Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on January 10, 2010

I’m back from Atlanta. Did you know I went to Atlanta this past weekend? If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that. And yes, I was just there a month ago. I’m beginning to think my boss is going to think something is up because I’ve been there three times since the end of September. And would go back tomorrow if I could.

I went to visit Ali. But this time, I had others with me. Slynnro and Metalia also were in town and it was like a BlohHer 2009 reunion! And it was fantastic! And also too short and I already miss those guys terribly.

I’m not generally a nervous traveler. I’ve actually gotten really blase about the whole traveling thing and have had the habit of showing up to the airport with just enough time to check my bag, head through security and grab a bottle of water before final boarding call. It’s not intentional, but something generally happens that makes me later than I want and then I panic until I’m sitting in the seat, knowing I WILL NOT miss my flight.

For instance, this past Thursday when I left, we had a bit of a snow storm. I was incessantly checking the weather like a fiend the days leading up to my flight because I didn’t want to be delayed. I was only going to be in Atlanta for a few short days and I didn’t want flight delays to cut into that time. The weather forecast the night before I left was for 6-10 inches of snow in Chicago and up to 2 inches of snow in Atlanta. I went to bed figuring I wasn’t going to make it to Atlanta because when it snows there, the city shuts down. (I HAVE NOW WITNESSED IT FIRST HAND, TRUST ME.)

The forecast in Chicago was for an inch or two overnight Wednesday (nothing to us Chicagoans) and then the heavy stuff was going to start falling Thursday afternoon. This left a PERFECT window for me to leave on time for my 11 AM flight. But when I woke up to pee early Thursday morning around 2 AM and didn’t see one snowflake on the ground, I knew that I wasn’t going to be so lucky.

When I finally got up around 7:30 Thursday morning, I looked out and saw a lot of snow and it was still coming down. The traffic lady on the radio was all “so, be prepared to just keep sitting in your car. You ain’t going anywhere any time soon.”

All I thought was “GREEEEAT.”

My original plan to drive and park near an EL station was blown out of the water when I saw and heard what the roads were like. Plan B was to walk to the bus and then bus to the EL and then transfer to the Orange line and take it to Midway. In my head, I gave myself a little over an hour. My head apparently forgot that the roads were slow, hence, the BUSES WOULDN’T BE MOVING SO FAST.

Thankfully I made it to the airport an hour before my flight. I went through security, walked and got something to eat and headed to my gate. As I got there, they said they were boarding everyone now to try and get out of Chicago earlier before the BAD snow came. Thank God I didn’t stop to take a dump.

We didn’t actually leave early. But we left sooner than we should have, seeing as they not only had to de-ice the plane, they had to de-snow it.

That is not just a white wing. It is a wing of an airplane with two inches of snow on it.

Thankfully in all my Atlanta travels, I’ve learned they pad about 40 minutes onto the flight time, since you’re flying into the world’s busiest airport. So even though we left late, we still landed on time.

Just in time for it to start snowing in Atlanta. That white shit follows me EVERYWHERE!

The snow wasn’t too bad in Atlanta, but since it is Atlanta and they have hills and no plows or salt, it was bad. They had a snow/ice day on Friday, which didn’t please Ali so much since the kids had just gone back to school after two weeks off for the holidays. (Even though it is a Jewish school.) So the plans of spending the day leisurely shopping and lunching and sipping cocktails were thwarted since we’d have three kids in tow.

Not that I mind. I love Ali’s kids as if they were my own, or at least related to me. It just makes Ali’s life a little more stressful. I’m sure she enjoys her days to herself so she can do things like her job and other stuff.

But we had a fabulous weekend. We went shopping. We had good food. I became addicted to Words With Friends on the iPhone, sitting around the table playing games with each other and laughing at our choice of words. (Jill is acceptable, but android is not. And apparently I am not familiar at all with most of the words in the English language that are more than two letters.) We laughed so much our stomachs hurt and then we just kept laughing.

Emily entertained us with her damn good modeling skills (she is 8 and better than most Top Model contestants. She can SMISE!). Josh was spending just another day surrounded by ALL WOMEN and has perfected the girl tune-out at a very young age. And Bella was well, Bella.

Dear internet, this is what I teach your kids when you let me around them. But this led to Ali showing her kids clips of Monty Python, so I’m pretty sure I am a genius.

I was sad to come home. It’s been over 24 hours and I’m still sad and missing everyone. I know I say this every time I come back from Atlanta, or when I hang out with my friends from the interweb, but there is nothing like the friendships I have made through blogging. I came home OVERJOYED at the friends I am lucky enough to have from writing a silly little blog. I don’t know how I could have ever had a complete life without some of these people in it.

Thankfully Bella gave me something to remind me of all this, and it is hanging proudly on my fridge.

Categories: All Things Blogging, Gotta Have Friends, Travel, Weather dot com
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