It has been a while since I went on a true vacation. Everything else has been holiday related, or short trips to and fro.
This year, I went to Missouri. While there, I visited friends, family, and saw some attractions.
The first half of the trip was spent in Kansas City. While there, I saw a Royals game, the Kansas City Zoo, and other stuff. We stayed with my friend, Liz, at her home. Also while out there, we visited my aunt and uncle. They gave us a few items, including a Canon AE-1. I think the camera belonged to my late uncle. I wish we had more time out in Kansas City.
We also stopped a many other places and took photos.
For baseball, we had a 1-1 record. The Royals lost; Cardinals won.
And now, I am back in Georgia. I return to work tomorrow. I would have gone back today, had I not had a bad case of swollen ankles when I went to bed last night.
For my holiday weekend, I went home to Savannah. I didn’t see any of my friends. I feel bad, but for me, this past weekend was a Me Vacation. I just needed solitary time down there.
Saturday, my father and I went down to the Smallest Church in America and toured the perimeter ruins of Harris Neck Army Airfield. The weather in the region was cooler than normal for this time of year, but even with temps of 86°F, it was took hot to tour the place on foot. Until this weekend, neither my father, nor I, even knew about Harris Neck AAF. As we were driving around the wildlife refuge in its place, we noticed a vast part of deteriorating asphalt. I joked it was an abandoned airfield, before we read the marker about it.
See, you learn something new everyday.
Prior to going home for the rest of the day, I stopped and got a picture of The Wienermobile. It was in Savannah over the weekend.
I spent the evening of the 4th at the SavannahSandGnats game. The team won against the Rome Braves, 1-0. It was a short game, so we had to wait a bit for post-game fireworks. The game was a blast, and weather was perfect. That was the only time I was wish I had been hanging out with a friend, but it’s not the end of the world.
The only problem I had at home was finding out about a charge the city added to the water bill down there. To me, it’s a stupid charge and the city is just trying to charge you for any and everything they can get away with. I can’t call the city a Fascist town because there is too much liberalism in the government. However, I can’t call it a Socialist city, either. I think the government is composed of people that take the horrid extremes of both sides of the spectrum and apply them to how the city operates. Maybe if the people of the city kept their noses in their own business and not dictated how everyone should live, the town would be better off than it is. If I ever did move back to the Savannah area, it would definitely not be in the Savannah City limits.
I came home yesterday. I took my time and just stopped and took photos of other parts of Georgia. I would have returned to work today, but Nicki and I had car issues today. I had to stay home to take care of that. What fun that was. My father and I are working on getting the vehicles repaired, but I am going to have to bit a bullet soon and get a new car. I don’t even know where to begin.
Listening to: Chicago -”If She Would Have Been Faithful”
It’s because I user Twitter a lot now. Are you following me on Twitter?
I am currently listening to music on my new laptop as I watch the Dodgers play the Yankees and the Yankees are not having a good defense inning.
I have just been busy with work and life.
Today, Nicki and I went to IKEA and the World of Coca-Cola. IKEA was just a quick trip that ended up being a long lunch and some shopping. We went window shopping and found a cheap bed frame that Nicki would like.
We went to the World of the Coca-Cola to see its World Cup exhibit. They currently have a 3D movie, as well as Zakumi, the mascot. Since I was already at IKEA and wasn’t expecting WoCC like we did, I only had the Polaroid i1037 camera on me. Nicki decided to get this photo taken:
Next weekend, I will be going home to Savannah. I hope to hit up a SavannahSandGnats game while in town. That will probably be on the 4th of July. I really want to see the animals at home and just tour around, when not helping my dad.
I went to Augusta this weekend for the Augusta State University Commencement ceremony. Nancy, a long time family friend, graduated from college. Compared to all the ones I’ve attended to at Armstrong, this one was different.
It’s funny how your closest friends think just like you. During the ceremony, the Commencement Speech, delivered by a graduating student, rubbed me the wrong way. Not to totally picked on the girl who gave the speech, because I understand completely what a big deal it is to get your life how you want it and then getting a degree, it was a big moment for her. I’m sure she gave her heart in that speech. But the members of the faculty that chose that speech must not have been thinking.
It was a not an inspirational speech. It was a giant ad for ASU. I took nothing away from it. Neither did anyone one else I knew. None of us liked it. After the ceremony, the bad speech was the first thing we talked about. I really think those that chose the speech chose it to boot their own egos.
Just before I left Augusta for the weekend, I made a quick stop over by Regency Mall. Regency is where we did most of the mall shopping when I was a kid. Today, is a dead mall. It is shuttered up and nature has taken over the land. Actually, most of the parts of South Augusta that I saw were quite sad. It seems people have been moving out of it and abandoning a lot of buildings. That which has survived don’t offer much. It looks quite poor and tired. Banks have been replaced with title loans. Shopping centers empty. Shuttered car dealerships. And then the pièce de résistance: Regency Mall. I wonder if there is any way to revive South Augusta.
Also on my trip, I stopped in the towns of Thomson, Crawfordville, and Madison. I want to tour some antebellum part of middle and southwest Georgia now. I also want to visit Augusta again, mainly downtown.
Do not adjust your eyes. That is a bad photo. It is meant to be blurry. The photo was not taken with a digital camera. The photos was not taken with a traditional film camera. This photo was taken with a pinhole camera.
A few days ago, I saw a post on Flickr about pinhole photography. It had a link to a pinhole camera tutorial. I thought it looked cool, so I decided to try it myself. I made my own camera yesterday.
Today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. What better day than to try it? I took my camera out to the river and started taking some shots. Only 4 of the photos came out to something recognizable. I was cool with that. I’m just happy to see that something I made from hand did take some photos.
When I went to pick up the pictures, the ladies at CVS were freaking out. They had no clue what happened to my pictures. They were trying to think of an explanation as to why my photos were horrible. I told them I was expecting them to be bad. They couldn’t even make a disc of the photos. Once I explained that I took the photos with a homemade camera, they wanted to know how I did it. I told them I couldn’t explain the logic behind how the camera works, but it does work. They felt better when I left and told me to keep experimenting.
I will have to try this some more. Also, I got some older pictures placed to disc again this weekend. I found a cute photo of our late Lucky, as well as some pictures from the time I saw Richard Marx in 1998. I need to round up all the negatives I have here at my apartment and get them scanned to disc sometime next month. I am also waiting for my Fujifilm camera to return from the shop any day now.
I’m sitting here watching CSI: Miami. There is a ghost in this episode. I think it has jumped he shark, if it hasn’t already. Also, I can’t stand Wolf. He always jumps to conclusions and never has an open mind. And now Calleigh sees the ghost.
I went home to Savannah this weekend. I didn’t want to leave. I went to help my dad with understanding some bills from his hospitalization from February. We went to Charleston for the day. We didn’t know an air show was happening in town, so as we were driving into town, we saw the Blue Angels flying. My father had trouble driving and watching the show at the same time. LOL
We drove over there to visit the SC Aquarium. I hadn’t been since before my mother died. My father took me and Beth. Beth went we were going to Columbia to the zoo there and that we’d be seeing penguins. She was sad to hear we were going to the aquarium.
OK, this is lame storyline. Seems like the writers were mailing it in.
We stopped at a welcome center on an old plantation on the way up there. We picked up Charleston book. There was an ad in the book about a penguin exhibit. Beth was excited that she would be seeing penguins after all. Compared to the TN Aquarium, the SC one seems like nothing. But, for a day trip close to home, it did the trick. I also got a ride looking at the Low Country countryside.
I wish I could have my job in Savannah. I miss Savannah, but I also enjoy my job. It’s such a hard choice. With Nicki living with me now, it’s hard to just go back to Savannah now.
On my way home from Savannah, I stopped at the hospital. My friend, Lindsey, had her baby. He’s a beautiful, healthy boy. The time was perfect, for me, that he was born the same time I was in town. I also took a long and winding route home, stopping at Cochran, GA and Pembroke, GA just to take a look at small town life.
I only wish there was a high speed, inexpensive train between Atlanta and Savannah. Or even a cheap flight. I really hate the drive between the two cities.
Yesterday, my sister, Nicki, and I went to Chicago White Sox/Atlanta Braves exhibition game last night. We had a nice night. We sat in the upper deck, able to see all of the game, had our first ballpark jumbo dogs of the season. Unfortunately, the Braves lost the game, but nonetheless, it was fun.
We took this opportunity to take the Braves shuttle. For those that don’t know how the shuttle works, you take a MARTA train to the Five Points station hub. From there, you get on a bus at Underground Atlanta, and take the bus to the stadium. After the game, you take a bus back to Five Points, and then get on the train bound back to the station you parked at. For me alone, this option is cheaper than parking at the stadium. Most of the times, it saves the hassle of parking at the stadium, too, when with a group.
So, here’s the shock and awe part. At my age, I’ve grown up in the post-Martin Luther King, Jr. Southern USA. All my classes were integrated. I was raised as people were people, no matter what they looked like. It’s the inner self that determines someone’s worth to me, not their outer self. Living in Atlanta now, I am exposed to all sorts of people. Most of them, I have learned, are that if you smile at them and treat them kindly, they will do the same with you.
Last night, I apparently committed a crime. It was riding the MARTA while white. When our train finally came to the station, Nicki and I got on it. It was crowded. I was prepared to stand on the train until a seat opened up, or we got to our transfer station. However, a 50ish or 60ish year old black woman offered the open seat next to her to sit in. I thought how nice, until I started to sit down.
The woman then proceeded to snipe at me “Don’t touch me!” Oh…okay. I didn’t plan on touching her, except by accident. When on public transportation, I try to respect people’s personal space. I hate even crowding into my friends’ personal spaces.
Oh, this gets worse.
After her snipe, she starts, to me a incoherent ramble, about white people. However, she said it right to Nicki’s face. I guess she thought Nicki was not a white girl. The woman’s whole rant was “Whether it’s a Braves game or a Hawks game, anything involving white people keeps me from getting home!”
Oh boy did I feel so uncomfortable the rest of the time on that train until we got to our transfer station. Nicki couldn’t believe what she heard. As soon as we got off the transfer station, Nicki and I started talking about what just happened. Nicki was texting all her friends about it. My jaw was still dropping.
For the rest of the night, I had to laugh at the encounter on the train, but at the same time, it was pretty sad. It’s such a shame that I was treated like an enemy for what I either looked like or for who I seemed to be on the outside. I don’t know who was more grown at this point, me or the woman I sat next to last night.
I went ahead and got tickets for one of the Atlanta Braves preseason games this weekend. Nicki and I will be going. We also have tickets for a game later in the month for a game against the Phillies. Also, I have ordered the tickets for the baseball games we plan to see on our Missouri trip.
I had a good day at work today. I had to partake in culture diversity training. It was quite fun and interesting. It also reminded me of my English 1102 class and how I felt that Professor Soto didn’t take in mind that personal experiences influence a piece of literature for people. Being a military child raised in the South, I have been exposed to many things that other people have not have been to exposed to. There are things many people have been exposed to that I have not. Even in my own family, Beth and I have different experiences. She’s grown up in the same town since she was 6. If it wasn’t me moving one day, it was a good friend. As a result, Beth and I see things differently just because of how we grew up. That was part of the lesson today.
And now, off to upload some new quotes to my quotes database. They were some good ones from today’s class.
My father and I are working on getting the vehicles repaired, but I am going to have to bit a bullet soon and get a new car. I don’t even know where to begin.
