I'm glad I'm not in Atlanta at the moment. Seems a tornado hit downtown around the CNN Center. A hole was ripped into the roof of the Georgia Dome, forcing tonight's SEC basketball game to be postponed. There was a chance I might be up there this weekend, but it didn't pan out. However, my sister, Nicki, is up there. I was a bad sister and remembered she was up there as I was on the phone with my father and told him about it. When I mentioned she was there, I got off the phone with my father and called my sister to see if she was fine. She said she and Cameron were fine. They were in bed, asleep. Seems where they are up there, the power went out. They decided to go to bed. She was asleep when I called. However, she finally understood why the 2 of them kept hearing sirens outside. I told her to call my dad and let him know she was safe. He was worried, too, when he remembered she was in Atlanta.

The funny thing is, I was talking to my dad earlier about the Georgia Dome. Tonight, Matthew, Beth, and I went to Golden Corral for dinner. We haven't done that in a while, and my dad suggested we 3 go out and have dinner together. We went to Golden Corral since they have a salad bar. Beth's on a diet and I was wanting a few greens. Golden Corral is the only salad bar I can think of that has dark green lettuces available. I hate iceberg lettuce. Well, the 3 of us had a great dinner. We spent an hour and a half there just talking and dining. On our way home, we recalled the worst concert we attended. We all agreed: Backstreet Boys at Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA on January 27, 2001. Nicki won tickets for that concert, as well as hotel room to stay in. My mother took us all up there. My mother had a better time than we did. She had a few hours in a hotel room to herself. We had nose bleed seats in a cold Dome with horrible sound. We couldn't hear any of the acts. One opening act crawled and stomped on a white grand piano. My siblings and I were horrified at that sight since our mother raised us to never abuse a piano. In addition to the piano rape, we saw about an hour of Nelly trying to perform, but heard nothing but racket that literally hurt our ears. By the time the Backstreet Boys came on the stage, we were all ready to leave and were sick. While it was the worst concert I had ever attended, I wouldn't trade that memory in for the world. The concert was horrible, but the time with my family I do cherish.

I think Nicki would have like to have been with us, but she's in Atlanta. Cameron took her there for Spring Break. She had her first plane ride to get there. She had never flown until Tuesday. I don't know how she reacted. I'll find out when she gets home and shows me the pictures. She was scared to fly. I told her with a short trip to Atlanta, it wouldn't be too bad. I'm not an experienced flyer like my ex-solider father, but I've flown enough times to know a bit about flying as a passenger. I was once scared of it, and still am to a degree, but if I ever go to the West Coast again, plane is how I'm doing it. She did talk to Matthew and they compared first time flyer stories. Now, to get Beth in a plane and all of us have flown. What would my mother think of that!

[♪ Listening to: "When She Cries" - Restless Heart]

Posted by Shawn at March 15, 2008 12:56 AM in General, Memories.