Nashville, Tennessee - 2008!

An another note, our to Nashville, Tennessee on August 7th to the 11th, was wonderful!!!
We had a morning flight out of Las Vegas to Nashville, it was about a 4 1/2 hour flight. Detaching my pump right before I go through security makes my life a whole lot easier. Also, I used my 3 quart bag to carry on board my Apple Juice and wrote on it, “I NEED THIS,Diabetic” and the security check mean read it and said, “oh, Diabetic, the magic word around here!” That went pretty well. 
The flight went by pretty fast, as we used the time to work on one of our original songs, but while on a “writer’s break,” the flight attendants on the plane asked us if we would sing, so we sand part of “You were Always On My Mind” and everyone had a lot of fun. After we landed, we found our luggage, and took a cab to our hotel, unpacked, and since we were starving, we stopped to eat a fast food restaurant right across from our hotel. This decision turned out to be a disaster, my stomach hurts just thinking about the single bite of chicken I took! We chalked up our gourmet dinner to a not so memoralbe learning expierience adn began thinking about dinner. We texted Taylor adn before long, all of us met in the lobby of our hotel and at 7:30, we hac a truly gourmet meal…”PIZZA!” We ate in a place alled the Mellow Mushroom, which in itself was an adventure. Dinner was really nice and it was great to see Taylor again and catch up on what was going on in each others lives. What a great first night in Nashville!

On Wedensday morning, we took the hotel shuttle to the Nashville Songwriters Association International, (NSAI), and spent most of the day over there in 2 different meetings, after we had lunch at a cafe close by, where we worked some more on our songwriting. But, the best part of the day was the meeting, they were really great. We talked about our professional goals, how to accomplish them, how to get started, and then they listened to us sing and reviewed our original material; they professionally assessed us both as singers and songwriters. According to them they really liked what they heard and then they gave us some wonderful advice about both our singing and writing, which we’ve already put into practice.
That night, after dinner at a Brewery on 2nd Avenue…

My Mom, Aunt Mama, Jackie and I went to a famous songwriter’s hangout called the Bluebird Café, where some NSAI friends told us to go; they thought it would be a good idea to go where the “Pros” gather…and it was! We got their a little early, but at 9:00pm sharp, 4 songwriters/musicians turned on their microphones, sat in the middle of the room, with all the tables gathered around them and began playing. Each songwriter took a turn singing their song and then explained the story behind that particular song…a fascinating experience. It was really cool to hear the stories and the funny things that inspired them. For example, one of them said that he had one great line, so he called up his friend, who went over to his house, and they tried to work out the rest of the song. However, they were having serious trouble getting past the first line, so they went to lunch, ate, drank, and talked for a while, then went back to his house, and to their surprise the creative juices started flowing! I guess the moral of the story is to try and relax before you write…or maybe its that you can’t write on an empty stomach, but either way they were happy and went on to write a number one hit. It was cool hear the history of the song and then sit and listen to the songwriter play, “true story” his number one hit.

Another tidbit about the Blue Bird Café is the seating arrangement. This famous hangout is an antique gathering hole with a great deal of history. It is very small and is always jammed! When we arrived, we went without knowing that we should have had reservations…this is really a “Hot” spot. However, the man on the door was very nice and not only let us in but put us in the church pews, located a little to the back and a little to the side of the action. This is where they put minors and people who aren’t interested in imbibing. J 
Afterwards, we had the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the songwriters. We told them we were aspiring singers/songwriters and they couldn’t have been any friendlier and helpful. Finally, us night owls left and headed back to our hotel, anxiously looking forward to finally sleeping in on Thursday!

The next morning, Thursday, we woke up around 11:00 and decided that since we missed breakfast in the hotel that we would go to Nashville’s famous Pancake Pantry for breakfast…It was so good, I love that place! Afterwards, we walked around and did a little shopping. I got lucky, I found a business card case, which is something I’ve been looking for, for a long time, and it came in my favorite color, turquoise! Jackie got the smallest white purse ever possible, it never would have fit my diabetic stuff, let along a juice! But it truly fits Jackie, its this little petite thing that I sure can’t even hold 2 lip glosses…like I said, perfect for Jackie. We went back to the hotel and got ready to go over to Taylor’s house for dinner with her, her family, and Graham. Taylor’s dad picked us up, and we really enjoyed talking to him on our way back to their house. It was a nice drive and the area is beautiful, the hills of Tennessee are truly fabulous! Dinner was great and we had a blast spending time talking with everyone. This visit was actually a bit of a reunion for all of us, since both Taylor and Graham were the Prudential winners from each of their states, Tennessee and Graham was from South Carolina. It was great, we spent the whole night reminiscing about Washington and just talking to them about politics, prom, schools, driving to school, next semester, and a bunch of other random topics, with lots of laughing.

Here are some pictures…of course!

Me, Graham, Taylor, and Jackie!

On Friday, we met up with our buddy Taylor (The Prudential Award Winner from Tennessee), Graham, and Taylor’s parents at the Arthritis Foundation, to watch Taylor receive her Prudential Spirit of Community Award. A State Senator from Tennessee was there, as well as, the staff and volunteers at the Arthritis Foundation, the principal from Taylor’s private school, and a camera crew from a local news station. It was nice to be in Nashville at the right time Taylor was receiving an award, so we could support her! 

 
This is a picture of the Executive Director of the Nashville Chapter of the Arthiritis Foundation, Taylor, Graham, and I…it was very generous of the State Senator to introduce and recognize Graham and me on behalf of contributions we’ve made and as Prudential Spirit of Community Award Winners. The Senator from Tennessee was there, as well as, the staff and volunteers at the Arthritis Foundation, people from Taylor’s private school, and a camera crew from a local news station. It was nice to be able to be in Nashville at the same time and support Taylor as she received her award!

Heres a picture of Jackie, Me, Taylor and Graham holding Taylor’s Proclamation “right side up!”

The Senator also congratulated Graham and me and recognized us for our volunteerism and success as Prudential Spirit of Community Award winners from our own states. Taylor was interviewed and that was cool; she said it was on the 10:00 News in Nashville, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it. If you read this Taylor, you deserve all of the recognition and your Medallion. I say this because you work extremely hard to help find the cure for Juvenile Arthritis and educate people as to how debilitating this disease really is; I think the sacrifices you make are so important, you really set a great example and I for one am proud of you!

Later that night, after we printed out our boarding passes from the Hotel computer, Mom, Aunt Mama, Jackie and I went to dinner at that Brewery again, and since there was like an hour wait, we, of course, took pictures to pass the time, so we could stay close to the restaurant. Needless to say we had good times in front of the Hard Rock and its huge Guitar painting; we used the fire hydrant as a prop!

It was the funniest thing; we took so many pictures, because cars kept going by. So, we waited for them to leave, and just as the camera would flash, someone drove into the picture! In order for us to get a good picture, free of vehicular distractions we needed good timing and most of the time ours was bad. 

After dinner, we walked around in downtown Nashville, for a while, and stopped in at an Ice Cream shop and couldn’t help but notice the Diabetic Friendly sign that posted ads for sugar-free sodas and ice cream, which was pretty awesome! (We have a picture of that too!) Since my blood sugar number was 131, (happy dance!) I got a sugar free black cherry soda, which I know we can make at home, but this one tasted soooo good! 

All too quickly our last night in Nashville drew to a close and we went back to the hotel and packed. Actually, it was more like throwing everything in the suitcases…nicely of course, hoping everything would fit!

On Saturday, we were out of the hotel by 2:00 and went downtown and had a ball taking non-stop pictures, with our cowgirl hats on.

We ate lunch at the Wildhorse Saloon, cause…we just had to eat there once while we were in Nashville! How could we not? It’s become a tradition! :] We took some more pictures inside, the bar with life-size horses, dressed as cowboys and cowgirls, sitting and/or leaning against the bar…how could we not have fun!

Me, Mom, Jackie, and Aunt Mama at the Wildhorse Saloon! 

Finally, we had to be back to the hotel, so we found a cab to take us back to the hotel to get our bags and while driving down Broadway, I saw this huge guitar, situated on a corner, with Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, and Willie Nelson’s picture on it I really wished we could have taken a picture with that guitar, but we had already passed it, However, mom realized that this was important to us and asked the driver to pull over, so we could go back and get a picture. He graciously did and we jumped out of the cab, got our picture and then we noticed that Tootsies was just a few doors down. Never one to miss a good opportunity, mom motioned to the cab driver that we’d be right back and helped us get pictures in front of the infamous Tootsies Lounge. Fortunately, the man who checks ID and such, let us sit on his stool, which was perfectly situated right in front of the Tootsie’s sign! That was really so nice of him!

But then, he surprised us and asked us if we wanted to sing, which of course we did, but sadly we had to say no, because if we did, we would have missed our flight…but it was tempting! Besides, Aunt Mama was patiently waiting in the cab, so I guess it wasn’t meant to happen that day! But the doorman told us to come back, because every Saturday, between 2 and 6, its amateur open-mic, so the next time we’re in Nashville; we will definitely plan to be leave on Sunday or Monday, but it won’t be Saturday…we’ll be singing at Tootsies!! That will be so cool! :] Once again we were off, first to the hotel to gather our luggage and then to the airport catch our 5 something flight…believe it or not, we not only left on time, we left early and arrived in Las Vegas ½ hour early, but we did have to wait forever for our luggage. We finally located all of our bags, threw them on a cart and headed for the car where we joined dad and our Uncle for dinner at our favorite Las Vegas restaurant, Carluccios!! All and all, it was a great trip and we can’t wait to go back…I love Nashville!!!