Adventures in Middle Tennessee

Yesterday, we arrived in a gloomy, wet Nashville. Ahh. Just as I left it.

My sister Christina and her husband Doug live here, and my parents flew down so we could all enjoy Thanksgiving together. Christina was really impressed that we're staying at the Loews Vanderbilt, saying it's really swanky. It is. However, the view from my room is not:

We headed out to Christina and Doug's place in Antioch, and met their delightful new kitten, Samson. He's pushing the boundaries of cute:

He's fluffy and adorable, but of course my cat allergies prevent me from enjoying him close-up.

Last night, we ate at a Persian restaurant. It seemed sort of like a combination of Greek and Indian food, but I'm sure I'm missing the gentle nuances of the cuisine. It was good. However, I could have done without the "Yanni: Live At the Acropolis" video playing next to our table.

This morning, Thanksgiving Day, I was scheduled to have a business meeting at Starbucks with Dave Jaworski and Skip Franklin of PassAlong Networks, as well as the always delightful Samantha Murphy.

I Google-mapped out the directions and left precisely enough time to get to Samantha's house to pick her up. As I was pulling onto her street, she called me to say she'd be out in the driveway. Right on time! Her house was 45 Bel Air (number changed for obvious reasons), I saw 43 and 47. No 45 in sight. Where 45 would be, there was a patch of grass and a sad little hill. After chatting about this, we deduced that I was all the way out in Murfreesboro. This was basically the boonies, and totally wrong. I didn't understand how this could've happened.

Samantha borrowed her Mom's car to head to the meeting, cause there was no way I'd get back there on time.

She gave me the beginning of the directions to get back, and said she'd call me when Dave and Skip arrived, cause they're Nashville geography experts, basically.

They called me about 20 minutes later, and through some grand miscommunication, they thought I was heading into Nashville, when I had already passed it and was heading out. They advised me to continue in the same direction. I rattled off the names of exits I was passing (Old Hickory, Briley Parkway) and everything seemed cool. I later found out that both of these streets loop all the way around Nashville, and I was seeing the wrong Old Hickory and the wrong Briley Parkway.

By the time we figured out what was going on, I was almost to the Kentucky border. And to make things worse, I found out that the Starbucks where we were meeting was five minutes from my hotel. So I'd been driving for an hour and a half for no reason at all.

At least the trees were pretty.

Samantha and I later investigated the problem. I entered Bel Air instead of Belair, and even though I entered the zip code (which should have put us in the right neighborhood), Google Maps got it totally wrong. We tested it again and duplicated the same bad results. MapQuest, however, got it RIGHT. [Note to self: Never use Google Maps again]. Sam and I both agree that zip code should take priority over spacing of street name. I'm tempted to write a letter.

But I digress. I finally arrived at the meeting, and it was lovely. Dave Jaworski even recorded a podcast with me (let me know if you find that anywhere).

Samantha also joined me at Christina & Doug's place for our Thanksgiving dinner. My family cooked up a delectable meal that I'm still digesting many hours later.

It was so nice to spend some quality time with my sweet family. It seems like we see each other less and less these days, and I really missed them.

My sister's so awesome. I just love her.

Oh...my Mom said something hilarious that I'll never forget. Just nonchalantly and in the middle of a discussion, she tossed out, "As a mother, you try not to get involved, but..."

Samantha and I laughed for quite a while about that one. I still chuckle when I think of it. My parents are awesome, and a constant source of entertainment for me. And they just happen to be the most generous people I've ever met. So that's convenient.

In other news, my cold has umm...sunken. It's not in my face anymore. It's moved down to my chest, which is unpleasant in a brand new way. Now I've got a crazy painful cough, which sounds...beefy. Really hoping not to cough during the show tomorrow, which my family is coming to. Maybe I'll be nervous for a change.

Just realized that I'm really overusing ellipses in this post. It happens.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

(L - R: Gerry Schmid, Violet Schmid, Mike Schmid, Christina Pflueger, Doug Pflueger)