On Thursday morning I set off on a business trip to Marietta, GA. I woke up a few minutes late and I had an eyelash in my eye that I couldn't find. So, during one of the stop lights on my way to the airport, I tried to find it. A douche behind me laid on his horn, so I took off. The jerkface kept trying to pass me on the street so I sped up. Then he flipped me the bird, so I returned the favor. Then he did this odd boob-like gesticulation. I laughed because I couldn't tell what the heck he was doing/saying/trying to get at. The next part is close, so make sure there aren't any children reading over your shoulder...
He emptied a cup of tobacco spit water onto my windshield. It was disgusting. He sped off ahead of me and at that point I didn't really care. It was gross.
Traffic wasn't too bad at the airport. I ended up getting there an hour and a half before my flight. I usually like two or more hours, but I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal to have less.
Little did I know...
I had checked in the day before so I didn't have to bother at the gate. I had my laptop and a backpack of clothing. I expected to breeze through security, but I wasn't that lucky. My backpack got flagged for searching.
They started unpacking it and asking if I had weapons or sharp objects. I didn't think I had anything of consequence, so I wasn't worried. The screener cleared out every pocket and area of my backpack. He took out my underwear, clothes, books, toothpaste, etc. In the last section he searched, he found a little Coleman leatherman that I had in there.
I didn't know I had it; I just grabbed the bag from my car before packing. The screener asked if I wanted to check my bag or leave the tool behind. I elected to leave it behind because I didn't want to bother with going to baggage claim after landing.
After that he let me go, thankfully.
I double checked the gate number for my flight as my items were being displayed... the reader board said it was at gate B2. My ticket said S2, but that info was outdated. I trekked to the B2 gate and looked at the reader board there.
Nope, I misread the display. My flight was still at S2. I didn't see the signs that pointed to the tram I could take from right where I was to the S concourse, so I went to main terminal and caught the tram to the S concourse. I was super relieved when I saw someone from work. She pointed out a group that was suppose to leave on a 7:30 am flight. Ours was at 8:30. Their flight had been delayed until 10. I chatted with them and wandered around until my flight left. The flight went ok. I was near the front and had my own little tv monitor.
I found out they had games on the screen that were $5 for all of the games... I bought in and started playing Book Worm. I got quite a few levels up when the system restarted. From that point on, the system would restart each time I opened the game. So, that was a waste of money. I was able to make a playlist of songs. That was pretty entertaining.
Getting off the plane wasn't an issue. I was a bit worried when I didn't see the coworker who was supposed to be on my flight right away, but she was in the back and took a while getting off.
The mall was huge and not well cooled. I was rather tuckered when we reached the taxi. My laptop bag weighed over 15 pounds and doesn't have wheels. aaaaaand it was hot.
We got in the cab and had a 45 ish minute ride to the hotel.
We stayed at the Hilton Conference center. It was quite the impressive hotel. It wasn't as nice as the Westin, but it was a lot better than anything I'd stay in on my own dime.
One benefit of over half of the group being delayed was that I got to go swimming. That was a load of fun.
I cleaned up and got ready for dinner. We went to a place calling Shillings on the Square. I had a really good steak there and had a few cocktails. I also had escargot for the first time. I was really good. Some of the people from the company we were visiting joined us for dinner. They had some really interesting work/industry information. It was really cool to chat with them. I also got to know the people I travelled with a bit better. This was the second trip we all went on afterall.
I ended up going out afterwards with Justin. He wanted to see the town and it sounded like fun to me. We were temporarily joined by Danielle. We went to a place called Hemmingways. I had my first Flaming Dr. Pepper drinks. Though, I didn't have a flaming one, it's against Georgia state law according to the bartender. It still tasted pretty good though.
After Hemmingways closed the action went to MacCracken's. There was a dude playing the guitar and another dude playing the violin. Justin liked the music so he bought the guy a drink.
Then started the interesting segment of drinking. Violin guy (I think he was called Jeff, Ben, or Tim, I can't remember which) started chatting with us. Just got caught up in a magic card trick guy aaaaaaaaaand I was chatting with violin guy. He totally started macking on me. Well, by macking I mean asking if I was Justin's friend, relative, lover, coworker... then he kept doing that stare at you while you're looking then keep staring when you look back thing. Anyways, it wasn't a creepy thing, just something I didn't want to reciprocate. I started to pay more attention to the magic trick guy. He was interesting. Anyways, violin dude moved on to a fatter, less attractive chick. I was amused. Justin and I had a few laughs about it.
I didn't get to bed until 2 or later. I was a bit intoxicated and couldn't fall asleep. 6:30 came pretty quick and I was totally tired and... a bit hungover.
I held it together pretty well that day. I was a bit sick to my stomach and I had a huuuuuuuuuuuuge headache. I ended up learning a lot and was able to ask a lot of questions that I needed to.
I didn't each much breakfast and the lunch would have exacerbated my headache. I felt on the verge of being sick to my stomach when we left to the airport.
I made it to the concourse I thought was mine... I got a fruit smoothie to bed my stomach. It was actually a real help. I didn't feel quite so sick afterwards. I settled in for a 3+ hour wait. After nearly an hour I started to look up from my laptop and saw that all of the airline info was for another airline. I checked my ticket and it said to go to D8A not A8... which is where I was.
So, I started to go back to the tram and stopped to buy a book on my way. It was one of those low blood sugar, not really paying attention, the title looked cool purchases. It was called "becoming an inspired leader" or something like that. During the tram ride I discovered that it was a religious base business book. I can appreciate that line of thought, but I wanted something less spiritually based.
When I reached the correct concourse, I spotted a bookstore. I walked in and was looking at the sections. After a few moments, one of the sales people asked if I was ready to check out. I had to explain that I bought the book in another concourse. She didn't push the matter, but she watched me go through the store. Oh well, I didn't find anything else I liked.
After that I settled into the correct gate and got a bite to eat. I was starving.
When my plane finally boarded, I got on and started to doze off right away. There wasn't anything of interest about the flight. I had a connecting flight in Houston. Thankfully, my next gate wasn't far. After my snafu in Atlanta, I had the wisdom to look up the layout of my arrival and departing gate.
The final leg of my flight was pretty calm. I dozed off and watched Monsters versus Aliens when it came on. I liked the movie; it was really cute.
I was glad when we landed, I needed to stretch. I didn't have a hard time finding my car again. I paid for my parking and it said I was gone for 1 day, 17 hours and 23 minutes...
