Nashville

Originally posted March 8, 2006

I'm back from my three-day whirlwind tour to Nashville. If you haven't been there, lemme tell ya, it's amazing. I have a newfound love for that city. I could live there, if I weren't so attached to the Bay Area.

I got to Oakland Airport around 5:15 a.m. Sunday (a huge thanks to my company for booking such an early flight and not sending me the day before...hrmph) and proceeded to witness a guy try to convince the lady at the counter to let his carry-on item be a plastic, lime-green ice shovel. (Alas, I never got to find out whether he succeeded.) My plane left for Chicago at 6:15 a.m., and was the beginning of what would become a rather trying ordeal.

On the plane, I took my seat in the middle of a row of three. The lady to my left was fine; she slept the whole way and hardly moved. The guy to my right, however, was the size of a hot-air balloon. Even with the armrest down, he took up half my seat. His giant denim jacket was draped over my buttons for the headphones, etc., and it was just really unpleasant sitting next to him. Not to mention he smelled like a bathroom that hadn't been aired out in a while.

To pass the time, I slept and read a little, and watched "Aeon Flux," which wasn't bad but was a little weak on plot development. We landed at Chicago O'Hare around 12:15.

"Plenty of time," I thought. My connecting flight to Nashville was scheduled for 1:25, and I stopped for a Starbucks while trekking across the traveler-unfriendly abomination that is O'Hare.

A glance out the window, however, told me it was a freakin' blizzard outside. Snow was coming down vertically out one window and at a 60-degree angle out another. They told us our plane was late in arriving, and that once it did, we'd have to wait for the crew to travel from another part of the airport, and THEN we'd have to wait for the plane to be de-iced.

I finished my book and started a new one. Time passed. Children grew, people got married. Four hours later, we finally boarded the plane. In the meantime, I called the Diversity Institute in Nashville and told them I was stuck, and that I would be late for the 5 p.m. meeting/dinner.

Naturally, there had to be a screaming baby on the plane, about three rows behind me. It was one of those little express planes, so it's not like any of us could drown it out, and the parents didn't sound like they were doing a lot to calm the baby down. Then, while they were spraying the de-icing stuff on the plane, it accidentally got sprayed in the auxiliary power outlet, which plunged us into darkness. Now we were in a small, dark plane with a screaming baby and no air. I was starting to feel sick. Finally, they got the power and air back on, the plane was de-iced, the baby was a little quieter and we got our asses in the air. Luckily, it was only a 56-minute flight.

Landed in Nashville around 5:30 and grabbed a cab driven by an Iranian guy who spent half the time chatting in Arabic on his cell phone with someone in Germany. (He told me when he got off the phone.) It was about 5:45 when I got to the John Seigenthaler Center, where the Diversity Institute is located. So far, I had had a glass of orange juice, two biscuit-like cookies, a cup of ginger ale and two cardboard-y oatmeal cookie hockey pucks on the planes. Oh yeah, and the Starbucks. I was starving!

Luckily, there was food left over. I had a nice BBQ chicken dinner while we watched some videos about the Newseum, which is opening in a new location next year (and which I very much want to visit), and some taped testimonials of DI grads. After that, I grabbed a ride with one of the other editors back to the Extended Stay America-Vanderbilt, where we were all staying. By now it was POURING rain, and I made the bad mistake of walking to the corner for a snack. Finally, I just decided to stay in and watch the Oscars. The time change was enough for me to handle after a day like that.

On Monday, we got to the Center early to read The Tennessean and USA Today, which the fellows would be critiquing. I met our fellow, Martin, and it was a good critique session. BTW, the Diversity Institute is run by the Freedom Forum, which is part of the First Amendment Coalition based in Arlington, VA. The FAC also runs the Newseum. The DI trains minorities who want to become journalists, but who haven't had any formal journalism training. Oftentimes, the fellows are making mid-career switches.

After a few sessions on Monday, where we got to hear from DI grads about their experiences integrating into newsrooms and becoming professional journalists, we split up so the fellows could work on their stories. I decided to go walking, and ended up almost in downtown. I must have walked three to five miles that day, and I have blisters to show for it. (Ow!) I spent part of the day sitting on the old part of the Vanderbilt campus, which is exactly the kind of brick-and-ivy place you think about when you think of colleges. It was gorgeous. I had George Winston's "Winter Into Spring" piano album playing on my MP3 player, and it was perfect.

We all met back at the Center that evening to meet John Seigenthaler, for whom the Center is named, and who is a founding member of the Freedom Forum. Upon entering his mahogany-paneled office on the second floor, you immediately notice the dozens of framed pictures of him with Robert Kennedy (please keep Sirhan Sirhan comments to yourself), Jimmy Carter, his son John Seigenthaler Jr. -- who is a TV news anchor for NBC on Sundays -- among other notable people in the journalism profession. John said he had just gotten back from judging the Kennedy Center Honors. Wow.

One of the first things John said to us was, "I've got beer, I've got wine, and I've got a secret drawer." Turns out that true to old-school journalist fashion, he had bourbon and other hard liquor in the drawer. We sat around his office drinking wine, etc., and eating cheese and fruit while he told us about his incident with Wikipedia. (Read this to get up to speed.) This guy was amazing -- former assistant to Bobby Kennedy, as well as Bobby's friend and pallbearer, toughed it out with Hoffa, protected a Freedom Rider and got boned in the head for it (the Wikipedia entry doesn't mention how he got cut behind the ear, but he told us he was hit in the head with a copper pipe, which we got to see on display at the Center), a founding editor of USA Today, longtime editor and publisher of the Tennessean, founding member of the Freedom Forum...I mean, the list goes on. And he was so comfortable talking to us that half the time he had his leg draped over one of the arms of his chair.

Afterwards, we were supposed to take our fellows to dinner on our company dime. But John said if we went to his favorite restaurant, Mario's, he'd have them put it on his tab. So 10 out of the 12 of us went to Mario's, which was a very upscale Italian restaurant, and enjoyed appetizers and salads that John personally ordered for us. We chose our own entrees, and the wine was flowing, capped off by desserts. Poor John probably threw down at least $600 on that dinner. But it was awesome. And such a great personal touch to welcome us.

I went back to the hotel, took a bath and fell asleep. Long day!

The next day, yesterday, the morning routine was the same and we had a quick pizza lunch before two of the editors and I went to the airport. The flight to Denver was OK, but once there, I had another 45-minute delay and spent most of the time puzzling over a woman who was inconsolably crying while carrying a small dog in a box. On the flight from Denver to Oakland, I slept, watched "Deal or No Deal" and was very glad to get home and be done with planes. People can be so dumb. DON'T just stand there in the aisle futzing around while there's a long line of people behind you waiting to disembark. I thought I was going to pee my pants thanks to the can of sparkling water I drank on the flight. MOVE, people, don't just stand there and let someone's bladder cry out in pain!

All in all, it was a great experience. The other editors, who were from Indiana, New Mexico, Bakersfield and New York, were fun to hang out with, and we had a good time with our fellows. The program is intense and professional, and the fellows are getting quality training. It was nice to be in Nashville when Reese Witherspoon won her Oscar, since Nashville is her hometown and people there were VERY excited. Hanging out at Vanderbilt was awesome. The weather (except for the first night) was great. In fact, the new background on my page is a photo I took while walking up West End Avenue. We were well taken care of...pampered, even. I'm very glad I went, even though I was almost smothered to death on the first flight.

And now, back to the usual grind. And on to other blogs!