Starstruck in Memphis!

This weekend Meg and I decided on a whim to go see the Jazz play the Grizzlies in Memphis on Friday night. Meg arranged her schedule to be home a few hours early so that we could make it to Memphis by 7 pm. Before we left we bought "el cheapo" seats on ticketmaster. We did not ever sit in our assigned seats being that the FedEx Forum was probably only at half capacity, if that. The first half we spent in the first row of the upper bowl where we scouted out where we would move to at half-time. We noticed that 3 rows behind the Jazz bench there were only two people sitting in the entire row. We were nervous (mainly I was nervous) to make the switch as there was a guest services worker we would have to get past. At half-time we made our way down to the 3rd row and made it past the guest services worker but to our surprise right as we were less than five feet away from the 3rd row two middle-aged guys sat down in the exact seats we were eying we sat right next to them. I was still nervous about it when the guy sitting next to Meg asked if we had moved down that I don't think I even heard the question he asked us. To our surprise they had moved all the way down from "el cheapo" section too. They were both super nice to us even when we told them we were Jazz fans.

The guy next to Meg talked her off while I was busily taking pictures of the Jazz players from our new vantage point. The sad part was that the Jazz lost! After the game our two new friends gave us all sorts of ideas of places to see and eat at in Memphis. They convinced to go to the area where the Grizzlies players come out of their locker room. While we were waiting there Andrei Kirilenko walked past us. We hesitated too much to chase after him but one of our new friends made his way after AK. AK had got on the team bus but we could see where he was sitting and asked him with gestures if we could take a picture with him. Andrei was awesome and got off the bus and let us take a picture with him. Our new friends left us but we decided to stick it out and see if we could get a picture with D-Will. About five minutes later Derron walk out making his way to the bus. Although reluctant we were able to convince him to get in a picture with us. Now for the best part. We were just about to the door to exit the parking garage and were not even 10 feet away from the door when it swung open. To our surprise it was coach Sloan. Megann blurted out in excitement "Jerry Sloan!" Coach Sloan then responded, "What did I do?" He was super nice and we told him how we are Jazz fans and that we drove from Nashville to come see them play. Megann and I both were on cloud nine; we go to met AK, D-Will, and Coach Sloan.

The next day we went to Graceland even with the potential of huge crowds as it would be the exact day of Elvis' birthday. A funny sidenote: Edison Pena, the Chilean miner who ran in and completed the NYC marathon less than a month after being rescued was recognized at the Grizzlies game. He also got a private tour of Graceland the day before Elvis' b-day. The crowds were almost non-existent. It was amazing seeing the huge number of gold and platinum records on display. We also got to see tons of his stage and movie costumes, as well as automobiles (the famous pink Cadillac), airplanes, and even his tombstone. Elvis lived larger than life but also worked very hard for everything he got. All in all it was a fantastic weekend.