The Final Countdown

This is going to be a doozy, strap yourselves in.

Apologies for the absence of posts for the past few days. Circumstances (as I'll soon get to) made it rather inconvenient. Yesterday morning was beautiful, staying in bed until around 10 AM with a successful concert behind us and a beautiful day in Cartersville ahead of us. Mr. and Mrs. Brideau (parents of Ryan, our fellow crony) had invited us to join them for lunch at a BBQ restaurant at noon, so we decided to go light on breakfast and munched on some delicious Waffle Crisp cereal while watching Ryan explain how to play Civilization V. We hung out and made our game plan for the rest of the day and then drove down to Bustin' Butt BBQ, a Cartersville exclusive. Thursday was their beef brisket day, so we naturally all had to get that, along with more authentic sweet tea and Mr. Brideau's highly recommended Brunswick chili. The meat was flavorful, moist, and soft. The sweet tea was. . .sweet (and highly addicting). But the real star of the show was the chili, which was probably the best I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Each spoonful packed a killer concoction of flavors that made my mouth feel like Remy from Ratatouille. Satisfied (and for some, slightly bloated), we left the restaurant and proceeded on a tour of Cartersville, courtesy of Ryan. Probably most striking were Catersville's Indian mounds, giant hills that were apparently used as burial mounds over the years. After getting back to the Brideau residence, we did some quick rehearsing and then decided to head to the church where we would be performing that evening. Going to the church early in the afternoon allowed us to have a really relaxed time setting up and doing sound checks without worrying about time. The church, Sam Jones Memorial Presbyterian, stunning both visually and acoustically. Keith thought the sound in there was comparable to New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, high praise indeed. We chilled there for a few hours, getting used to the space and doing some quick touch ups. We left to grab a quick dinner at Chick Fil A (we all got salads!) and then back to Ryan's place to change into concert dress. Then it was back to Sam Jones for Concert #2. The auditorium was full of excited members of the Carterville community, and we were all too eager to reciprocate their energy. The concert was out of the park, with everyone giving their A game. The reception was overwhelming, nearly everyone in the audience stayed afterwards to speak with us and ask when we would be coming back.

To celebrate our second concert, we went out with the "college kids", which included some of Ryan's friends and Jake Darnell, a fellow Juilliard-ian, to Steak and Shake, a burger joint with a vast assortment of milkshakes. We got to relax and hang out with friends old and new, eating the signature “Frisco Melt” and slurping up some milkshakes before loading back up, saying goodbye to Ryan and the Cartersville crowd, grabbing our junk from Ryan’s house, and charging back up the road to Chattanooga. Thomas was a real champ, driving us through the dead of night back to his home until we arrived at around 2 AM. We grabbed our essentials, fell onto our beds, and fell into a light coma for a few hours. Hence no blog post. *cough*

As for yesterday, we woke up to the welcoming call of Mrs. West’s breakfast. She had managed to both pick up Chick-Fil-A breakfast and cook us some of her signature breakfast food. The combination was. . .glorious. We got to watch “3 Plus You”, both the recorded broadcast of us from the day before as well as that morning’s live 11 AM show. It was pretty funny reliving the experience, but this time from the audience’s perspective. We then spent some time arranging and rehearsing music for our final concert in Chattanooga, as we had to replace the repertoire that Ryan had performed with us. Thomas showed us some sights of Chattanooga as well as the arts institution that he was heavily involved with in high school. The outing took a little longer than we were expecting, so we booked our way back up the mountain to the West’s and grabbed our instruments to do a quick sound check at our final venue. Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church was a long, almost cathedral-like venue that boasted acoustics just as impressive as Sam Jones’. We did a rapid-fire sound check, then ran back to Thomas’ house to scarf down one last delicious meal, change into concert dress, and race back to the church a quarter of an hour before our own recital began. With limited warm-up time and an extra adrenaline shot from the rush, we jaunted out on stage to finish our concert tour. Performing for Thomas’ home community was extraordinarily special, and everyone performed at the top of their game. The crowd’s reaction was ecstatic and, like the night before, everyone was asking when they could expect another concert. A few members of the audience remarked that it was the best single recital they had ever attended. We were humbled and honored by their reception, but also so excited that our tour was finally over. Finally, we were truly on spring break. We went back to Thomas’, ready for the next chapter of our adventure.

The final countdown -

Off to a new adventure -

Florida awaits!