Taking Up Hope and Giving Up Weakness

As I write this I am exhausted but I know not nearly as exhausted as some who enjoyed last night's Reading, Writing, and Rhythm concert with me. It's a concert Chely Wright puts on each year to raise money for schools and this year it was for one of our local elementary schools that lost everything in the flood...nothing but walls standing. It was an awesome night started by a silent auction and then lots of performers. Buxton Hughes, Jamey Johnson, SHeDAISY, Justin Moore, Bucky Covington, and special guest, Trisha Yearwood. However, aside from Chely, the real special guest for me was Jann Arden. I became a Jann Arden fan in college, 1994. She is a wonderful singer and songwriter and has written a couple books, too. Her humor is OFF THE CHARTS! She is just so dry and extraordinary.

Some of you know that I used to work at Opryland and then for the Grand Ole Opry. I've been around many music stars, talked to them, escorted them, wanted to slap some of them... I have never been star struck. In Nashville, it is very common to run into a singer in the grocery store or mall. The only fan club I was ever in until now was the Judds, in high school. I actually sent a tape cover to their fan club with a self addressed stamped envelope, along with a letter asking for an autograph. Months later, after forgetting about it, I actually got it back and was thrilled!

I ended up moving to Nashville, attending school to be a publicist, but secretly only wanting to drive a tour bus or sell t-shirts. I hated school and that's when I went to Opryland to work and eventually the Grand Ole Opry. To this day, it was the most interesting, exciting job I ever had. Sure beats the engineering world I'm in now.

Anyway, I went all the way around that to say this. I had hoped to meet Jann Arden last night to tell her that a couple of my Twitter peeps want to be on her radio show. I don't even know their real names but their creativity and enthusiasm is catchy. I didn't get to meet Jann but the most amazing thing happened when I returned home at 2:30 this morning. I opened my email and I had a message that she was now following me on Twitter. How cool is that? Again, I do not get star struck but that was effin' awesome! I am honored.

Back to not being star struck..... Several of my friends had come with my mom to visit me here in Nashville in 1995. They were doing the whole tourist thing and one of them was hanging out the window with a video camera while stopped at a traffic light on Music Row. This pretty young girl pulls up beside us in a Saturn and starts talking to us. She tells us her name is Chely Wright and we should go buy her tape at K-Mart. She talked to us until the light turned green, and while it was cool, we really didn't believe what we had heard. Eventually we made it to K-Mart and sure enough, it was Chely Wright, and on that day she made a carload of fans.
Aside from seeing her backstage during my Opry employment I never met her again until a couple weeks ago at a book signing. And you know what? I was star struck. I told her the story and she remembered the car. But what else I told her, I can barely remember. You know in "Notting Hill" when Hugh Grant meets Julia Roberts for the first time and he says it was surreal? That's exactly how I felt. I couldn't tell anyone because I couldn't remember the moment myself!
Anyway, I thought when I met Chely again last night I would be much cooler and know exactly what and how I wanted to say it. Nope, choked again. Aside from explaining an "agape" tattoo, I did get out that I was very thankful she didn't pull the trigger. She said, "I'm glad you're glad I'm still around." Honey, you have no idea.

Again, I'm not going into deep thoughts in my notes, they are best saved for personal conversations, but I'm using a line from Jann Arden's song "Free" to title this note... I'm taking up hope and giving up weakness. I'm using the lyric as a testament to the life of a wonderful woman who has changed so many people's lives by saving her own.

Peace my peeps