Goodbye Georgia

Goodbye Little 5 Points

Goodbye Criminal Records

Goodbye Highway 75

Goodbye Variety Playhouse

Goodbye Drunken Unicorn

Goodbye Cedars Taverna

Goodbye Stevie B's

Goodbye Canton Mill Lofts

Goodbye Columns

Goodbye Lincoln Hill

Goodbye Kimball Hall

Goodbye Greenwoods

Goodbye Big Chicken

Goodbye Miss L's

Goodbye Town Center

Goodbye Georgia Dome

Goodbye Turner Field

Goodbye World Of Coke

Goodbye Aquarium

Goodbye Phipps Plaza

Goodbye Lenox Square

Happy Vs. Sad

Reasons I'm Happy To Be Leaving Georgia
it's frigin hot! here

there's no change of seasons
way too much traffic
the overwhelming smog levels

I don't really care for sweet tea

grass?? anyone?? anywhere?? no??

no bands tour here (I don't blame them)

too many cookie cutter strip malls

cannot utilize my vast sweater collection

people still wear Michael Vick jerseys

I'm not a Braves fan, at all

I'm a northern boy

"southern hospitality" is a façade

Reasons I'm Sad To Be Leaving Georgia

our family
good friends

Cedars Taverna

Dr. Jeff Comanor

kudzu is pretty cool

Pittman's Show Us A Good Time

Whew!! What a weekend. We drove out to Hilton Head to spend some time with the Pittman family. It was just the relaxation we were looking for leading into our next few days of packing & moving.

We arrived late Friday night, which didn't stop us from staying up for 3 more hours talking drum corp politics & drama. The Pittman's house is lovely, stylish & cozy. Right up our alley. We were given the guesthouse for the weekend, which beat the hell out of any place I've ever stayed before.

Saturday was spent exploring Hilton Head Island, where we encountered parakeets & painted hermit crabs, ate at the world reknowned Salty Dog, climbed Harbor Town lighthouse, and gee whiz, Fran & Ashley even went for a dip in the ocean.


We settled in at the Tiki Hut, catching some live music & having a few drinks, & discovering a new favorite of mine known as the Frozen Alligator. We also got to see a handful of houses John has designed. Breathtaking, to say the least. If only...

Saturday night was kids night. We hit the town hard and saw Superbad which (sorry, I have to say this) is Supergood! I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. Then we headed back to the guestloft for a little Soul Train, aerobics & pitas in hummus.

Sunday we set out for Savannah. But first we hit the Crab Shack for lunch. Awesome restaurant right on the water. Not only did they have great food, but featured giant bunny rabbits, alligators, dolphins*, & cats galore.



*dolphins not pictured (they were too fast)

Then we arrived in Savannah, which is a great little town. Highlights including but were not limited to, Tybee Island, River Street, ferry boats, candy shops, art galleries (+ giant spiders), and my personal favorite, the park where Forrest Gump sat on his bench & told his life story.

Here's a few more random shots from the weekend.

group shot at Tybee Island


Ashley & I sporting aviators


awesomeness


Fran outside the Pittman's


Travis in Savannah


It was terrific fun & a big Thank You to the Pittmans for opening their home to us. Hopefully we can do it again, real soon.

Parties of the "Going Away" Variation

Less than a week now! Crazy. Crazy things are happening, but there's no time for talking about that right now. Fran is on her way home from work and then we're leaving for a weekend in Hilton Head & Savannah, living it up Pittman-style. Haha. It should be wicked fun.

Anyhow, we've had 2 (count them 2!) going away parties this week. Kinda random last minute gatherings really.

First on Wednesday we had the family version


We had hash brown casserole and ginger cake. Tasty!

Then last night was of the Aspera+ version




This including all the corn chips and mexican cheese dip you could eat and some Dominos pizza. Oh the grandeur!

Both included good-times-had-by-all, reminiscings, laughings, sadnesses, hugs, I love you's, and obviously good-byes. Fran & I are ecstatic about moving on and starting fresh somewhere new, but it's crazy to think of all the memories we get to take with us.

tear

Oh! And we saw a deer on the way home.


deer

Apple Chamomile Tea For Me

Back from DCI's in Pasadena. It was as dramatic as expected, and equally non-stimulating. Had fun hanging with "the gang" and a few old friends, but I'm more than glad to be back home. It's a drastic outta site/outta mind situation.


Hung out with Curtis most of the time. We're both cursed with the "free time" (as you can see) and aren't afraid to utilize it. The area we were staying in was much more mountainous than I had expected but not quite as green & lush. Actually, I felt like we were in the desert most of the time; my favorite.

So here's a group shot of the staff


And one of the team before prelims


Overall, they did great. Gotta hand it to them they really pulled it out this year. Good for them.
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On a different note, I'm worried for the Mets, but I will keep the faith. Only a 3 game lead on the Phillies, and 3.5 on those bastard Braves. There's always the wild card.

Wrld f Ck/lmpc Prk/Knnsw Mntn: 2 Weeks

This is how I feel...


Another relatively uneventful week. Fran's been scanning like a maniac. I made Madison pee herself. I been bulking up the iTunes library. Went from 25,576 songs/105.4 days to 28,851 songs/115 days and I see no sign of it letting up anytime soon.

We did go to the World of Coke last Thursday. That was refreshing. Thanks Elsa!!!




Man it was dark in there huh?

Right outside the Coke Museum is Centennial Olympic Park so we hit that up, real quick. Thanks...uh...Billy Payne.


Oh! And we climbed/drove Kennesaw Mountain. That was something we felt we 'needed' to do before we left the state.




It was hot!

Ok so I guess we haven't been that uneventful.

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We are at the 2 week mark. Things are about to get a little crazy. I leave for DCI finals in the morning. Flight to California at 7am. Ouch. Come back Sunday night round 9. Ouch-er. Then it's off to Buffalo on Tuesday, from there driving to Allentown Pennsylvania to teach on Wednesday (don't ask), then flying home Wednesday night. Trying to get a group of Georgia friends together at the Velez residence for next Thursday. Then we may be going to Savannah to hang with the Pittman's for the weekend.

...Yeah...I know...

So that would bring us to the 20th. Our final week here in Georgia. Our final few days actually. The 23rd is still the date we plan to leave. I'd like to get together with the Kelly's somewhere in there but not sure it's gonna work out. I don't even know if they're in town. But, in any event, round lunchtime on the 23rd, we'll hop in that big blue van, packed with as much of our crap as we can fit in there, plug in the iPod, and head out.

But for now, I leave you with this extremely random and rather disturbing video.

Classic

Barry Bonds just hit his 756th homerun breaking Hank Aaron's record......

....but better than that....

The dude that caught the ball was wearing a METS jersey!!!

Classic

The Final Countdown

August 1st....

22 days & counting

this is the Final Countdown!


The countdown to the day we leave Georgia - FOREVER!!!
We are:
excited
scared
nervous
thrilled
tentative
sad
reflective
drunk
bored
conjuctive
optimistic
worried
numb
weird
aware
curious

Yes, we are those things. Today marks our 'official' final month living in Georgia. I moved here 6 years ago with genuine naivet'e. I have cherished my six years & honestly am unable of an earnest retroflection (is that a word) at this point, 3 glasses of chardonnay in, for this posting to be worth any sort of value.........I'm lost.............ok...............gather.................................................. ......................

It became abundantly clear today that we are leaving. Something about it being less than a month, I keep thinking back to the day I moved here, with Michael Gobiel, in a huge rental, he crashed it, whatever. Our time with this state has come & gone. We are ready to leave. But we have a few things to take care of before we leave this bible belt.
Fran, just today put in her 2 weeks, altho a bit early, nontheless, she gave it. Her goal til the 23rd is to scan as many of her family photos as she can fit into a workday, and search Pottstown for houses.
My goal, nothing really. I got a few gigs, kinda. Buffalo the 14th & 15th. Maybe finals. Really just uploading stuff & making as many covers as I can for Fran to print on her work printer. :) Lowdown dirty. That and packing; again.

We've accumulated a checklist of things we wanna do/visit before we leave. They are as follows:
-Centennial Olympic Park
-Kennesaw Mountain (the actual mountain)
-the World of Coke
-the Pittmans in Savannah
-Stone Mountain
-pictures of things we like (?)

We'll take care of a few of those tomorrow after (hopefully) a quick visit with Dr. Jeff. So stay tuned as we prepare to bid a fond adieu to the state of Georgia. There are many, many people we love here, but the time has come, & we gotta go.

P.S. Fran loves "I Love Lucy"
P.P.S. This post makes Fran think of Gob from Arrested Development.

hahahahhaa