When in Athens, GA...

At the last minute, I decided that a weekend adventure was in order. It seems as though I just can't manage to stay at home for more than one weekend in a row lately. I did stay home the previous weekend and was nearly bored to tears so I swore I would make something happen the following weekend.

Athens, GA is about a four hour drive northeast of Montgomery and you have to pass through Atlanta on the way. Because my car is from a time where the youth of today was a mere twinkle in their fathers' eyes, I made a decision when I got home. My car is not allowed to leave the city limits of Montgomery. In case the engine falls out or something begins to smoke.

I could have borrowed my room mate's 1991 Buick skylark and arrived like a pimp(read old person) in Athens, GA but I opted not to. Instead I decided to spoil myself and rent a car. That way I could pretend that I have a car from this century, even if it would just be for one weekend. I know, I am living a large and in charge lifestyle, somebody stop me!

I arrived in Athens after a nice comfy drive in "my" 2013 Chevrolet Impala, around 7 pm. It was great seeing my longtime friend and also meeting her boyfriend Patrick and super cute kitty Tweep. Since they live close to downtown, we walked to a local restaurant called DePalma's for some pizza.

Downtown Athens feels pretty large considering that the city only has about 100,000 people in it. The city owes most of the bustling activity to the University of Georgia (UGA) located downtown. There is definitely a very young population here. I felt ancient walking around the area.

Saturday was chill yet eventful. Danielle and I had breakfast at home, then hit up some yard sales. I found two really cool Haitian paintings at the first one and a bought a third one for Danielle, all for $5 bucks! Danielle found lots of things for the apartment and some clothes for herself.  We then came back to the house, hung out for a while, had some beer and home made pasta before heading out to a local craft show. Being a crafter myself, I must say that I admire people who participate in craft shows. I have not done it yet and perhaps I will in the future but it just seems like a lot of work for nothing. Many things were beautiful and wonderfully crafted, but I am just not going to buy a $40 mug to drink coffee out of. There is a thin line in the world of handmade between charging for craftsmanship and charging for crap. Some of the items were very ellaborate and took a long time to make I am sure, however it looked terrible. You just cannot expect people to pay outrageous prices for your time when the item is hideous. I was taking mental notes on what NOT to do if I ever decide to partake in an event like this.

DO NOT tell embarassing personal stories about your friends. It is awkward.I don't know you nor your friend and now, I won't know your products either because I walked away from the awkward.

DO NOT forget your business cards. Even if you don't have cards, print or write small notecards with your info so that people can get in touch with you or see more of the things you make and possibly buy them. It also helps if you have an etsy store, a website or even a facebook page where I can look at pictures. E-mailing you and randomly asking to buy something from you is odd. How will I know what I am ordering?

Moving along. After the craftshow we ran some errands around town. Since I had a car and Danielle does not, it only made sense to get some grocery shopping done while I was there. 7 hours later we were done and starving. Patrick suggested a Mexican restaurant that he had been to once before called Tlaloc. If you like authentic Mexican food i.e. not Chipotle, Taco Bell or Moe's, this is the place to go. We ordered a bunch of different combo plates and shared them between us. The customers are mostly Mexican but there was also a few groups of college kids dispersed in the restaurant. As a former resident of Colorado, I know my Mexican cuisine and this hit the spot. I would frequent this place often if I was living in Athens, GA.

Sunday was my travelling day but we had time for a quick brunch downtown at Nona's. It is a New Orleans inspired restaurants with a cool looking dinig area in the back and a bar/bistro area in the fron of the building. we sat in the window so that we had a view over the campous and the people walking by. I had the French Quarter Breakfast which included cheese grits, honey bacon, and three beignets. Three!! I really liked them....The bacon was very sweet, a bit too sweet for me especially since I had beignets too. Did i mention you get three of them?

After brunch it was time for me to head back to the Gump. I really did have a great time and it was great seeing my old friend. We are a little bit older, a bit wiser and if I may say so myself, a bit hotter. 30 is the new 20, I don't care what anyone says.

It's a small world after all

I have never claimed to be particularly "together" in fact, I probably would be inclined to claim the opposite. So in perfect accordance to this statement, I managed to lock my keys, my phone and my computer in my car in the parking lot of my job. Fantastic! One of the wonderful perks of having a 16 year old car with no automatic anything. I meant to unlock the passenger door, get out of the car, walk around and grab my thing on the other side. The plan was perfect, except it was not fool proof. This morning evidently, I was indeed a fool.

So, my morning was not off to a great start. Luckily, I have the best roomies in the world who also happen to have smartphones AND check their facebook. I logged on the office computer and arranged for one of them to come and unlock the car. Success!!

While I was on Facebook, an old friend of mine messaged me on the chat.
To understand how amazeballs what I am about to tell you is, you have to know this person.

Sunset in Malta. I love this island!!

In 1994,when I was 15, I visited the small country of Malta situated in the Mediterranean sea. I was there for an EF English language course. In hindsight this seems like it was a tremendous waste of money as I knew how to speak English already. My brother had spoken English to my mom and I at home since I could remember and I had English class in school 5 hours a week since I was 9 years old. Anywho, off I went.
 At the time, I believe the population was somewhere around 350,000. This small island had one stop light and you could drive around it in a day. I met Danielle there. She was half English, half Maltese. I met her again in 1996, when I came back to the island on vacation with some friends. Somewhere in between there or after, I met her in London for a few hours. We have not stayed in touch per se but we have always stayed friends. I think the last time I saw her in person was in 1999 when I was back in Malta working as a bartender after high school.

Did you ever have one of those friends who you just click with? That person that no matter how long ago you saw each other last, you pick up right where you left off? That is who Danielle is for me. so when she sent me a message, it was like getting a message from any of my friends. i was happy to hear from her and figured she just wanted to say hi.

Well, it turns out that the universe has a weird way of making my life super interesting and coincidental in an amazing way. I am not sure why i got this cool life, but I am glad i did!

It turns out that Danielle now lives in Athens, GA - A 4 hour drive from my house!!!

I am planning to visit her as soon as I can, hopefully within the month. I can't wait to catch up with my friend of 17 years. We have not seen each other in over a decade so I am sure there will be a lot of chattering. Stay tuned for a follow up post with pictures and update!

Cecile