Donna’s Blog

The next plan for the day is to watch Paula Deen’s cooking show.  She is the best.  I love her.  I love her restaurant.  I love her food.  I love her gorgeous gray hair and when i’m gray headed, i hope it looks just like that. 

As for the rest of the day, there will be some pool time i’m sure, as well as a little cleaning time since we’re having some company over tonight.  I’ll have to tell you all about that tomorrow, cause that’s a whole nother blog.  And i’ll know more after the visit tonight.

I’m also waiting on track via email.  I’m scheduled to sing at the missions conference at District Assembly on Wednesday and the theme is on the Cross and i just co-wrote a song called “In the Shadow of the Cross” and B. is going to send me piano track to sing too.  I can download that to a CD and whalah, instant track!

I’m excited about the missions conference.  Ben and the girls are going with me, cause the speaker is Harmon Schmelzenbach and i’ve never heard him speak in person.  I’m sure it’s going to be inspiring.  Paige was talking to me the other day about Kenya, Africa.  Turns out they had some kind of missionary from Kenya visit her social studies class at school and she was intrigued about that.

So it will be neat to have her hear Schmelzenbach speak because he is a third generation missionary.  It was his grandfather that established the Church of the Nazarene in Africa.  And Schmelzenbach, in 1984, went to Kenya and pioneered the work of the church across East Africa.  And now his son, Harmon, Jr. is serving as a fourth generation missionary.

It’s was a lot less scary doing the co-write thing this year than it was last year.  I feel a little more like i know what to expect now.  Partly because i remember the routine from being here last year and probably mostly because i’ve been co-writing with B. this year and the process is becoming more familar to me.

It’s still always a little scary when you walk in the room though.  There’s the usual small talk about what’s going on in everyone’s life.  And it’s always fun to catch up and/or learn about the new people you are writing with.  But then the question gets thrown out, “so what are we going to write about today?”  And that’s when it starts to get serious.  Well not serious as in “heavy”….but serious as in “who’s got the great idea, the great hook, the thing that can get this ball rolling” kind of serious.

And face it, if i’m going to share some writing time with two other people….then i’m responsible to them to come to the room with some good ideas/thoughts/lyrics….something.  And i try to do that.  But there’s always the hesitation before i share that i start to question the ideas i’m bringing to the room.  Will they “get it”?  Will it make sense?  Does what moves me, move them? 

So i say, “how about this?”, and i wait.  And either a ”light” goes off with my co-writers, or it doesn’t.  Either they really get it and can relate to it and want to write about it, or they don’t.  And here’s what i have to remember.  It’s not a big deal if they don’t get it.  It just means that that particular idea might need to be written with someone else.  It might mean that my idea isn’t fully developed and i need to work on it some more.  Either way, we move on.  Someone else offers up an idea and the process starts all over again.

Friday morning was one of those mornings when they “got it”!  I brought something i’d been reading recently that was something that had deeply moved me……the idea i’d read was exactly how i was feeling and i kept thinking there had to be a way to put those ideas and words into a song.  My co-writers both agreed and the cool thing was that i trusted these guys.  I trusted these guys to have the kind of heart and soul that was needed to write this song.

When i first started attending writing workshops i would hear about writers who were “lyric writers” and those who were “melody writers”.  I would listen to someone talk about how they would fill a page with lyrics and then hand it over for someone to add the music.  And then i would hear someone talk about having a melody and handing it over for someone to add a lyric too.

That really amazed me.  When i started writing, the words and music seem to just come together on their own.  Maybe it was because the only thing i knew to do was to start trying to put my words into music.  The thought never occurred to me to just write a lyric.  

I would sit in those classes and wonder if i was a lyric writer or a melody writer.  Was that something i needed to figure out in order to be a better writer……to learn to focus on a strength and make it better?  

I remember when i first did a co-write and we all just sat and worked on the lyric.  No one made a move to play the piano or try to add a melody to what we were doing and i have to admit it drove me crazy.  I was so used to doing the two together.  I find that i am inspired by the music.  But i have to admit that after a while, it was good to just focus wholeheartedly on the words and the phrases we were writing…..to try and find the best way to convey what it was that we wanted to say. 

In time, we did work on a melody and it was wonderful.  I had several other co-writes like that and i began to feel like lyrics might be my strength…..although “strength” might be too strong of a word right now….but at least it was the direction i thought i needed to work in.

How cool that also about that time, the Lord brought a melody writer into my songwriting world!  I met B. and we decided to get together and write.  It wasn’t until that first co-write that i discovered
what a melody guy he was.  He had melodies floating around in his head, like i had words in mine!

We would get together and i would have a lyric and then he would come up with this great melody.  And it wasn’t until a few months ago on one of our co-writes that i discovered he could play a melodic thought that he’d developed and i could put a lyric too it.  This was getting fun! 

So today, B. emailed and he has another great melody for me to hear.  He said he discovered it last night.  I can’t wait to hear it.  He said it’s really “big” and is going to need just the right words.

That’s the challenge, that’s the fun!

I have to confess that this time it was definitely my fault that i missed my flight.  I was originally scheduled to leave the retreat on Saturday afternoon.  But since i had been cheated out of my thursday time with my writer people, i decided i would see if i could reschedule a flight out on Sunday after the retreat was over.  I got on-line and found a flight out at 12:25.  There was another flight out at 11:09 but it went through Detroit.  I decided on the 12:26 flight but for some reason, the program wouldn’t let me finish booking it.

so i called the 800# and the reservation lady assisted me.  Turns out the 12:25 flight was full and i’d have to take the 11:09 flight.  That was fine with me; we booked it.  But for some reason, the 12:25 time stuck in my brain.  So on sunday morning when they asked when my flight left and when they needed to get me to the airport i said my flight left at 12:25.

And that’s exactly what i believed until i arrived at the check-in and read the message of my departed flight.

I refused to panic.  I had been through this before AND just as i left the retreat, B. reminded me that he would be driving home to Jacksonville today and if something should happen, he would come and get me.  Wasn’t that nice?  So i halfheartedly asked if they had another flight out BEFORE 5:00 P.M. and and to my amazement, they had a flight leaving at 2:40.  It was through Detroit, but it was a flight that would take me home, so i paid the extra $25 for changing flights and went to call Ben to let him know that it would be 9:30 before my flight landed in J’vill and not 4:30 or originally planned.

I finally pulled into drive last night at 12:20 A.M.

and it was all worth it!

My room mate’s name is Donna!  And we discovered this morning as we were talking that we have so much in common.  More on that later.

Anyway, i had a morning co-write with two of my favorite writers and we wrote a great song (if i do say so myself).  And this afternoon i got to write with a lady i’ve been wanting to write with and finished a cool song that she’d already started.  Totally awesome…we’ll go to the recording studio here in a little bit and record it!

I really didn’t think i was dozing off until i heard myself make a sound and realized my mouth was gaping open.  I didn’t open my eyes for fear of seeing who might be watching, i just closed my mouth and told myself not to snore any more.

For the most part, i was awake after that anyway.  I was starting to get a little hungry and decided to find a place to eat.  I know this is totally boring reading, but it is a way for me to kill time you understand.  so you’re totally welcome to wait for a more interesting blog to come along.

At Gate A-1 through A-10 there is basically a Chili’s restaurant, a Wolfgang Puck (sp?) cold refrigerator stand and Starbucks.  I debated about going out to the main area and then back through security for the third time today, but eventually decided against that.  I stopped at Starbucks to check out what “lunchy” stuff they might have and all i saw was a ham sandwich……an $8 ham sandwich.  No thanks!  So i went down to Chili’s and was looking at the menu they have propped on a stand for people to read.  The nice greeter girl asked if she could help me and i asked her if it would be possible to get a kid’s hamburger (thanks for the idea Debbie) and she said she’d ask.  They agreed and i was seated in a nice, comfy booth, given a nice cheeseburger with fries and coke all for the price of $8!  It was delicious.  I read some more out of Amy Grant’s book, “Mosaic” and talked with a couple of friends. 

Have i mentioned i love my friends?  you can’t make it without those sweet ladies! 

Now it is almost 4:00 and i reckon they’ll start boarding this flight in about 30 minutes.  And you can bet your sweet booty that i’m not moving until they call my row and i will be the first in line.

for now, i’m blog typing and charging up my phone.  there’s an outlet not too far away, so i’ve left my cell phone there charging and i am watching it carefully.  but it had to be charged.  i sure wouldn’t want to miss calling someone to pick me up when i get into Louisville tonight at 10:00, or 11:00 pm my time!

The only thing i hate to think about is that this day is still far from over.  i have two flights still to catch, a layover in Memphis and a 30 minute drive to the retreat.  Maybe there will be a Starbucks in Memphis and i can endure the layover with a frappucino.  that always helps.

And David Cook won Idol?  No Way!  But yeah!!!

I went to CNN on line and found out that yesterday, one of SCC’s son’s killed their youngest daughter by accidentally driving over her.  I think he was backing out of the drive in an SUV and the report said he didn’t see her.  She died later at Vanderbilt.

the good thing to focus on now is that i am a CONFIRMED seat for tonight at 5:00.  And CONFIRMED out of Memphis and onto Louisville at 9:55 P.M.

i’ll arrive at the retreat center just in time to tuck myself in bed.

it’s all good.

if i get hungry, there is a chili’s restaurant. 

it’s all good.

i might even go get my nails redone cause there is a nail salon across the way.

it’s all good.

i’m not sick and throwing up my guts.

She told me i was 4th on the list.  I told her that when they put me on standby this morning i was 3rd.  So what happened.  Oh well, someone more important most have signed up…..like a silver medallion person.

It’s probably that guy in the shorts and flipflops.  He missed that 6:30 flight this morning too.  He looks like one of those first class, silver medallion people.  He didn’t get miffed when he missed his flight (cause he flys all the time and this stuff happens, right?)  And he must have known his silver medallion status would bump him up to first class stand by person.

That makes me automatically not like him.  He was up at the counter just now with this little knowing smirk on his face……like he knows the poor girl sitting all alone at her lap top (the one that was in tears this morning, oh i hope he didn’t see that!) is going to have to just be prepared to sit another five hours because HE is going to be the stand by person, not her!