I had promises from Dan 'Superfunkdaddy' Hoppin to meet up on my last night. I haven't mentioned him in the blog but Dan is British guy that is friends with Danni and company. We clicked immediately upon meeting, and have the same sarcastic, punny sense of humor. Dan likes to Photoshop. I'll give this link a 'Not Safe For Work' warning, although it is highly hilarious. There are many more pictures in his Facebook albums that crack me up. Yes, he put this on Facebook. If he and Tim meet up in July, I fear the planets may align and I will dislocate my jaw from laughing at whatever it will be that they do.
Anyway, so Dan and the Cali girls all said they wanted to go out on my last night, but when I called it seemed that everyone was on a date, tired or otherwise occupied. Instead, I spent the night chatting with people from the US as I lay in bed, my friend Courtney in particular. It was during working hours for her and I think she was really bored. By the time 3 or 4 am rolled around, I realized that I might be able to stay up all night. I hadn’t planned on doing that, but it made sense. Why not go ahead and throw of my schedule as much as I could?
So with Courtney’s help and lots of internet browsing, I made it through the night without much of a struggle. Around 7:30 I went out and got a taxi and headed to the airport. My 10 am flight was scheduled to connect in LAX and land in Atlanta at 3:30, giving me that day back that I lost on the way over a few months ago.
I wasn’t hardcore enough to have any drinks pre-flight, so I hoped my voluntary sleep deprivation would suffice. I popped an Ambien, plugged my ears and pulled my hat down over my eyes since it was light in the cabin. I couldn’t stretch out as much as the flight over because it was more full but I did get an aisle seat. I tossed and turned a bit, but had a decent 8 hours of sleep (for a plane). There were two Aussie women sitting next to me, and when it was obvious that I was awake she said to me, “I have never seen someone sleep so well on a plane. How do you do it?” I reached in my bag, pulled out the prescription bottle and rattled it. She started laughing.
My dilemma was that there were still 6 hours left in the flight. I decided to cut an Ambien in half and see what happens, then take the other half between Los Angeles and Atlanta. I probably got another 2 hours of sleep and spent the rest of the time watching the in-flight entertainment. Luckily they have shows like 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Family Guy and newly released movies to choose from for free.
When I landed in LAX I had exactly an hour to make my next flight, which I knew would be tight. The airport there isn’t set up very well for international transfers (and neither is Atlanta for that matter). I had to wait at a carousel for my luggage and then check it back in which took forever. Then I had to pass through customs which empties you on the outside of the airport where taxis are dropping people off and picking them up. Then I had to go back inside, through the regular security and make my way to the gate. At this point it was 7:45 and my flight was supposed to leave at 8:00.
A guy was standing at the entrance to an escalator while looking for something and holding up traffic. I gingerly stepped around him and up the steps. He said something like, “Watch it, buddy.” I turned around and said, “Hey, you might have time to waste but I don’t.” He replied something about how I should get to the airport on time or something like that, but I was up the steps and let it go. No use getting in an argument in front of the TSA, that might be bad.
It turned out that my flight was delayed by a half hour so I had some time to relax in the terminal. I took the other half of the Ambien and got a few more hours of sleep on the plane before we landed in home sweet home. Just like when I first landed in Sydney, it was hard for me to tell what day/time it was or how much good sleep I had actually been able to get. I talked to my parents and we planned on going out to dinner near their house. I needed to pick up my mail and the pair of shoes I ordered, and to see Zabba of course. Later that night I went to Tap and met up with Daya and a few of her friends for a bit, then went to Hand in Hand to see Courtney (happy birthday!).
I had waves of exhaustion followed by waves of being wide awake, but my goal was to stay up fairly late and then just crash when I got home. I went to bed around 2 am and to my dismay I woke up, WIDE AWAKE, at 6 am. I sat up in bed, not knowing what to do. I suspended my car insurance for the duration of the trip so I was reluctant to use it too frequently, but this is Atlanta. I hopped in the car and drove to downtown East Point to see if my favorite diner (Thumbs Up) was open. It would be a few more hours so I continued to drive. I turned toward downtown and watched the sun come up over the city as I rolled through the empty streets. It ended up being a good reintroduction to my city.
I found myself up on Howell Mill so I stopped at Waffle House, that location where I have a lot of memories from when I first moved to the city including running into P. Diddy (I’ll blog about that sometime) and many late nights with friends that lived in the area. This morning there were still a few late nighters holding on to their last bit of inebriation through piles of waffles, eggs and greasy hash browns. I opened my latest read (I am Legend) and ordered my usual – The All-Star Special. On a side note, I am Legend was one of the few books that was worse than the movie. Others on the short list include A Beautiful Mind and Up in the Air.
The water was cold, as always (water is released into the river from the bottom of Lake Lanier), and it started to rain about 10 minutes into the float. It would’ve been miserable if it lasted the entire trip. Luckily we got through it and the rest of the day was bright and sunny. I got to catch up with everyone, have a few drinks and relax away the jet lag. We stopped a few times along the river and I did something I’ve never done before – catch a fish with my bare hands! I think it was sick or something because it was treading in about 6 inches of water, but it was a legit 6-7 inch bass, big enough for me to stick my thumb in its mouth and hold it like the bass tour pros, yee haw. As always when I catch my first fish of the day, I kissed and released it (that way it would tell its friends how nice I was and they would let me catch them as well – just like Dad taught me).
Somehow I survived the day without falling asleep, although I did manage to spill an entire bowl of marinara sauce all over myself at Fellini’s after the float. It probably made me smell better since I was all Hooched up. I cleaned up and hung out with Courtney for a while before going home to crash.
James and Micah invited me to play softball with them on Monday. Eric was out of town so they needed a spot to fill. I almost made a brilliant catch but ended up busting my butt as I dove backwards, the ball bouncing off the tip of my glove. I saw Jay B., my college friend from UK and former roommate when I first moved to Atlanta. It had been a while but was good to hear that Sara and the baby were doing well.
I also got my hair chopped off by Olga at Samba Salon (across from Tim’s house) on Tuesday, played soccer with those same guys on Wednesday, went out with Courtney to Two Urban Licks on Thursday and played soccer again on Friday with some former GT players that I’ve played pickup with over the last few years.
On Friday night we had a going away party for Dylan and Rachel, who were moving to Dallas for his new job. At least Rameen will have someone to play with now. We went to Fado and pretty much everyone was there. Daya and I hung out the most and caught up on everything, although we have emailed each other constantly through my trips (she got a new job – CONGRATS!). Two more friends have now moved to Texas… that makes 6 in the past 10 months. Hmm, maybe I should just sell the house and do the same?
On Saturday I was back at Fado at noon to a packed house to meet up with the GT soccer guys for the US-England game. I was pretty happy to come out of it with a tie. I can admit when we get lucky. After some more quality time with Zabba I met up with a few people at Moe’s & Joe’s in the Highlands for a low key night. I went home relatively early and got up the next day to visit with my Pelicans Football Club teammates. I missed almost the entire season but made the end of the year BBQ. Usually if I'm injured, it's from playing with these guys. We watched the World Cup games on that day and caught up for a bit.
My parents came and picked Zabba up later that day and I got everything packed for winter down under. Tomorrow I will go to LA, work for the day and fly out that night. I land Wednesday morning and start it all over again. I’m supposed to come home again in late July for my 10 year reunion (gasp!) in 6 weeks. Hello, frequent flyer miles.
