Ok, well let's see. I guess I could post a little bit about the trip. It was uneventful for the most part, fun but as I said, emotional.

We got in around dinnertime Thursday night, and settled in to do pretty much nothing. We went to the grocery store because we had a kitchenette suite. We got coffee, ice cream, chips and dip, you know..essentials. We also found a thrift store (the first of many) while we were searching for a grocery store. By the time we got back to the room we realized that we'd missed The amazing Race. Bummmmmerr....

Friday we went to the show, and it was great. Saw tons of folks I knew from online, some I'd never met before and some I'd met last year. It was so cool. I bought Daniel a knife - a really cool Russian Assassin knife - that he loved, of course. I also got Cindi a little somthin somthin. Maybe she'll be quiet now! ha!

Friday afternoon we took a long nap, which was great. It was raining and the drapes made our room ultra dark, which both made for a great snooze. We kept waiting for an opportunity to go to the pool, but it never got sunny enough while we were at the room.

Friday night we met a bunch of folks at the "Pit" which is actually a circular seating area in the lobby of the Waverly hotel.





It was a ton of fun, and we got home hella late.

Saturday Mark was feeling a little under the weather in the morning, so he decided to stay in the hotel and sleep in a bit. I went to the show alone and had a great time. A buddy of mine, Ren, needed a ride from his hotel to the show, so I picked him up and when I got to his hotel, he had another guy with him that I knew really well from our online site but had never met. An infectious diseases doctor, he was. Very cute...and we got along famously.

I spent the morning at the show, then went to lunch with some of the guys, then back to the room. Mark was feeling better so I brought him some food and we lazed around a bit and then went to more thrift stores. We found a big illustrated Horses book for Emma, and I found an Eddie Bauer gortex raincoat for $6. Whee!

Saturday night was the best, we hooked up with a load of other folks and went to dinner. We had the absolute worst service ever performed by a so-called waiter. We had to ask and re-ask for everything. This guy could not have cared less about us. And let me tell you, these gentlemen I was with are not stingy tippers. I've seen them drop quite a lot of money for food and tips when the service is decent. Well, I don't want to tell you what we left this guy, but it wasn't pretty. I spoke to the manager on our way out, and they waiter happened to walk up while I was talking to him. I said to him, "No offense, but you really blew a good tip with us". I was polite, but he got the message. Then, we left to go back to the pit and Mark realized he left his cell phone at the lousy restaurant! gah! I made him go in and get it. Luckily, it was still there.

Saturday night is a little foggy, but suffice to say it was really, really fun. I spent a lot of time talking to the good doctor, and also met a couple of other new guys that I'd talked to online. Funny how you get opinions of people online and then meet them. A few that I met were ultra foxy, let me tell ya. And some people are very outrageous and gregarious online, but then we meet them and they were quite meek and inhibited. Weird.

We got in late late Saturday night, well officially Sunday morning. At around 6 am Sunday morning I woke up and did not feel good at all. I threw up a couple of times and then things started brewing on the other end. It was so fortuitous that I had thought to bring a little bit of every medicine in the house. So I had something for my stomach, and some immodium too. God bless Immodium.

We met some folks for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then had intended to go back to the show for a while. But after breakfast I was still having to high step it to the bathroom pretty frequently, so we begged off. Another reason is that I really really suck at goodbyes. I know that sounds trivial, but you just have no idea. I consider Ren one of my best friends from our little group, and when I had to say goodbye to him at breakfast I was inconsolable. Even now I am tearing up just thinking about it.

We get very close in our little place in cyberspace, and we know each other better than some people know us in real life.

So when I thought about going to the show to see everyone for the last time, maybe for a year, maybe forever, I just couldn't do it. I wanted to remember everyone the way things were Saturday night, when the mood was "See ya tomorrow". In some ways I regretted it later, and in some ways I was glad I didn't go.

So instead, Mark and I tooled around on Sunday and went to Underground Atlanta. That was a lot of fun. lots of little shops and pubs under the street, and people dancing and being nutty above the street. I bought lots of little trinkets for people there, and found some really good cotton candy. I'm such a fiend!

Monday we had to turn the car in early, even though our flight didn't leave until 10pm, because of the time we'd rented it. So we drove around a bit, thrift stores, parks, taking pictures, etc and then went to the airport to turn in the car. From there we took the subway to the Peachtree Center which turned out to be almost as much fun as Underground Atlanta. We found a pool hall, and a brewery that had great beer. The only downer about Monday was that since we were walking or outside all day (no car) we were sweating buckets in the humidity. By the time we'd headed back to the airport late that night, our clothes looked like we had taken them out of the washer and worn them wet. Seriously.

There was a huge lightning storm in Atlanta right as we were to take off, so we had to sit in the plane and do nothing for an hour till it stopped. Even when we took off it was really bumpy and I got so freaked at one point that I was crying. sheesh. I was surprised that my claustrophobia stayed in check, even though we were sitting in the plane for so long and not moving.

So..that's about it I suppose. The trip in a nutshell. Go see my page of pictures if you haven't already. Nutty stuff.

In other news...

The cars are being towed away tomorrow. I was really worried about how much it was going to cost me, but it turns out they are paying me $110. Whatta deal. Our local news did a story on the fire on Sunday's 5pm newscast, but they had told me it would be Saturday, so no one taped it, and no one saw it that I know of. I don't expect anything to become of it at this point. I just want to get the cars the hell out of here, and chalk this one up to "damn, that shit sucked."