We Did it Live from the ATL

It’s been nearly a week since my last post and that one had an all together different motive other than updating or providing current events about what I’ve been up to.

Anyways…

I’m two weeks removed from a four day getaway to good ol’ Atlanta, Georgia.

Atlanta, home of the georgia peach, beautiful southern belles with intriguing twang, the Atlanta Braves, some poppin’ hot spots, decent shopping destinations, and quite possibly the highest population of homeless paupers and beggars in any United States metropolis.

My roomie and I had 5:30am flight reservations, which really meant that we had to be Philadelphia International Airport by 3:30 for baggage check-in. The foul part of this entire endeavor was that my roomie’s graduation party was the day prior to our departure; a party that continued on into the wee-dawn hours.

By 1:30am, I was more than saucy, by saucy I mean intoxicated, and in no shape to begin the packing that I still had waiting for me at home. My brother picked us up from the apartment and drove us to the airport about an hour later. Just before jumping on our plane, my roomie thought it’d be a good idea to grab some food to help soak up some of the hops and barley from the party, so we stopped at the airport coffee station to grab a quick breakfast sandwich. MISTAKE!!!

Before I knew it, I was on the plane, ears popping and equilibrium all thrown out of whack, quite hung over and barely holding down the food that I thought would “Help” alleviate this trying situation. After about two hours we finally arrived in ATL.

“Yes, Land! The only place I belong…”

We left the airport and took the train to our hotel, the Downtown Hilton, where we checked in and quickly made our way out of the stifling heat of the south and into the room and the cozy beds that awaited us.

From the moment my head first hit the pillows on that Heavenly mound of white sheets, fluff and comfort I was hooked. It was like crack cocaine. The minute I laid down I dozed right into a coma. I must have slept 10 hours every night I was down there, in addition to taking brief naps while waiting for my roomie to get a shower or changed to head out.

My days mostly consisted of waking up, grabbing a quick breakfast while reading the paper, hitting the fitness center for a little workout, then hitting the pool, showering, and heading out to do the tourist thing during the day.

Downtown Atlanta is an interesting blend of architectural design and ingenuity, a heated multicultural melting pot that somehow still seems to maintain its own sense of culture and identity. The town was in the middle of a drought, so a lot of the fountain structures or parks with some kind of water based design weren’t running.

The only setback, the one thing that stood out to me and actually became rather annoying near the end of my stay, was the inundation of poor and homeless beggars that stood at every corner and between every entrance of every hotel or establishment.

Everywhere you went they were there running that same tired old routine, that went something like this; “Oh hey man, how you doing? How ya been? Say, you ain’t from around here? Well, let me tell ya a little something, let me give ya a little heads up about what we got goin’ on ’round here…” That sentence would be finished much in the same fashion that a tourist guide for the greater city of Atlanta would do. The only difference being that the tourist guide would kindly point you in the direction of the nearest bar or attraction, smile, oblige your gesture of gratitude and simply move on to the next lost of confused tourist.

The homeless pauper would offer the same suggestion, point you in the same direction, but right before you could muster out a “thank you” they would immediately begin the second segment of their little scam by informing you of how hard life may have been on them and how a little bit of change would go a long way to helping them catch the next bus, or grab a bite to eat, or help pay to get them into the shelter in midtown, etc…

The greater, more humane and compassionate part of me sincerely felt bad for these people. I even offered a few some spare change and couple dollars. That was early in the week though. By mid-week, I was ready to strangle the next bum that approached me the wrong way. And they could tell.

The attractions in the city were decent. I managed to catch out the Georgia Dome, the Philips Arena, Olympic Park where the CNN headquarters, the World of Coca-Cola, and the Georgia Aquarium rest. I went to all but CNN…I dunno, something about an hour tour of a newsroom just didn’t seem very appealing as a tourist.

The night life could have been better. I didn’t get to head out much to many clubs because of my situation, being the only person there with my roommate who is more like a 50 year old man and less like a recently graduated 23 year old college student. Plus, I didn’t really know much about the surrounding club scene and everyone I asked seemed to point me to relatively dead places.

I did manage to find my way to a nice little gentleman’s spot, the Cheetah Club. It was an entertaining night, though I must say, the gentleman’s clubs in Philly are much better, in my opinion.

Perhaps, the highlight of the trip was the Braves game and the shopping stores I found in Buckhead/Lenox, a suburb of ATL. The girls were quite nice too. A little more laid back and polite, I found. I wished I had a bit more time to investigate further because I failed to find one girl in the city with that sexy southern accent that I fall madly for. Oh well, there will be other trips…

Overall, it was a relaxing and quaint little trip down south. I would’ve probably enjoyed it a little more if I had a few more friends down there with me to head out and really enjoy what the town had to offer. But, even still, I managed to entertain myself while there.

As for back home since then…

Last week was my first week at my summer job. I’m working for a local summer camp for now. The reasoning behind working as a councilor is simple really; I didn’t want to ruin my last good chance at a relaxing, enjoyable summer before I begin the inevitable 30-35 plus years of 9-5/40 hours a week reality that awaits. Also, I enjoy working with kids, something that I haven’t done since my sophomore year in college.

The first week was fun. This past Wednesday, we took the kids to Wheaton Village, an arts and crafts town that is also noted for it’s glass blowing studio/furnace. It’s been around for years and I remember going there many times as a kid and finding it somewhat memorable, to a degree. But, now as an adult I found the trip to be much more rewarding for the fact that it was very relaxing and educational watching the process of making glass objects by hand. I doubt the kids in the camp felt the same way as I did. Nevertheless, it was a fun trip to take them on.

Next week, we’re planning on taking them to the Cape May County Zoo and the Cape May wetlands. I believe that they’ll find this trip more exciting.

As for the rest of life…well…I could use a better paying job. I’m considering taking on a second job so I can keep working at the camp till the summer ends. Plus, with the Fourth of July being today, it’s nice having some free time and holidays off to enjoy myself, something I haven’t been afforded in my previous employment opportunities.

Love life has been rather slow, in the pits actually. What’s worse is, the previous post “I Miss You” has to do with my ex-girlfriend; you know, the one that sparked the conception of this blog many months ago.

Upon my arrival home from Atlanta, I found out from my roomie’s girlfriend that my ex had placed some quotes from a favorite song of ours as well as other quotes that may or may not have been directed at me. Basically, the quotes had meaning and implicated that she was missing me, or so I thought.

At first, I attempted to rationalize it out by convincing myself that they were about someone else. Afterall, it’s not like she’s spoken to me in nearly seven months. In fact, she blocked me on AIM many months ago so the idea of placing quotes in a profile that I can’t even see seems all together ridiculous and perhaps a little childish, (though my little explanation through prose in the last post isn’t much better).

But then, out of curiousity, I signed onto AIM and checked to see if she still had me blocked and was surprised to find out that this was no longer the case. She had unblocked me. But, why? What for? And were the quotes really about me? Too many thoughts, hopes, and “what if’s” began to overrun my brain and hence, we have a posting about the subject to reflect on.

I’ve since tried contacting her to talk, at least to answer a few questions concerning this. No dice. She hasn’t responded or even tried to get in contact with me which has since left me feeling very down and pessimistic about the possibility of these events meaning anything or having anything to do with me.

I have since come to the conclusion that she was doing one of two things; A. This was meant for someone else. Perhaps, her new boyfriend. Maybe they are fighting and she’s upset. OR

B. She’s using me as a pawn to manipulate her current boyfriend into doing something out of envy, spite, or jealousy. If she’s still dating this other kid, I can only imagine it would drive him up a wall to see lyrics to songs that only hold meaning between me and her and mean nothing to him. He’d at least question it.

Either way, she’s said nothing and done nothing else to give me the impression that she truly does miss me. And given the way things ended between us, given my current circumstances and position with regards to her and our former relationship, I’m currently in no good position to pursue her or this little series of events that have unfolded any further than I all ready have. If anything is to come from any of this, it’ll have to be from her pursuit or provoking. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Well, I’m looking forward to the next post, which will be about the Fourth of July and this wonderful three day weekend that I have. Till then, enjoy folks.

Posting,

 

E.Ricci