My mom just told me to think about happy things for ten minutes and focus on them. So, to help me focus here I go.
I am trying to remember a time I was really happy. I mean really happy, whether it was a moment or a series of moments...let me think.

1. The first thing that comes to my mind is the day that my Mom and Dad gave me my truck. A beautiful 2000 Black Dodge Ram. It was an afternoon after school and my parents came to pick me up. They had gone to Dalton that day to get some chairs or something, so I wasn't surprised to see them both outside the back of good ol' LHS with Tea Biscuit, our 1990's Ford conversion van. However, there were no seats left in the van. The only seats available were the driver and the passenger. So, me, being the sweet daughter I am, started climbing up in the back of the van to sit amongst the wicker furniture which was headed to the Beach House. My parents were grinning from ear to ear. They pulled me out of the back of the van and told me I could go home in something else...then I saw it. That beautiful 2000 Black Dodge 1500 Ram...V8 engine! I freaked out and my parents handed me the keys. I was only fifteen so my mom rode back with me and let me drive! It was amazing. I feel like since dad never had any sons the minute I started about wanting a truck he jumped on it and started looking. He picked the best one ever. There is a picture of me and Dad in one of my albums at home of us in the back of the truck the day I got it. We named the truck Rufus...and Rufus he is.
2. Another time I was really happy was when I found out I won the FSU Concerto Competition. I was the last one to audition, my accompianist and friend, Matthew played with me. He had gone a few people before me and played Rach. 3 Piano Concerto...a tough act to follow. But anyway, I was last. I had been working on the Bartok 1st Violin Concerto and was as ready as I was ever going to be. I had on my velvet black skirt, black heels, and a beautiful heart knecked black shirt. Beth, my teacher, snuck backstage to hear me play. I started playing...I did the first movement and then they asked for some of the second. I played and thought, huh, that went well...but we shall wait and see. I packed up my violin, chit chatted with Beth and Matty and went to the other side of Opperman for the results. It was nice not having to wait to long to find out. I slumped down on the bench and waited for the results. Dr. J. gave a little talk about how well everyone did and how good the auditions went and what an honor it was to be in the finals and then I waited for Matt to be crowned King of Concerto and Dr. J. announced the runner-up..."Matthew Cataldi!" I thought wow! Yay Matt, but who won if Matthew didn't? That flute player? Then he said and the winner of the 2006 Young Artists Competition is Nina Bledsoe. I just sat there. No joke...and looked at him like he was kidding and said "Really? Are you kidding me? I haven't won anything since the fifth grade?! I was so excited. I called my mom, called Beth, called Kevin, called my Dad, called Mema, and called Bronwyn and started shopping for a dress! Amazing day right before going hom to Thanksgiving.
3. Another really happy day was the day Kevin told me he loved me. We really hadn't been dating very long, but we knew it was right. I'd been wanting to tell him for a while and everytime I tried to get the words out I'd just fumble all over the place and end up saying "hi". No joke. He told me that he thought it might sound crazy, but that he loved me and that he wanted to be with me and follow me wherever I went. I remember feeling like a day like this would never happen to me, to have someone I love love me back and mean it. Even our first date, I could tell there was something there. We both ended up at the UPO concert and sat in the back. For some reason this one was being held in Ruby Diamond and we sat on the back row in the center. He was originally sitting somewhere else and then came and sat with me. I was sitting there the entire time wishing he would ask me out and he sat there the entire time thinking of a way to ask me out. Then the concert was over...no asking out...then as we were walking out he said "you want to go get some coffee or something?" I remember exactly what I was wearing...brown capris and a little redish tank-top with my hair pulled back with a scarf. He looked adorable in his jeans and chuck taylors. We walked down to All Saints Coffee shop and talked for hours. I called my mom promptly the next morning and told her I had been on a date with someone who was going to be around for quite some time.
4. My dad used to leave me messages of Willie Nelson singing "On the Road Again." He'd say "Well Hello Nina Nina Nina..." I miss it like crazy but it makes me happy to think about those days that I would get those messages. Another thing that used to make me smile was my dad's laugh and his silly voice. One time he called Connor, my dog, Boon Boon...Hell I miss him.
5. Ok...So now I need a really happy story to pop me up out of the previous one...Oh. Sometimes I get really happy when I see how fat some of the girls who were mean to me have become. I know that is really mean of me and superficial but it really makes my day to see them all gross looking and working miserable jobs. That is mean. I might be going to hell for that.
6. This is a recent Kevin story that makes me smile...According to some very reliable sources, Kevin is saving up for an engagement ring. :) But here is the cute story that puts a smile on my face. I was having a rough day and really upset a few weeks ago and Kevin had had his kids watch Mary Poppins...So as I was feeling all down and out Kevin started singing "Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down! The medicine go doooown the medicine go down!" It was the cutest thing I have ever heard in my life.
7. Another really happy time I remember were those summers spent on the beach. We'd spend all day going back and forth from the beach to the pool without a care in the world. Maybe God let us have that time of comfort and carelessness as children because he knew what was coming...
8. Another great day was the day I got my violin with my Dad. Going violin shopping became the ultimate father/daughter activity around my junior year of high school. We went all over the place. I must have played hundreds of violins and the found one that not everyone liked...but I did. I think it was truly one of the first decisions I made that was purely my own. I went with what I liked not with what my teacher liked. I still have that violin and it has done me just fine...just fine :) Thanks Dad!
9. Oh! Another really happy time was when mom and I went on our college search. Our favorite place was Wheaton...too bad the teacher was a whack job. We ate at a Carrabba's and stayed at a cute little place. There is a picture of my with my Wheaton sweatshirt on and my hair all long that I feel captures me perfectly at 18. Content. Happy with my search. Happy in my family, just glad to be with my mom and wondering how I was ever going to go far away from my nucleus.
10. Another day that sticks out to me is the day Bronwyn and I went on a school field trip together to somewhere out in Dallas, GA and realized that we were going to be best friends. She had kind of hated me! Haha. She tells this story much better. Then we took this little road trip for Ms. Paul's history class and the rest is history. I also would put any trip to St. George with the Averetts up there on the happy list. Good times.

So here are some of my favorite memories that make me giggle:

• Hearing Francis Marlow say at a joint Nina/Cason birthday party "they are rocks that turn into jewels."
• When my dad gave up trips to Paris for our tenth birthdays.
• Going to Paris with my mom.
• Getting that sunflower playhouse kit from Brittany DeJarnett.
• Finding out I got into FSU
• Graduating from FSU
• Dating Kevin Ray, meeting Kevin Ray, moving in with Kevin Ray...pretty much everything Kevin Ray
  
• Hearing Ruth Allen Cantrell say in my backyard when we we maybe 10 "I'm too cool for bugspray."
• When my dad said "Ruuuuuuuuuuug"
• When Bonnie said "Nina! I don't know how to use the subway! I have to ask the vagrants which way to go!"
• Going to Wisconsin and staying with Bronwyn
• Having ladies lunches with Cason
• Hearing Cason on the Christmas video say "Nina...Nina will you go make me a cake over there" and "Momma look at my orange"
• Or when Cason told Dad not to get me in the picture because I had just hit her over the head for stealing my Gak.
• The day we went shopping at Nordstrom and the credit card company called my dad because of all the rescent and rapid activity on the credit card.
• Telling Cason that I was coming to see her in her first beauty pageant.
• Stepping off the plane when I came home from London
• Saturday mornings in the Bledsoe house meant playing barbies with Cason at 6 am and Dad and mom cooking really good breakfast with biscuits and gravy or pancakes. Sometimes we got to have candy bars and cokes.
• Going to the Varsity in a limo for a celebration. I had a pink and yellow umbrella.
• Sticking my tongue out in any picture taken of me pre high school..oh who am I kidding I still make faces in pictures.
• The feel of 1230 Cliffpine. Sometimes I remember things about that house and our life there and think what a great life it was.
• When that lady came and painted flowers on mine and Winters beds.

Sigh....I feel better. I'll be alright.

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