What I learned from my Nashville trip

Just got back from a work trip to Nashville, Tennessee.  What an eye opener for me.  From my first commercial flight to my first ride in a taxi cab, I learned a few things and thought I'd share them.

• Angry homeless people kinda scare me.  We had supper one evening the local Jimmy John's and a homeless man came in looking for a job.  They handed him an application, but he wasn't too happy with that.  He asked the customers if they knew where he could find a construction job and when the manager told him that he couldn't be harassing the customers, he became a little irate.  He started yelling and demanding a job.  He left and then came back a few minutes later yelling about how they should give him a job.  The manager finally locked the door as he told us that the man was a regular. 
• Jimmy Johns has awesome crunchy potato chips!

 

•  You can really lose track of time and even what day it is in an airport.  It's almost like time stands still when you are waiting around in the airport.
• Airport food is pricey and they kinda have you suckered into buying their food.
• I am such a homebody.  Nashville is such a big city and I just really enjoy my little hometown and all the things that I am used to.
• Riding in a cab is weird and interesting at the same time.  From wanna-be race car driver to wanna-be country singer to Nigerian immigrant woman who only drives in the daylight hours, each had their own quirks & stories to tell.  Some were vocal while others were hard to understand and others just drove at break-neck speed to get you to your destination and earn the cab fare.
• Empty water bottles at the airport are priceless.  Thanks to my sister's tip, I did carry my empty water bottle into the airport.  Since you cannot bring water through security, I was able to fill up at the water fountains in the terminal instead of buying $5 water.
• Suitcases with wheels = genius idea.
• People watching in the airport passes the time pretty good.
• Charging stations are popular.  We are so connected to our electronic devices and everyone seems to have an ipod or ipad or laptop or nook or cellphone.  If we could just invent a battery that lasts for a week. 
• Flying commercially = lots of people in a little bitty space.  Just hope the person seated beside you doesn't have strong perfume or Ebola.  Window seats are awesome for the view, plus you have a wall to sleep on if needed.

 

•  Sweaty palms and all.  Take off was slightly nerve wracking.  I had sweaty palms and all and the pilot had an all or none philosophy.  Unless we were stopped, the throttle was all the way down it seemed.  Makes you sit back in your seat whether you want to or not.

• Wearing seat belts on an airplane makes no sense to me.  If the plane crashes what is my seat belt going to do for me?  I think that you have to wear them so that everybody is not wandering around all the time.
• Nashville is a very busy city.  Big city actually.  Downtown probably never sleeps.  You could see a hundred different country music entertainers on the streets and in every restaurant with an open window in a 5 block radius.  It seemed to me that the better singers were inside the restaurants and the "not so good" ones were on the streets with an empty hat on the ground in front of them.
• Clouds are cool!  The view of the cloud from the air is so awesome.  It looks like snow from the topside of the clouds.  Who could deny God exists when you see how awesome the clouds are?  And who else but God could keep that airplane hanging up there in the air?

• Glen Campbell's movie "I'll be Me" is a must see! His story about his experience with Alzheimer's disease is a great representation of how it is to live with the disease.  I see how the disease affects people everyday and it affects people of all walks of life, even famous country singers.  If the movie comes to your town, go see it.

 

• The Band Perry is great!  In combination with the movie release of Glen Campbell's movie, The Band Perry had redone his song Gentle on my Mind and they were at the convention to sing it.  It was great and as much as I like to original version, I like their version just as good. 

  

• Just a few days away makes me really appreciate home and my family and kids.  We get so comfortable in the ordinaries of our everyday life that when we are removed from that and go somewhere else, we realize how blessed we are in our little country house way far away from the big ole city.