Memphis pt. 1

This past week (Wednesday thru Sunday) Kate and I attended the ComicsPro comic store retailer trade show in Memphis. There was a lot going on related to ComicsPro that made it difficult to sneak away to do anything touristy in Memphis during the day, but I was determined not to just be confined to the hotel.
Thursday night I missed a small group of retailers and DC people that ended up going into town (which wasn't just a hop, skip, and jump from our nice hotel), so I hung out in the lounge area of the hotel Friday night after dinner and after not being able to find anyone interested in going into town, I took matters into my own hands and at 10:30pm hopped into a cap headed for Beale Street.
Beale Street wasn't as big of a street as I thought it would be, but there definitely was a lot going on musically in that relatively small area.

After listening to some of the music being played inside the street's bars / clubs, I decided to hang my hat at this joint called Club 152, which had this great three piece funk band playing (never did catch their name unfortunately). They were playing what sounded like mostly original songs to me (I wouldn't swear to it though, because even though I know a lot of different kinds of music, I haven't heard everything) in addition to some great covers of songs by Prince and the Digital Underground. This band was really really good and that much was apparent way before I had too much "fun" with alcohol.

I started off with a Corona and then chased that with four or five Vodka and Red Bulls. I forgot to mention that Kate also wasn't up to going downtown, so everything that happened thereafter was her fault because I had no adult supervision. Time just slipped away, the band and crowd watching was too much fun, and about two and a half hours later I somehow made my way out of the club.
I took this photo of myself sometime before leaving the club, but I didn't see this photo on my camera until Saturday morning and I have zero memory of taking it. I do remember getting in a cab and telling the driver "Hilton Memphis" and then very drunkenly somehow remembering my room number at 2:30am where Kate helped me navigate the room which was spinning like crazy. Even though I woke her up, she now gets to rib me forever with tales of my drunken ramblings of how much I loved her and how unworthy I was. I rarely drink more than a couple of drinks as I'm a lightweight and I hate getting sick from said actions, the last time I was on a bender like this was New Year's Eve 1999 when I "won" the welcoming in the year 2000 pool (there wasn't really a pool, but I was amongst the least expected to do that).
I don't remember calling a taxi or even leaving Club 152, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get back to my hotel in this fine ride. Actually I'm pretty lucky not to have "lost" a big amount of money, my camera, or phone, as I wouldn't have been in any condition to do anything about those things leaving my possession. So I definitely want to tip my hat to the fine people of Memphis who didn't take "advantage" of a dumb person full of booze such as myself, rather just letting me on my merry drunken way.

Anyway, I woke up just after 9am that morning (so we both missed breakfast, not like I would have gone), thought I felt "all right", got showered and dressed and headed to the first meeting of the day. I was glad I went to that meeting because I got some valuable info out of it (more on that on my entry Memphis pt. 2), but I SO wanted to leave early. I knew I wasn't going to make the next couple of meetings or lunch and thought that I should just "rest" in the room until the Diamond new warehouse tour later that afternoon which I wasn't going to miss (and didn't). So being that it's almost ten years between my "too much fun with alcohol sessions", I wonder where I'll be for my 2019 bender!?