US Sneak Attack

I kept my latest trip back to the US secret from most people with the hope that I could randomly show up at dinner with them all, acting like nothing was out of the ordinary. When Tim and Erin were in Sydney last month I mentioned that I would be coming into town, and that unfortunate leak led to a few people finding out about my return, preventing the surprise for most. It was Jessica’s birthday weekend and luckily they didn’t let her in on the secret.

I picked this particular week to come home because it was Jessica and Sarah’s annual birthday party/Braves tailgate. Also, Rameen was coming back in town for the weekend which was a big plus. On the downside, I bought a number in the Sydney City2Surf 14 KM race, my British friend Dan Superfunk-Daddy Hoppin was going away that weekend because his visa was expiring and there was a Florence and the Machine concert. It was a big weekend on both sides of the world, but the hometown crew won out. I sold my number for the race on eBay (the guy that ran in my place didn't do so well), wished Dan farewell with a night out the weekend beforehand and got a friend to record some footage of the F+TM concert.

I got into Atlanta on Thursday afternoon after the long flight from Sydney to LA and LA back home. The heat and humidity was a welcome change from the coldest winter Sydney has had in years... all 60 degrees of it. I met up with Tim, Leah and Rameen and went to dinner at Nuevo Laredo Cantina to spring my trap on Harms. Everyone else went into the restaurant to meet her at the table while I stayed outside for about a half an hour on a conference call with Sydney (I took the second conference call at midnight, 2pm Sydney time, on the street outside a pub - shhhhh). Then I walked into the restaurant and up to the table wearing a sombrero. Jessica did a double take and then flipped out, very confused but very happy.

It was good to be home and among the crew again. We hadn’t all hung out together in Atlanta since NYE. Rameen and I went and played soccer with a bunch of guys we know on Friday night at the Georgia Tech turf field just as we used to do over the past two summers. It’s probably one of the top few things I miss about being home. We would go out there and play for about 2 hours on a Friday afternoon, go home and get cleaned up, and then all meet back up again that evening.  We went to Fado's to relive some of our glory days from the summer of 2008.

I met up with my parents on Saturday for lunch at Park Tavern (I seem to plug that place a lot - the food isn't THAT good, it's just the atmosphere) and to pick up Zabba, then headed to the Braves tailgate. It was almost too hot to be outside, but we had some shade in our regular tailgate spot and Zabba had a big bag of ice to cool him down. I hid from the sun enough to avoid a burn but a mosquito did find me for the first time in 2010. Our group won the best tailgate for the second year in a row for the decorations Sarah and Jessica set up, plus our cornhole, beer pong, and banana eating competition (why they do that every year I still don’t understand). Zabba impressed everyone with his array of tricks, as usual (see pictures), and rocked some killer shades.

J-Peso and J-$

Like we haven't seen enough of each other lately

Zabba doing his famous balance a treat on his nose trick

After seeing Rameen off on Sunday, of course I shot the Hooch. It was one of the biggest groups we’ve ever had, and included Eric, Lindsay, James, Erin, Micah, Tim, Leah, Daya, Jaime, Shawn and a bunch of other friends of theirs that I didn’t really know. I didn’t catch any fish bare-handed this time, but it was a good day out in the sun. The river was as packed as I had seen it and there was a massive group of 100 or so people milling around when we got to the beach for the cliff jumps.

I spent the week conference calling with the US, cleaning up all of the dust around the house and taking care of some general errands. I went to the doctor for a new prescription of Ambien for my flights, went to the dentist and bought a new snorkel and fins for snorkeling back in Oz. In hindsight, I should’ve gotten a wetsuit as well but I’ll just have to get one here in Sydney despite the cost.

My friend Angela from Chicago that I met in Cairns came down on Thursday and I spent the weekend playing tour guide in Atlanta. We went to the Highlands as soon as she got in to watch Yacht Rock Revue at 10 High, a local dive bar. They play a lot of cover songs from the 70s and 80s, all while dressed in leisure suits, big sunglasses and captain’s hats. It’s a lot of fun if you ever need something to do in Atlanta on a Thursday. I saw them back on Halloween last year where they dressed as zombies and covered the entire Thriller album.

I drove Angela around the city and we took Zabba for a walk in the park. On a side note, the new Piedmont Dog Park is almost finished and it looks REALLY nice. I’m looking forward to some free time when it is open so Zabba and I can explore. Anyway, I took Angela around downtown, Midtown and Buckhead – she was amazed at how green everything was (she’d never been to Atlanta outside of the airport). I guess it’s something I take for granted since I (kind of) live in the city, but when you compare it to Chicago which is 100% urban and concrete, we have it pretty good.

A tour of Atlanta wouldn’t be complete without going to The Graveyard Tavern in EAV. I saw Smoak and Terence, MBA classmates from GT, for the first time in over a year. We all keep up with each other on Facebook fairly regularly but it was nice to see them in person as well.

We were planning to go out on Lake Lanier with some friends of Leah’s, but the weather didn’t work out in our favor. Instead, we declared an impromptu pub crawl through the Highlands that ended up lasting about 7 hours. I had also talked a lot about Shooting the Hooch to Angela, but my river crew had a high school reunion that weekend and wasn’t going to be around. That was ok, because the highlight of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon when Civil Twilight came to Unplugged in the Park. If we had shot the Hooch, we wouldn’t have been able to make it to the show.

I’ve mentioned other shows I’ve seen at this free weekly event, and it was a great coincidence that they were performing the weekend I was in town. I’d been listening to them for months! I invited Kate, a Buckhead Church and fellow music junkie friend I met a few years back, plus Tim and Leah. I also ran into Julia, a friend (that used to date Rameen) that really has her ear to the ground when it comes to new music. Every time I send her a link to a new band, she’s already seen them live and met them.

On Monday morning I saw Angela off to the airport... it was a good time catching back up after our time in Cairns and I think I presented the city well to her. We had a good time together but I think we both realized we'd be going our separate ways after this - me back to Sydney, her to start nursing school back in Chicago. I said my goodbyes to Zabba and left again until Christmas, the longest span of time I will be gone on this trip. I still didn’t get an upgrade on my flight but I’m only one flight away from Platinum status with Delta! It’s funny how they treat you better when you fly a lot – I even got a little card to skip to the front of the Customs line. It's the little things.