feel the southern breezes and the southern wind

one of my high school friends got married this weekend, so i went down to the atl for some free food and ketubah signing action (i was a witness).

i arrived late evening at hartsfield airport and was immediately reminded that the pace is different down here. people wander aimlessly through the whole airport. it's almost like they're trying not to get anywhere. there is absolutely no concept of "stand on the right" on escalators. it's more like: "stand on the left, put your bag on the step above you on the right and talk on the phone the whole ride". not that it particularly slowed me down, i was in no mood to walk up the escalator, but it was strange to see people scattered willy-nilly all over the stairs.

georgia welcomed me home with a thunderstorm. it was pretty cool seeing the lightning from the plane. i was hoping we'd get hit so i'd have something interesting to tell people when i got there: "yeah, the plane was struck by lightning, it was rad". no such luck.

saturday, i'd arranged to meet some friends from college "at that restaurant in the strip mall that didn't used to be there by glenridge". none of us could remember the name, but somehow we all knew where it was. it turned out to be the "new york deli". i warned them as we walked in that they would have to listen to me complain about how "that's not what xyz is like in new york". and i did. southern rye bread is bizarre. and not in a good way. they were out of corned beef hash (until the day i die i will not understand how this happened at 1130 on a saturday. and surely there's a publix or kroger nearby, go buy some!), and the waitress came over to tell me this and offered nothing in return. "we're out of corned beef hash" and that was the end of it. i think she didn't like me because i quizzed her on their tea selection. she brought out orange pekoe and i said i just wanted a black tea and what brand was it because i don't like lipton. blah blah, apparently she did not enjoy this.

it was kind of funny because the walls were decorated with brooklyn dodgers shit and pictures of the bridge. oh, and what we call the "lumberjack" breakfast up here is called "the great bambino" down there. go figure.

that night was the wedding. it was super swank and really fun. they had a rad band that cured me of having "boogie oogie oogie" stuck in my head for about three weeks when they played it. and when the couple were hoisted up for the Hora, they were both wearing the, "i think this is fun but i also think i might die rather soon" look on their faces reminiscent of someone's first ride on the Cyclone. they had a "martini" bar with an ice sculpture luge, which hadn't been properly measured and spewed fruity cocktails all over the place, usually missing the martini glass entirely. there were also deeeelicious lamb chops as hors d'ouvres, which i didn't mind whilst i was eating, but many of the black-tie wearing attendees found themselves walking around with lamb bones, wondering what the hell to do with them. i still managed to eat about 10.

i ran into specific gravity's own tampson at the wedding and we are soon to be launching (pending name availability) teamblog for your reading (and possibly listening) pleasure. we traded blog love and talked about rss feeds until we realized we were at a wedding talking about rss feeds and that we are nerds.

one of the highlights of the evening, at least for me, was when i lost a bobbie pin down the back of my dress and my best friend spent about three minutes with her hand down the back of my dress, whilst we were on the dancefloor--and dancing--fishing it out. (she was successful.)

we foraged for late-night drinks after the wedding ended and ended up at the bar of the palm. not my first choice generally, but it was in the same building as the wedding (read: the westin) and it was open. the bride & groom eventually made their way down and were very sweet and excited. and then they went, in their wedding gear, to dantana's, which used to be a Bennigan's. it was pretty fucking hot.

sunday there was a great deal of shopping. le crueset has an outlet and it is the closest thing to heaven i've seen.

sunday night a friend and i went to daddy d'z (nuts) for some bbq. it was pretty good but the chicken was dried out. it reminded me that i want to make some brunswick stew one of these days. just have to find the right recipe.

then we drove through atlantic station. it turns out the fireworks i'd seen from the plane (also v. cool) were for the grand opening of this monstrosity. it's the most ridiculous, frightening thing i've ever seen. a fake town, a mall you can live in, a place where nothing is real. it's real fucked up, people, that's about all i can say.

there was more shopping monday followed by tapas dinner. tuesday was the victory lap to WaHo, where everything kicked ass (including the "casa de waffle" hot sauce) except the fact that they stuck the waho logo into all the waffles. which is just kinda weird. then mommy made me a roast beef dinner and it was yumsters.

finally i got on the flight back to the place where they stand on the right and walk like there's somewhere to go. i sat down next to the window an d started playing with the piece of trash jammed under the shade. i was all excited that it would be a communique from the previous flight's passenger with all sorts of classified and interesting information, like who killed jfk and where babies come from; but when i finally dislodged it, the shade slammed shut. someone had stuck it up there to hold it open, and i replaced it. i then had a hearty chuckle (much to my seatmate's surprise and confusion) thinking about the people who would inevitably get on the plane, pull out the piece of crumpled up magazine, realize what it was there for and jam it right back.

i am pretty sure i am one of the first people to see snow this season. as we were landing, we passed through a mid-level snowstorm that clearly melted to rain by the time it hit the city. it was purty.