Construction.

I picked the wrong day to drive into school...
Went down Edgewood cuz it's pretty in the spring (flowering trees and such) but massive amounts of road making machinery at Edgewood and Boulevard.
Went over to Dekalb/Decatur St. and they're one-laning it near King Memorial for sewer repairs (and have been for a couple months - that'll teach me to try to drive to school after 9:30 a.m.).
When I was trying the one parking ramp I like right next to the Rec Center and found it was employee only still, I ran into people tearing up the road in front of Grady.

Sigh.

So this evening has been, well, interesting.

Therefore, I decided to make a new icon... Just cuz I guess. I found the picture on the vintage_ads community - it's called "Atomic Thoughts" - I'll have more from there soon...

Anyway, I wanted to sweat like a pig, so I excitedly went to Step class (I do find it quite fun indeed!). So I was there, Paramita was there, Megan was there, a bunch of other people were there and our instructor was not. Then a Rec Center employee came up to tell us that we had no instructor after all for the evening :( Damn. So I chatted with Paramita and Megan for a while. It was good. I saw an old lab student and chatted. That was good.

After hopping on MARTA and seeing some ill-behaved future gangstas (sadly, I think they will not be upstanding citizens - I hope they will be but I'm doubting), I got to my car. Trivia with Tabby and her peeps starts at 7:30, it was 7:30 and I was at least 15 minutes away. But, it's trivia, it's mostly to hang out :)

I had my hand-written directions from RandMcNally.com in my hot little hand and followed them. Well, I actually missed a turn but I knew where to meet up with the cockamamie street farther down and so yeah, I did that. Then I proceeded to not be able to find the damned place. Rather stupidly, I did not follow one of my own rules for directions - I did not write down the actual address...
I don't know much of anything of the part of Atlanta that exists to the west of I-75 but is bounded by I-285; that sure bit me in the butt. And the fact that there are several streets named Marietta and they will change names. And it was the one day I was without the cell phone. I've never had such trouble before. The directions from the website were not at fault, I just should have printed them for entrance into such a rabbit warren of streets that happens to exist in Atlanta, the home of paved-over cow paths :/

Sooooo, I ventured into some not-the-best-area areas... But I'd never ever been in that area of town before so really, it was not so bad. I found a huge rail yard that I never knew existed. I found out where Booker T. Washington High School is... I also found Frederick Douglass High School (actually new and looks really nice!). I saw this dilapidated Baptist church that I really need to get a picture of at some point - the way it looked tilted and like it was being encroached-upon by the trees, yet the paint was fresh, but not well painted... I gotta go back there. There were areas where gentrification was going full force - new Craftsman style homes, extensive remodels, condos, "communities" - but just a block beyond it was empty as a ghost town.

All and all, it was a trip that I don't mind that I took :)
I never did make it to trivia. Tabby promises me that we'll leave from school together next time :)

It was a very full weekend :) But it was great!

( Weekend events )
All and all, it was a very satisfying visit :)
But I'm a little tired... Ah well :)

One day, I'll show pictures of all the various belly dancing performances I've done recently... ;)

Anyone who was at 5 Points MARTA station this morning may have gotten new bit of fluff to have as an accoutrement courtesy of the City of Atlanta taxpayer: a red rubber bracelet emblazoned with the new Atlanta motto (or slogan or whatever) "Opportunity Optimism Openness"

- we're supposed to wear them like the yellow Lance Armstrong ones I guess...
They also handed out maps

with the new logo and the website: http://www.atlopen.com/ (which you totally should go to!).
Personally, I find it hard to beleive that the city decided to spend money on red rubber bracelets - how about filling a few potholes instead? I do have to admit I rather like the map idea, especially for newbies to the city...
I suppose this goes hand-in-hand with the atlanta community post about the lovely new anthem...