Trip to Atlanta

Ok, I hate to admit this, but I actually had to break down and buy a pair of gloves and scarf while in Atlanta--it was quite chilly for them this time of year and I did not have sufficient winter wear with me. Totally NOT what I was planning on. : ( Granted, there wasn't any snow flying but it was very windy and down into the 20s a couple of times. We went to Stone Mountain one night (the Xmas lights were beautiful) and we managed to get tickets for the Georgia Tech / Miami football game on Thursday night. While it was balmy the first half of the game, it got downright cold in the second half. Still, it was fun to get out and mingle with some of the locals. I told Mike the people all seemed like a throw back to Mayberry, just a little community football game in the middle of a city with five million people! Honestly, I don't think I've experienced that much "niceness" anywhere, ever--and not just at the game, just everywhere. Very impressive!

Also, while we were out, we visited The Varsity drive-in restaurant (world famous according to Mike--I think he ate there 4 out of 5 days), he also visited both U of GA and GA Tech campuses for some gear, and we went to the ultra expensive Lenox Square Mall (featured on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, for those who watch it--not me), and we managed to squeeze in a stop at the Georgia Aquarium--I'll post some pics after this post of that. It was very cool and definitely saw a lot of things I'd never seen before.

My flight back was uneventful, other than almost missing it because I just seemed so unaware of the time it was going to take to get through everything. Maybe because we were together and leaving at different times or something, I just was in la-la land or something. Back to the niceness thing, while we were eating in a restaurant in the airport, there was a soldier seated near us (there are a lot of them around the airport with Ft. Benning close by). He was the hands down the most polite person I think I've ever heard in my life. Not only "thank you" but geninuinely "oh, thank you very much" every time the waitress came by with something or even just took his order. You could feel the emotion behind it. He was using his laptop while waiting for his meal. I don't know where he was going, but I had the waitress put his bill on our tab. I thought we would make it out of there before he left, but just as we were paying, I heard him ask for his tab. The waitress told him that he was all set and that we'd paid for his food. He couldn't believe it and of course, had to come over and shake our hands and thank us--not what I intended. He was just beaming when we walked by to leave and told us again to have a nice day. I'd been wanting to do that for a long time, and it sure felt nice. I don't know what they give them for food, but it wasn't even about the money, and I'm sure he knew that. Maybe I was just inspired by all the other niceness I'd been around all week. : )

OH, when I was in line to check my bag, I was right behind Dwight Howard from the NBA (Orlando Magic). He's 6'11" so not too easy to miss. I happened to sneak a peak at his boarding pass and immediately called Mike over to confirm. Mike immediately dismissed it and went straight back to where he'd been standing, acting like it was no big deal. Still, I was trying to think of something I could say to him, but Mike's philosophy to me has always been "just leave them alone" so I did, but I definitely got a good eyeful of him. Not often you're that close to a) someone that huge, b) an NBA all-star, c) reigning slam dunk contest winner and d) an Olympic gold medalist. Of course, none of that popped into my head at the time. I thought it was better to keep my mouth shut than open it and make a fool of myself. Later, I found it amusing that as soon as Mike got home, he was emailing all his buddies about it! I knew I should've slipped him the camera while he was off to the side waiting but he would've been too chicken (or too "cool") to take a shot. Dang!!!

Mike's flight left late so he missed his connector in Chicago and had to take a later flight. His bag showed up on our porch this morning since it didn't make the trip with him. Now, it's back to reality. At least tomorrow is the last official day to pick up leaves for the season, so you know what we'll be doing much of the day. Actually it's not too bad. Mike's done a great job keeping up and this will be my first time this year helping<---hey, I do most everything else! LOL

Thank God for Kim coming and taking care of our kitties all week. She was a definite HUGE help and kept me sane (and laughing) with nightly updates that she emailed me. She even came by on Friday to make sure I didn't have any cleaning to do when I got home. Now that was a nice friend!!! And the cats were all very relaxed, I could definitely tell she'd done a good job. They didn't even keep us up late last night, but I had 4 of them packed around me when I woke up this morning so I think they were glad to have us home.