One of the many funny things that happened in Nashville occurred Sunday night during our general session. As our bloggers are describing what our speaker, Danielle Strickland of the Salvation Army, is talking about I took it upon myself to head over to twitter to share a quick insight into what I was thinking.

Danielle Strickland is taking us to the deep end of the poo tonight.

Of course, I meant “pool” but the damage was done. It was one of those typos that you’re friends repeat often. I got “the poo” all cleaned up on twitter and the live blog, yet the joke wouldn’t die. Thankfully, everyone knew it was a typo so the poo never hit the fan… since we’re in the land of the pun.

It just goes to show you. Every letter matters when communicating. You may be trying to take people to the deep end of the pool, but miss the “L” and they’ll head straight to 7th grade science class.

I’m always amazed at my inability to blog from NYWC. I think it’s a combination of my insane schedule and a lack of good internet connectivity. More importantly, I feel like I don’t have much to share while in the midst of NYWC since I’m soaking it in so deeply.

So here are some random thoughts in no particular order.

- I’m looking forward to getting season one of “NYWC as a YS staffer” out of the way. 2008 has been a major learning curve for me. I feel like I admit ignorance way too much. I look forward to 2009 because I’ll be more useful beyond what I was able to handle here. I know that is gray and fuzzy, I don’t want to bore anyone with details.

- I’ve said this before but I want to say it again, people are people no matter what they do. I’ve had some stirring conversations with speakers and authors… but I’ve also had very similar conversations with people who don’t write or speak for a living.

- Nashville is a great convention location. I love the arena environment!

- A ton of people asked me if the convention gets boring having gone to all 3. No, not boring. Not really repetitive. If it were boring I would need to find a new job.

- I have huge respect for convention volunteers. My only frame of reference is a PGA Tour event. I think it’s a lot like that. Simply put, if we didn’t have the volunteer we couldn’t do it. Thanks to our volunteers!

- I’ve gotten more sleep than in Pittsburgh. The reality is that my body is just waking up at 5:30 AM Pacific time. My roommate, Andy Thompson, thought I was kidding. With no alarm I woke up at exactly 5:30 on Friday morning. Today I woke up at 5:27.

- Security at the Sommet Center is a little crazy. They are diligent, to say the least.

- Is it really Christmas shopping season?

- It’s true. I’m staying over on Monday night so I can get a good nights sleep before going home. I felt like my recovery process after Pittsburgh was elongated by my lack of chillaxing.

- I’m looking forward to checking out the details of Obama’s transition team when I get home.

- Mark Yaconelli, pictured above, brought the funk today.

- I am thankful for Ian [Dude] Robertson. Every time I do an interview I am praying I don’t ruin it. It’s happened, it’s embarassing and every shoot makes me wish I knew more about the camera.

- Just heard this on the Nashville news, “NASA astronaughts are working on their hardest project ever, they are installing a device that will make drinking water out of urine.“

It’s butt early, but I am freshly showered, packed, and waiting on an airport shuttle to take me to the airport. This morning I’m taking the dark flight over to Dallas for my connection. Anyway, just in case I wasn’t clear enough… my blogging will likely be convention-centric for a few days. Don’t worry, I’m back next week to push theological and political buttons.

Now, onto live blogging and daily recap videos.

I am geeked about going to Nashville in a couple days. I know what you’re thinking, having been to Sacramento and Pittsburgh NYWC how can I possibly be excited about a 3rd one?

- Oddly enough, a room full of youth workers always gets me excited.

- Nashville is the “big show” on our circuit. There will be more people in Nashville for NYWC than currently live in Romeo, Michigan. No lie.

- I get to hang out with my live blogging crew for nywc.com/live. Ryan, Shawn Michael, Jason, and Andy.

- More time chilling with my new homie, Andy Marin.

- Unlimited time cracking up with Cathy and meeting folks while shooting future episodes of the YS Podcast. I think we get so tired that pretty much everything is funny to us. But it’s still a good time.

- Friday’s General Sessions will electrify an already excited audience. Don’t make plans for after the general session… you want to go to the talkback sessions, trust me.

- Other than one time where I was at the bus depot at 10 PM on Christmas night 1995 on my way to see my then girlfriend, Kristen Tucker, absolutely scared to death that some bum knew that I secretly had a pearl ring in my backpack and he was going to jump me for it…. I’ve never been to Nashville longer than it takes to change a plane or empty my bladder and buy a coke.

- I want to find out where the casinos are in Nashville. Is that why everyone calls it Nashvegas?

- I find myself constantly saying (internally): Graceland is in Memphis you moron. The Grand Ole Opry is in Nashville.

- I’m hoping the get more than 15 hours sleep. I totalled it up, that’s what I got in Pittsburgh. I’ve built my schedule a lot better this time.

ahhhh!

My fall travel season has arrived. When I took my job at YS I knew that this time of year would happen. In fact, one of the reasons why there are some really soft times in my year-round schedule is to make up for this time of year. Here’s the rundown, pray for Kristen and I.

October 9-13, NYWC Sacramento. Live blogging the convention and overseeing the smoking YMX booth at all three locations.

October 16-19, Planet Wisdom Chicago. No official role, but I’ve never been to one and I really need to grasp what goes on.

October 30-November 3, NYWC Pittsburgh. Same as Sacramento.

November 20-24, NYWC Nashville. Same as Pitt & Sacramento.

OK, so now that I wrote it out like this it doesn’t look that bad again. I think the stress comes from realizing I’ll be gone for about 2 weeks straight starting this week.

By the way, I’m totally looking forward to being on site at these events. It’s going to be super awesome fun exhaustion encouragement time.