Sitting through a Tornado in the car!

"There are tornado warnings in our area right now. You need to vacate this building because it is NOT a safe structure for weather like this. It would be safer for you to go to your car or go to a restaurant with a basement."

This was the announcement made at the recent seminar I attended in Nashville, TN. Now as you can imagine, I began visualizing sitting through a tornado in my car. I guess it's not a big deal. The seat backs could become a floatation device, the air bag could pop out of the steering wheel and provide oxygen for me (if I could pop it and get it to deflate into my mouth so I would have clean air to breathe) and the seat belt securely fastened would certainly protect me from turbulence. I wasn't sure what to do about a tray table, but maybe the restaurant with the basement could make provisions for that.......but, like I know restaurants in town that have basements.....hmmm.

Everywhere I go, I seem to have quite the adventure and this past weekend in Nashville was no different. I went for a 2-day seminar called the CIA Summit. (stands for Christian Independent Artists - don't worry, I'm not working for the government). It was full of great resources, topics and networking.

One of the most moving statements I heard over the weekend was this: The one thing we still have in America that the world respects is in the area of the arts. They don't respect our politics, our government and now our economy - but they do still respect music and the arts. What a great time to be a musician and an artist. We have the capability to impact the world like never before. I went away so happy to be a part of music!

As for the tornado?...we did find a restaurant, but no basement. The tornado never formed as far as I know and we were able to continue our seminar a couple hours later.

Though the toilets at the TN airport seemed to work well, (read my NY toilet experience under I Love NY in the 3/16/09 blog) I somehow managed to book my flight for p.m. instead of a.m. and didn't realize that until I got to the airport Sunday morning to fly home and was told by the customer service agent that I was there 12 hours early.   I love Nashville but did not relish the idea of spending 12 hours in the airport. Fortunately, though it cost me, I was able to get on the next flight out that morning. Alas, I'm home safe and sound again and still happy over my trip to TN!

And by the way - forgot to mention - I was so thrilled to receive the "Female Artist of the Year" 2009 Momentum Award at this Summit (pictured above).