You might have noticed my absence from this space over the last week.  That's because I went to Nashville on a teaching trip, which was wonderful as always and also turned out to be a bit more adventurous than usual.

To wit:

–My husband got so sick before I left I almost cancelled my trip.  I did try to delay it by one day, but the airlines charge a lot for that.  Like $1,000 a lot.  So off I went anyway, with promises by my daughter to look in on him.  Instead of him rising at the crack of dawn (4 AM) to drive me to the airport, I ordered a cab and had the dubious pleasure of riding with a taciturn Russian driver who did not say one word the entire trip.  My husband started antibiotics and soon felt much better. So did I.

–I stayed the first two days with a student I had worked with for three semesters but beyond that didn't know well.   I think we were both a little nervous about it.  I mean, what if I burped or farted in front of her and/or her husband and embarrassed all of us?  You'll be happy to know that didn't happen, and I had a great time, ending up the time feeling like I made a wonderful new, close friend. (Hi, Karen!)

–Got my debit card hacked.  Yes, really.  Somewhere in my travels across the country, the card got skimmed.  Was it the surly cab driver?  The sweet woman at the newsstand in Dallas?  Who knows?  I've got to hand it to Paypal, they took immediate action and dealt with the problem without a lot of fuss on my part.

–Almost missed my flight home to Portland from my connection in Denver.  Apparently, Frontier Airlines likes to cut things close with connecting flights.  I had 30 minutes in which to make it.  And, of course, the plane from Nashville to Denver was late.  Turned out there were 50 of us on the flight with the same insanely short connection time, so they held all the planes for us.  It still required a mad dash through the airport (wearing boots and an oversized purse, wheeling my computer bag behind me), because, wouldn't you know it, the arrival and departure gates were about as far apart as you could be and still be in the same concourse.

–Remembered about fear: that it's a sneaky beast that can masquerade as anxiety or a variety of other emotions.  And really, it all just goes back to fear.   I remind myself that the word that pressed itself upon me this year is fearless and it is that word that I have pledged to live by.  And so I shall.

So those were some of my adventures.  In my next post, I'll write about the actual writing part of the trip, including some of the highlights of the Loft orientation.

Have you had any adventures lately, in life or  your writing?  I'd love to hear about them.  Leave me a comment and share.

***By the way–you can get $50 off my next Get Your Novel Written Now class if you sign up by next Thursday, Jan. 31st.  It doesn't start until March but sign up now for early bird pricing!