Welcome to Atlanta: The Finale

The last portion of my Atlanta trip involved taking a little ride to Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, GA. I'm so glad I wore jeans and a casual shirt. I was not at all prepared for how close we would be with all the animals.

First of all we rented a classy zebra painted Camry since we didn't want to dirty up Mish's ride. We originally wanted a van, but there was about a 2 hour wait.


Our adventure starts here...

I thought that poor little pig was going to get run over! Close call!

I made friends with this cute, furry fella

This is the best picture ever. Sticking his tongue out for us.

Sweet fella let me feed him!

Who needs to go to Africa to see wildlife up close

I got to feed Geoffery the giraffe. Knock that off my bucket list!

I was a little apprehensive about seeing the ostrich up close.

It was all fun & games at first. I now fear ostriches.

Mish got spit up on.

By far the best part of the safari was when Mish got thrown up on by a llama.  This is how it went down. As we drove up the llama had it's back to her.

Mish extended her arm outside and as she tapped the llama on the back her exact words were, "excuse me sir" and they llama turned around made a horrendous sound and spit up all over her.
I was laughing so hard I was crying. Her hair, her hand and clothes were covered in llama vomit. Thanks for the entertainment Mish!

Welcome to Atlanta: The Remix

I figured I'd break down my Atlanta trip into a few parts since there was A LOT that I encountered and figured I should cover most of it. So day 2 brings us to Dragon-Con. Not sure what Dragon-Con is? Oh let me tell you! It's a huge convention for sci-fi, fantasy, comic books, etc... pretty much everything I'm not. Considering I've never seen all the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings movies or Avatar you could say I was out of my element. Needless to say, I'm always up for trying new things and plus it would be excellent people watching for this newbie.

Dragon-Con Parade

 

 

 

Hot Mess #1: This wasn't the Playboy Convention...

Because wearing a corset over your shirt is acceptable.

We made our way into one of the hotels where there were masses of people in costume. I might have gotten a little excited when I saw Jem. I'm not going to lie I had all of the Jem & the Holigram dolls growing up so when I saw her might have yelled out, "Jem! Over here!" Yeah, I'm a total nerd alert.

Out of all the costumes I saw Jem was my favorite probably because it was the only one I could relate to and was the most normal one out of the bunch.  I totally missed out on getting my picture taken with the guy dressed up from the SNL skit "Laser Cats."

This is normal. Hanging out with a guy in pleather & hooker boots.

I also encountered this thing. It was a he. He had on hooker boots he probably got at Priscilla's. I originally took a picture of him from afar, but he caught me and came up to me. Surely I thought I was going to get served by the giant string bean, but instead he invited me to his band's concert and gave me a flyer.

Yeah buddy, I'm so sure I'm going to go to see your band perform since I would totally fit in with the crowd there.

Needless to say we did not go to the concert.

With Chubs from Planet of the Apes

I also recognized the monkey from Planet of the Apes.

The only reason is because I might have watched it on FX one day and it peaked my interest when I saw Mark Wahlberg aka "Marky-Mark" was starring in it.










Just because I haven't shown enough pictures, here are some more for your viewing pleasure!!

Mario and Luigi

One Ghostbuster.

Met up with Chewy, he had major back sweat.

Welcome to Atlanta- Part I

Finally! I finally made the trek down to Atlanta to see my roommate from college. It was way overdue! Jillian and I took advantage of  the long Labor Day weekend and jetted off to see Mish! Apparently we chose a good weekend to go to Atlanta, there was a lot going on that weekend and we got to take it all in. Here's the scoop from our wild and crazy trip to the ATL.

Once we officially arrived in Atlanta we took the Marta to Buckhead where our friend lives. I'm pretty sure we were talking during our 30 min trip on the Marta, but I was too preoccupied with people watching to pay attention to our conversation. We were also feeling the need to take a shower after our "festive" trip on the Marta. Since we had some time to kill until our friend got off of work we thought we'd take a stroll to the mall. Our stroll to the mall turned into a hike that led us to Target which in turn caused us to take a cab back to our friend's apartment. There was no way we were going to take our shopping bags and booze on a hike back to her place in that heat. Yeah, that was a $10 cab ride, but well worth it!

For our first night in Atlanta Mish took us to a fun bar/ restaurant near her place called the Tavern at Phipps. We're not even there for 10 minutes and I encounter a cling-on, we named him "Abu" (he doesn't know that). I got Abu's whole life story... how's he divorced, has college-aged kids, knows people here in NC, blah, blah, blah. Every time I thought I got rid of him there was a little tap on my shoulder from Abu wanting to have a little chit chat about he could get us in to swanky clubs and gave me his business card. Being the little sneaky girl that I am, I managed to snag a photo of Abu without his knowledge.

Hey Abu! Long day at the office?

Melissa, Jillian and I at the Tavern at Phipps

We also saw Michael Bolton's twin brother performing at the Tavern. He had dual keyboards and I can't even describe as to how entertaining it was.

Michael Bolton 2.0 singing "The World is Mine"

Later that evening while we're sitting at a bar Mish says, "Oh I need to take y'all to the Clermont Lounge... it's where strippers go to die." Turns out the Clermont Lounge is in a basement of some hotel and it has old ladies that work there. Only later on she says, "I have a better place to take you." Yeah, she took us to Slingin' Richards. I'll just sum up our evening in a few sentences. Jillian met Gemini. I got hit on by "black thunder" and I'm pretty sure I had a scared look on my face. As we were leaving Jillian says, "we need some Jesus for what we just saw" to which valet says to us, " there's not enough Jesus for what you saw!"

Friday was just the tip of the iceberg, the rest of the weekend got more insane! Stay tuned for Welcome to ATL- Part II...

30 is the New...

As part of playing catch up on my blog, I have passed a milestone. I'm officially 30. 30 is not the new 20. If it was I'd still be able to party like I was 20. These days I'm lucky if I go out both on a Friday AND Saturday night!  The night was a bit of blur considering it was over a month ago and it was my birthday weekend.

Here are some pictures that marked the occasion...

I've got great friends! Was not expecting a set-up like this at Humble Pie!

Angela made a collage of my life, bad hair included.

I scored a "legit" Four Loko which is now off the market.

Darnell Ppopped' open the Four Loko.

Before I go any further with pictures, Darnell thought it would be a grand idea to open up the Four Loko at the restaurant.  It wasn't Darnell that got in trouble for the open container in the restaurant, it was Jillian and I! I'm not sure how he got away with it, but he did. Well played sir... well played.

Notice the obnoxious hat and to my right is the waitress who got mad about the Four Loko!

The gang at Humble Pie

Only because there were a million pictures taken of me posing on the R-Line I felt it was neccessary to close this blog post with one of the pictures from the photo shoot. Courtesy of photographer Darnell using my camera I give you...

America's Next Top Model- R-Line Edition. Tyra Banks would be proud.

I'm Back. Again.

As it turns out my last post was in January, not long after New Year's. I'd like to give myself a round of applause for not keeping up with my blog like I said I would. Oh the shame and disappointment!

I guess I better re-cap all the great, wonderful, crazy, sad, happy moments I've had since January!

First up: CONCERTS! I went and saw some a-mah-zing shows this year- The Avett Brothers (I think I'm more smitten with Scott Avett), Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Mumford & Sons and yes I will admit I went and saw NKOTBSB (go ahead, judge away). While The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons were by far the best concerts, the one that garnered the most giggles and entertainment was NKOTBSB.

I'm not even sure where to begin with the NKOTBSB concert. Perhaps I should make a list of the randomness of it all.

• Shirts. We made shirts. Shirts that glowed in the dark. The shirts spelled out WE <3NKOTBSB... I was the "heart."

• Accessories. If we're wearing glow in the dark shirts, might as well jazz it up with accessories! Go big or go home! We rocked NKOTB buttons, scrunchies, glow in the dark necklaces/ bracelets, and the infamous NKOTB dolls. Yes, that's right. We rigged NKOTB dolls onto our outfits. Luckily I ended up with a Jordan doll (he was always my favorite). I'm not going to lie, we were hot. Hot messes!

• Limo. We piled 10 ladies into a limo and made our way to the Greensboro Collesium in style! Of course we spent most of the time riding around town drinking champagne, wine and beer for about 2 hours before we were dropped off. We also took pictures of our NKOTB dolls partying in the limo. Yes, we're all between the ages of 27-30 and we were playing with dolls. No shame here.

Danny & Jonathan enjoying the limo drive to the concert.

Yeah, we found a great place in the limo to hold the fellas.

• Tailgating. Once our limo driver dropped us some of the ladies packed some extra beverages to tailgate with. Let's just say we found a classy 1992-ish truck and made ourselves at home by tailgating on their truck bed (it's not our fault they left it open). Side note- between the limo and tailgating I managed to misplace my phone and lose my concert ticket. 

Thanks to the owner of this early 90's truck for letting us tailgate.

• People Watching. NKOTBSB provided the best people watching. I'd rank the people watching up there with the people who go to the fair. It was also pretty evident who were NKOTB fans and BSB fans. Every time New Kids performed, we were up jamming. When Backstreet Boys came on stage we sat down.  

Here are a few more pictures from that night...

A lovely ballad performed by New Kids on the Block

NKOTBSB all together on stage. How sweet.

 There were a few shows that I wanted to see this past year, which I missed. I sure hope Bon Iver, Ray LaMontagne, Girl Talk and Fleet Foxes come back to the Capital City soon!!

Knock, Knock... Who's There?

Let's back track a few weeks. I can't help but not share this story. So rewind back to Wednesday, December 29th. I went to Landmark Tavern for a friend's wedding reception. She actually got married on Christmas Eve in Key West- it was just the two of them. I must say that's pretty sweet to get married on the beach with just the two of them! Since they eloped they decided to have their family and friends gather to celebrate. They had the bar closed down for a few hours so they could have their private party.

Granted it was a work night, I was hesitant about having fun at the open bar (that can be dangerous)! So I wouldn't get OOC (out of control for those of you who don't know), I had a little bite to eat before I went and of course I nibbled on the meatballs and hummus at the reception. Then the wine started pouring. And after a couple glasses of wine I can't feel my brain. (Side note- I always tell my friends after drinking wine I can't feel my brain. Usually when I say this it basically means I have liquid courage and I'll talk to anyone).

So once they re-open the bar to the public, I pretty much told one of the bartenders, "hey don't worry, I'll help card people." Here I am wearing a cute dress holding a big glass of pinot grigio carding people at the door. After I "attempted" to card people a few friends gave me the suggestion of also telling patrons there was a cover. Of course I was up for making a profit- a girl needs money after all the weddings from 2010! Boy was I in for a surprise! The next two men that came into the bar were clearly over the age of 21. I believe my exact words were, "excuse me y'all I need to see some ID and oh, there's a $10 cover." Pretty much the two men laughed at me and went on in towards the bar in which case my friend runs to one of the men and apologizes for my silly behavior.


I then learned that man was none other than Bill Cowher aka the former Pittsburgh Steelers aka former NC State football player. As much as I have the Wolfpack fever I was in my own world not even paying attention to who was coming or going.

Yes... I carded the big man Bill Cowher and charged him a cover to get in. It makes for a good story, but it would have been better had he paid me the cover I asked him for... I mean he clearly could have afforded it! He was a nice guy, he even took a photo with the bride and groom! I just had to share that story!

Nightmare on Ralphie Street

Ralphie is baaaaaack! After years of not seeing him he's back! (Time to que in Jaws music). For those who don't know the back story of Ralphie, here's the story: Years ago I went to a party with Mish and that was the first time I encountered Ralphie. I'm not exagerating when I say he looks like Ralphie from the Christmas Story.

Anyways he was a tool from the moment I met him and he was all like, "yeah I went to Broughton High School too, blah, blah, blah." Needless to say I was glad when we left the party. Not long after that party I saw him at White Collar Crime in which case I was cornered by him and slightly scared I gave him my digits. I couldn't think straight to give him a fake number, oh well. Anyways he called from several different numbers (no lie, I had him stored as Ralphie 1, Ralphie 2 and I think there was a Ralphie 3) and I never answered. This went on for a LONG time, finally he got the hint. WEIRDO!
So back to how he came back INTO my life... It all started at Roo's crib with super strong jello shots, followed by drinks and shots at Landmark. You could say I had liquid courage, I was saying random things to every guy that walked by me which included RALPHIE. I was in my own world. There were 2 events that caused Ralphie to come back into my life: #1 It was my own fault for opening my mouth to Ralphie. It didn't even dawn on me that it was Ralphie. Of course he came back and started talking to me about how we'd met before. I played dumb because I was still trying to block out the horror from years past. I take responsibilty that I opened up a can of worms. #2 My friends weren't helpful. I won't name any specific names but you ladies know who you are. Those girls "allegedly" talked Ralphie up about me, how I was single and ready to mingle (yada, yada, yada) not to mention endless photos that were taken. I was hoping they would come save me, but that did not happen. Love y'all anyways! When it came to him asking for my number then following it with an "I'll call you right now so you'll have my number" there was NO WAY I could give him a fake number! I was overjoyed when we left Landmark and Ralphie in the dust! I just have to figure out how to play my cards to make sure he doesn't become a permanent fixture in my life!