Music City USA

This years ASCA conference took us to Nashville, Tennessee. My friend Rachel happens to live there, so she was nice enough to come meet me for lunch. We grew up a few houses down the street from each other, so I've known her my whole life. She brought two of her four girls and we ate at this neat Aquarium restaurant. They were adorable and it was good to catch up.
We stayed at the Opryland hotel. When I called to make my reservation, the agent talked to me for twenty minutes, telling me all about the hotel and how amazing the huge indoor gardens are. I have to say I was impressed. The only bad part about the hotel is that it is a gigantic huge maze. I think I got lost every day I was there.This was my favorite spot. Love the bower of flowers.This was a cute Italian restaurant we had dinner at one night. You can't tell, but there are cute lights strung across above the tables. Great atmosphere... and food.
The keynote speaker for the conference was Naomi Judd. I enjoyed her talk about her life. She was actually quite entertaining, at one point, giving an older gentleman a comforting hug in her boobs.

Thursday night, I went to the Dove Awards with Michelle. Bethany and I had planned on going, but unfortunately wasn't able to make it to Nashville because of surgery complications. She was watching along on tv, though. I got another chance to wear my fancy dress.I didn't know many of the artists, but I really enjoyed the evening... I'm a fan now. I didn't realize that there were so many genres inside Christian music... even rap. I did enjoy Mercy Me performing I Can Only Imagine. That song always touches me.
One moment that I will remember was during a commercial break. A pastor got up and told us that one of the performers there that evening had to leave because their little girl fell out the window and was in the hospital, so they were rushing to be with her. He asked that we all stand and pray together for her. It was a great feeling to have so many people of I'm sure so many different faiths united in prayer. I just loved being in a place in the world where it was okay to believe in Christ and talk about it. On Friday evening, ASCA held an event at the Country Music Hall of Fame. The building was designed with a 50's Cadillac tail fin, windows like piano keys, and looks like a bass clef from above. I loved this car. It had guns for door handles (and just about everywhere else you can imagine on the car).Elvis Presley's 24-carat Gold Piano. I was surprised at how many rock-and-roll artists were included, but it makes sense that they started out as country singers before rock-and-roll came about.
During the final conference luncheon, we heard from a comedian named Henry Cho, a Korean with a Southern accent. He was hilarious! A few funnies... you can say anything you want to in the South, as long as you say "Bless their heart" afterwards. For example, "that baby is so ugly, bless his heart." :) He talked about how girls repeat things and it makes sense to them... was it a date? or a date-date? Do you like him? or like him-like him? He told us about a friend named BJ who didn't want them to mess up his name on his drivers license, so he wrote "B only J only" on the app. His license came out saying Bonly-Jonly. I had a great time in Nashville!