The 404

"I just got back from Atlanta ... that town is WHACKED." - Todd Packer

I'm a third of the way through my marathon of traveling. This past weekend I was in Atlanta working at the America's Mart during the busiest gift show of the year. It was a really tiring experience full of old ladies buying tons of crap for their stores, speaking in very thick Southern accents and wearing Tammy Faye Baker-esque amounts of mascara.

Before I traveled I had asked a few Southerners I know where I should go or what I should do after work wrapped up every day around 6:30 pm. Thursday I was so exhausted, this is what I did:

I was staying at the Ritz-Carlton, which was a really strange experience. The only other time I had been in that hotel was when I was younger and had to pee really bad. I still remember how weird I thought it was that they had cloth towels in the bathroom instead of paper. While I was checking in with the concierge they asked me if I needed help with my bag up to my room, I said "no thank you." As I went to grab for my bag, a man had already come over to grab it. I said, "oh, thank you, sir, but I've got it." He said, "Miss, I'm just turning it around for you." I'm not cut out for this, despite being fancy with my penthouse parties.

Friday, I made it out to the Georgia Aquarium, which was really impressive. It only took about an hour to walk through, and they had a jazz band playing there, too. I touched a shark and a sting ray, and the tanks were full of all sorts of fish, and even followed along the ceiling:


Saturday I got supper at Ted Turner's restaurant with someone from another publishing house, and I tried bison for the first time. We sat right next to the kitchen and a hot onion ring fell on my thigh; the waitstaff quickly apologized and then put the onion ring right back into the serving tray for someone to enjoy. Later on Saturday night, I did something I'd never done before: went to a bar by myself. Now that I'm a "business executive" I wanted to try it out, and it was pretty boring. I did watch an elderly couple cut a rug on the dance floor and the very flamboyant bartender gave me some "cheese nubblies - they're good for you!"

After working a few hours on Sunday, I went to the airport to get an earlier flight. I got one, thank goodness, but then the heaven's opened up and a big thunderstorm hit. My flight got delayed to the original time I had booked. Charlie Brown. Today I'm so tired and I look it. I went into work late and my boss said, "WOW, you look exhausted." I worked a total of an hour and then went out to sushi with a buddy of mine.

Overall it was a good trip. I met some fun people, slept in an amazing bed, stole tons of toiletries and even met a cab driver whose family lives on a street very close to my childhood home outside Los Angeles.

Tomorrow it's off to Chicago for a day, and then to Los Angeles for the rest of the week and weekend. Los Angeles should be interesting given the state of the family right now.