Thanks, Y'all

It's the end of a crazy fun week. My daughter and I are in Nashville, having a little girl time, and that leads me to my Ten Things of Thankful.

1. I'm thankful for my friend Terri, who opens her house up to me and lets me visit whenever I can.

2. I'm thankful for old friends, ones who knew me long ago, saw me through some of my stupider times, and still love me.

3. I'm thankful for new friends who are so comfortable to be around that they seem like old friends (yes, that's you, Kayla, along with Mac, J. and J.).

4. I am thankful that I have amazing parallel parking skills, because I had to put them to good use when my daughter and I went downtown to visit a friend. Not only did I perfectly park with three-point accuracy, I did it with a guy in a pick up truck breathing down my neck. If I'd known it would be such a spectacular feat, I would have made my daughter stand on the sidewalk and videotape it.

5. I'm thankful for restaurants that are still here and still delicious (shout out to South Street Restaurant and San Antonio Taco Company).

6. I'm thankful for the comic relief provided by my daughter, whether intentional or not, while we were traveling. Case in point: we stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch on our way to Nashville, and while I was paying, she took our cups to the drink station to fill them. Since DQ only has Pepsi products (and that sucks), she asked me if I wanted Diet Dr Pepper, and I said yes. As we sat at our table, waiting for the food to arrive, she commented that the root beer at this place was really bad. It was so bad, in fact, that it didn't even TASTE like root beer. As she continued her diatribe about the quality of her drink, I picked up my cup and took a sip of... root beer.  I reached over and switched cups with her. She stopped in mid-sentence, and we laughed and giggled and snorted until our sides hurt.

7. I am thankful for thrift stores. I used to hate, hate HAAAAATE them, but now, I find I enjoy the thrill of the hunt, although I have to be in the MOOD to thrift store shop, or forget it. (My husband, on the other hand, is a thrift store shopping BEAST.)

This little find is going to become
an accessory for a certain cat....

8, I am thankful for my fabulous sense of direction. The streets in Nashville are set up like a wagon wheel, with downtown as the hub of the wheel and all the streets branching off of it the spokes. Not an easy place to get around if you're used to your town's streets being laid out the NORMAL way, which would be in a grid.

9, I am thankful for the Stones River Greenway. I try to walk on it every time I come to visit, and it's really lovely. Well, except for an ugly little incident today. I BEGGED my daughter to walk with me (her excuse being that it was too hot and she didn't want to sweat). After I finally talked her into going with me, we drove over to the trailhead and set out. We had seriously not gone 100 feet when a group of about 6 bicyclists coming toward us each shouted, "Snake!" as they swerved their bikes to avoid running over it. As the last bicyclist passed, we saw that the "snake" was really a "SNAAAAAAKE!!!" The part we saw, as it slithered slowly off the path toward the river, was about three feet long and as big around as my daughter's arm and appeared to be a water moccasin. And it was HORRIBLE. We were both nervous wrecks for the rest of our walk, eyes constantly darting from side to side, flinching at every noise from the sides of the walkway. It was not my most relaxing, enjoyable Greenway trail walk, and I will probably never, never, EVER get my daughter to do it with me again.

10. I am thankful that we still have two more days before we have to leave!

Happy weekend, y'all!