my first atlanta weekend, part the second
i last left you in my fascinating tale of my weekend atlanta activities the night of the joys of spreading, catching and sharing disease. i mean, the joys of female faith. after escaping the traffic around the phillip's arena and the cnn building and checking out east atlanta the next morning, tommy and i discovered the joys of an establishment native only to atlanta: target.
don't worry, i won't actually devote an entire entry to target. THOUGH I COULD. *and* i have a super walmart right around the corner from me which i checked out last night, so just consider yourself lucky i'm not a ginormous retail store blogger lady, cause whoo boy, i could blog about super walmarts for days. especially ones that sell large quantities of chitlins.
really, the rest of the weekend really just involved walking around virginia highland, having dinner at dish, also located in virginia highland, which was quite good. may i recommend the prosciutto-wrapped pork filet. there ain't nothing like meat wrapped in meat.
after dinner, tommy and i headed for a few beers (well, a few in my case; he was kind enough to DD so he wasn't exactly boozing it up. man, DDing is a drag. curse you and your driving, atlanta!) to hand in hand, a bar up the street that jeanie had recommended. best part: it's got wifi! i can totally see myself going in some evening for a pint and some internet.
no, wait, i lied - the best part wasn't the free wifi. it was the two sweet southern georgia women sitting next to us who, out of nowhere, struck up a friendly conversation with us about the heat of the bar (they have an outdoor patio and keep the doors open to it at all times, and the inside certainly didn't seem air conditioned), a conversation which ultimately led to talk of the navy (as it somehow often does what with my brother recently being deployed and whatnot) which eventually led to the REALLY BEST PART of the evening: saluting sea lions.
"when i was married to the navy guy," the first lady drawled (she had recently informed us she was once married to a navy guy) "it was a blast because you see, his job was to train sea lions. and dolphins."
at this news, tommy and i gave each other excited glances.
"you see," she went on, "it was cause the navy, they use the sea lions and dolphins for searching out land mines and the like. and his job was to train them to do this."
at this my head exploded, because that is the coolest job ever.
"and it was such a sight to see," she continued. "those little sea lions, you would go right up to them, and you would salute them all regular-like, and they would just bring those little fins of theirs right up to their forehead and salute you back."
my head exploded again.
"and then when one of those sea lions died, i tell you, all the boys up there just cried and cried, because that sea lion was just like one of them."
then i might have cried a little.
and thus ended the best night ever. beer, thunderstorms, a boyfriend who fetches the car for you in aforementioned thunderstorms, and sea lions and dolphins in sailor caps:
i wish i could take credit for this image, but it's actually from the fine folks over at the US navy marine mammal program, which i'm happy to report is in san diego where my brother will be stationed, so i'm totally going to try to get him to hook a sister up.
PS: as a totally-unrelated addendum, i must add a recommendation for ria's bluebird cafe. before driving tommy to the airport, we stopped there for breakfast on the advice of jeanie, and it was wonderful. totally hipster and cute and delicious.
UPDATE: woah. that might be the best picture ever. i love how the dolphin is all nonchalant-like .he's like, yeah, i'm flipping several feet out of the water, and i may have some sort of awesome laser device strapped to my fin, but, you know, whatever. no biggie.
Comments
The sea lions are awesome.
I went to a Wi-Fi-enabled bar like that in San Francisco. It was very odd -- everyone was sitting around drinking their pints, completely transfixed by their laptops and not talking. It made me think of that line from The Breakfast Club: "Demented and sad, but social". People should at least put their IDs on the backs of their computers or something so you can IM the cute boy across the room.
just remember if you ever go swimming with dolphins to not make the female ones jealous and mad and ready to kill you (search for susan sarandon's experience if you don't know about it).
thank god you said "virginia highland" and not "virginia highlands." no "s." here you are in town only a couple days and you're already showing up the locals.
people around here can't seem to understand that the neighborhood is named after an intersection, not a mountainous region.
tq - would you kill me if i told you that i originally did type it with the S, but then thought about it, googled it, and fixed it? i'm trying!
c - there's nothing wrong with a little error checking.
you see," she went on, "it was cause the navy, they use the sea lions and dolphins for searching out land mines and the like. and his job was to train them to do this."
land mines, sea mines, same thing! dolphins can operate in the desert, don't you know.
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