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I'm on a short break right now before I head out to the airport for my trip to Florida. Hopefully I don't forget anything. *looks in bag*
I still have a bunch of stuff to do before I go, so I better get cracking..
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Hmm, I think I'm finished doing most of the stuff I was planning to do before I left. Oh boy. I think this is the first time I've been in the air since 9/11. Wow. I'm not in the air much at all am I?
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I woke up late as expected, but I still had plenty of time to do stuff that I wanted to do, namely:
Too bad I didn't succeed in that last one too well. I forgot my nightwear at home (yet again). I've got a pretty bad track record for bringing my PJs. Well, I guess I'm sleeping in the buff! (At least I'll be in my own room.)
On the way to the airport, I was speeding along the highway and noticed a van that was trying to pass on the outside lane. I decided to let him pass before I switched out of the passing lane, but the van suddenly slowed down. I couldn't figure it out until I looked ahead and noticed a cop car parked under a bridge. Doh! By the time I slowed down, it was already too late. So I decided to go slow for a while just incase they decide to send someone after me. Despite that mental lapse, I made it to the airport without a hitch and found my way to the airport parking lot. It took me a while to find a parking spot. I eventually passed by one so I turned on my blinker and put the car into reverse only to see the car behind me take that spot! I was in no mood to argue, so I just continued on and eventually found a whole section of empty spots. When I parked, I got out of the car and realized that I was basically at the terminal entrance! Lucky!
I was pretty early, and it didn't take me long to go through customs, although my nail clipper was confiscated =(. So I spent the extra time working on some code.
The flight was uneventful, although as a flying neophyte, I was still amazed by the view out of the window so that soaked up fifteen minutes of my time. The plane itself was a bit cramped, and I was sitting next to a big black guy. He seemed nice, and at least he didn't smell. (I can't say the same for me however. *sniffs*)
I made it to Atlanta twenty minutes late, and when I got there, I realized that I only had twenty minutes to make it to my connecting flight, so I hurried to my gate (T4). When I started walking down there (from terminal C) and came across a rail shuttle stop. That's when I realized how far terminal T was, so I quickly boarded the train and hoped I'd be in time.
I got there near the end of the boarding time, and as I was going to go in, I was taken to the side to be checked over by security. They went through my bags (throughly this time) and even told me to take off my shoes. Crazyiness, but I guess if you were an American, you'd be crazy too huh?
I ended up flying coach again, but I didn't have anyone sitting next to me so I still had a lot of space to myself. The flight was a bit shorter than the first one, and I decided to spend my time watching the inflight TV show on their LCD screens. What a waste. I forgot what it was called. It had something to do with a matress, but I couldn't hear it through the earphones because there was a lot of popping static. The flight was pretty short, and we were on the ground soon after we got into the air. The view from the sky was very nice. Looking at all of the street lights from the air was a fantastic view of the city, and the thunderstorm on the horizon painted a very exciting background for the landing.
I didn't have much trouble finding the rental agency and I picked up the car. The first thing I noticed when I got outside was the humidity. I walked out of the airport and my glasses immediately steamed up. It was so humid I thought I could swim to the car, and this was at eleven at night too! I'd hate to see what the weather was like during the day.
The car I got was a brown 2002 Mazda 626 with only 5000 miles on it. What I noticed the most was the fact that it had Massachusets plates riding on it. What the hey? Oh well, whatever. I tried to get out of the airport, but took the wrong turn and ended up going back into the airport. This gave me time to try to adjust the mirrors and then realizing that I didn't know how to adjust the mirrors and kicking myself for not adjusting them earlier when the car was parked and learning that I should make sure everything is in order before I left. In any case, I eventually got out, and promptly drove like some tourist who didn't know where he was or where he was going. (Well, I did know where I was going, I just didn't know how to get there.) The one bad thing about arriving at night was that it was much harder to see any street signs and distinguishing objects. This meant that I either made many wrong turns (which I did) or had to drive slow (which I did).
Fortunately for me, I made it to the Hotel without making it to the other side of the bay.
When I went to check in, the attendant told me that my reservation had been canceled. After digging a bit, he told me that it was canceled at six when they didn't expect me to come. (Why not I wonder?) My flight wasn't scheduled to arrive until after ten so I have no idea how this cancelation was arranged. Anyhoo, they didn't have any non-smoking single king rooms so I chose a double bed instead of a smoking king. I got my security cards (why did they give me two?) and I was starving since only snacks were offered on the flight in. The first flight had crackers and smoked cheese (which was really good actually) while the other flight had pretzels (not so good). It didn't fill me up at all.
So I drove off to look for a place to eat and to find out where the office was. I went along the main street that I was on looking for any restauarants. I came across a steakhouse which looked kind of deserted, but I checked it anyway. Hmm, it closed at eleven. No problem, I walked over to an Italian restaurant and looked in. Closed at eleven. *scratches head* Fine, I decided to drive until I found another restaurant. I drove up and down the street and found another steakhouse which happened to be closed at eleven of course. (Do you sense a recurring motif?) Eventually, I gave up looking for a decent restaurant and stopped off at the Waffle House for some waffles. At least the service was friendly.
I got back to the hotel late and fired up the TV. I was surprised to see that the movie that they had on was "Snatch". (More specifically, the end of "Snatch") Geez, I've never seen the movie and then I bump into it twice in as many days. I also heard something about some group that was studying antigravity (which I'll have to look into later).
The water there was pretty soft. I felt so slimy after I washed my face, I wanted to wash myself again! Or at least to scrape it all off. Ick.
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