In case you don’t know, I’m at a Writer’s Conference in North Carolina- it has been great but DEFINITELY not without it’s complications and struggles. I keep reminding myself- OUR BATTLE IS NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD.

In fact, sometime in the last hour, someone keyed my car fairly severely- the hotel does not have security cameras and they are not liable for anything that happens in a parking lot. GRR! The police could come out, but it would mean missing some sessions- and I’m not willing to do that just to file a report that won’t get me any money. It’s only in one spot- about 3 1/2 feet long and it is deep. If it was a person, they would need stitches.

So.

Needless to say, I’m pretty much on the verge of tears, but luckily with no friends here (except BigMama and BooMama and RocksInMyDryer who are busy being awesome), there is no one to cry to.

**Update- just got prayed for. PTL.**

I have an appointment with a publisher at 1pm and another and 5:15pm- I’m believing that God is DOING SOMETHING or the enemy wouldn’t be so into messing with me right now.

Once the car thing happened, I knew I needed to drop the $9.95 to pay for internet– so just pray.

I didn’t quit my job and sign a lease in Nashville to be scared away from what God has called me to. And that’s that.

So I’m about ten minutes from departure. (I’m writing this before I leave, but not posting it until noon. Oh the magic of the internet. It’s like I’m pulling a delayed rabbit out of a hat.)

Sadly, there is an informal blogger luncheon at Chili’s in Charlotte at 11:30am… nope, that’s not going to happen. And that is sad on two fronts-

1. I heart blogging and meeting bloggers.
2. I heart Chili’s.

There is a blogger party at 2:15pm- you KNOW I’m not missing that! Party + blogtalk = thank you sir may I have another.

I’m mildly nervous about this conference- nothing like I was for Mt. Hermon- but I think I’m less nervous BECAUSE of Mt. Hermon. Didn’t the Lord show up in MAJOR ways there? So why would I expect anything different here?

I’m just trusting. And driving.

I again am praying for a friend to hang out with- I’m not expecting a Hermonista repeat- that was a pure gift from God. But I would love to have someone to sit with. Two of my favorite bloggers (BooMama and BigMama) will be there, so hopefully BooMama and I can talk Nashville and BigMama and I can talk shoes. Because I have packed five pair. For three days. Obviously.

I have the added benefit of staying with THE HUNTS! Booyah. I’m so excited about seeing Sam…. oh, and Jake and Melissa, too.

I’m also taking 2 book proposals to pitch- I have a meeting at 1pm and another at 5:15pm (EST) on Saturday. So should you get the hankerin, you can throw up a little prayer during those times.

I’m also praying that I will learn a lot and hear well from the Lord. Wanna throw that up in prayer, too?

This is the first time I’ve gone to any type of writing conference where someone will say, “What do you do for a living?” and my answer isn’t “I’m a teacher who writes.”

Instead, I can say “I’m a full time writer.”

This is what it feels like. Going to Charlotte.

Taking a step. Towards my dream.

Add this to your “Annie Does Dumb Things” file. Because I’m guessing you probably have one of those by now.

So today, there was an open house party at my Dad’s office, located in this building. Where there just happens to be a few condos left for purchase, should you find yourself in need of a custom built condo in walking distance to the historic Marietta Square.

You can tell I’ve said that a few times tonight.

My assigned location? In the parking garage. Standing by the elevator. Letting people know “the open house is on level M- turn to your left and head to the end of the hallway.” And blah and blah and etcetera etcetera and so on and so forth… until the elevator arrived.

From 4pm until 7:15pm. I stood there. Mostly alone. And from previous blog post [thanks for your awesome ideas!], you know alone is NO GOOD FOR ME.

I had on a cute blue sundress. I like it mucho.

About 5:15pm, I was all alone. Again. And the dress had… how do you say…. moved around a bit. As had the um…. how do we say this politely…. the undergarments being used to secure said dress. And myself.

So, being just slightly to the left of BRILLIANT, I thought, “I’ll step around to the other side of this wall, adjust all things that need adjusting, then return to my assigned location, no worries.”

About 5/6 of the way through my adjustments, I had a memory. More like a dream sequence.

In this dream sequence, I was standing in the offices above, looking up at the wall. Full of television screens. Showing the many Many MANY views of the security cameras.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream.

This is the part where the story gets really good.

Because about 10 minutes later, a man that works in the office came downstairs and said, “I’ll send you the link to that on YouTube tomorrow.”

I also received comments like this:

“So I hear the security video system is up and running.”

“How do you like the cameras in the parking garage?”

To say that I am proud to be me is the understatement of the century.

And to you, bloggite, I say YOU ARE WELCOME. Because surely that story makes you feel a little better about your day.

So I just google mapped myself to the SheSpeaks Conference and it is going to take me approximately FOUR AND ONE HALF HOURS to get there. That is, if my math is correct, ELEVENTY BILLION MINUTES.

Alone. In a car. I just did 3 1/2 hours to Nashville and almost went out of my cotton-pickin’ mind. [For you folks not from around these parts (Linda!), that means that I almost went crazy.] There are no amount of phone calls or podcasts or Dave Barnes‘ songs to entertain me that long.

Sorry, Dave.

But I need to be constantly entertained. It’s merely one example in my extensive collection of fatal flaws.

I truly considered seeing if my Dad would rent me a driver and some sort of luxury town car, but then I remembered that I am not Paris Hilton.

So I’ll be driving my 2002 Toyota Camry. And this is where you come in. I’m inviting you into MISSION BOT- Book On Tape. And you better not take this for granted because let’s be honest, how many secret agents invite others into their missions? Zero. Plus me. That’s one.

Anyone got a favorite book on tape (or CD, you know, since it’s not 1988 anymore)? It would be best if I could check it out of the library, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If need be, I will purchase something from the bookstore. Or if I really know you, do you have one I could borrow?

[If I don't really know you, I'm not sure this is the best way for us to meet. It's weird to loan things to people you don't know. Even though you probably feel like you know me a smidge better than I feel like I know you, so..... I'm rambling.]

And doesn’t Cracker Barrel have some sort of tape swap deal? I’m not against it. I just don’t want to pull up to the CB location in east Bumble-wherever and have to fight Grandma Sue for the last copy of “Julia Childs Reads Her Favorite Recipes”. For example.

MISSION BOT. Help a sister out. What should I listen to for the eternity that is driving to Charlotte?

I have SO MUCH WRITING to do for the SheSpeaks Conference this weekend, that I literally do not have enough words in my mind to also write a high quality blog. So instead of putting up a post that wastes your time (I’m written two that were ridiculously horrible), I just apologize.

Gracious. I’m having a very exciting month.

The whole Nathan Angelo thing.
I signed my lease in Nashville today. Booyah.
This guy comes to town next Wednesday.

And tonight. This guy. Phil Wickham.

Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times- like Nov 06, and March 07, and then Nov 07, which was somewhat of an embarrassing disaster. And every time, it gets better. He’s just SO GOOD LIVE. It’s insane. I’m telling you, you have GOT to see him live. Tonight was the first time I had seen him with a band and it was rad. My favorite song with a full band is Cannons- you can see a video here- it’s wide open worship and it about makes me want to jump out of my skin. That’s good, y’all.

But then at the end, the band left and Phil went all acoustic on us. It was just amazing. I feel like even my words aren’t doing him justice. And it’s not “him” really, it’s how he loves the Lord and how he worships- so I guess what amazes me is how Phil connects with God. And let’s us watch. And participate. I want to move people towards the Lord like that.

One of my favorite songs, Grace, spoke so deeply to where I am today.

This is a story of endurance and determination. But first, some history.

One of my favorite dudes, Ryan, got in my car about a year ago, put a CD in the player, and said, “I’m about to change your life”. I doubted that. [Forgive me, Ryan.] He sat back and as Nathan Angelo‘s “Through Playing Me” began, I was immediately hooked. Ryan just smiled to himself. He knows me so well. I fell in love with the music, the vocals, the lyrics, the piano. And I haven’t recovered yet.

So a few weeks ago when my friends Dee Dee and Shannon were going to see Nathan perform here in ATL, I jumped at the chance since I had never seen him live. Because HE RULES ALL THINGS PIANO.

We found a great spot in front of the stage so we would be able to see the show. Nice, huh?Then this happened…..
What the? Yes, two wall-sized men came and stood directly in front of me. I mean, seriously. Could you block my view any more? I wanted to tap them on the shoulders and say, “You make a better door than a window”, but really. That would accomplish nothing but proving that I live my days with 4th graders. You see Nathan on stage there between their shoulders? Barely? Yeah, me too. Dear sirs, you stink.

So I left a bit downtrodden and disappointed. Obviously, my ears still were thrilled, but my eyes were sad. In case you didn’t know, it’s hard to reconcile those two facial emotions.

Last week, a friend from high school was having a party at his house. When I saw the evite, I almost passed out. Nathan Angelo. Performing at a house. In Marietta. Booyah.

And that’s when I knew it was time. Time to begin a mission.

Because I may get blocked once, but I won’t stand for that (or behind that) twice. No siree. I will see Nathan Angelo with my eyes.

So I go to the party, though I hadn’t talked to the party thrower in ten years. Good music causes me to do things that I normally would avoid due to high levels of awkward. Apparently.

We sat down as Nathan began to sing. Please view the view, because that is priceless.
Uh… you got that right. No blockage. No tall guys. And he was good, y’all. So good. If you haven’t heard him, go ahead and buy the CD. You’ll thank me later.

So… you happy now, Annie? Not quite. Because you bloggites KNOW I’m shameless, and because there is nothing I won’t do for a good story, I talked with Nathan. I explained the situation. The low points, the high points. The views.

Then this happened….
Yeah, we are totally friends now. Kinda. Sorta. Ish.

And that is what I call MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Lesson to be learned? Never give up. But also, please don’t be creepy.

Amen.

[Thanks to Shannon for being the blog-ographer and having her camera at every Angelo opportunity.]

For those of you who haven’t seen the blog this week, I was on vacation. In California.

I only exercised once. With Linda. Which was awesome. But I didn’t meet my goal.

And I didn’t exactly lose any weight. In fact, I put that 1.5 back on like it was a new jacket. I’m still shooting to lose 5 lbs. in June- which is totally in the range of possibility. As long as I don’t go to California again. Or eat like it.

But alas, I still made a video. Because there is no limit to what I will do for a laugh. Even if I have to show my double chin.

I seriously love bothering my little sister. Especially when she is trying to sleep. It’s one of my favorite past times. Maybe that’s why she didn’t come home from college for the summer?

If you want to see how everybody else did [significantly better, I hope], then CLICK HERE.

Next week title- “RMT5- Back On Track”. Or so I hope….

I went to Kroger today to buy some food items. As I was perusing the aisles, unfamiliar with this particular Kroger, I noticed a woman. She was older, maybe late 60s early 70s, a light shade of brown, with her hair in tight curls. She was riding in one of those extremely slow electric wheel chairs. I passed her a few times, in one row or another. She didn’t stand out to me much at that point, except for the fact that she was slow moving and I thought, “I bet that gets annoying.”

I’m young now, but I know I won’t always be. She probably used to think the same thing. It’s funny how fast life moves, isn’t it?

Once I began to check out, I saw the wheel-chair woman headed out the door. Her husband, a dark and wrinkled fellow, pulled up in a white Oldsmobile. I watched as he slowly got out of the car, a painful arch in his back, and he carefully shuffled towards the basket to put the groceries in the car. A girl, not much younger than I am, walked up from the parking lot just as I exited the store. She was headed directly towards the man and woman, both struggling to lift even one bag of groceries out of the cart.

I stopped in the doorway to see what was happening- I don’t know why, I just knew to stop and watch.

She spoke quietly to him, I didn’t hear her. But I saw him nod and smile as she gently took the bag that he was straining to hold. With ease, she grabbed the rest of the groceries, maybe eight bags worth, and unloaded them from the basket attached to the electric wheel chair. Carefully she placed them in the trunk of the car. As the man shuffled back to the driver side, and the woman braced herself on the passenger side, the man hollered out in a deep Southern drawl, “God brings saints in time of need. You are a saint.”

The girl was shocked and obviously felt unworthy of such a label. She stared down at her feet and said, “Well, I don’t know about that ….. “

Immediately, he looked her in the eyes and said, “No, you are. A saint.” With that he smiled that telling smile that only comes with age, and got in the car.

Her kind actions gave them a respite in what appeared to be a difficult late adult life. I wish I would have thought of it myself.

The girl’s next move amazed me. She didn’t walk in the grocery store. She sat down in the electric wheel chair and drove it over to the docking place.

Here what I think- I think his kind words built her up and caused her to become who he thought she was. She may not be a saint, I don’t know. But because he said she was, she decided to act like it.

And it was my pleasure to see this unfold. I am changed. And I wasn’t even a part of the moment. As far as they knew, at least. How often does that happen? That someone is watching? That my behavior not only affects the person that I am dealing with, but the people around?

Maybe today, you will have a chance to help someone out. Maybe today, you’ll have a chance to tell someone else who they really are.

Live with love. Speak with love.

It makes a difference.