The Athens Diaries: Day One at 4:03 PM

Note: The posts for this week will be posted the day after they are written (I have to post at work, and I write them after work).

Well, I'm in Athens after a relatively uneventful day. I've only been over about 3 miles of road here (my hotel is close to the center where I'm working for the week), but for a college town, this doesn't seem like a very happenin' place. I'm sure it gets better as you get closer to campus. Maybe.

So it took about 5 hours or so to get here in my rental Grand Am. That car feels very huge, and I drive an Explorer. It feels like it's the same size but lower to the ground. There was an interesting start to my trip this morning as I got about 20 minutes down the road and realized I had forgotten the garment bag with my clothes in it. (You'll enjoy this part) I intentionally left the bag behind when Dylan picked me up to go get the rental. I wanted a reason to come back because I was sure I would forget something, and I didn't want to just not go back because I didn't feel like it. Well sure enough I forgot something, and when I went back to the apartment, I grabbed the thing that I had forgotten (something relatively insignificant for which I probably wouldn't have come back had it not been for my clothes being in the apartment as well), and I left the garment bag. If the preceding paragraph seems confusing and poorly worded, just let it suffice to say that I am a giant moron.

So anyway, I got on the road well after I had planned, and drove about five hours in constant rain. At least it hadn't started snowing yet. Driving in the snow actually doesn't faze me that much anymore because of a story that I won't tell right now in the interest of saving my hand the extra writing. But to get back to the point, the drive was wet. Was that the only point of all that? How depressing. In other news, a big thumbs down goes to mapquest today. I had the wrong exit number and the wrong mileage listed on my directions in two places. And it was really off. About 100 miles. Luckily I went with my instincts instead of the directions. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have a map with me (this post could be a list of reasons why I'm an idiot), so it took a bit longer to get where I was going.

If anyone is looking for a couple of good books, check out The Poet and The Narrows, both by Michael Connelly. The second book is a sequel to the first. In case you're wondering what this has to do with anything, I've been listening to The Narrows on CD as I'm driving.

Once I got here I came into the center and talked to the guy that I'd be helping out this week. He's also an assistant manager (ass man as I like to call it). The funny thing is that none of the staff had any idea that I was coming or that their own manager wouldn't be there this week. They've had quite a few people coming and going over the last little bit, though, so they took it in stride.

In the first of five nights on which I will be eating out for free, I went to the Ponderosa steakhouse. I thought, foolishly I suppose, from the name that it might have been like a normal steakhouse, but it was more of a buffet style place that had steak. I wasn't a big fan. (Disclaimer: If I complain about food this week, it doesn't mean I'm not glad it's free) I think I'm going to mostly get take out this week, because I don't want to sit in a restaurant by myself. Plus if I'm in the hotel, I don't have to be dressed (get that mental image out of your head! hahahahaha!).

As for the hotel, I'm staying at the Amerihost Inn. It's a nice enough place. When I came in, they told me that there were no non-smoking rooms with a king-size bed like I had requested when I made the reservation online, so they had to upgrade me to a room with a whirlpool. So that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, as I soon found out, whirlpools are not as fun when you're by yourself. My only gripe about the hotel is that I can't get my xbox hooked up online. They have wireless internet access, but not all of the rooms are hardwired, and non of the whirlpool rooms are. So I'll be missing live night this week. Other than that, everything seems to be going pretty well.

Hopefully after reading this post, you're still awake and you haven't vowed never to return to my blog again. I'll be back with more tomorrow--hopefully it'll be more interesting.

Song of the day: "Cold Hard (so and so)", by Jet. I never know when my mom or someone might be reading this, so the title has been censored. Nevertheless, this song is awesome. Especially for driving. This is another one that you can't hear without turning up the volume. Try it.