Rosie Writes!: Freezing in Tennessee...Who Would've Thought?

It is 10:42 p.m. I am in my hotel room determined to be productive and not lie on my bed continuing to accomplish very little. I actually went downstairs a few minutes ago to walk around and actually step outside for a moment.
I have been here since Sunday afternoon for the purpose of attending a writing workshop in the home of Women of Faith speaker/writer, Patsy Clairmont, here in Franklin, Tennessee. Franklin is about twenty minutes from Nashville and is overflowing with charm. If the weather had been normal, I could have done some shopping after we finished today because I am not due to fly home until tomorrow (Tuesday) around 6. However, the weather in not normal...it's FAR from normal. The Nashville area is completely iced over. The airport is practically closed. All flights out were cancelled today and logic says they will be cancelled tomorrow, also, since the weather is only going to get colder.

We were able to visit Patsy's home on Sunday night for the beginning of her workshop entitled, "Shaking the Tree". Our group was small...six members from Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee. It so happened that one of the members was from Flower Mound, Texas. We live minutes from each other, came on the same plane, were put in hotels rooms across from each other, and are scheduled on the same flight back. We did not know any of this until we began to talk on Sunday night. Very small world. Oh, and I can add to that...one of the ladies was born in Arkansas. And, I must mention, that even another group member is an advocate for transplant doners and has a sister who is a Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor. Those of you who know my history will certainly raise your eyebrows to that. Small, small world...

The whole experience was wonderful and I learned so much about tapping the stories of my own life. We were, also, taught how to take the steps to publish our own writing. It was fascinating, absolutely fascinating. It is so great to have new directions to travel in this thing we call life.

Three of us were going to have dinner tonight but the adjoining restaurant closed because the employees could not get to work. Fortunately, this hotel has breakfast and a quick snack type meal around 5:30 which consisted of meatballs, pasta, salad, baked potatoes, hot dogs, etc. Since the area was full of held over elementary aged hockey team players and their beer drinking parents, we decided to go each to her own room and have a quiet dinner. From that time until now, I have surfed the internet, talked to American Airlines, texted with friends and read.

I learned in a writing workshop this summer that when you blog, it is supposed to be somewhat short and then end with a question. So, this may not really be a blog. It might seem more like a report or an account written by someone who is a little restless and curious about tomorrow. I already know I won't sleep well, so I might as well do some writing here and place my pictures at the end.

Tomorrow morning I will beat the hockey players to the oatmeal and pancakes by going early. Then, I am going to grade papers that I happened to place in my bag at the last minute and wait...Yes, wait to see what American Airlines tells me that the rest of my week is going to look like. It may be time to work on my creativity!

DAYS LATER:
As it turned out, my flight to Dallas was one of the few that was not cancelled. I did spend a very long Tuesday in the hotel but in the end, it turned out fine. The neatest part was that Jason, the driver who Brenda and I met in October and who had picked me up at the airport, came and took me back to the airport. Jason drives for many of the country stars. His main clients are Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Rascal Flats. In fact, after dropping me off at the airport, he was going to go pick up the bass player for Rascal Flats! He was such a nice guy and treated me as if I were important!

It was a great trip and I look forward to going back to Nashville.