How to Spend 24 Hours in Nashville

Date: June 12, 2018

Author: astottler

I know I wasn’t the greatest at blogging this past year at school, but I both had minimal time, and didn’t do many interesting things. I want to get back to blogging a little more now that I’m here because I have more time and am doing and eating more interesting things! (i.e. not zucchini pasta every night.)

I’m working longer hours than I have before, but it’s been going really well. It’s also so nice to go home and relax, not study! That being said…having a little time to relax combined with spending all day doing veterinary medicine and talking about cases has actually made me want to spend some time at coffeeshops studying on my days off. This summer is turning out to be EXACTLY what I was looking for. Some time to relax, some time to actually DO veterinary medicine and practice my clinical skills. Plus, because I’m in a different part of the country, there are definitely differences in clients and cases/diseases, which is what I wanted. I get asked many times a day why I came all the way from California. I know people doing the same program I’m doing 20 minutes from school. It goes to show you that your life is what you make it. I wanted to spend some time in the South, in a different place, so I made it happen. And I’m so, so glad I did. I may have grown up in California and gone to both undergrad and now vet school there, but I’ve managed to spend a few months living in DC, Knoxville, St. Louis, and now Nashville. Not only has it been a blast, but it really opens your eyes to what the rest of the country is like. In a way you wouldn’t get just visiting for a few days.

In addition, I think Jackson is living his best life here. He quickly adjusted, and absolutely loves the place we are staying. He gets along with the other kitties, but mostly he loves looking at little critters out the window. Starting when it gets light around 5am until when I leave for the morning, he’s darting from window to window chirping.

While my days at work are longer than I’m accustomed to, they haven’t been totally wiping me out and dragging like I was worried they would. The only thing is my feet hurt SO much from standing all day! Hopefully they’ll get accustomed to it. In terms of fitness, with longer hours I just try to fit it in when I can. On days I start at 8am I do 6am Crossfit. Because I work 10-12 hour days, I make workouts a priority on my days off as much as possible. I may try 5am crossfit classes at some point…but I”m not ready for that yet!

I’ve been eating the same salad every day at work: peaches, goat cheese, turkey, and balsamic.

But back to the title of this post. Last weekend, my St. Louis friends made the 5 hour drive to visit me here! I worked Saturday, and they arrived Saturday afternoon and left Sunday late afternoon. We did a LOT in the 24 hours they were here, so here’s what to do in 24 hours in Nashville!

Our frist stop was dinner at a brewery really close to me, Tailgate. I’m OBSESSED with the atmosphere here. It feels like summer. There’s an outdoor area overlooking a hill, with lights strung up. At dusk, fireflies come out (which is mesmerizing for someone from California!

They also had REALLY good pizza. They had both GF crust AND cauliflower crust. It was so good we actually went again Sunday afternoon before my friends hit the road.

Everyone who visits me is coming here. It just feels like summer. I honestly didn’t exactly understand summer until I left CA and came to Tennessee 2 years ago. There’s something different on the other side of the country.

Next, we headed downtown to Broadway street. This is the main “downtown” that Nashville is know for. The cool thing about it is it’s a several block area with a whole bunch of bars, most of which have multiple floors with life music, and a lot have rooftop bars as well. We totally lucked out and the weather was in the upper 70s at night. We went in and out of a ton of different places. It was a blast!

On Sunday, we went to brunch at the highly recommended Biscuit Love. We went to the Hillsboro Village location, and I would highly recommend doing this. It’s their newer location, and after looking at their website, I was expecting an hour line to order, but we were able to order right away! Two of my favorite foods ever are biscuits and grits, so that’s exactly what I got. I got a bowl with cheddar grits, eggs, tomato gravy, and kale, and then a biscuit on the side. I only had a little bit of it though. It was good but not my favorite style of biscuit. In terms of gluten while I’m here, I’ve had a couple of small things and been ok, so I’m going with it. I didn’t push it since these weren’t my favorite style of biscuits, but biscuits are going to have to happen while I’m here.

My friends also ordered the Bonuts to share, which are biscuit donuts rolled in sugar and topped with berry compote and mascarpone.

Hillsboro Village is a cute little area near Vanderbilt, so we walked around there a little bit before heading to 12 South, my current favorite neighborhood, to take the iconic Nashville picture.

While there, we had to stop at Jeni’s ice cream. Another place that everyone who visits is going to go to. I’ve been DYING to try the gooey butter cake flavor, which is actually GF! When I went before and when I passed by a Jeni’s, they were both out! So of course that had to happen. It’s AMAZING. I got it with dark chocolate.

After we saw everything in that neighborhood, we walked the pedestrian bridge. We were going to try and park on the other non-downtown side of the river, but we drove in circles across the river trying to find a place to enter or park, so we ended up parking downtown in a cheaper lot that our Uber driver from the previous night actually recommended. To get to the bridge, we walked through Broadway, which was just as much in the day as at night.

Note: we didn’t actually go to CMA Fest, but there was a lot going on all weekend!

Here are the views from the bridge:

And then it was back for pizza before they headed out. I am so thankful for my zoo friends. You know true friends will drive hours to visit you! (They drove 10 hours to visit me in Alabama last year!) It was such a great weekend.

And that’s how to spend 24 hours in Nashville!

Spin Kills My Pants

Date: December 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Have you all finished your holiday shopping? I think I’m mostly done!

Today’s post will be quick-a little food, a little fitness, a little fun. Speaking of fun-today is the last day to enter my giveaway!

Workouts:

Spin. Friday morning EARLY I went to a spin class! My legs were still a bit burned out from the night before, so I didn’t go too crazy with the resistance!

Saturday-nothing.

Sunday morning-more spin with one of my favorite instructors back home! The bad news? My pants busted open in the middle of class right on the inside of my leg…I’ve had major issues with my favorite workout pants a lot-they keep busting open after being stitched up-but I can’t find them in stores anymore so I keep trying. HOWEVER these were not said workout pants-these were some of my newest ones, so this was totally unexpected! Spin kills my workout pants. This is not the first time this has happened in a spin class! Meh.

Food+Fun

After Friday morning’s workout, I refueled with an eggnog protein shake. I remembered making one last year, so I looked up the post and used the same ingredients! The perks of having a blog.

It’s green because I figured I wouldn’t get many greens later in the day! I used about a quarter cup of light eggnog, and then eyeballed vanilla protein powder, frozen banana, milk, spinach, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ice.

It was pretty good but got old by the end-I think I like my chocolate protein powder way more than the vanilla.

Friday post breakfast and work, I shadowed at what I was thinking I wanted to be my future profession and this affirmed for me what I do want to be, which is good!

Lunch was at a little French cafe. I got a quiche, and my family shared truffle oil fries-SO good!

Then, I met up with my high school friends at their college across the bay for a big reunion!

We went to Cheeseboard, a well known and gourmet pizza place in downtown Berkeley. They make one pizza a day, and today’s was margarita!

We also stopped for gelato-half chocolate, half dulce de leche. So good!

We had a fun night! The next morning called for coffee and pancakes. Somehow we actually got to the breakfast place before it opened?

That’s all the food I have pictures of. I went to my sister’s holiday party last night and she had some pretty gourmet food, but no pictures were taken. She went all out-latkes, bruscetta, baked brie, stuffed mushrooms, eggnog cupcakes, and chocolate mint cupcakes with real mint.

I need to go now-have a great day!

You’re Jamaican Me Crazy

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

You know what is crazy? I only have a month left of school. That means that my freshman year of college is almost over! How did that happen??

This morning I was doing some blog reflections. I’ve noticed my writing style has changed considerably. I get the impression that it is choppier now that it was before. And a LOT more sarcastic. Am I getting TOO comfortable on the Internet? Haha. But I also get the impression that although my writing seems a bit rushed, it definitely has more energy and is overall more positive. The things sleep will do for you! It was also interesting to reflect on my food choices, especially given I’ve recently given up sweets. When I was doing crew, I ate sooo much! It’s crazy! It did make me nostalgic for crew as well. But hey, life happens. I do feel healthier now though that I am not consuming quite so much sugar. Another thing: I read some of the first posts from when I was getting sick. It’s kind of pitiful; 2 days into being sick, I wrote, “I think I’m finally getting better!” Sorry sweetie, but it’s going to be another month before you ACTUALLY get better. Hah. I had nooo clue what I was in for.

But ANYWAYS. My takeaway from this is that I want to improve my writing style. I want to be more descriptive, and I suppose in some ways more formal. I think I was beginning to write a little too much like I would write a text message. Also, I realized how many typos I have, and for that I am so incredibly sorry. I have so much trouble catching my own typos!

But let’s get back to life, shall we? My Psych midterm was pretty easy (I hope) so that was one midterm down. My super important midterm is OChem this Wednesday. After my exam, it was lunchtime! Friday was one of those days where I ate a ton, but was never super full.I started with a Southwest salad. Every time I am at the cafeteria there, I see this amazing looking pizza, but I can never rationalize getting a slice. Yesterday was no different, until I decided to just go for it, since I wasn’t full from my salad. It was described as Margarita pizza, but it wasn’t really like any Margarita pizza I’ve had before! Deep dish Margarita?This was delicious. There were globs of fresh mozzarella under the tomatoes, and the pesto complimented everything perfectly. SO worth it.

After class, I decided to go on a bike ride. I found a bike loop online that a lot of bike riders take around here. It’s not a bike trail, just 3 roads connected. It was a 15 mile bike ride. (My trusty sidekick that sometimes decides to try and kill me.)

I wasn’t too happy with the gears on my bike. The chains have fallen off a few times, and given my highly limited knowledge of bikes, I most likely did not put them back on in the correct place, so I only really had 2 gears to work with. I stopped to adjust them, and I think it helped. I really liked/really hated this ride. It took me a really long time to complete; apparently I’m the world’s slowest biker. Ah well. I’ve ridden most of the first leg of this loop before. The first leg is uphill for a long time, although for the most part it isn’t too steep. But definitely enough to feel the burn! This bike ride is interesting; I start on campus and see tons of people leaving work. Then, as I get farther out, the world transforms. I begin to see horses and ranches, and little town stores. On the second leg of the loop, I saw Vineyards and all of the sudden there were horses on the road next to me. It was as if I had traveled to a different time period. After some downhill, and more climbing, I was finally at the top. I didn’t realize I was at the top at first; I first noticed I had a feeling of unexplained happiness. There was nothing higher than I was! I was pretty tired at this point. I went down a hill, only to turn a corner and find a super steep looking hill waiting for me. I actually said “Oh shit” out loud before. I don’t normally say things like that to myself, that loud. It didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was expecting, since there was a pretty big downhill going in, and I had a ton of momentum carry me to the top.

All in all, a great ride.

As I mentioned before, friday was my Mom’s birthday. I love these pictures:

What an angel!

My mom sent me this caption: “They’re just lollipops to Lilly.”

I don’t know what it is, but my kitties love chewing flowers. Last year I had a big birthday bouquet of roses. We woke up the next morning to find the downstairs completely covered in rose petals. Oh cats.

For her birthday, we went out to a Jamaican restaurant called Coconuts.

Guac and Plantain chips? Um YES.

In case you are wondering why there are so many plates, it is because the restaurant was family-style. They weren’t all for me; I wasn’t THAT much of a bottomless pit!

The food was really good, but had this spice that took a little while to hit you. So by the end of the meal, all the spiciness had built up and my tongue was on fire! I’m kind of a wimp in that regard.

We all had a great time. I think I’ll hold off on the other things I want to share because this post is already pretty long!