This last weekend was a heck of a ride for us! Saturday morning I woke up at 7:30am to Jason walking into the bedroom. I thought maybe he had just let the dogs out or something, and then he came over to the bed and said that he had food poisoning and had been throwing up since 3:30am! Yuk! I don't know how I slept through that! For those of you that know me well, you know that I don't deal with puke
at all. AND in the course of our 5 years of marriage, we've never had to cross that bridge together, cause neither one of us has ever gotten that sick. He's quite the trooper though and other than a trip to the store to pick him up some chicken noodle soup and 7-up, all I could do was stay by him and keep him company (but not in the bathroom - nope, that's where I draw the line). Hey at least I stayed in the same room with him - that's improvement for me!
Later Saturday night, I had plans to meet up with my girl Julie for a fundraiser event featuring authors Ron Hall & Denver Moore, from the book
Same Kind of Different As Me which we read in book club last year. It was an awesome experience and we even got our picture taken with them and some other friends of ours Jill & Denise who also came! The place was packed out, probably somewhere between 600-800 people showed up! Julie knew the coordinators of the event, so we had seats reserved at their table and I ended up sitting next to some guy that I didn't know. I'm so bad in these situations and usually feel extremely overwhelmed with crowds and a bunch of strangers surrounding me. After Julie & I talked for a while, this man next to me turns to me and asks a little about ourselves and if our spouses are involved in the music industry. We in turn answer and I go on and on about how the music business has been quite the roller coaster experience for Jason and I, with having so many close calls. We must have talked about music for 20 minutes before I asked him if he also was in the business. He responded he was and yes, in fact he's a country music songwriter. Here I am blabbering away for 20 minutes as if I know anything about the industry, when I finally ask him his last name and find out that he is one of the biggest songwriters in town!!!! Holy crap people! All this time I had no idea who he was and in fact, was the only other person at the table who didn't know who this guy was! I of course in true Kimberly fashion, proceeded to turn a deep shade of crimson and began sweating like a stuck pig. I mentally started coaching myself to calm the crap down! So we go back to talking and bantering about small things like someone trying to take his cake, the gentlemen hired to do the readings, ect...and I really enjoyed getting to know him. He asked how long Jason has been trying to break into the business here in Nashville, his style, who he knows ect... and then he said that he doesn't normally do this, but if an opportunity presents itself where he can help another writer out, he tries to take it and asked if I thought Jason might want to write or meet with him? WHATTT????? Are you kidding me?! I got his personal email address and then we went back to listening to the evening speakers. Ron Hall & Denver Moore were so inspiring and Ron said something that really stuck with me. When they were trying to get their book published and they were continually getting rejected by publishing companies, Denver told Ron that they needed to bless all those that rejected them right then and there. I felt convicted myself of all the frustration & anger I've held toward those that have given Jason the brush off over the years or who have not held up their end of the bargain. So later that night, I prayed in the shower and blessed those that have let us down.
When I got home that evening from the dinner, you know I just had to play it up and get Jason going. I told him that I had made a friend and that he was also a songwriter and that I got his contact info for him to write with. Like I knew he would, Jason took a deep breath like, "oh boy, here we go." Haa haa, then I told him, "His name was something like ....(pause).. _____" Jason looked at me with huge, shocked eyes and said, "Are you kidding me?!" And then again, "Are you kidding me?!" I had myself my own little dance party in the living room - "that's right baby! whohooo!"
The next day when Jason was feeling more himself, after a horribly long day of being sick, he got on the computer and emailed this songwriter. It was brief and sweet, with a link to his MySpace music page. Hours later, the songwriter emailed him back, said that he really liked Jason's music and that he had the talent, he just needed a break. He said that chance meetings like him and I meeting at the fundraiser, are what he likes to call, "meant-to-bes" and that hopefully something will come out of it. He asked for Jason to meet him at his office on March 22nd ;-) Y'all I know I'm once again on a high on this music business roller coaster, but this man seemed very genuine and he could be an open door for Jason's music to be really heard! So be praying! And when I say this man is a huge songwriter, I'm talking 21 #1 singles, and over 50 top ten hits! He's gotten cuts with the likes of Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, George Strait, Billy Currington, Randy Travis, Keith Urban, Lonestar, Neil Diamond, Brooks & Dunn, Sara Evans and Jason Aldean among many others. So please be praying for an awesome meeting and for us to continue to trust God in His timing.
Jay & Tina Frees
We stayed up till the wee hours of the morning playing Skipbo and eating more junkfood than your average teenager. 
We toured the city and had some serious BBQ at Sticky Fingers - yummy!
