Our Nashville Metamorphoses

We’ve been back from Nashville for more than a week. It was an exhausting yet life-changing event. 

Seems silly that a music concert event could change one’s life but here we are. 

The Husband and I are both from Oklahoma. There’s a stereotype of us that isn’t fair, thanks to Steinbeck, mostly. But also that land-run we still celebrate as Pioneer Day where “settlers” came across our northern border at the sound of a gunshot and staked some land for themselves. Sooners are those that jumped the gun. It’s possible that Oklahoma University is the only college in the nation whose team name basically means “cheater”, but I digress. 

We live in Arizona most of the year now and belong to a golf and tennis country club. It’s been easy to forget we are, at our core, cheaters Oklahomans. Nashville reminded us of all that is good from our youth. 

Everyone was kind. They call it southern hospitality but it’s more than that. People really are just nice in this part of the nation. The food was great, the music nostalgic, traffic manageable. We even got some good ol’ churchin’ at the concerts we attended, and there were many. We stayed up past midnight every damn night and it was glorious. 

I wore that hat I found on the ground the whole time. It was too big for The Husband so I just stuck a boot sock inside to make it fit me. Doesn’t get more redneck than that.

My favorite artist, Ashley McBryde didn’t sing which was sad for me. On the flip side, I didn’t even know who Ashley McBryde was a month ago. 

Now when I get into The Husband’s car, there’s Country Music on the radio and we both sing along. I’ve already Googled Ashley’s 2026 concert tour. He wore boots to the grocery store yesterday. And we’ve both been remembering our great childhoods. See? Life-changing. 

The Husband invented a word yesterday, quite by accident but that’s what you do when you get old. He said we were “olding”. Straight up changed it to a verb and it is an amazing way to describe where we are in life. Not old but olding. 

I’m happy to old with him, my cowboy dancing Okie. Thank you, Nashville for a fabulous rebirth.