A few days ago, I was on my laptop in the wee hours of the morning, logged into this blog and wrote a whopper of a blog post. I was in a groove and really had pumped out what I thought was a really solid post. Feeling good about it, I was finally ready to publish ... and when I went to push the "create post" button ... the worst thing happened ... my internet connection died unexpectedly and my whopper blog post ... well, let's just say it, too, died along with my connection. Ugh!!! All that brain power and time exerted into blogging an original post went down the tubes leaving me with zero way to recover my content. 

Yup. It totally sucked, trust me. So much so, in fact, I couldn't even look at this blog for a few days :) Couldn't handle the loss that well but it's been a few days since that blog loss crime and I've managed to forgive my intenet connection and my blog for the hiccup; mostly I've been able to forgive myself for my own stupidity and laziness in not backing up my blog post before submitting it.

Oh well ... I'm "ok" now :) and have decided to spend this Sunday morning, which finds me all comfy'd up in a Ramada hotel room in Huntington, West Virginia (near Ohio), blogging and sharing some updates.

the drive

I got out here last night pushing 9:30 pm'ish. I am out here because my dear Create West Virginia buddy, Jeff James (also of Mythology Marketing) invited me to lead a social media workshop today from 1-4pm. The 5 1/2 hour drive began around 4pm and the scenery from Charles Town, WV to my half-way point in Morgantown, West Virginia was just stunning. The hills and mountain sides were peppered with golden and fire-like orange and red hues that were simply breathtaking. The air was cool and crisp and the weather was extremely rainy so the roads were rather slick ... which was a bit daunting here and there. Nothing could have prepared me, however, for the incredibly thick sheets of fog that lingered near Cheat Lake. The fog was so incredibly dense during this part of the road trip, I often felt I must have been driving near heaven.

thanks, axl

Normally on these long road trips, I take my husband or a family member but on this trip, I was driving solo. Or was I?? At times, I could swear I had Guns n' Roses lead singer, Axl Rose, was keeping me company right there on my passenger's seat. Thanks to St. Alban's 105.1 classic rock radio station, which played back-to-back classic GNR tunes for over an hour as I approached the state capital of Charleston, I felt Axl was right there with me ... serenading me with November Rain and Sweet Child o' Mine as I drove through mountain ranges so pitch dark you couldn't tell *where* the mountain tops and the sky actually met. I also found another radio station that only played 80s tunes and I got to jam to some oldies but goodies like Samantha Fox's Naughty Girls Need Love (Too) and omg, Survivor's Eye of the Tiger!!! How fun :) Jammin' to all kinds of music got me through the lonely road trip with relative ease.

today

So for today ... I will be leaving my hotel room around 11 am or so to go get ready for my workshop. Looks like there are about 20 or so attendees all eager to learn more about social media marketing and outreach. I, too, am eager to learn more about each workshop attendee and see how they are using (or trying to use) social media to enhance their outreach and communications. As usual, photos, vid clips and blog post recap forthcoming. I know I sometimes do run behind on this blog but I always catch up and share as much as I can.

Be back later with more updates :)