The Varsity

Always the tourist, i couldn't resist a chance to do touristy things yesterday after I got done extolling my many virtues to folks with jobs to fill. Jen has a friend from UN-L from her fun times advising our delegations to MACURH and NACURH so they ate lunch at the Hard Rock yesterday, which made me sad because they serve Pepsi and I couldn't go :( But they had called the hotel concierge to see when the Aquarium closed, and they said it was open till 8. So once we were all done with conferency things we started out toward the Aquarium. In the pouring rain. The concierge told Jen and I that it was about 3 short blocks, and would be quicker to walk than drive, and gave us umbrellas. Apparently 3 blocks in Atlanta is equal to about a mile in Missouri. Especially in the rain.

But we made it, and discovered the World of Coca Cola was right there too, as well as the Olympic Park and CNN Headquarters. This was good, because I've been planning our journey to the World of Coke for months, so now we knew how to get there. So we get to the Aquarium entrance, and they interrogate us about having lighters and weapons, wanded us to make sure we were telling the truth, and then asked for our wristbands. That's when we found out that the Aquarium isn't open until 8. They were open for a special party. Grr.

So we stand there for a while while Denise, one of the UN-L crew, who had asked me when we first started out if we knew each other because I looked familiar, called the other person who was joining us in a little bit to have her pick up their rental and come get us. After a while she arrived, we hopped in the car and drove away. We got on the Interstate and passed a sign for The Varsity, which is one of those famous landmark restaraunts that famous people like to go to. We decided we had to go there. So we found it and got in line for our fast famous grease. That's when I decided that Denise looked familiar too, and we finally came up with how--she was a CA in a different building when I was a Hall Director at Iowa State. Random! Anyway, we got our food (chicken strips and fries for me) and ate. And it was super duper good. Then we put on these paper hats and took pictures of ourselves, and I bought a sweatshirt.

Today Jen and I are headed to The World of Coca Cola. We have decided to take a cab. I think we're going to try to hit CNN on Tuesday.

I didn't tell you about our fun getting here. The flight was uneventful, except KCI is the stupidest airport around. They won't let liquid through the security screening, but all of the food places are before the security screening. They have opened these little snack and beverage kiosks in the boarding area though. And I went to buy a water, and it was closed. WTF? And you know how I am, I have to have a drink with me at all times or I go a little crazy. So I was uber cranky. I also had a migraine. Yay.

The signs at the Atlanta airport neglected to tell us we could take the train to the baggage claim, so we walked about halfway there until we realized we could get there using the train we were walking next to. So that was annoying. Our bags were heavy. we each had two 50 pound suitcases and very large carry on items. But because everyone said that the MARTA (the mass transit system in ATL) was the easiest and cheapest way to go, so we went. It seemed like a great idea once we got to the station and hopped on the train. Until right before our stop about a million people got on the train, blocking our way to the doors. We pushed our way through and managed to not get our suitcases stuck in the doors or on the train without us. We made our way to the street, to discover that the hotel is nowhere in our sight. We saw the other hotel (the one that it turns out we should have stayed at), but not ours. So we started walking toward that hotel with all our luggage at 8:30 PM in downtown Atlanta.

We got to the corner, and I'm just pissy as all hell, and finally got tired of Jen looking around saying, well, our hotel is 675. Look for 675. and I said, give me the number for the hotel, i'm calling them. As I'm trying to explain where we are to the hotel people, a lady discovered us and pointed us in the right direction. Then a guy who may or may not be homeless named Clifford discovered us and said he'd walk us to the hotel. He tried to take our bags for us, but we weren't stupid. Except mine kept falling over. And we had to go down this big ole steep hill. Halfway down the hill a man and his wife came up behind us and said they were headed our way, they were just out for excercise, could they take our bags. I said no, and then my bags tipped over again. So I said, what the hell, and let the non-homeless man take one of them. Luckily he didn't steal it. We finally made it. And I told Jen we're taking the hotel shuttle on the way back, I don't care how much it costs.

I'm seeing a lot of people I know that I havent seen in years. Nikki, Kelly, Shannon, and Bridget from GVSU, Scott from WIU, Alicia and Mattie (and then Denise) from ISU, Stan from MWSU, and Michael my boss ran into us last night while we were waiting for Jen's friends to come down. And the conference hasn't even started yet. I love this stuff. I know a couple of other people who will definitely be here later too. Yay!

OK, I gotta go walk about a mile to my candidate box to see if this school finally put in the interview request they said they would. If they haven't, I'll be miffed. And so will my feet.