Best. Night. Ever.

As some of you may know, I "ran into" my idol and her hubby last night at a local Nashville establishment: the one and only duo Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.

Here's the story.

Several of my neighbors have dogs, and Miss Bella and I have made friends with them. After work most evenings, we have play time on the tennis court. Last night was one of those typical evenings. When we'd finished playing, Bella and I came inside, and I was ready for a low-key evening reading a book I should have finished a week ago. About five minutes after we came inside, someone knocked on my door. It was one of my neighbors. She told me her boyfriend, who is a local musician, was out listening to music downtown and just happened to be standing near Miranda and Blake Shelton, and she thought I'd appreciate that.

Little did she know!

It was around 8:30 p.m., and I appreciated the tip so much that we decided to go see if it was true. In less than ten minutes, we were on our way and at the venue in record time. We walked through the door, and THERE THEY WERE. In the flesh. Right in front of us. Sitting in a booth with a of couple friends. I started shaking.

We went on over to stand with my friend's boyfriend and listen to the music, which was good and country. I really didn't want to be "that person" (you know who I'm talking about: that crazy fan who stalks and harasses famous people). What's more, since I live in Nashville, I'm supposed to abide by the unwritten yet understood rule: locals don't bother artists when they see them around town. And trust me, we see them around town pretty often. (I ran into Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at the doctor's office a couple months after moving here!)

So we hung out and enjoyed the music. I noticed maybe two or three people go over and ask for a photo. We realized that Chris Young was also there sitting with them. After about an hour, I saw an opportunity, and we walked over. Miranda was talking to her friend, so we waited, not wanting to interrupt. Blake looked our way, and we apologized for intruding and asked if we could get a picture. He was pretty nice and said, "Yeah!" Miranda turned, and we posed. My friend snapped the picture, and then I took one for her. We said thank you, apologized again, and went back to our group. We stayed a while longer (the music was really good!), and Miranda, Blake, and Chris moved up by the stage to better enjoy the band.

It was so indescribably amazing to be listening to a good old country band playing Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and George Strait with Miranda and Blake five feet away. I wish I could've stayed all night. But I was blessed (or cursed?) with the responsible gene and had to be at work the next morning.

I'm so glad we went out on this little adventure and that I got the picture! What an amazing Nashville experience. :-D