A year ago today, we were having our ceremony at Aullwood with our friends and family. When asked what we should do for our first anniversary, Andrew said it should be ... memorable. Mission accomplished!Evan, Andrew, and I prepped for the festival earlier in the week where we constructed our costumes, beautified our tomatoes, and sketched our sidewalk drawings. On Friday, Andrew and I were dressed and almost identical to some good looking tomatoes. Turns out Andrew's witty humor and lovely stage presence (and endearing shyness) won him the scepter. Meanwhile, Evan and I cannot stop laughing and cheering for our new king. The prize for winning was not quite ideal for Andrew, but incredibly humorous to the two of us! Turns out he did lead the parade like a champ while Evan and I finished our chalk drawings in the sweltering heat. The sweat however, did make the chalk easier to smear with to create lifelike shadows and artistic flair. While Andrew was weaving his way through town with Queen deliciousness, Evan and I were receiving our prizes for tieing the contest for Best of show sidewalk drawing! We followed this draining event with some refreshing....hot tomato soup. Okay, not so refreshing but definitely delicious.
Back to deliciousness, Andrew and the crowned queen lead the red and green stemmed crowd regally through the streets of East Nashville. They were hard to miss in their plump, juicy costumes and many following subjects. I rather enjoyed not being the crowned the queen, because when people would ask Andrew if I was the queen, he would say..."She's my queen." (I know, groans and rolling eyes at the cuteness.) So despite lack of scepter, I felt loved. (Though knighting people looked pretty darn fun when Andrew did it...) The day was filled with many tomato adventures; a truly celebratory event of the food that was dubbed as a "uniter, not a divider," rallying both fruits and veggies alike. We sampled heirloom tomatoes (remember...those tomatoes that used to grow in gardens that tasted lovely and unique and were strangely shaped and were a myriad of color?) and discussed that sadness of the common grocery store tomato (does it deserve this lovely title of "tomato" even?) . We cheered Evan on in the faux red head contest (which she won by a landslide but apparently the judge had a pea stuck in his ear), ate delicious Not-dogs (tofu hot dogs) at the I dream of Weenie stand, and perused some beaut-e-full art in the gallery that all centered around Grapes. Ha! Fooled you. It was art about tomatoes.
Then as you can see in photos, I surprisingly won, the Most beautiful tomato contest. Evan's was truly the most beautiful, but apparently they were going for the underdog or some specific look that my tomato radiated. ( I also have a suspicion that it was half chosen for the oh-so-appropriate name of "Little Miss Sunshine" for sitting upon a sunflower and other various flowers.)
We left the festival exhausted and craving...crackers. So we stopped at a gas station on our way to the surprise destination (surprise for Andrew, planned by moi). Hummingbirds greeted us, since the hippie-esque persons at the farm resemble most free spirits in their lack of organization or remembrance of details like....oh meet people who have reservations at the front gate. I drove around a maze of gravel roads, talked to multiple individuals asking about how to check into the inn. Here are a few of those short conversations.
Theresa: Hi, I have reservations at the Inn.
Woman #1: The inn? Oh, well then you should go to the Inn.
Theresa: (thoughts to self-riiiiight. Brilliant). OK, so where is the Inn.
Woman #1: Take the road down a ways and then turn left after the mushroom painted silo.
Theresa: Hi, is this the Inn?
Woman #2: The Inn? Oh, is that what they used to call this place? The paradise Inn? (meanwhile she is in a bathing suit drink in hand).
Theresa: I rented a room at the Inn for the night.
Woman #2: Oh the Ecovillage! That's down the road over there.
Theresa (rolling my eyes profusely at this point): Hi, My name is Theresa. I have a reservation for tonight.
Woman #3: Oh....you do? What is your name?
Theresa: Theresa.
Woman #3: OK, well you can pull up and drop your things off.
Theresa: Okay, well first I need to go get my husband because he is at the waiting center waiting in case someone came to meet us and drive us to the Inn (loud ahem cough at this point).
Woman #3: Oh okay.
So I went back to pick up Andrew who was busying himself taking pictures of the hummingbirds. The Farm turned out to be lovely and was disorganized and slightly random, but a incredibly friendly and relaxing place. We had a energizing breakfast with grits, fruits, cereals, vegan muffins and other sorts of fun foods.
As I was walking away from the kitchen counter to sit down, the 6 year old girl asked me..."Do you want some nutritional yeast for your grits?" I had to laugh at this...since normally nutritional yeast is not in the vocabulary of many six year olds. She also later got out a jar of...454 super foods (slight exaggeration) and just spooned it down. It was an Indian snack she told me. ( I don't even remember the name actually!) Her brother (who is 3 and 1/4 he told me) asked if I wanted kelp flakes for my breakfast. A first, even for me. Naturally it was all delicious and I loved that the kids form of entertainment and toys was a pair of tap shoes, a huge garden, and many many small places to hide in the farm house. We played hide and seek with the kids and the girl, I kid you not, popped out from under a chair that had 2 inches of space. Andrew and i just stared at her wide eyed; amazing! Possibly the best hider ever.
After chasing tadpoles and drying off in 2.5 seconds in the Sun, we drove home on a lovely parkway. Exhausted, we are curled up in bed, just having finished watching an episode of "Get Smart." This was Andrew's gift to me: 5 seasons of my childhood favorite TV show. It makes me laugh.
As does this weekend when I sit down and think about it. We will be eating tomato related products and making tomato related jokes for months to come.
Yes, it was memorable!
