Primo upgrade at the U of M Holiday Inn!

What a trip! Our foolish desire for Krispy Kreme donuts made us arrive in Memphis with no time till show time. Who knew that 8 am on Saturday is the time that all of Madison County, Alabama gets in cars and heads out for donuts?

Our disappointment at not having Krispy Kreme for breakfast was more than assuaged by our delight at the complimentary upgrade to the Presidential Suite at the Holiday Inn managed by the University of Memphis, our hotel of choice whenever we go to visit CJ. There was a lacrosse competition in town and they were sold out. Since we did have a confirmation number, the only thing they could do was bump us up.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We arrived at the Memphis Drum Shop, the location chosen for CJ’s senior recital, at 1:00 on the dot. He was waiting for us at the door, looking a little stressed, but only a little. You might think that a drum shop is an odd place to have a bass recital — I did. We were ushered to the back and up a short flight of stairs to an awesome room created for just this sort of performance. It’s not huge, but that’s not necessary for what we wanted to hear. Nifty African masks and framed concert posters covered the walls. Here’s our artist of the week chatting with his drummer before kicking things off.

The smile on his face belies his nervousness.

I have video footage of the performance, and when my computer decides to cooperate with me I’ll post it. Until then, accept my (layman’s) opinion that it went very well. CJ doesn’t think so, but we’re always our own harshest critic, aren’t we?

After the recital was over, CJ gave us the tour of his apartment, we checked in at the hotel, and then we met other members of the band at everyone’s favorite Indian restaurant for dinner. The evening ended with the three of us in the Presidential Suite celebrating this milestone on our youngest child’s life with a lovely bottle of wine. The vintner says “…one of the pleasures of our Petite Syrah is its finesse and elegance” and that’s it in a nutshell.

Almost no knitting took place this weekend.  That’s okay, I’ll save this scarf as the travel project for next week, when I go to Arizona to see my mother.

We met CJ this morning for breakfast at Brother Juniper’s, a well known Memphis eatery, beloved of Rachael Ray. The woman has good taste, as does our son. We left Memphis full of good food and the satisfaction of knowing our youngest has grown into a talented musician and all around outstanding man. We couldn’t be prouder of him.

Oh, Piperton? It’s on the TN/MS state line, and is seriously vigilant about speed limits. Ask me how I know…