A Wild Weekend

Wild may be the wrong word to describe my weekend. Everything I did was definitely last-minute. But maybe not exactly wild.

On Wednesday I called our church to check and see if someone would be there Friday morning so I could drop off all of the food for theoncession stand" for our sport's themed VBS after a Sam's run. The new secretary answered and said that she would be there. She then asked if I had a busy weekend planned and if I would like to go to Women of Faith in St. Louis. At the conference last year she had won the grand prize consisting of 4 tickets to this years conference plus 2 hotel rooms for 2 nights. And someone JUST canceled on her. Hmmmm.... do I want to go to a conference that I've enjoyed going to in the past where the speakers are funny and the music is uplifting, where I've always gone home feeling encouraged about my life for FREE? YES, I think that is something that would be good for me right now! It wasn't too hard to work out the details of leaving for the weekend since we didn't have any major plans and would be back just in time for a Father's Day cookout.

The fun thing about our trip was that it was the Grand Prize, so there were a few cool things about it- great seats and a fancy hotel for 2 nights.

Our seats were on the floor, in the front row! Even the usher was excited for us as she led the way. We were about 3 steps from the stage. Lisa Welchel (Blaire from Facts of Life) was right across the aisle from us. It was so fun to have such great seats. It was so different from the "nose bleed" seats we had the first time I ever went to W of F back in 2000 in Oklahoma City.

I am used to staying in Comfort Inns, so the Renaissance Grand was pretty nice in comparison. We had a big bathroom, comfy beds, and a bell hop. But the really great thing about it was that the prize included 2 nights. What a relief to not have to rush out of the conference and drive 2 hours home. Instead we took our time leaving and met some friends for dinner at Union Station.

Maybe this is the part of the story where it becomes wild. But again, maybe wild is the wrong word. After dinner one of the ladies in our group (who I had just met the day before) and I took a cab to Fox Theater and saw Willie Nelson!!!

She had seen earlier in the paper that he was playing that night and expressed how she really wanted to go. I had never been to the Fox before and grew up listening to Willie so I untrue to my character it didn't take much convincing to get me to say yes to this last minute and rather expensive adventure. Why did I say yes? Maybe its because he's an American icon and I probably won't get an opportunity to see him again. Maybe it seemed like a fun ending to a good weekend. Maybe I felt like I deserved to pamper myself a little. No matter the reason, we took a cab (my first time for that too) and ended up in the 12th row, center aisle! Willie has definitly aged and he seemed to speak some of his songs instead of sing them but can still play the guitar! It was so exciting to hear and see him play classics like "On the Road Again", "Mama, Don't let your Babies grow up to be Cowboys" and "Georgia on my mind".



Maybe I'll post what I learned from the conference in a later post instead of going on and on about good seats and country music.