My trip to ATL

I meant to post about my trip to Atlanta a week ago... but I've been having a very lazy past two weeks. I've been falling asleep at random times in the afternoon, only to wake up at 12 or 1am, then continue to stay up until 5 or 6am, and then fall back asleep and then in turn go into work late.

Hopefully, today is the last day this will all happen for me. I'm tired of sleeping all of the time.

Anyhoo... back to my weekend in Atlanta... so! My friend Jeannine picked me up from a very busy airport on Friday, May 23 in the afternoon. I swear, everyone must have made ATL their destination of choice that weekend. I've never seen that many people in an airport in my life. Ever.

After she picked me up, we had a little girl time at the mall before she picked up her kids, and then we all went out with them, her husband Marcus and some friends for a chicken wing dinner. It was good. I love wings.

Later on in the evening, everyone came back to Marcus and Jeannine's house for some drinks and Pictionary. Interestingly enough, Marcus had his own way of playing Pictionary. I called it "dysfunctional Pictionary". The rules for this game were quite different. It involved making up stories about popular movie and TV characters and having them do outlandish things to each other, things I can't even write on this blog, because it will make me blush. The game turned out to be fun, but I can tell you that I was embarrassed for most of the game. Here's a picture of the action posted below:

     

Um... yeah. This pic involved Freddy Krueger, Jason and Pinhead scaring someone, something to do with stealing a Leprachaun's gold and a bird crapping on it in the end. I kid you not.

On to the next day... the Smith family and I then headed out to Leesburg, GA to visit Marcus' parents on Saturday morning. They live on 30 acres of land, basically out in the middle of nowhere. It was very peaceful, however, but I'm from the city. I'm used to seeing my neighbors, walking around my neighborhood with them and hearing their street noise. Being in the country around nothing but trees, farmland and silence was weird, but when I closed my eyes and took a few breaths, the peacefulness was nice.

Above is a shot of Marcus' parents' house. It reminded me of all of those colorful homes one usually sees in the country. Their house was really big and beautiful, and it was really nice of them to let me stay here. Below is a pic of their backyard that I took from the room over their garage that I got to stay in:

Lots of land back here. And they had a lake. And jungle gyms for the kids. And SNAKES!

Now, I didn't see a snake, but at one point in time I was told that I had to keep an eye for them and if I was coming down from the garage to the house at night, that I had to make noise as I was walking towards it keep the snakes away. Or, I had to yell out "I'm coming, snakes!" so that the vibrating sound of my voice would scare them away. WTF. And just so everyone knows... I am not talking about little baby garter snakes running around the Smith compound here. I'm talking rattlesnakes and water moccasins running around the compound!

WTF!

In addition to their being snakes, it was SO EFFING HOT outside I thought that I was going to DIE. We stayed in Leesburg for 2 1/2 days (Saturday through Monday morning)... and it was 90 degrees outside the whole time. My hair, got fried. I felt bloated and hot the whole time, and I had a permanent frown on my face every time I stepped outdoors during peak hours. 

Sidebar: I literally told Jeannine when she dropped me off at the MARTA station on Monday afternoon that the next time I came to visit her, it would be in the fall. F*** Atlanta in the summer time!

The best part of my trip was when I got to shoot some GUNS on Sunday evening. That's right, guns. I shot 8 different guns. Jeannine's brother in law, Mitch, is a bit of a gun enthusiast. I swear, every time he handed me a new gun, he had a smile on his face. It was quite funny.

Now, I hadn't shot a gun in about 10 years. I wasn't scared, but I was little nervous, especially since the first gun I shot was a 300 Blackout, which is basically a semi-automatic rifle (I was hoping to warm up on a handgun... but no such luck). It was huge! And heavy. When I shot the gun, the recoil was so hard core that when fired, it felt like my system got a quick jolt of electricity. It was a bit overwhelming, but I kept it together. I shot this gun from about 2 or 300 yards away, and I swear, I didn't hit the target once. Sad, but true. But I had fun.

It was on to the next gun after that, which was an AK-47. I've only seen these things in action in the movies. They are pretty cool up close. Scary, but cool. And again, after I fired it a few times, I'm pretty sure I didn't hit the target. But I can tell you that the tree behind it got messed up!

I'm just going to list the guns I shot instead of going through my experience with each one. Here it goes....

• 300 Blackout
• AK-47
• A 223 sniper rifle (with a bi-pod and scope)
• A double barrel shotgun (talk about a kick)
• A pump action shotgun with a laser sight on it (it was green!)
• 45 Colt (a revolver from the Old West)
• 357 Magnum
• Springfield 1911

 Here's a pic of all my shells. And two of the bullets.

Shooting guns was fun. Not that I would ever own a gun or anything, but it was fun. And not to mention, when one fires a shotgun, the kick on them can be so hard core (like with a pump action shotgun), that it can leave a bruise. Like this:

Yeah. Sometimes guns can hurt. My bruise is gone now, but because I had such a good experience shooting the shotgun, I didn't mind it so much. I also didn't mind the fact that I got eaten alive by mosquitos during my gun adventure. The mosquito bites I received were so bad that it took a week and a half for my legs to stop itching. Not cool.

So that was my trip. I came home Monday evening, exhausted and sweaty, but happy that I was able to get out of VA and go on a short vacay. Next up on my summer travels is Seattle, which I travel to on July 2. As long as it's not hot as hell out on the west coast, I should have a good time. 

Can't wait to hit up the Space Needle!