reason #203,944 why this is the best year of my life.

I was thinking about this on my way home tonight: This year is by far the most interesting year of my life. God's given me so many awesome opportunities. So many amazing people. So many hilarious (sometimes awkward) stories. Don't get me wrong- there have been some rough lessons and definitely some loss in this last year, but God wasn't kidding when He said He uses ALL things for our good. This makes all the crap totally worth it. 

Tonight. One of those hilarious... yet slightly not moments. For the last week we have had a photo shoot in the works. This shoot takes place tomorrow. I decided to go to a Kris Allen concert tonight at the Mercy Lounge in downtown Nash. When they found out I was only 20 they sent me to another line where a guy grabbed my hand and drew these lovely pictures on my little hands with the largest most permanent looking marker I've ever seen in my life:

Beautiful, huh? Sure it will translate onto camera well tomorrow. As he drew it on one hand I gasped. Before I could get a word out... both of my hands had large X's on them. Now listen, I TOTALLY understand why they do this. I'm all about it and had absolutely NO plans of getting into trouble so I didn't want to fight them... but I did care that I had 2 large X's on my hand... and I was slightly shocked because I didn't see that coming. No big deal, I guess. I will probably spend most of my night awake scrubbing them off. Who needs sleep? *sigh* 

So. I learned a lesson. 

Oh. It gets better: As I'm driving out of the venue my manager jumps in front of my car... so I rolled my window down and displayed my lovely hand-art. We sat there a few short minutes discussing the less painful ways of removing this before we see the photographer tomorrow morning. Joy. 

If anyone has any helpful ideas and would like to share before 8am tomorrow... give me a shout :) 

Thank you, God for keeping me guessing. It's never boring here.  

"What Would Katy Perry Do?"

I have not written in forever, blogger. And for this I am sorry. Things have been so busy, chaotic and just plain Cuh-Razy that whenever I think about writing, my brain starts to hurt. 

I guess it's a good thing to be busy though. I have been at writing sessions 3-4 times a week. It's been awesome, but after this many songs you start to ask God if there are any more songs that can be written. ;-)

But thankfully all of the people that I have been able to write with have been so awesome and I'm super glad to call them friends.  You learn a lot of things about people whilst writing. People do silly things to get inspired like tap the walls, pull out a mini baseball bat out of their bag, look out the window (this distracts me.), go to www.rhymezone.com, or eat a banana... (the banana is mine :-P) 

I'm also learning a lot about myself as an artist and a writer. I feel like these last few weeks have been really helpful in learning what's important to me and what music really is about. Does it mean having a radio single? Or singing something that stirs up my heart and the hearts of others?

I did have a co-write with a guy who was searching to have a #1 on the radio. That is definitely not an uncommon goal in Nashville. My heart told me to walk away when he suggested that I ask myself, "What would Katy Perry do?" whenever I was stuck on a line. For some reason that didn't sit well with me. Made me laugh, but not really my style. Why? Because I am not Katy Perry. Do I listen to her? Um. Sometimes when I'm jammin' in my car, but that's the extent of that. Oh. Silly pop writers. Thankful for the experience though... even though we have different tastes in writing, he really was a cool dude.  

It is officially summer here in Nashville. The weather has been in the 90's the last few days and today was a record high! I'm just hoping to have some time one of these days to lay out by the pool and enjoy it. :) We have been seeing a little rain almost every day though.

Yesterday I was outside pushing Olivia (the 2 year old that I nanny.) on the swing and I saw the most amazing sky. I have seen the sky plenty of times, but never like this. Half the sky was B.R.I.G.H.T. blue with the whitest clouds I've ever seen and the other half was dark and stormy. The dark clouds were just about to cover the sun and they literally looked like they were lined with silver where the sunlight was peaking out. That description doesn't even come close to what it was. In an instant it made me realize how small I really am (bring on the short jokes...) and how big God is. My little world is soooo puny in the scheme of things. My worries, my troubles, and even all the awesome things... are just a vapor. Here one day and gone the next. ...and now that may sound sad or depressing, but in that moment, I felt totally freed from the stress that I had been feeling. Thank You, Jesus. 

In the last few weeks I have lost some things. My car was totalled, my dog is staying somewhere else while I work these crazy 12 hour days, and any free time has vanished (minus the half hour of sleep that I'm missing to write this)... but I'm thankful for the reminder that these are all temporary things, there are greater things... and in the end, God is on our side. What else could possibly matter?

This is all quite ramble-esque, but hey... that's not unusual for me. ;) 

Praying for my friends. I miss you all terribly. I will come out from all of this busy-ness soon and I'm so thankful to know we will pick up right where we left off.

Good.Night.