Friday, March 18, 2005

Love the south

I arrived in Atlanta at 5:05 as scheduled, and tried to fly standby for a 6:30 flight instead of my 7:30. They were overbooked by 13 people, so I gave up and headed to the Red Brick Brewery bar. For those that don't know, the Red Brick Brewery was located four blocks down and one over from my condo in Atlanta.

This was the exact same bar where I met Sharleene (in the middle). Long story short: Sharleene and I were both trying to fly standby to New York City. We ended up at the bar, drinking, checking the gates every hour for each flight. We eventually were rejected from three straight standbys, so got into line for my flight, an hour before hers. The gate cops went through my bags while she was yelling at the gate agent for not being on the standby list. When I got to the head of the line, the gate guard lady wouldn't let me in. When I asked why, she said, "This flight is going to TAMPA." Moral of story: Red Brick Brewery has kickass beer. And Sharleene is still one of my close friends =)

So anyway, I end up there today. I ordered my favorite, the ale, and the man next to me starts talking to me. He was from Mississippi, went to Mississippi State, and was on his way to Tampa (ironically enough) to go hunting with some of his friends. We talked for about an hour, with him showing me pictures of his wife and "kids" (two labradors), and me showing him pictures of my kid (scully) and my arch-nemisis (snow). I loved his accent, his attitude, and the endless string of Southern-boy compliments.

He left, and another guy sat down. Before long, the whole bar was all talking. It was way too much fun.

Later that day...
Ahem..my blogging was rudely interrupted by my flight taking off. Like having this computer on is going to bring down the whole damn plane. Anyway, the bad thing about spending a layover at a bar is the resulting bathroom trips once in flight. I went once when I got on, but as soon as they turned off the Fasten Seat Belt sign, I was ready to go again. Needless to say, the couple next to me (I'm at the window) HATES me.

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