a perfect weekend.

sunday night i tweeted that the weekend had every ingredient of a perfect weekend, and that i couldn't list them all in a single tweet. i typically believe that if you have something to share and can't fit it all in one tweet, that's when you need to blog, rather than send out 10 tweets in a row. so, here are the ingredients to a perfect spring weekend:

a: one night of relaxation. i found this on friday night, as i went to dinner (pizza) with my roommates, then came home and immediately changed into pajamas, ate homemade cookies (courtesy of stacy), and watched a movie.
b: a sleepover. my roommate, kirsten, is a nanny and watches a 7-year old named natalie who is so.stinking.funny. she spent the night with us on friday.
c. a lazy saturday morning. although i technically didn't sleep in (my internal alarm clock considers 7am late on the weekends, as i wake up around 5:30-5:45 during the week), i still got to lay in bed for awhile before getting up, with no immediate plans to attend to.
d. a good breakfast. kirsten made made us all pancakes, scrambled eggs, and strawberries. and of course coffee.
e: good coffee with friends. kirsten, stacy, jen and i all went over to frothy monkey for some good coffee and conversation. i think frothy is my second home at this point.
f. a productive afternoon: stacy and i did some much needed spring cleaning around the house. we aren't messy people, but our old house tends to be a dust factory.
g. a visitor from far away/catching up with old friends: our dear old friend erin came to town. erin used to live in our house (before i did), and she is one of the first people i met when i moved to nashville almost five years ago. a year ago she moved to haiti for what she thought would be a 3-month mission trip. but god had other plans when she met her now husband-to-be, born and raised as a missionary in haiti. erin is in town planning their may wedding, and it was great to catch up with her face-to-face, as opposed to the chat function in words with friends.
h. good live music. which was free, by the way. and semi-outdoors. jen and i each won a pair of passes to this year's tin pan south, and she, stacy and i headed downtown to the roof of the hard rock to see the best of the best in nashville's independent music scene: matthew perryman jones, sandra mccraken, andrew ripp, amy stroup, trent dabbs, and katie herzig.
i. a lazy sunday morning: i always wake up on sundays long before i need to be at church. i love knowing i have somewhere to be soon, but not feeling rushed to get ready.
j. an excellent church service: i unexpectedly caught myself crying in church on sunday morning. this doesn't happen often (the last time was several years ago). some truths we can never hear enough.
k. perfect weather: saturday was in the mid-60's and sunday was near 80, and the sun shone both days.
l. simple reminders of how lucky i am to live in my neighborhood. i love that i am able to walk to a grocery store to pick up some basics.
m. popsicles at the park. kirsten and i walked down to hillsboro village, picked up some las paletas, and walked over to the dragon park to read and soak in the... shade.
n. a cook-out. our chef-friend suzanne had a group of people over to her place to cook out on the deck. fresh fruit, grilled asparagus, salad, and grilled hot dogs. summer is near.
o. making new friends. while at suzanne's, i met a few new people who i'm sure i'll see again. i also got to know my future roommate a little better.

that pretty much sums it up. although "o" is a weird letter to end on, i'm not going to change it to numbers nor force myself to make it all the way to z. you probably wouldn't
want to read all of that anyway.