It's in Atlanta
6:45 pm Arrive in airport. I hate the airport
7:15 pm CNN everywhere.
8:00 pm Hotel is just like airport.
8:15 pm Nobody makes eye contact. Everybody just stares at each other's badges. This must be what it is like to have breasts.
8:30 pm Dinner not good. Anybody know a decent place to eat in downtown Atlanta? Near, you know, the convention center.
8:45 pm Perhaps I should abandon the life of the mind.
9:05 pm CNN
9:10 pm CNN
9:13 pm One more word about the Muslim congressman and I'm going home.
9:13.05 Okay, I wasn't serious.
9:15 pm There's a Kinkos in the hotel. That's kind of sweet.
9:20 pm. monotony
Maximum City by Suketu Mehta is a very good book. I decide it would be a better book if I were in the bathtub. Turns out I'm right.
I fall asleep wondering if it will affect my career (adversely?, positively?) if I get spotted purchasing bubble bath and salts at the local drugstore.
7:30 am Rise. Pin on breasts.
8:00 am There is a dead bird on my windowsill. Window, of course, will not open.
8:15 am The one thing these godawful hotels do well is breakfast. Krispy Kreme donuts, bacon.
10:00 am If I had a gun I would probably play Russian Roulette.
10:15 am. Hum dee dum
10:30 am. I hate Atlanta. I know that people from Atlanta will plead with me, saying, "How can you judge us from just the hotel and the airport?" Well, I can. Sometimes you just know. Atlanta is like a bad date and I have not even gotten to the appetizers. I hate Delta. I hate CNN. I like Coke, but not enough to redeem Atlanta. Foul vapors, overdose of peach references, rampant bad taste. "High Anxiety." If an asteroid must hit earth, let it strike Atlanta. Let Atlanta be the next Atlantis. Let somebody, somewhere, please say or do something interesting. I hate Atlanta.
11:00 a.m. But maybe they have good barbeque...
[more to come, I'm afraid]
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Live blogging the American Historical Association Annual Convention
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I went to atlanta (wow) eight years ago for a conference. Not the sort that CNN would attend, which sounds like a blessing, but, uh, saw some good talks, I guess. Saw a physicist with his luggage stuck in a turnstile and made jokes about tunneling.
When the talks were mercifully over, we hit the town, which was kind of fun if you're one of a handful of chemistry and engineering grad students. (Though I saw these people every day, I rarely got to do anything outside of work even then. So this was nice.) We found stuff in walking distance. Wandering one time, we found a restaurant that was just then opening, and were pulling in people from teh street to test their menu. They loaded the gang of us up with wine and drinks and appetizers and entrees, all on the house, asking only our feedback. We sat on the patio. It was badass.
Some dimly remembered advice:
-there is nothing lamer than the coca cola bottling plant and museum. If you dig multi-spouted soda fountains and a roomfull of cola memoribilia, then you may like it.
- There's a now-underground "old downtown Atlanta" (or something like that) not far from teh convention center. It's lame--a glorified mall really--but has some restaurants and (this is important for conferences) bars. The fact that the original ground is some thirty feet below street level is a fascinating fact, I thought.
- Wandering brought us to a fondue place another night. It was pretty good. The waitress looked like a girl I'd struck out spectacularly with back in college. I remember it was down the hill from a Ruby Tuesdays. What, not advice? Try this, if you see a RT's, then keep walking.
- there's a pretty good subway system, though I am sure that it helps to knwo where to go.
- I think they have a hockey team now--how crowded can it be? It's Atlanta.
K
Try this, if you see a RT's, then keep walking.
i think that's advice that applies to any city you happen to be looking for dinner in.
Oh, I think you can judge a city by its airport.
After being unable to find anything approximating good barbecue in East Texas (for God's sake!), I'd like to wish you luck in Atlanta. It's a little closer to Kansas City, which is hopeful (I hear).
Favorite airports: Albany and Burlington (though not the Delta counter - no electronic check-in, no little check-in kiosks, just long, stationary lines and desperate ticket agents looking more harried than any other I've seen).
I won $300 on slots at the Vegas airport a little while back. Seems like they also have free wifi.
Good luck on your trip! Conferences are what golf was invented for.
Jesus twiff, ain't that the truth.
Atlanta sucks big time. "The one that got away" lives there. I absolutely despise Atlanta. I hate Atlanta. Hate it.
(Doesn’t mean I wouldn't move there if she said, "Yes.")
Heard on NPR that Atlanta has had the busiest airport 2 years in a row. That's not something to brag about. I hate that airport.
And I hate Atlanta.
Post a Comment