pictures to come this weekend when i get them developed – in the meantime, take a look at this page for some pictures of the artists we saw

thursday

went to japanese, then went back to the dorm to pack. dan drove me to the airport where i caught my flight to charlotte, and from there down to atlanta.

i don’t see what mr. t has against flying… this was the first time i’ve gone flying in 14 years or so, and i didn’t have any problems… except for when my first plane landed – then all the blood rushed to my head and gave me an incredible headache. -_-;; maybe mr. t had a bad experience like that, which i bet was because the cabin wasn’t fully pressurized or something like that. ^^;;

second flight (from charlotte to atlanta) was better than the first physical-wise (no hurtin’! ^_^), but even though i had a window seat, one of the engines was right outside my window so i couldn’t see anything. ;_; at least the little boy next to me shared his cookies with me! and i didn’t even ask! ^_^

so, arrived in atlanta about 15 minutes early (yay!), and sat and waited for megs, who i caught on her way back to take a look at the video screens to see when my plane was going to land. drove around atlanta for a bit to show me what was where, and had a really good dinner at this chinese noodle place.

drove back to her house but nobody was home yet (all out at her sister’s dance performance) so we took a look at the newspaper to see what acts were going on at what times on what days.

soon her parents arrived home so i met megs’ parents and her sister arrived shortly after so i met her sister too. so after having some homemade brownies (yum!) we sat and watched ER and a little bit of the news.

went into the #4tt channel and let people there know that i had arrived, and soon afterwards we went to bed.

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friday

woke up, music midtown didn’t start until 6, so we hung out at the house for a while, then went out on a picnic for lunch at piedmont park (this giant park that they have this big dogwood festival thing at). walked around and talked for a few hours there, since it’s a giant big ‘ol park.

said goodbye to megs’ dad, since he was going on a business trip.

drove to the marta station that’s close to megs’ house, and took that to where music midtown was at. got there in time to see blue oyster cult perform. then we wandered around a bit and caught patti smith in the middle of her act. we stayed on that field afterwards, since the next act that we wanted to see bob dylan who was performing shortly after patti smith.

so, bob dylan finished playing (he played for 2 hours straight! wow!) and everybody crammed into the marta subway trains to head back home.

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saturday

woke up, had breakfast, went back off to music midtown. ^_^

we wanted to see sugar hill gang, but we arrived there a bit early. so we went to the stage that they were going to perform at and caught the last third of bilal’s performance.

sugar hill gang was pretty funny… i learned what to do whenever you have a crowd’s attention – keep telling your audience to put their hands up in the air, and have them make some noise.

wandered around after that and saw blueground undergrass which was pretty good, and col bruce hampton & the code talkers which weren’t.

we wanted to go and see en vogue, but they weren’t performing for some reason or another, so we watched a bit of freddie jackson instead. left his performance early to go see john kay & steppenwolf, but left them about halfway through when they didn’t play any of their old songs which we wanted to hear. -_-;;

went to go see the wallflowers, but they were on a crummy stage that was on a giant asphalt parking lot and it was filled with people so we stayed wayyyy in the back on a little hill where we could hear fine and could sit down in the shade.

so, then we wandered off to go see booker t. jones who gave a really really great performance, and played all his old songs (like the artists who performed were SUPPOSED to, in our opinion)

so, then we finished off the night by going and seeing kansas (which began in atlanta, surprisingly) perform. they were really good, if a bit too loud – they caused us to move to the back of the field near the end of their concert since they were getting very loud and megs was starting to get sleepy, so we decided then to beat the crowds and sneak out early.

went back home in the not-so-crowded subway train, went to bed.

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sunday

went off to megs’ small church and sat in her sister’s sunday school class (but no sister, since she spent the night at a friend’s house, and no teacher showed up either). very small church, but very neat too. first time i’ve gone to a presbyterian mass.

waited around at megs’ house for her sister – she had to go back to her friend’s house to pick up some things – and once she arrived we walked off to the marta station.

got to music midtown a few hours after it started. went and saw ben harper put on a decent show (on the big hot outdoor on-the-asphalt crummy stage), and then later went to see the blind boys of alabama who were another really really really great act (which was inside in a nice air-conditioned building, coincidentally it was the same building meaghan graduated in).

after that, we made our way across the grounds to go see run dmc, which proved once again to me that whenever you have a crowd’s attention, you tell them to stick their hands up in the air and to make some noise.

went back to megs’ house for a bit to collect ourselves, and then we went out to waffle house for dinner (mmm… grilled cheese sammiches and vanilla mr. pibb – we wanted vanilla cokes, but we couln’t get any… ;_;)

then we went back to megs’ house. after she fixed up her comic some for the next day, we went to bed since we had to wake up really really early.

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monday

woke up at 4:30 am, and we went back off to the marta station. the good thing about marta is that you can get anywhere you want for $1.75 (which includes a bus transfer), and that there were stations near megs’ house and one right at the airport. so, we took the marta down to the airport, said our goodbyes in the station there, and i reluctantly made my way back up north.

flight out of atlanta was fine. everything on time. we were a little late leaving charlotte, though. the flight was overbooked by one person, and so they needed a volunteer to take a later flight, and in return they’d get a round-trip ticket to anywhere us airways goes. if i didn’t have to be back at any specific time, i would have volunteered so then if i was able to go to comiccon, then my flight would be all paid for. ^_^ so, while i sat there and looked around the terminal, i saw a flight that was going right back to atlanta and pondered whether or not i could sneak on that, and i also heard a boarding message for a plane that was going to go to lynchburg, virginia, so i wondered if i might be able to sneak on that one to see some other friends at their school.

got back to baltimore, realized that i didn’t have any money for cab fare and the atm wouldn’t let me take my $0.48 out of my account ^^;; (i had wondered earlier why it wouldn’t let me take any money out of the atm, even though i had this option that turns my bank card into a credit card if i don’t have enough money in my account… then i realized that that was only for credit card-type purchases, and not atm withdrawls ^^;;;)

so! mr. cell-phone to the rescue! called mom, she came and picked me up and gave me my paycheck and tax return that had arrived at the house while i was gone, and i told her the details of this past weekend as she drove me to school, where i went off to classes after i arrived (only missed my computer class).

a very busy weekend. but very fun. some pictures of what we did and who we saw should be up by this weekend when i get them developed ^_^

and, as meaghan says, i too think that we’re even better friends because of this little vacation! ^_^