From Captain's Daughter to Army Mom: From Samba to Shambala

The Piedmont Wind Symphony was Amazing this evening!

And, although Michael Savage often laments that Jazz is something no one listens to alone, Grammy award winning Jazz trumpeter, Arturo Sandoval may have just turned me on to Jazz tonight. During the introduction for him, Mr. Sandoval was called the instrument and whatever he plays was said to be simply an amplifier for his talent. After watching his performance I could not agree with that more - Especially fascinating to me, was his piano playing and to learn that Mr. Sandoval did not begin playing piano until he was 41 was truly inspiring. Yesterday, he played at the White House, tonight he entertained me.

And, then there was Three Dog Night. They put on one hell of a show. And, for all my lack of enthusiasm about them before tonight, I must tell you that I could not have enjoyed their performance more.

Our table location was great, and the company of the other six other people seated with us was interesting. Yes, we were the youngest of the three couples at our table. The woman seated next to me shared that she was born and raised in Winston-Salem but that she and her husband just returned to North Carolina from Michigan eighteen months ago following her retirement from Northern Michigan University where she served as University President.

It was a good thing that we were the first to partake of our table's fruit, cheese, nut, melon, strawberry and desert tray because for all their apparent wealth and education, everyone else at our table ate directly from the platter using their own fork! I was the only one that used a new fork to put food onto our plates BEFORE we ate it. I thought surely someone else would notice that I was using one fork to serve and was leaving it on the platter for them to use too, but that never happened! So what we took from the platter before they started to dig in was all we ate. Also rather funny is how openly thrilled they all were when we declined the wine at the table... "More for us", they exclaimed. Allrightythen! I also expect that Mr. my-wife-was-the-president-of-Northern-Michigan-University is spending some quality time in the bathroom right about now because he noshed on the cheese waaaaay past the point when it might have still been edible.

Nevertheless, social faux-pas of our table-mates aside, it was a wonderful evening of inspiring talent and music and I plan to call the Piedmont Wind Symphony in the morning to make a donation and request they send us invitations to all their future events. Well done!

VIP seating area