It's 3:04 am, Monday morning and my phone rings. I jumped up trying to
figure out if I was dreaming or not. When I answered I heard, "You have a
collect call from, {Jimmy}, will you accept..." I started to hang up,
then decided to go ahead and take it...out of curiosity alone. I guess I
expected to hear tears, shame, or some type of remorse on the other end
of the line, but instead, I heard tales of a country music wannabe that
were anything but remorseful.
Once I finally got Jimmy to focus on the problem at hand, he begged us to
come get him from the Nashville jail where he was being held on charges of
disorderly conduct & assault and battery. Before I could get any more information
out of him, I hearda gruff voice in the background yell, "times up elf!" Matthew
and I decided to leave him locked up for the night to let him think about his
actions. Against our better judgement, we headed up I-40 to bail him
out.
When we arrived at the jail, we learned quickly that Jimmy had made
a name for himself there...not a bit surprising! We paid his bail,
which the bailiff had to literally had to pry out of Matthew's hand.
Jimmy received his belongings and we loaded him in the car to begin the
very long, silent, drive home. Several times he tried to apologize, but
he was quickly interrupted by Matthew saying, "too soon Jimmy, too
soon!"
When we were almost to Hendersonville, I heard Jimmy sniffling,
then turned around to see tears rolling down his tiny, plastic face. He
filled us in on the life he's been leading for the past year. (You know
the last we heard, he was headed to his honeymoon spot...without the
bride.) He started out by telling us that he had hit rock bottom with
heartbreak. At his lowest point, he made a call, one that changed his
life, he called Dr. Frank Page, his mentor, counselor, and friend.
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He flew to Franklin, TN to meet with Dr. Page and was greeted with kindness
and great hospitality from Dayle, who of course invited him to stay
until he got back on his feet. As Jimmy told us his story, tears
continued to flow. He said that he realized he lost focus of his dream, a
dream that he had kept secret his whole life...country music.
He went on to say, "country music was a dream and it was a time when I
desperately needed a dream, so I guess you could say that music saved my
life!" At that moment, I didn't find it necessary to point out that I
knew he ripped that speech off from Adam Braverman, so I kept quiet and
listened. I was so caught up in his story that I almost forgot that he
was neglecting to mention why he was locked up. I quickly reminded him
to get to the point. He held his head with shame when he recounted his
actions for us of Sunday night. He said, "I was playing a gig at Ryman
(by "at Ryman," he means on the steps outside) out in the audience (by
"audience," he means the people walking by the steps) sat a heckler.
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“Will play (or get you on
the “NICE” list) for
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I tried everything, deep breaths, counting, meditation, but after 10
minutes of harassment, I had enough. I took my guitar and I shov..." I
immediately interrupted, "that's enough, I've heard enough." I explained
that he needed to get it together for MC's sake. He could focus on his
career again once December 25th came and went. He promised that he was
turning over a new leaf and we'd see that he had changed once we'd all
had a good night's rest. After all of that, Matthew still hadn't said a word.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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| Santa Monica Boulevard...believe me, I sang the song the whole week! |
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| Malibu sand, people watching, beachin' it! |
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| Red Velvet Ice Cream Cone...Sprinkles Ice Cream |
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| First In-N-Out burger |
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| San Francisco...Golden Gate, Alcatraz, Trolley Cars, Finding DJ Tanner's House |
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| Notice the name, then notice the For Lease sign in the window. |
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| Eating on the side of a cliff. |
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| Our drive up the coast. |
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| Pink's Hot Dogs...not worth waiting 2 hours for. |
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| "I should go in and tell them how much I enjoyed their movie...you know Free Willy." - Matthew |
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| Beverly Hills Farmer's Market...same as ours but with caviar. |
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| My favorite place on earth...cupcake ATM? |
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| Joshua's Tree National Park |
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| When you start to complain about gas prices... |
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| Trying to find a Kardashian |
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| Los Angeles/Beverly Hills/Hollywood |
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| Seal hangout |
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| Hope that Matthew and I could have jobs if we moved to CA! |
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| MC's first & last time on Bourbon Street...well, it better be anyway! |
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| New Orleans Beignet |
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| Breakfast with Friends |
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| Who knew Matthew & MC could have so much fun at Anthro? |
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| Where'd you get those beads missy? |
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| I really don't know who is crazier! |
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| The "official" Rollins Family travel candy! |
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| Pucker Up |
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| My Pretties |
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| Throwing her coin in to make her wish to go home! |
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The card mentioned that today was Scavenger Hunt Birthday and included an address and a time to be there. .JPG)
11:25 AM - I pull in to Dr. Alpert, Hill, Caputo Dentistry where my mother in law works. She handed me a box of my favorite cupcakes from a cupcake shop that is conveniently located down the street from our house. (I thought it was a bit ironic that I got cupcakes at a dentist's office!) I also received a map with the next destination and clue, it said, "Find the King of Coke Zero." .JPG)
12:00 PM - I knew immediately that I was looking for our friend, Chris Causey. As much as I like to pride myself in that fact that I am a Coke Zero Connoisseur, I don't even come close to Chris Causey and his Coke Zero. We get in the car and immediately head to our church, where Chris works. My sweet friend, Beth, gave us instructions to find the king in his office. He sat with a gold crown on his head, waiting for us to arrive. He not only had a cold can of Coke Zero waiting for me, but a twelve pack, crowns, and a video message with my next clue. .JPG)
1:30 PM - Next stop, Matthew's grandmother's house. When we walked in, there were 33 balloons on the ceiling (32 and one to grow on) I had to pop them to find clues/surprises. Some of the notes were for me and some for MC. The notes revealed a surprise in the refrigerator for me and MC (a blackberry IZZE for me & a Sprite for MC). We don't usually let her have soda, so this was a treat! :) She also got a coloring book designed by her daddy! Then, I got the clue to the next destination...a map to the mall (like I needed that) and a note that said to buy what I wanted. I was a little nervous that Ashton Kutcher was going to pop out at this point and tell me that I was punked, but to my surprise, Ashton never came! I was also told to be at Francescas in the mall at 3:30 sharp. Hmm....JPG)
3:30 PM - After a hard day of shopping, I was browsing in Francescas, when I heard a familiar voice behind me. I turned to find my beautiful friend, Allison, holding a bag with my next clue...a map to the QT gas station and a menu with highlighted marks on it. The menu was to a restaurant in Charlotte called, Cowfish, that I have wanted to try ever since The Bachelorette, Emily Maynard, tweeted that it was her favorite. (Sidenote: During her season on The Bachelor, Matthew repeatedly had to remind me that I wasn't really friends with Emily! I just felt like we were!) Oh, you're just now finding out that I am crazy? :) Anyway, it's a good thing that my REAL friend, Allison was there, because I needed her opinion on a couple of dresses that I surely didn't have time to try on, but did anyway. While I was in the dressing room, Allison snuck up to a different store to buy me this awesome yellow braided belt that complemented the navy/white striped dress that I was debating. If I would've had clothes on, I would have run after her, but I truly do appreciate the gift! .JPG)
5:30 PM - We wait. Waiting on a Tuesday afternoon lets you know that the food must be good! Since we had already made up our mind on the ride over what we were going to eat, I decided to take a "few" pics of us. Twenty shots later, as people stared, Matthew had enough, but not I. I kept shooting with him looking away. It really helps the time pass quickly, you should try it next time you have a wait. Trust me, your significant other will LOVE it! So, the restaurant is named, Cowfish, because they serve burgers and sushi. Get it? Here is what we got: 
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