able to go swimming at least a few more times.

 Last weekend Travis and I went to the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's summer event, Shakespeare in the park for the first time! They are doing As You Like It this year, set in the 1930's in the Dust Bowl. It was so good! They are doing it every Thurs-Saturday night until September 14th, if you are in Nashville you should check it out! 

Also, Travis and I have started jogging together. It was pretty fun the first few times so we'll see how it goes. On the way home we sometimes come in through the back gate of our yard and our house looks so different from that perspective.

There are finally movies coming out that we want to see! There was a dry spell in July. We've seen Guardians of the Galaxy TWICE (and I'd see it again!) and I went to see Boyhood and loved it!

 One of my favorite queens of all time, Raja, came to our local drag club! She is so beautiful, and NICE! One of the other queens, Suzy Wong took photos for the meet and greet and she tooks tons from all angles and even some where we are talking and look like best friends. Thanks Suzy! I'm hoping we'll be able to see Latrice Royale this weekend! And speaking of drag, I just found out RuPaul has a podcast (called "What The T?") and I love it! I've already listened to all the back episodes and I'm ready for more!

 If you follow me on instagram you know we had a scare with Priscilla when we got back from vacation. I didn't want to post about it here until we knew more and I'm glad I did that! We took her to the vet because when we got home from our vacation she was acting very strangely. She was hiding from us, wouldn't relax, would just sit under things shaking and crying. It was very sad and scary. The day I took her to the vet I got home from work and she had blood and puss allllll down her face, but was acting like herself. When she got examined the vet wasn't sure what was going on, but there was a huge lump in her head, down her throat and we were to come back in a week to talk about MRIs and tumor treatment and biopsies. I was devastated. Our vet is wonderful and cried with me and sat with me for an hour going over options. We started her on some anti cancer medication and pain killers then waited a week. And then, the lump was GONE. Totally gone. Our vet is baffled and says she's never seen anything like it. I'm so relieved. You know when you adopt older dogs your time might be short with them, but I'm not ready to make those kinds of decisions yet. So hooray for Priscilla!

Travis is a great cook and recently he made pineapple upside down cake. Twice! It was GOOD! And that is a gratuitous photo of little bitty Phyllis.

Little girls cuddling with me on my day off. My friend Kori came to visit with her three kids and Felix was climbing ALL over Travis. It was cracking me up.

Travis is still loving his scooter! I rode it for the first time. Just a short, slow spin around the parking lot because we don't have two helmets. It was fun though! Travis' friend Jeremy took that picture on the right. Isn't it cute? We both just sent in requests for custom license plates, he is hoping to get one for his scooter that says "STR LRD" or Star Lord! I really hope it isn't taken! I sent in three options for mine so we'll see what happens. I LOVE custom plates so decided it was time for me to have one. I'll keep you posted for sure.

We've got lots to look forward to this fall! A few weddings, scooter rallies, a visit to Travis' Grandma, and our road trip up north! Things have been going great for me lately, hopefully the rest of the year goes just as well (here I am jinxing myself of course!)

Currently

currently:

watching: At this exact moment, Ghostbusters 2. I'm so happy that RuPaul's Drag Race started two weeks ago! So far I'm into Adore Delano, BenDeLaCreme, Milk, and Courtney Act.
A few days ago I went to our local drag club, Play, to see season 6 contestant Gia Gunn! She is so gorgeous in person! I didn't get to meet her (the show didn't start until 1 am and I had to drag myself home at 3 before it was over) but I'm glad I went. Any other Drag Race fans out there? Who are you into this season?

thinking about: Our vacation in July. Which is too far away to be thinking about! But I just can't wait to spend a week at the beach with our best friends. July can't come soon enough! Also, I get four weeks of vacation time this year, and Travis just gets two. I'm wondering if I should take a little solo trip somewhere. 

anticipating: Two nights of Weezer in April! Oh my GOSH I was freaking out when these shows got announced and could't sleep the night before they went on sale. I even had a dream about it last night! A friend is hosting a "Preezer" (pre-weezer) party before the first night and we're going to make all Weezer themed food. So far I've thought of making Pink Triangle cookies and "I'll Bring Home the Turkey if You'll Bring Home the Bacon" sandwiches. It's going to be so amazing! I will probably cry, more than once. I'm sure you'll get a nostalgic how much I love weezer post before the shows. Did I ever tell that the first time I ever talked to Travis was the first time I saw Weezer live, back in 2002? An auspicious beginning. 

working on: Purging stuff. I said this in January and thankfully I'm still doing it! Last week I deep cleaned my craft room and threw away 4 bags of trash and took 3 big boxes to Goodwill! Travis has been taking my piles of books and cds to McKay's, a local place that actually gives you decent money for your used stuff. We used the credit to get an iPad and a Kindle! Both are old models but that works for me! Next I am going to tackle our front room. It is FULL of boxes and bags and has been that way for more than two years. I keep saying I'll share before pictures on here to make me work on it, but it's too embarrassing! But it feels so good to go in my newly clean and organized craft room. Maybe I'll even sew again!

listening too: The Snap Judgement podcast. I used to occasionally catch it on our local NPR station but recently started downloading it. I LOVE it! If you like This American Life you should give it a chance. It has a similar format of stories on a theme each week. Don't tell Ira, but I think I might like Snap Judgement a little better! 

loving: Beyond Meat Feisty Crumbles. Fellow vegans/vegetarians you have to get on this! I already liked their fake chicken strips but the crumbles are even better! I've never been a fan of any mock ground beef and would have rather just gone without. But saute a bag of this up,add some Frank's Red Hot and I'm salivating! Taco night at my house will never be the same. We have been making the Pinto Beans with Ancho Chili Sauce from this cookbook (which I highly recommend!). I am setting a limit of once every two weeks, or I might be having it every night. 

Also, Travis and I have been making it a point to spend time together at home not just with the tv on, and both of us looking at computers. (That is part of the reason for my internet absence lately.) A few nights ago we played this game, Go For Broke, that I bought at an estate sale. The goal is to be the first to spend $1,000, 000! It was really fun! We also recently did a puzzle which was fun until the end. All we have left is a bunch of trees and I'm over trying to make those vague leaf patterns!

reading: Today I finished book 24 of my 100 books in 2014 goal! I had to call out of work because of ice last week (the first time ever!) and I laid in bed and read an entire book, start to finish! It felt so indulgent! I used to do that all the time during summer breaks. 

And bonus, here is my favorite instagram post lately. My friend brought her baby over and Travis and he matched! Travis always seems to match our nephew (it's all the plaid) but who knew he would match a baby wearing a fluffy pink bear suit! Look at those cuties.

Instalife

I feel like I haven't been doing much lately. Besides traveling and working that is. I just finished a seven day in a row stretch at work and I'm so happy to be off the next two days! Here are some of my favorite snaps from my instagram lately. That is still my favorite thing about my phone!

We went through a rainy spell in Tennessee recently. The best part of that is the pugs in their raincoats! My sister in law gave us these for Christmas last year and seriously, could they be any freaking cuter?? AND if I put them on them, I don't have to hold the umbrella for Phyllis (She isn't spoiled one little bit right?)

I got some more work done on my Audrey 2 tattoo. I sat for over 5 hours, which is the longest I have done. It was rough! I have one more session and I'm finished with it! Also, my brother got a puppy and she is puppy perfection! She is a little Australian Shepard, so she has no tail. She looks like a tiny sheep from the back! He lost his border collie through some tragic circumstances (the same thing I went through with our first pug. Very sad and very sudden) and I'm happy he was able to find this little girl at a rescue event a few weeks after. Bringing home a new little bundle really helps heal that heart ache.

Melissa over at Andromeda Vintage sent me this Spock mask in the mail recently! How sweet is that? She posted him on her instagram, and when I emailed her to ask if she was selling it, she said she was planning on sending it to me anyway! He really made my day. I'm trying to decide the perfect place to hang him. Go check out her blog if you like vintage! She finds so much good stuff!
That thing on the right is a vegan bacon egg and cheese biscuit. It is from Khan's in Nashville and Travis and I are OBSESSED. I can't even figure out what the egg thing is (tofu of some kind?) but it is delicious! We talk about going there every time we're off together in the morning. YUM.

I've been lucky and gotten to see two of the queens from RuPaul's Drag Race recently! First up was Jujubee, who I've seen live before but didn't get to meet. She is in my top three, so it was a thrill to get to talk to her! She was so sweet! And the next night I got to see Carmen Carrera! You might have heard of her, she is getting a lot of press lately about the petition for her to be the first transwoman to walk in the Victoria Secret fashion show. She was so BEAUTIFUL in person I could hardly believe it!
I am also proud of myself for going to see her. Travis was out of town, and my best friend Crystal, who usually goes to Play with me had gone the night before. A guy I know from work said he was going and would meet me there, but ended up not showing up. So I went by myself and had a great time! I didn't stay for the second show (It starts at 1:30 and I didn't want to walk back to my car at 3 am ) but it was totally comfortable hanging out alone. Not something I would have done even a year ago!

I put up all my autographed Drag Race ladies on the back of my closet door so I can be inpired by them when I'm getting ready in the morning. I've also met Raja and Pandora Boxx, but didn't get photos. I really want to see Manilla! And Alaska!Any Drag Race fans out there? I can't wait for the new season to start!

I'm also really into American Horror Story: Coven! It makes me want to dress in all black and kind of witchy every single day! Crystal has been feeling it too. That picture of us makes me laugh! You can't really tell, but I'm holding a bottle with two snakes in it. Spooky. And a picture of Murray and Scout for the heck of it.

And some pug photos, just because. Those girls are the light of my life for real. They are both sleeping on me right now, snoring up a storm. That bottom right picture is from when Travis was out of town. I let them sleep with me and it was so fun! Until about 5:30 am when Priscilla got up and kept running over me and barking. Then they were quickly banished back to their room.

So that's what I've been up to. I have been feeling really great lately. No particular reason, I've just been really happy with almost everything. Life rules right now.