good cups

So, I begin this blog sitting here listening to Kara's friend, Andy, chatting about his 17 year marriage to the love of his life. I sit here and a lady is setting up a jewelry display hoping to sell some of her silver. I sit and there is lots of chatter. Kara chimes in a note about her boyfriend, as usual. I'm hoping I get this entire blog in before my computer battery dies.

I really should carry a power strip extension chord with me.

The Good Cup, in Franklin, Tennessee, is where all of this is going down. Kara introduced me to this little coffee shop a couple months ago, and it's become one of our favorite, central locations to meet for some of our book meetings/friend time lately. It's amazing how Kara and I have had an 11 year relationship from college to now, and we are just getting to a very real place in our friendship. Honestly, I think I can attribute most of this closeness to our baby book. And the fact that we enjoy sharing cups of caffeine together.

:)

We met here today in the hopes we could get our website up and running. A canceled, yet rather, POSTPONED, photo shoot from last night has us itching to get the website done. So, we tried to contact the website people, and the technical side of the whole ordeal is having to be ironed out before we start building. Another failed effort was to try to edit our profiles on facebook and myspace, and both were fruitless endeavors due to the fact that we realized we have not a single one photo of our three co-authors together- even though we've known each other for years. We have photos of us with an additional person or two, but not just us three. So, now, we are waiting on the website people to respond (who already seem a bit imaginary), and writing in our sparse time together. Come to think of it, this is the first time we have actually written together in the same room since the days of Belmont, either taking a test or finishing up a last minute music theory project as wee lil musical theatre majors!

I take a moment to glance over at Kara. She is eagerly typing away, her friend said his goodbyes 20 minutes ago, and now she is deep into writing mode. I know she's writing about spirituality because she's already made a comment to me that it's a tough subject for her. She sits with her long legs crossed straight out in front of her, with her blue jeans and tennis shoes in her blue chair, sometimes opening her mouth and then pursing her lips. She's frustrated a little I can tell. I, on the other hand, have made myself completely at home in this red chair, having kicked off my flip flops and scrunched up my short legs and bare feet into the chair, with the laptop resting on my bent knees. I stick my tongue in my cheek frequently when I am trying hard to concentrate on writing, or really, anything. Sometimes I know I don't realize I'm doing it, then look up to see if anyone is laughing at my odd habit. Ahh, human beings...

Back to the writing, Jennie...

I read a devotional recently about how the internet, phones and technology in general have caused a great loss in personal, stimulating relationships. I know that's pretty much a given, but the thought went on to ask, "When was the last time you invited a friend over for a cup of tea?" Seriously, when was the last time you just asked someone over for face to face, eye to eye fellowship? When do you get to have your "good cup" times?? I wonder about this and realize until very recently, I hadn't had much of those times with anyone since I graduated from college. The days and years turn into dollar signs and career goals or going somewhere for entertainment purposes. When you get together with friends or family, you must have a holiday or birthday to celebrate. Or, if you get together with them on a non-holiday, it's a quick lunch in the middle of the week in-between work or taking care of their offspring or significant other. The time for true fellowship is lost in the hustle of "life happened".

What a bunch of "bull crappy", as my daddy likes to say. (You know, because the S word wouldn't work for a youngin'). Oh, and hold out the crapppppppy. We let ourselves get lost and ultimately lose friendships because we can chat on the phone or email. We make excuses to not get together anymore because of financial strain. However, we end up always looking back saying "oh that was a good time, those were the days", putting a period at the end of the sentence of life where we could take an hour to just "be" with another friend.

My dear friend Ciara helped me escape this mode of thinking a couple years ago, completely and totally unintentionally. We ended up finding our way to each others' houses, to find ourselves drinking endless cups of coffee, just sharing about our day to day drama. Most of what we talked about was insignificant and disappears with time, but nonetheless, we just took time to "be" and share as friends because there was nothing else we could do. We couldn't spend money because we were so poor, one couldn't be tempted to leave because the other one knew that there was nowhere to be but there. And we wanted and needed that time. It was somewhat immature, but needed.

"Good cups of time" matured and spawned renewed interest in other people, not myspace, and over the past two years, slowly branched to other friends besides Ciara- mainly, my now co-authors, then my boyfriend Paul. I guess I knew at some point, that no friendship stays the same, and if it changes for the worse, it lies fluttering, gasping for value at the point where you say hello occasionally on a social network. These itty bitty times where you look someone in the eye and truly say "how are you doing", have blossomed into good cups of my life. I look forward to them. They make me grow as an individual and help me determine more of my self worth every single day. Now, tell me that your facebook profile did that for you today and I'll take it back.

:)

So, I'm getting an email from the website, informing us WE ARE A LEGIT WEBSITE NOW!! YAY! Now, you can finish reading this blog and go schedule in a time to meet person to person with a lovely friend of yours, then tell them to go visit our website afterwards :). hehe...We WILL have photos of all three of us, Kara, Lara and Jennie, by the end of next week, and the website up sooner...seems to be looking like that will be before we leave our sweet, actual place of our creative musings together, which is the Good Cup.

I look forward to many more "good cups" of our stories to follow us...

One day in the life of a wanna be published book author

Hi,

I'm Jennie. I used to blog on myspace, but my last blog was from the end of 2008. I am now in the process of writing a book with two of my best friends in Nashville. I'm creating this blog to give the reader a glimpse of what will soon be a magnificent book! It is my hope you will read, comment and enjoy my thoughts on what is now the 30th year of my life...