Monday, November 10, 2014

The First Christmas Gift of 2014

I'm starting with a post about the second half of my weekend rather than the first half because that's the thing that's easiest to write about and I need easy today because my brain isn't functioning on full steam today.You'll find out why in this post.

A couple of months ago, I got an email about advanced ticket sales for James Taylor in Nashville and immediately thought that it would be a good show to attend with my mother. I felt like at some point I had heard her mention that she would like to see him in concert. So, I sent her an email asking her if she would like to go and if so, then I would take her as the main part of her Christmas present. She said she would and so I bought two tickets for the show, which was this past Sunday, November 9.

I picked mother up for our adventure a little before 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. When I got there, she, my dad and my brother were all in the driveway - it looked like some folks were happy to get rid of mother for a few hours, I joked. We headed north and the first stop on our agenda was The Cheesecake Factory. Mother wanted to eat there and so I had looked up earlier in the week where it was. I knew there was one at Green Hills Mall, but wasn't sure if that was the only one. According to their web site there is one in Franklin but I'm here to tell you it was no where to be found and when I put it in my GPS it didn't come up. The only one it showed was the one at Green Hills, so we got back on the interstate and headed to Green Hills Mall.

By the time we got there, everyone else had to. It looked like we might never get in there were so many people standing about. We got out name on the list and in the meantime, we picked out and bought slices of cheesecake to take home with us. I had noticed a Carrabba's within walking distance and so I looked it up on my phone, called and found they had no line. So, we made another change of plans and went there to eat so we wouldn't have to wait. It worked out really well because we had a great meal and still got a piece of cheesecake.

After dinner we headed to Bridgestone Arena and found a good parking spot that really couldn't have worked out any better in my opinion. Our only concern was that mother's wheelchair battery might not last the night. Some cobble surfaces cause the battery to drain faster than normal and she was losing juice; but, we managed to make it inside and find our seats with no problem.

The seats were great. We were close to the stage and elevated above the row in front of us. I don't think we could have asked for a better location. We got settled in and people watched until time for the show to start. Start time was slated for 8:00 p.m. and it got started a few minuted after that. The majority of the crowd was around my parents' age I would say and so thankfully, they were the type that preferred to sit throughout the show rather than stand the whole time.

James Taylor was really quite humorous and we often laughed at his commentary throughout the night. For someone like me who mostly attends rock-and-roll shows, it was definitely more subdued than I'm used to and that caused me to chuckle to myself a time or two. Mr. Taylor and his band played for three hours and it was really a great show. He played a lot of his hits and also some new songs (which sound like the old songs, he said and it's true). It was just an overall great show. Mother really enjoyed it too which is great.

We got back to the van at 11:13 p.m. after some concern about the battery dying on the way, we thankfully made it with enough juice to get mother into the car and buckled in. We got on the interstate and made one stop for gas in Franklin before finishing the journey home. I think I pulled into my parents' driveway about 1:30 a.m. and was home and in bed 20 minutes after that.I was up at 5:00 a.m. for work and did my best to function on about three hours of sleep. Needless to say, I was glad to see 4:00 p.m. roll around so I could go on home and sleep.

I'm glad mother and I got to spend this time together and have this memory. It was a great way to kick of Christmas giving for 2014!








1 comment:

Erika said...

So glad y'all had a good time - that sounds like my kind of concert :)
I thought there was a Cheesecake Factory at Cool Springs, but maybe it's closed....