A post in which I shake the dust of Atlanta GA from my feet

It had been a good while since I spent any tourist time in Atlanta. I don’t really count SELF this spring since we barely left the hotel. I have no time set to go back, honestly.

When we were on the way back to the room last night, Mother and I both were wondering if we could be up in time to make checkout. We were supposed to stay over tonight, but all we wanted to do was LEAVE. We were up in plenty of time, and I called the front desk to make sure that they wouldn’t charge us for the extra day of our reservation if we checked out early. After all we had been through, I was happy to hear that they would not. They had charged us over $100 a night for the room (a discount rate, mind you), and $18 per day to park the car.

The security in the parking lot had to be experienced to be believed. A card swipe to get in, a slamming metal door behind you once you did get in; then a metal door to raise, and another card swipe to get beyond the railroad arm to exit. On the bright side, we didn’t have to worry about our stuff in the car. The valets were pissed that we were self-parking, but they got their revenge by refusing to give me a luggage cart this morning. I had grabbed one when we came in and just unloaded the car, to their great astonishment and disapproval. All the carts were put up this morning, and they refused to give me one, explaining that I would have to be “put on the list for valet service”. I was pretty much at my point here. I went back upstairs and told Mom I would just drag the (*&*U&^^%$!@! luggage to the car if I had to, but we were getting the &*^^%! out of here. About the time I got loaded up, the valet knocked on the door. I figured if I was going to pay her, she was going to do the work. I let her load the car by herself, negotiated the complicated exit (Mom had my room card, checking out), picked up Mom at the door, and gratefully vamoosed.

Mom was feeling better this morning and wasn’t sick any more, but she was weak from all the vomiting, etc. We stopped for gas, but we were well out of town before we stopped for breakfast. Mom was hungry (for which I was very grateful), and after all she had been through I was going to let her pick whatever she wanted. We stopped at three Cracker Barrels before we found one with less than a half-hour wait, but she got her Cracker Barrel breakfast.

After eating, she felt even better, although still kind of drug out. I was pleased that she had her sense of humor back. We did stop briefly in Commerce for a bit of shopping. I got a beautiful set of glass Pyrex bowls with covers with my birthday money, and a new lid for my big Corning ware casserole. I also finally bought a pair of boat shoes. I’ve been looking at them for over a year now. Mom was game, and I could tell she was trying to salvage part of the trip, but I could also tell she was just too drug out to do much. We didn’t stay for long.

We also decided to stop for a brief run at a big antique store in Lavonia I have been to before. As we were discussing it, the phone rang, and it was Justin. He was in the antique store we were headed towards! Now that’s a coincidence. So we stopped, greeted him, and had a brief rummage before finishing the drive.

When we got to my place, Mom was sleeping. She had told me she was good to drive back to Columbia on her own, but I could tell she was tired. She refused to stay and take a nap though. I think she just wanted to be home. I can understand that.

After she left, I unpacked and straightened up the house a bit, before showering the Atlanta off. I called Russ and Billy and made dinner plans with them. I also called Justin to make plans to go antiquing or something tomorrow.

Russ , Billy, a guy named John, and I went to dinner at Tsunami downtown. I had only met John once before, but he’s a nice guy, and cute. He’s also locked into a monogamous relationship, of course. Tsunami used to have pretty good food, but a terrible atmosphere. They are now in the midst of remodeling though, and it looks nice. We had a great meal and good conversation, and then headed over to Coffee Underground for coffee and dessert. After that we went back to R&B’s house for a while just to smoke, talk, and socialize. It was a very pleasant evening.

I talked to Mom and she got home fine.

I may be able to salvage some of this vacation after all. I’m looking forward to spending some time tomorrow with Justin. There are worse things than spending a day off with a friend. I'm selfishly kind of glad he's not working right now, and Amanda may be around too!