Plans? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Plans!

Thanksgiving was pretty darn cool. We didn't do what we were supposed to do at just about any part of the day, but we made the best of it.

Wednesday, I drove back to Atlanta, after spending the early part of the week at Jameil's crib in Gainesville. The plan was to leave a few hours before her, so I could come clean up my place and get my car registration situation handled. I left about 11:30 when she went to class and was making my way up I 75 when one of my tires blew out on the highway. I was about a mile from the nearest exit, so I rolled on 3 wheels and made it to safety. Long story short, I had to get two new tires at the Wal Mart in Cordele, Ga and my 3 hour head start on Jameil was gone. She met me at the tire shop, and then we headed to my crib. I didn't get a chance to clean up or go to the grocery store, but it was all good. The only place in the area that was open when we got home, was Applebee's, so we got some burgers and some beer and came back to the crib. Didn't work out like I planned it, but no harm, no foul.

Thanksgiving, we were supposed to get up with one of Jameil's friends in the area for dinner. Let me backtrack on this one for a minute. We were invited like 2 months ago, but as the time drew near, there were no details emerging. I kinda felt like it wasn't gonna happen, but I'm a natural pessimist anyway. As Tuesday came by and we still didn't have details, I annoyed Jameil into calling the friend to make sure that it was still gonna happen. She was supposed to send an email with all the details and addresses, etc... Wednesday came, no email. Thursday came... no email. I was like forget it. Let's just go for self. So, we did. We went to Boston Market and got our own Thanksgiving dinner. Chicken, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, green beans, cornbread and an apple pie. We brought it back to the house and ate it with the bottles of wine that we had bought to bring with us to the non existent Thanksgiving dinner. (Incidentally, Jam got a text message around 3 telling us to come eat. By that time, I wasn't trying to go anymore.) It was probably better that it was just the two of us anyway.

Later that night, we were gonna go to Lenox Mall to watch the lighting of the Macy's Christmas tree. It's nothing like the Rockefeller Center tree, but it's pretty big for Atlanta. It started at 7. The plan was to leave at 6. Well, laziness set in and Jam was taking FOREVER to finish washing her hair, so next thing you know it was 6:45. We still went out there, and possibly could have made it to see the lighting, but there were a bunch of people there and it would have taken forever to get out of the parking lot, for 5 minutes, then turn around and leave. Instead, we went to an alternate destination. I found this while Jam was twisting her hair up. I kept it as a surprise. I can never keep a surprise from Jam. Either I spill the beans, or she figures it out. But this time, I managed to hold it in. We drove downtown to Centennial Olympic park. The whole time she's trying to figure out what we are gonna do. It was so cute, she was like a kid on Christmas morning.

What did we do? We went ice skating!!! Or should I say, Jameil went ice skating. I didn't manage to make it off the railing. Yeah, I'm too old and too uncoordinated to be busting my tail. I felt like I was gonna fall at any and every moment. It was not a good look. I got some pictures of Jam skating around the rink that I'll upload when I get a new USB cord for my camera. I somehow managed to break it. Anyway, after we left the rink, we walked around the park, taking pictures of ourselves in front of the big tree and the other holiday decorations. We are so cute! You should see the pictures. LOL

Anyway, so like I said, pretty much nothing went according to plan, but it was great nonetheless. I've been with Jam for 6 straight days and have managed not to annoy her to tears yet. 3 more days!!! We are supposed to hit up the GA Aquarium at some point this weekend, maybe hang out with one of my friends that wants to take me out for my birthday. I'm not even gonna make any plans though. You see how that's been working out for me.

The Obnoxious Vacation Post

You feel that? That's the palpable feeling of relief emanating from me. Why, you ask? CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!!

No more stinkin work for me for 9 days (okay, I'm counting the weekends, but you get my point.) No more work for the rest of the month. I get to enjoy my birthday on Tuesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday and the rest of my time relaxing and doing nadadamthing. I can sleep as long as I want. I can veg out for the whole day if I like. No forcing myself to go to sleep so I can be semi capable at work. Do you hear me? I'M ON VACATION!!!

No real plans to speak of as of yet, but I'm starting it off by going to Florida for a few days. Then I think Jam is gonna come up here when her classes are over. Either way, its cool. You know why? CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!

You may or may not see posts from me in the beginning of the week, since internet service is sporadic down at Jameil's, but if you don't hear from me, have a great week. I'm sure I will... CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!

Okay, obnoxious moment is over. Time to hit the highway. Peace Out!!!

Meet The Parents (and the friends) Part 2

This post is gonna be mad disjointed cuz I'm trying to write it at work while actually working, so forgive me if it seems rushed...

Okay, so where was I? Oh, yeah. We were meeting JoEllen at Fox and Hound for drinks. JoEllen is wild, yo! She was a little ball of energy and jokes. I could definitely see why her and Jameil were friends. The two of them together: It was like hanging out with 2 Jameil's for the price of one. It was so strange and entertaining. During the course of the night, this drunk white guy was trying to get with her...HARD! Dude was mad persistant. He kept interrupting the conversation, joining in our conversations, dude even bought me a drink trying to get me to hook him up. It was hilarious. He also lectured me on what real rap was, a conversation that I humored for awhile. He told me "Jay-Z is a lyrical prophet" asked me if I ever heard of "Common from Chicago" told me that "it's not about black and white anymore, it's about good music. Eminem broke that barrier." I was rolling laughing. At some point, I just laughed dead in his face at something crazy he said. Anyway, we left there and walked back to the hotel and crashed out.



The next day, we were supposed to go to church but overslept. I checked out the hotel, and then we headed crosstown to Jameil's mother's house. It was time to meet the parents. Well, one of them. She was cooking for us and Jameil's friends. When we got there, she was still at church, so we watched some hung out and watched some Olympics and looked at more old pictures. When her mom got there, Jameil introduced us and it was cool. No big deal. I wasn't nervous or anything. The kitchen was smelling great with all that food. She made us a feast. Chicken, turkey, mac and cheese, cabbage, this dressing that was out of this world. Man, it was good! Jameil gets a phone call from her father, who was in town. Now, he is coming over and bringing Jameil's brother too! Wow, okay, I get to meet both parents in one day. I wasn't expecting all that. LOL. Mother's don't make me nervous, but it had been a good 15 years since I had dated a girl that actually had a father involved in her life. I know that's pretty sad. I shook off any nervousness and luckily it was only a brief interrogation, so that was cool. The other friends were there too and this happened, which was funny to me and I'm glad she wrote it so I didn't have to add yet another paragraph to this post. LOL

I wound up not leaving until 11:30 PM to head back home. I didn't want to leave, but figured that I should actually work a few days this month. It was a great trip and we get to do it again in 2 days. Going to Gainesville with Jam to help her get settled at school. We were supposed to stop in Savannah, to get our tourist on but I don't think we are going to have time. Oh well, I guess she'll have to meet my family at a later time. Lucky her! LOL

Meet The Parents (and the friends) part 1

I guess I'll do the recap cuz Jameil doesn't have Internet right now. I'm sure she can do it much better than I could, but here goes nothing:

I left Atlanta around 5:30 in the morning. I had the bright idea that I would just leave before I got any sleep. It wasn't really intentional, but I was too wired to sleep, and by the time I got sleepy, it was time to go. The ride was about 4 hours, which normally would be a walk in the park, but since I had been up for over 24 hours, I had to stop a couple times and run around a gas station parking lot to keep myself awake. I got to Jameil's mother's house around 10. We chilled for a minute, looking at old pictures and stuff, then I accompanied Jam to run her errands. We did some major riding around the city, and I was so glad I wasn't driving, cuz I was about to fall out from lack of sleep. It was cool being with her, even though we were just doing regular mundane taking care of business stuff. Besides, I couldn't check into my hotel until 3. I stayed at the Dunhill in Uptown Charlotte, which looks really cool on the Internet, but was just aiight. The room was kinda small, and there was some renovation going on that I didn't expect, but was cool regardless. It was in a good central location downtown, oops, I mean uptown, and everything was in walking distance. I got about an hour of sleep, before Jameil's homegirls came over to pop bottles and interrogate me. LOL.

Meagan and Tasha came through around 7:30, 8:00 and we all talked and drank that bottle of champagne, Jam had been holding on to since she found out she was going to grad school. I was mad tired, but tried not to be the anti social dude I usually am. Truth be told, I was more nervous to meet her friends, than I was to meet the parents. More on that later. Anyway, after a while the 4 of us went out to eat at this Mexican restaurant. I'm pretty sure this is the spot, Cantina 1511, but I was not really paying attention on the ride there, cuz I was sleep in the car. I know I musta looked-ed crazy falling asleep so much, but dangit, I was tired. LOL. The food was crazy good, and they had fresh guacamole which made Jam happy, which made me happy. I got this huge chimichanga thing, that I still got leftovers from and just may be today's lunch, if I remember to bring it to work with me. Laughing, drinking, talking etc..etc..etc.. and then we went out to a club.

For real, when we got to the club, I was having Savannah flashbacks. It wasn't hood, per se, but it was definitely country. What was the club called?? Oh yeah, The Savoy. They don't have a website. There was all manners of coonery going on there. I'll let Jam post them pictures, since they are on her camera, but suffice it to say, the 4 of us were the flyest cats in the spot. I felt like I should have been rocking a white tee and some J's to fit in. For the most part, we just chilled in the back at a table talking and laughing (at people). My personal favorite was the DJ who kept berating everybody for singing the radio version of The Dreams "I Love Your Girl" instead of the dirty version, all while playing...THE RADIO VERSION! Also, I seem to remember getting cursed out over music all night, but I was sleepy, so I may have been imagining that. LOL. Also, they had that club picture thing going on in the back, and people were posing in front of pictures of champagne bottles and dice. It was hilarious to me. Got back to the room around 3 and crashed out. Minus the hour of sleep I got while waiting for Jameil's homegirls to come through, I had been up for about 42 hours.

Woke up the next morning around 10 and ordered some breakfast from room service. It came from the restaurant attached to the hotel. Yo, that French toast was crazy good. Anyway, we procrastinated for awhile longer, watching When Harry Met Sally, which Jameil had been trying to get me to watch for what seems like ages. When we finally got up and at 'em, we took a walk in the downtown area. I mean, uptown area. Why Charlotte gotta be all different? The area with the skyscrapers is downtown to me, but they call it uptown. Anyway, immediately outside the hotel, they were having an Irish Pride Festival. We walked through and saw some drunken behavior, but didn't hang out too long. We walked around uptown for awhile and then stopped at Fuel for lunch. My chicken parm calzone was hot and Jam's buffalo chicken pizza was good too. Did some more walking around (noticing a theme? walking and eating were a big part of this weekend!) and checked out this photo gallery thing called the Light Factory on the way back to the hotel. Had to make sure we were back in the room in time for Jam to watch Project Runway. Okay, fine, I watched it too. LOL

Later that night, we went back out for another walk around the city in search of some food. We ended up at this spot, but the wack azz waitress never came and took our order, so we bounced. Walked around some more before deciding on Rock Bottom Brewery. The food was good, the service sucked again, but the beer had me not really caring that much. Another one of Jameil's friends, JoEllen called and we made plans to meet up for some drinks across the street at Fox and Hound. I just realized this is getting mad long, so I'll finish the recap a little later. I just got back in town, and I probably should get some sleep before it's time to go to work. I didn't even get to the Meet the Parents stuff, but I'll do that later. Happy Monday!

Back...

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I was gonna be incognegro for a couple of days. When I was on IM, I was infamous for doing that all the time. I would just leave mid conversation and then like 12 hours later, remember that I didn't even tell anybody I was gone. No BRB. No Hold Up. Just disappearing in to the ether and then coming back like no one would even notice. This time it was intentional, but, I'm back now. I'll give you all the sordid details later, but suffice it to say I had a good couple of days, and wish it could have lasted longer. But for now, I'm back... Did you miss me? Any answer other than the affirmative will be considered a personal affront and punishable by me bringing down my considerate blog wrath upon you. LOL. Going to take a nap now, and then check out all your blogs later this evening. Hope your week was good! Mine sure was!!! One!

A Tourist In My Own City

When people find out that I'm from Savannah, they usually react the same way. "Ohh, I love Savannah. It's so pretty." To which I respond, "Yeah, I actually hate Savannah." They can never understand my antipathy for the city in which I spent my formative years. To me, Savannah isn't the beautiful tourist town that they see. It's a place where all eyes are on you at all times. The police watch you. The thugs watch you. Random people in the mall watch you. It's like everybody wants to see what you got, and hate on you if they ain't got it. And it's mad hood too. There are certain areas that are hood and many people that fit that description. Add to that, the racist tendencies (even though the city is predominantly Black, the wealth is definitely not equally distributed), the lack of career opportunities (as a college graduate, I couldn't find a job. The last job I was offered before I moved to ATL was at a sugar packing plant for $6.25 an hour) and the steaming hot weather (I have nothing else to elaborate on, but since I put parentheses on the first two, I thought I should do it on this one too LOL) and I'm done.

I had some good times in the S-A-V, mostly in college and the years immediately following, but I could never move back. For one, I don't smoke weed anymore, and that is what made it fun. LOL And two, I'm kinda used to big city life now. Whenever I go to Savannah, I feel like I have taken a trip in a time warp. Nothing much seems to change. When I was in the club in June, the people looked exactly like they looked in 98 when I used to club hop 3-4 times a week. For the most part, the same landmarks and buildings are there. The only thing different is that S.CA.D is developing the downtown area. That makes sense in a city that's built on tradition, but every now and then it would be nice to see something new.

I've been gone for about 8 and a half years, and I think its about time that I come to terms with the city. Time to stop hating. I was there a couple of weeks ago, and it was cool. But I'm gonna take it one step further. I'm gonna see the Savannah that everybody else loves. I'm a do it like a tourist. I was looking online tonight and planning out an itinerary for later this summer. I'm gonna see some of the sights that I took for granted in my 14 years there. I've been to River Street quite often, but I've never taken the Riverboat tour. I'm a do that. I often drove around the Squares, but never took the time to appreciate their beauty. I've never been to some of the most famous restaurants in Savannah, but I'm gonna do that too. Hopefully by the time I'm done, I'll have a new appreciation of the Seaport City.

Anyone wanna come with me? LOL