Wedding, Hawaii, and Baseball, Mon

EDIT: I'm now realizing that I already posted about Alesa's wedding, but apparently it was just so much fun that it's showing up in two blogs. The good news? More pictures.


Oh hey y'all.

One of my best friends Alesa got married on May 16^th in Knoxville. Tommy got to come with me and we both had a blast. Got boxed out during that bouquet toss, so hold on to your pants, people. (Looking at pictures now has me realizing that I didn't even lift my arms. My bad).

That's me on the far left. Oops.

I’ve always said Tommy and I’s relationship reminds me of Alesa and Kevin, mainly in the way that I’m chatty and have basically no boundaries and Tommy just patiently lets me babble.

All of that to say, it was such a wonderful time being home and spending time with my favorite Knoxville people.

Trying not to trip

Dream team back together. Love you guys.

#romantic

Mom came to visit for about two days before I left for Hawaii, and we basically just had girl time. We actually got to go see a cool Bible exhibit called Passages, which, ironically, had a bunch of replicas of things my mom, had just seen in person in Israel. #KellyWins I always wish I had more time with her, but I had Hawaii to look forward to, so that made leaving her easier than usual. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

Oh, Hawaii. I went on vacation to Maui with the Knapp family and it was SO much fun. It was my first time there, so I was determined to get into the culture and act like a local, which basically means I bought a Hawaiian shirt and hair flower at Walgreens and wore them all week.

I also decided my mantra for the week would be a combination of  “Island time, mon” and “Hawaii, mon”, which is distinctly Jamaican. The Knapps were alternately amused and alarmed at my commitment to my mantras.

#HawaiiMon

We went on zip lining, jet skiing, surfing, and snow cone eating adventures that resulted in a very happy Annie. Zip lining was really cool, especially since all the other zip lining I’ve done on vacations didn’t involve views of the Pacific Ocean and guides who should have their own comedy show.

For those of you who haven’t been to Hawaii, the beach and water actually reminded me a lot of Florida. But there’s more grass near the beach and you’re laying on cabanas on the beach looking at two other islands. And wearing Hawaiian shirts and shell necklaces is semi-acceptable. Aka Hawaii is fun.

Jet skiing - the water looks deceptively calm here

This wasn't posed

He's rethinking our relationship.

What happened after Hawaii, you ask? I took a red eye to a resort in Austin, TX where we celebrated my grandfather’s 75^th birthday.  The important thing you need to know about that weekend was that I got to see Addison and that my father and I had an ongoing competition of who could hog Addison more. Jury’s still out on who won (I did).  The other important thing you need to know is that I don’t remember much else because I was so jet lagged/sleep deprived.

All my favorite girls

My parents have been traveling to the Middle East quite a bit this summer (Israel and Turkey).  Needless to say, that has made me preeettttyyy nervous, but they’ve returned safe both times, so I’m a happy camper.  On a related note, I discovered a few weeks ago that Istanbul is, in fact, a city in Turkey. Not a country.  Geography has never been my strong point.

Cool side note: My dad had been to every continent except Antarctica. Claps for Richard.

My family is currently at the beach in Florida, so you can imagine how bitter I am about missing Addison at the ocean. My family is about to delete me from their lives after all the incessant requests for Addison videos and pictures.

Tommy and I went to a Dodgers game on Tuesday and it was FUN. Contrary to what Thomas said on all his social media posts, he caught the baseball during batting practice, not me. We also got the privilege of watching a large man reach so low over the wall to catch a ball that he fell on his face. Literally, he landed on his face. Cole Hamels (one of the pitchers for the Phillies) just walked over, handed him a ball, patted him on the back, and walked away. Bless.

Tommy and I also got on the jumbotron. No, it wasn’t on the kissing cam. We actually sang like the first 4 lines  of Take Me Out to the Ballgame on camera, so we’re basically famous. Also, Colin Farrell was at the game, so he’s officially set eyes on me. Autographs later.

I have a bunch of friends about to visit me including Molly Taylor (one of my best friends from Knoxville), Jane Alice Moore (one of my best friends from Samford), and Kelsey Drennan (my senior year roommate/soulmate).  There’s no telling what craziness we’re going to get ourselves into, so brace yourselves.

Differences between Malibu and the South

o   Snails are everywhere. For those of you that think stepping on cockroaches is the worst possible thing to happen, you’re wrong. Stepping on snails is worse. And then after you step on a snail, you find like 8 more snails that decide to eat the dead snail. THEY EAT THEIR OWN. #no

o   There aren’t many flying bugs in Malibu, I guess because of the breeze. Can’t say I miss the mosquitos.

o   Famous people like Colin Farrell are casual fans in the stands at sporting events on a random Tuesday

o   Weather is in the mid/upper 70s and sunny all the time with basically no humidity. I ended up chatting with the woman I order contacts from yesterday afternoon and by the end of the conversation I had convinced her to move here. It wasn’t hard.

I love you all and if you're reading this, that means you need to come visit me.

I'm continuously thankful for God's faithfulness in the middle of the uncertainty of grad school, being an adult, and living a couple thousand miles away from my family and friends, and thankful for a God that is quick to forgive my missteps and quick to love me regardless. 

Knoxville, Wedding, and Mark Wahlberg

Hello all.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written… I got some complaints when I was back in Knoxville this past weekend, so here I am.

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. So much has happened since February 4^th (the last time I wrote), but I’ll try to cover it.

          I finished my first year of grad school. I’m crazy excited about being halfway through. This past semester involved a lot of questioning and prayer about what I’m doing and what my plans are, but I’m still so thankful to be here and to have the rare opportunity to study something I love with an ocean view.  

       Tommy and I saw Mark Wahlberg driving a minivan. I’m not even sure what to say other than the fact that we couldn’t stop talking about it for the entire day. To give you an idea of how excited we were, we actually saw him while we were driving to spend a day at Universal Studios. The only thing we couldn’t get over being excited about the entire day was seeing Marky Mark in a minivan. And there was a Jurassic Park AND a Jaws ride.

      Last weekend I went home to see one of my best friends, Alesa, get married and it was fabulous. Nothing like going home after a long time of not seeing the people you grew up with. Alesa was beautiful, and I was clueless about wedding etiquette, as per usual. Case in point: I spent the night at Alesa’s house the night before the wedding, and they had cupcakes with fake plastic engagement rings on them. I swiped some icing off of one of them before the ceremony (#wedding etiquette. I’m basically Judith Martin) and put the ring on as a joke. Well, joke’s on me because I completely forgot to take it off.  So for all of you who were confused by the fake-looking engagement ring on my finger, there’s the explanation. Tommy thought it was hilarious. I did not.

Tommy, me, Molly, Josh

Wedding Party 

      Tommy and I had the worst experience flying to and from Knoxville. This involved a surprise night spent in Atlanta during which we stayed in the sketchiest hotel I’ve ever seen. Tommy's room apparently had air conditioning, which was something they seemed to forget to install in my room.  (And this isn’t coming from someone who grew up staying at Fairmonts. If you’ve met my dad, you know how cheap he is. If Embassy Suits didn’t have those free cookies when you walk in, who knows what kind of hotels my dad would have taken us to growing up. Richard: the only thing he loves more than saving money is good food).

     Addison has just gotten cuter. I’m realizing quickly that I’m probably not going to be a good influence because whenever one of her (extremely rare – she’s crazy well-behaved) tantrums happens, I think it’s hilarious and just watch it happen. She’s also hit the stage where she says no to everything except food and fun, which is a stage I’m currently still in, so it’s nice to have some common ground.

Calhouns. Good news: she's too chunky to slip through the railing

#poolday

     Sarah Wright and Katy Flinn came to visit me in March and it was THE BEST. Tommy taught Katy how to surf and she picked it up like a pro. I sat out in the water and for a while, then lost motivation. Sarah Wright didn’t even make it out past knee deep water because every 2-foot-high wave flattened her. Truly one of the most hilarious experiences of my adult life. But it was amazing to have people from Samford back in my life again. Currently working on convincing both of them (and every other friend of mine) to move out here permanently. #futile

Sunset in Santa Monica

     Tommy and I went dunebuggying during my spring break and I discovered his daredevil tendencies are much stronger than my own. The positive (or negative – not sure which one) is that we got to ride in the dune buggy Khloe Kardashian (Kourtney? I get them confused) did the week before.

     My uncle Greg took us out tubing on the lake during which my two cousins, Hannah and Sarah, tried to throw Tommy off of the tube. Considering they combined weigh less than him, this didn’t work. I’m pretty sure he ended up throwing (yes literally throwing) Hannah off of the tube at one point.

We're pros

      Baby boy Harb is doing well, as is Amanda. I can’t wait to meet him and buy him clothes. (This implies that I haven’t bought him clothes already, which I have).



Differences between Malibu and the South

1. Yesterday was the first time anyone has recognized Chi Omega on my sorority t-shirts that I still wear because I’ve totally moved on… Truly after 9 months of living here, you would think that I would run in to someone that has Greek Life knowledge, but alas the South wins this one.
2. Girls don’t wear big t-shirts with athletic shorts here. Like, at all. Leggings and tight tops are more of the casual wear, so I’m working on bringing the trend to the West Coast, much to the disdain of those who interact with me. 
3. Teslas are the Camry of Malibu. They’re everywhere.
4. Women wear denim underwear. I’m being sarcastic…. But their shorts are basically thongs.
5. Tommy and I spent the day at the beach yesterday and it turns out that in California, women’s hats are considered to be men’s hats as well. True story.

#androgynous

     So much love to all of you! Hopefully this summer will bring some good stories. And hopefully those stories involve me getting a job.

        Malibu Harbie

Californian in the South

Everyone’s been getting sassy about me not blogging recently, so I apologize.

To all three of you, I’m sorry.

Anyway, I guess I should do a little catch up:

          Tommy came to the South over Christmas break and it was fabulous. This boy is way more redneck than I could ever dream of being, so he fit in just fine. He flew into Nashville, so we decided to make a night of it and walk around for a little while. While we were wandering, we had the wonderful (read: disgusting) opportunity to watch a spicy chicken-eating contest. Tommy loved it. We got to eat dinner with Jane Alice (one of my best friends from school - Hootie hoo) and Kelsey (my senior year roommate/soulmate).

He loved Nashville

            That night, we drove back to Knoxville and crashed at my cousin’s lake house. We woke up bright and early the next morning to go hunting (yes, hunting) in Allardt, Tennessee. AKA a city that my dad (who has lived in Tennessee for 40+ years) had never heard of. Tommy was alarmingly good at killing birds. I was alarmingly good at losing my cell phone in a 500-acre field. Enough said.

"I've killed things"

            Pigeon Forge/Dollywood happened. It was so cold that some of the rides weren’t open for the first half, so we just walked around and people watched, which is basically a sport there. 

We go-karted. He drove. I died a little. This is me trying to smile...

Can't go to Dollywood without taking the obligatory nest picture...

            Then came the road trip to Texas. I REPEAT: precious Tommy had to road trip with my family from Knoxville, TN to San Antonio, TX. Bless. On the way, we stopped in New Orleans for a night and got beignets at Café Du Monde, authentic Cajun food, and walked Bourbon Street. Talk about culture shock. We also toured a plantation. Then, as we left New Orleans the next morning, we saw an airboat tour off the interstate and decided to try it out. The tour guide had one of the strongest Cajun accents I’ve ever heard.

Airboat 

            We made it to Texas and went to Seaworld (I know I know, I watched Blackfish afterward… please don’t kill me). I’m pretty sure the highlight for Tommy was the Texas barbeque we constantly ate and touring the Toyota plant where his Tundra was made (redneck). 

Californians think "friendly" and "driving" are antonyms. 

            On our flight back from Texas, we sat next to Camilla Alves (Matthew McConaughey's wife) on the plane. I fangirled hard and snuck a picture. Tommy had a brief "oh cool" moment and went back to watching The Alamo on my laptop.

99% sure she was talking to Matt. I WAS SO CALM.

            So, back to Malibu. Dad called me a couple weeks ago on a Thursday and told me he had a surprise meeting in Los Angeles on that Saturday. Best surprise ever. He flew in Friday night and I got to spend Saturday hanging out with him. That Friday, Tommy and I were at an Eric Church concert (redneck), which was super fun.

            Second semester has been great. I’m taking Quantitative Methods and Communication Ethics, and both have been really great so far. I find pretty much everything we’re studying really interesting, so that’s a good sign.

            Tommy and I just took a little day trip up to Carpentaria, which is a precious little beach town. We just hung out on the beach then ate the sketchiest sushi you’ve ever seen,  but we didn’t get sick/die so that’s good. Moral of the story: if you have a choice between a pizza place and a sushi place, choose the pizza place.

Beach

I got a fish.

Reginald Fishgerald

That’s about it for what’s been happening. The whole fam is coming to visit in about a week, so I’m sure there’ll be some stories from that. Prepare yourself.

So much love to all of you!!

Birthdays and Home

HAPPY DECEMBER AKA CHRISTMAS MONTH!!!

I have a lot to catch you guys up on! School’s been crazy busy lately so I guess I’ll just give you the semi-short version of everything…

First, Tommy and I went to the Oh Hellos concert at the Troubador in West Hollywood a couple of weeks ago and it was so fun. BUT I might have been wrong about what time the concert started and we might have gotten there an hour early and the Oh Hellos might have not gone on until 3 hours after we got there. All I have to say is Tommy’s a trooper. Bless. 

The fact that he's smiling is proof he's a keeper.

I briefly lost my drivers license at a TJ Maxx… Even though, in my opinion, if you’re going to lose your drivers license, TJ Maxx is the best place to do it because then you have to go back and shop a little more.

A cruise ship with norovirus docked in LA a couple of weeks ago and those of you who know me well/have lived with me (looking at you Kelsey Drennan), know that any slight chance I might possibly maybe get anything close to a stomach bug sends me into a spiral of panic. I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing, mainly because it was like an hour away. But still.

Okay so now the good stuff. Most of you probably don’t know that Tommy’s birthday is November 22, which is only 2 days before mine. Aka we got to celebrate birthdays for like 4 days straight.

For Tommy’s birthday (Saturday), we went to the USC/UCLA game at the Rose Bowl and it was so much fun… USC got hammered, but I had a blast. The atmosphere felt a little more like SEC football since it was a rivalry, so that was great.

Rose Bowl

Sunday night, the Knapps took all of us out for Tommy’s birthday and listen to this: every year Tommy orders/eats sushi and ribs. He eats them both. At the same meal. Who even knew there were restaurants that cooked both sushi and ribs????? Welcome to SoCal. The west coast is weird, y’all.

Okay, prepare to be amazed. Henceforth, I will recount all the things sweet Tommy did for my birthday (Monday).

1.  9:30 am: took me on a bus tour of LA, which is something I’ve been dying to do ever since I moved here. He’s lived here his entire life, so we all know going on a bus tour of LA is not something on his bucket list. But, y’all, it was so fun. We hit a bunch of the famous spots around LA including the Chinese Man Theater where all the stars are. I could go on for pages about how fun this was, but I’ll spare you.
2. Took me to lunch at LA Country Club. That was super fun. It almost felt like a piece of home walking in because country clubs are such a southern thing… and the décor was very similar to the country clubs in the south, so it was nice being in a familiar (ish) setting. And it’s cool to see so much land in the middle of LA.
3. We got to walk around a local ranch, which was really cool. The property is beautiful – it has a bunch of oaks in an open field and actually looked a lot like the South.
4. He let me choose where we went to dinner. I chose Chick-fil-a. #constantcraving
5. Went back to my house and watched movies

Matt Damon. Enough said. 

"Um no actually we live here"

Y’all. It was perfect.

Last thing. I went home (Knoxville home) for Thanksgiving and guys it was amazing. I hadn’t seen any of my Knoxville family in 4 months INCLUDING ADDISON. This was the first time I’ve seen her walk in person. Unfortunately she was a little sick the whole time, but I had a blast with her anyway, of course. It was so fun to see all my cousins and Nonnell and Dadoo. I can’t express how wonderful it was to be back in east Tennessee for a little while. Nothing like the Deep South.

Birthdayyyyyyyy

Richard hugs. 

Wearing Addison's sunglasses...

Roscoe and I are best friends

Fam Jam

I got to meet up with Alesa and Kevin (her fiancé) at Cracker Barrel for breakfast – it was so fun catching up and just being with people who have known me basically my whole life.

Love you.

OH and it snowed a little on Thanksgiving morning!!! (Rich said it was sleet, but he’s wrong. Actually he said it was a combination of snow and sleet, which he named “sneet”. Once again, he called it sneet.)

A couple of things I’d like to mention:

•  In case you haven’t caught on, I’m dating someone. His name is Tommy. A few people have brought it to my attention that he just appeared out of nowhere in my last couple of blogs and it has apparently caused distress so here it is: I have a boyfriend.
•  A few people have said things along the lines of  “Wow your life seems perfect” and “Do you ever even have bad days out there in Malibu?” Short answer: YES. You can ask Tommy or Mary Nell or any of the other girls in my cohort. I only tell y’all the fun stuff because it’s fun to talk about/hear about. School is overwhelming, being a grown-up is challenging, and being 1,400+ miles away from my family is hard. But truly, there’s nothing like being thrown into the middle of a completely different culture all alone to strengthen your reliance on God and on those around you. Bad days and good days, I’m thankful to have a God that never leaves me and always loves me the same, regardless of how much of a mess I am.  

Differences between Malibu and the South:

• Ham. They don’t have ham at restaurants out here. I had this epiphany right around the time I saw the honey baked ham in the fridge and inexplicably pounced.
• Tommy had never heard the phrase “The pot calling the kettle black”. I’m not positive that’s not just him being clueless but it’s worth mentioning.
• The Christmas lights here are leaps and bounds classier than the lights in East Tennessee. Shocking, I know

·       So much love to all of you.