The past 48 hours...

As many of you know, I have a new man in my life. His name is Ej. (Edward John) He lives in Nashville and he turned 40 yesterday (Wednesday). Some of his friends contacted me and wanted me to come to Nashville for his birthday even though we were going to his cousins wedding in Ann Arbor this tomorrow (Friday). So on Monday, I found a ticket to fly in and I had his buddy Keith pick me up from the airport. Rewind, I wasn't supposed to get into Nashville until 6:10 p.m. and the party started at 5- so they were going to put a blindfold on Ej and put him on stage at the place where the party was then bring me in. I went to the Milwaukee airport to see if I could get onto the 6:05 a.m. flight into Baltimore and then onto a standby flight into Nashville. They couldn't get me onto the plane. But as I am speaking with the Gate agent, she asked if I wanted to fly out of Midway-Chicago. I'd been there a million and one times and said sure, check it out. She then found me a direct flight from MDW to Nashville at 11:55. I was ready to go, so I headed straight to Chicago. Plus I wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible. I parked, walked in and got through security quite quickly. Gate #2 had a plane boarding and ironically it was to Nashville. I jetted up to the counter and asked them to get me on a standby list. They did and I sat and crossed my fingers. Thank goodness Keith was flexible to pick me up! The door was about to close and they called my name. I got the LAST seat on the 9:35 flight to Nashville. I landed about 10:50 and called Keith. Then the dilemma was that of how to surprise him. So Keith and I both knew that his "big" bosses were going to take him out for lunch. He also had invited Keith for his birthday lunch. So Keith told him that he had a present for Ej at the lunch. (at this point he knew I was going to be there) So we got a couple of Ej's employees involved. One came down by us in the lobby and took me up the freight elevator to the 11th floor. And Keith headed up the regular elevators. Keith headed into Ej's office and pulled him into one of the other guys offices. At this point, I was sneaking around the back side of the building. Universal is the entire 11th floor of a building right downtown Nashville. They put me into Brian Wright's office... this is just some guy that gives people record deals.... and plop me down on the couch. Brian then called down to where all the guys were and asked them to come and listen to a new song. At this point, Ej was starving as he usually eats lunch right at noon and it's almost 12:30 so he's a little bit feeling like - hey it's my birthday...let's go to LUNCH! So I hear them coming, Brian is videotaping this whole thing. Ej rounds the corner and they all yell, HAPPY BIRTHDAY... and he just stares at me. Seriously about 3 seconds of NOTHING... so I get up and he finally processes it and gives me a hug. He says he's never been surprised before. After that we went to lunch, then I went and took a nap and he went back to work. His party started at 5 and there were 200 people who came through the entire night. A friend of Ej's said, there is no other event they've ever seen where competitors all came together to celebrate anything, much less one person. (There were record label people there from every label in Nashville) Inquiring minds... If you are wondering how we met.... six years ago I was in Nashville with some friends and met him and a couple of his friends. It was at the same bar that the party was held at and we were at a booth at the front of the bar. Hank Williams Jr. walked in and sat down with us, he had just recorded "Are you ready for some football!" and had a little Jack Daniels in him.... and was singing to us. That was pretty incredible. Ej then moved to Dallas. And when I was traveling I had a LOT of clients there. So when I would visit we'd go to dinner or go out. I was actually at a dinner with Ashton Sheppard and all the Executives from Universal which was pretty awesome. (Ashton is a newer artist on the Country music scene) Then a few months before I decided I was moving home, about September of 2008 - during CMA week in Nashville, a client wanted me to come and see them. So I flew in and during CMA week all employees of Universal are in town. He took me to see The Randy Rogers Band (one of Sami's favorites) and Billy Currington and then we went out afterwards. Since then, Ej has moved back to Nashville. We've stayed in touch over the years and now have decided to become a couple. It's been great this far! All except the distance... but we went to San Antonio and Sami & Devan went to dinner with us and then we spent some time at their beautiful house. He's been to Milwaukee and met mom, Megan and Bob and the kids. He's also met the majority of my friends here. This weekend we are heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan and will be attending his cousins wedding. His parents will drive down (through Canada) from North Tonawanda, New York (North of Buffalo) So, in my next edition.... I am sure it will be about that. If I can get my hands on the video I will upload that too!