2003-08-02 - 1:41 p.m.

Oh, wait. Yes it was.

Granted, I've only "tripped" there once before, but even in previous "passing through" stops, Atlanta has just never been really great to me. I remember spending eight hours in the airport waiting for a flight since they had decided to reschedule me and my mother and not tell us. Although, I did have fun in the airport for eight hours, eating Cinnabons and reading a book Mom bought me, overpriced, at once of those airport bookstores. I even roamed around for hours, flirting with older guys, pretending I was already a college student, and not just shopping around for colleges.

Okay, so that wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.

And then there was that time I was driving to Mississippi State, and Brian assured me that Atlanta would be the faster way than going through Memphis. But the interstate that I wanted to get on was amazingly non-existent. And I kept stopping for directions, but even the gas station clerks who could speak English had no idea how to get to MSU, or even where in Mississippi it was (one guy tried to send me to Bilouxi, but I knew that was flat wrong). So instead I had a ten hour driving adventure. Granted, though, I really did decide it was an adventure, so I wasn't in poor spirits or anything, just tired when all was said and done.

But then there was the actual trip to Atlanta that I took with Michael when we first started going out. This was pre-pregnancy- we hadn't even "done it" yet. And by that, I mean we hadn't had sex. We got there and were surprised to find that Atlanta was another city, rather than some super-cool wonderland that everyone made it out to be. We bummed around and went to bookstores and ate pizza, and tried to find some obscure church that Michael was interested in (but I don't remember which one now, although I do remember what the building looked like, and the big, locked, iron fence that surrounded it). But it was just stuff you do in any city. Although we did meet some fun homeless people, and he did find me a solid gold necklace in a parking lot. (No really. It was not plastic. It was not.) The thing that really made the trip not great, though, was the fact that I started my period the morning we set out.

Now, guys, I don't expect you to get this fully. But your body changes when you start your period, and while it's ususally okay for me, the fact of driving four hours over varying altitudes, and probably nerves on top of that about being out with this really cute boy- goddam was I sick. Altanta gave me the worst period of my life. It was awful. And then, plus I'm with this really cute boy and I keep having to high-tail it to the bathroom because I'm so nauseous, and I know he can hear me in there. Blech! It was bad.

But we drove to Athens and really liked that. Small town/ big city. Really cool and laid back, and more cool homeless people- including that guy who was engaged to his python. Go ahead. Ask me all about it. I love telling that story.

Anyway, in summary, not terrible, but also not great.

So then last weekend, I went down to visit Elizabeth. And I was set. I am not tripping to Atlanta. I am tripping to see my friend. I had just got out of a hectic week, and I was just about to enter three weeks of hectic packing and moving and shitty tiring stuff like that, followed immediately by settling into a new, unfamiliar, big city. I wanted a break. And that is exactly what I got.

It was so relaxing. With walks in the park, and hours, literally hours of just laying on a squishy bed, eating dried fruits and nuts, doing crossword puzzles, and burning CDs of good music I did not previously own. We went to the farmer's market and got the aforementioned dried fruits and nuts (dried cranberries soaked in orange juice!), and purple potatoes, and rabbit for dinner. We had this huge roast rabbit. I was chopping up the veggies- the onions and mushrooms and carrots and purple potatoes. And I chopped into that first potato with the purple peel, and I'll be damned, but it was purple inside too! I made some peach cobbler for dessert. Oh, we had had a dinner party the night before with the upstairs neighbors who were really cool. (I was all eating the chicken with my fingers. Sorry, E, but I realized later that there's something about dinner parties that makes me want to eat sloppily. Rebelling against southern manners, I guess.) And we ate orgasmilicious Indian food. I looooove Indian food. It's so tasty.

But, in the tradition of Atlanta, the air conditioner at E's house went out, so it was pretty muggy. And the rabbit made me dizzy later that night. And, um, oh, and my peach cobbler sucked, even though everyone was nice and said it was all right. It wasn't. And, and, um, well, okay, I guess it was still really relaxing despite all that stuff. Because, really I don't mind heat that much. And actually, the rabbit getting me sick made me oblivious to the heat the first night- I even slept wrapped up in two blankets and I never even got hot. Which is a bizarre justification for the rabbit making me sick, I know, but I didn't throw up or anything, and that's really the only thing that would have made me regret having had that delicious dish. And Elizabeth's too nice to have minded that my peach cobbler sucked, and Michael knows I can do better, so my honor wasn't really sapped.

So all in all, yes, that was definitely the best Atlanta experience I've ever had.

Plus, E's 18 month wall calendar inspired me to schedule out the writing for the rest of my book, so I think it really will be complete (rought draft at least) by the end of this year. Hurray!

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