Monday stuff
All day I’ve been writing an epic blog post in my head, and now that I’m sitting here at the computer screen with a bit of time on my hands, I’m having performance anxiety. :P
~*~
This morning on the way to work, Rusty and I stopped at LottaFrutta. We drive by there every morning and always say we should go, and I’ve read nothing but good things about the place, so this morning we made a point to finally go. And it was awesome!! I’ve definitely found my new favorite place in Atlanta. I’m still thinking about the fruit cup with yogurt and granola I had this morning. There just aren’t many places where you can get really good, fresh fruit quickly and for a reasonable price – and certainly not at this quality! I chatted with the owner for a minute before we left, and she said that’s exactly why she opened the place – to fulfill what she was looking for and could only get all the way out on Buford Highway.
Before we went inside, when we got out of the car and were walking down the street, it just felt like one of those perfect moments. A beautiful day and I was with Rusty and everything was great. We watched some mockingbirds scuffle over a bite of food. Sometimes I think it would be great to live in that neighborhood, but I love our house and I know I can enjoy all the different parts of Atlanta without actually having to live there. But ever since the first time I went to Cabbagetown in 2005, I’ve just had a special feeling for that part of town. Of course, being with the person I love helps as well. And I think part of it is, some moments bring back a feeling from early 2005, when I hadn’t been in Atlanta long and was discovering lots of its treasures, but had been here long enough that I’d gotten past a lot of the rough stuff from 2004. I love it when I can recapture that feeling. I want to maximize those times and that feeling.
Back to Lottafrutta – in one corner, there was an “Energy Lemon” and I had to take a picture of it. The owner caught me in the act and was giving me a funny look, and I said, “I had to take a picture of your energy lemon.” She said, “That’s okay,” and I wondered if I’d committed a cultural faux pas. Probably not, but you never know.
~*~
Saturday was our housewarming party and it was a success. My mom was up for the weekend and had a good time. I’m still thinking about the delicious deviled eggs we made, and I think I’m going to make deviled eggs out of the 6 eggs leftover from the various cooking endeavors.
We definitely want to have people over fairly often – why not take advantage of our wonderful deck, back yard, and grill? But next time, people need to not leave the back door open! I get eaten up by mosquitoes enough as it is, even with mosquito repellent on and citranella candles and torches all around – I don’t need them inside the house, too! (And I don’t even want to talk about what would happen if a cockroach were to come inside. I would FLIP THE FUCK OUT, because that shit is NOT ON.) I will say, though, that even though they blatantly ripped off the WebMD logo, this BiteMD stuff does help after the fact.
At the party, Nikki pointed out that we have two pine trees in the back yard that are perfectly spaced to accommodate a hammock. As far as I’m concerned, this is going to become a top priority.
Sara’s Coca-Cola cupcakes were amazing, and she has posted the recipe on her blog.
My mom took a bunch of pictures and I still need to get them off my camera. I’m going to finally upgrade our DSL speed sometime this week after my most recent payment goes through, so after that, it shouldn’t be such an ordeal to upload pictures to Flickr. So, I don’t yet have pictures of the party to post, but I do have a picture of me with a weed that was taller than I am:
It grew in about 6 weeks in a corner of our back yard.
~*~
The woman who did the renovation on our house (I would say “the seller,” but since we bought it in January, that seems a little dated now) came to the party, and she was telling me all about what the house looked like when she bought it (mostly because I kept prodding her with questions). I find it fascinating. I asked if she would send me “before” pictures, and she was reluctant, saying that usually when people see the before pictures, they like their house less. I find that really bizarre. If anything, I would think it would make someone like their nice renovated house more. My mom told her I was used to it because I grew up w/ parents who renovated houses, so I saw the whole process. That seemed to make her feel better about it. I need to email her a reminder. Anyway, one of the things she said was that they built out the dining room onto what used to be part of the porch. (They did a fabulous job with the floor, because you cannot tell AT ALL where the original hardwoods end and the new hardwoods begin.) That would mean the original dining area was tiny! Barely enough room to fit any kind of table, much less one that would comfortably seat four people. She also said there was a door from the kitchen into the middle bedroom (what we made our bedroom). Trying to picture everything, it seems like this was a really weird house.
I’ll post the before pictures when I get them. For now, Google Maps shows a blurry version of the house in its pre-renovation state, and the porch does indeed wrap around:
I’m glad they got rid of that big stupid shrub in front of the living room window.
~*~
Speaking of things you can see on Google Maps…
Here’s the aerial view of where my birthday photo shoot took place:
Street names are cropped out since there seems to be some sort of urban explorers’ code of ethics in that regard, although if you really want to know where it is, it’s not exactly hard to find out.
You can track the path of a utility easement for as long as there are treetops to be cut away to accommodate its presence. I followed it for probably longer than I should admit.
And one of the places I followed it to was this, in Clayton County. What the hell is this?? It looks disgusting!
I can only assume (hope?) that it’s a sewage treatment plant or some other waste water facility?
Back in Dekalb, there’s what appears to be a giant dirt lot, right beside “Lake Charlotte,” which appears not to have any water. Or maybe the dirt lot is the former lake?
Shifting gears, Google Maps also has a (blurry, not so great) pictures of an early 1960s condo building that I love, and that I fear might not be long for this world, given all the development going on in that area. Here’s Brookwood Forrest:
One of the condos is for sale – $85,000 will get you a 2/1 in a prime location. Parquet flooring has never endeared itself to me, but I could deal…
Besides, look at those original features in the bathroom!!
I’m dying to see what the kitchen and bathrooms looked like in our house prior to the renovation.
Here’s another condo building I love, this one built in 1950 according to the MLS Listing where I got the following photos. This building is on 26th St., right behind the Mellow Mushroom where we used to play trivia. Every time we would go to trivia I’d see the place and think what a cool building it is.
If I were single and buying a place by myself, these are the kinds of places I would have given serious consideration.
I used to not much care for 50s and 60s architecture, but in the past several years it has grown on me. Sure, some of it is crap; but there’s also a lot of really neat stuff. I think my resentment toward the “urban renewal” from which many buildings of that era were borne colored my perception and made me not able to appreciate the unique features in those buildings. It’s not the buildings’ fault that they replaced something older and probably very cool in its own right. And it doesn’t mean we should continue the cycle of knocking it all down and starting over every ~30 years or so.
~*~
I’m going to wrap this up and keep this post relatively upbeat. This is only a smidgen of everything that’s been typing itself out in my head all day long. I don’t have the energy right now to write a screed about why I’m annoyed with pretty much everybody in my former feminist Blogdonia haunts, not to mention the bullshit happening on Tumblr right now. And I feel like I should save my post about my constant underlying fear of Something Very Bad Happening for another day. (The truth is, I’m scared to write it at all.)
The internet has everything, right?
Hey internet! I need two of these thingies, for the bottoms of salt and pepper shakers:
Got any?
Sex 2.0, v2 – success!
If you follow my tweets, you already know that Sex 2.0 was a blast. I’m going to do a proper recap post as soon as I get a free minute or thirty. In the meantime, here are some photos:
Sadly, scheduled keynote speaker Nikol Hasler fell ill days before the conference and was unable to attend. Melissa Gira stepped up, doing a This American Life-esque keynote with Dacia playing Ira Glass from the back of the room. I sure hope someone got audio and/or video.
MySpace-esque photo of me and Melissa. She knows how to sit like a lady while I clearly do not.
This is how the sex nerds get down.
(Shades of this photo [coincidentally, also in Washington]. It’s clear I value certain priorities in my friends.)
I’ll also be posting audio of the Revisiting Naked on the Internet panel, which I was on along with Melissa and Furry Girl, and Dacia moderating. It’ll be up as an episode of (un)ConCast whenever Rusty does his MacBook Pro magic on the audio file.
Also, I’ve been collecting links to other posts recapping Sex 2.0 in my del.icio.us.
Thanks, all, for a terrific weekend!
Computers
I have too much old computer detritus (or “collectibles,” depending on how you see it) that for some reason I just can’t bring myself to get rid of. I’ve never been a pack rat. I like the occasional purge. I do hold onto things that have personal, sentimental value for me – the stuff that doesn’t necessarily have monetary value, but can’t be replaced if lost. Why do I hold onto these last remains of my former pretty-big computer collection? I haven’t *used* them in any way in years. I simply tote the boxes around w/ me whenever I move, and shove them in another closet. But do I really need an entire box of Localtalk connectors? This stuff is taking up space, and while we have more of it at the house than at the apartment, we don’t have a ton of it to waste.
I guess part of me thinks maybe one day this stuff will be even rarer than it is now, and… then what? I don’t know. Old stuff is cool. Scarcity makes for interestingness. Plus, I believe it’s important not to erase all traces of where we’ve been – and esp. w/ technology, since it changes so fast.
And yet the fact remains, I *don’t* have space for this stuff.
[Originally posted on my Tumblr, and then I realized, hey, I ended up writing enough to constitute a real blog post! So I'm cross-posting it here - and shortly the RSS feed will be imported to my Tumblr, to complete the infinite loop.]
Auspicious anniversaries
Five years ago, I moved to Atlanta after an ill-fated (but ultimately good in terms of what it taught me) 7-month stint in Dallas, Texas. It was one of the best decisions I ever made!
Here I am just after arriving at my new home:
Yay. :)
The Yardbirds
I’ll hide most of this post behind a “more” link because there are a ton of photos and I realize that not everyone on the internet has a super-fast connection. Here are the birds we’ve seen so far in our yard at our house. Most of them have come to our feeder, except for the robin and mockingbird, which don’t eat seed anyway.
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Web stuff and domesticity
At around 6:45 this morning, my sites hosted on Dreamhost were hacked, for the second time. Nothing major (just some spam links hidden w/ display: none) and I restored backups w/ no problem, but I think it’s definitely time to find a new host. I would’ve done it sooner but was just lazy. I’m thinking of going w/ PowWeb; does anybody else have suggestions?
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On Saturday, we moved our furniture to the house. And when I say “we,” I mean Rusty and his friend Matt. So Saturday night was our first night sleeping at the house. Yay! Except, I woke up Sunday morning feeling like death warmed over. I’m convinced this is due to the air in the house, especially the bedroom. On Twitter, Aspasia suggested that we could be kicking up dust and other crap due to moving. Then Nikki noted that paint takes a long time to “off-gas” (that was a new term to me). I’m betting it’s a combination of the two. I’ve always been very sensitive to air quality, so for me, paint fumes + possible dust != happy.
Low-VOC paint… if only I had known!
Last night we slept w/ a fan in the bedroom and it helped a little, but I still felt crappy – sore throat, kind of dizzy, lethargic. I’ve felt a little better at work today. I knew staying home wasn’t an option, as that would only exacerbate the problem! Tonight we’re going to look for an air purifier and a ceiling fan. And hopefully I won’t have to sleep in the living room for weeks. :P
~*~
While languishing in bed yesterday, around 1:00 I heard a bunch of loud noises from above. In my half-awake state I thought, “Must be the crazy upstairs neighbors again.” Then I realized, “Oh wait, I’m at the house; we don’t have upstairs neighbors.” So I thought, “Maybe there’s a squirrel on the roof.” But the noise didn’t let up, and I thought, “I can’t imagine a squirrel being that loud.” So I sat up in bed and opened the blinds – and holy crap, it was snowing! Big fat flakes that were actually sticking.
WTF?? Where did that come from? It was in the 60s on Saturday!
I got out of bed and took a picture from the living room window, too.
(Side note: I love the house across the street, the one w/ the red car parked in front of it in this picture. It’s just such a perfect little 1950s house.)
A lot of the snow had melted by this morning, but there was still a good bit on the lawn – and ice on the roads. We drove to work very slowly. There are still patches of it around, but it’s mostly gone.
~*~
Despite getting sick, I am VERY happy to be closer to being totally moved into the new house. There’s still some stuff at the apartment – kitchen stuff, clothes, and most notably, Puff and Stuff – but we’ll be moving it over the course of the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to being settled, because right now everything is in flux and I feel very jostled; I can’t find anything, nothing’s organized, etc. But even with the furniture just scattered all around in no logical order, the house already feels more like a home. I’m looking forward to getting everything put in the right spot and just relaxing in our home – not to mention working on the yard. We’ve already seen a ton of birds; once we get more feeders, a bath, and some shrubs w/ berries they like planted, it’ll be a bird paradise.
Distance
The dream I wrote about the other day has been in the back of my mind ever since. It was such a quick, fleeting dream, arguably insignificant (I’m not convinced that dreams always have some deeper meaning; sometimes they’re just an amalgamation of stuff that’s been in your brain during the day) – and yet it has stuck with me.
I’ve been thinking about my dad and I’m not sure why. I still feel fairly detached from his death. I got emotional in the immediate aftermath, of course – okay, let’s be honest, I was a wreck – however, if I’m honest a lot of that was the equivalent of sympathetic weight gain. I saw how my mom was hurting and sympathized. I saw how other people were hurting – Ray, Crystal, Dominique, Chelsea, the list goes on – and sympathized. I saw the overflowing crowd at the funeral and was overcome with emotion.
And since I’ve always had a knack (whether I like it or not) for being able to put myself in others’ shoes and see things from their perspective, I could understand how so many people thought of my dad as such a great person. A true friend, someone reliable, someone they could talk to. His personality helped; he was the type of person who could talk to anyone. Whereas my mom and I hate approaching strangers, it came naturally to him. He seemed to know everyone in Augusta.
I could see all that. And yet I wondered (rhetorically)… how could their experience of him as a person be so different from mine?
How many times have you heard, when someone is found to have done something horrible – “We just can’t believe it, he/she was such a nice person.” That always rang hollow to me and I couldn’t understand how people could be so convinced by surface presentation. It seemed natural to me that the person who is found out for committing some horrible crime was always a “nice person” – because that’s part of how abusers manipulate, the insidious way they turn others against you even if those others mean well.
What everyone told me at the funeral was, “He loved you more than anything else in the world.” I lost track of the number of people who said some variation of that. I would nod and say thank you for coming or whatever; but I was thinking, funny how they all thought that, ’cause he sure had an odd way of showing it. Even the chaplain who did the service said something like, “He made some changes once [Amber] came into his life.” Changes? Not nearly enough, I thought bitterly. One time I told Crystal that the two of them had a better ‘father/daughter’ relationship than he and I did, and she told me to stop, don’t say that, it’s not true. I stopped because I could tell it was upsetting her – not because it was untrue.
Other people remember him for how much he loved me, how he was always there for them as a friend, the things he did to help people out, the way everyone always got a second chance (aside from his children from his first marriage – not that anyone knew about them). My memories are different. But I can see where all his friends are coming from. Memories and perspective… they’re funny like that.
The hospice chaplain who talked to me at the airport before I got on a plane to Chicago asked if I had any unfinished business with my dad, if there was anything I needed to say to him. I was silent for a moment and then said no. She said sometimes there are things we can’t say or business we can’t finish until after the person is gone – and that’s okay.
Yet in some ways I do miss him. I never thought I would say that. Maybe I can say it only because he’s gone – now I can appreciate the good that other people saw, with some distance.
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The Atlanta expressway that (mostly) never was
Posted by zeusface on Flickr, this 1972 Atlanta map shows the routes of two highly controversial expressways that were stopped by public opposition – but not before the state had destroyed countless homes and businesses, including a huge portion of historic Inman Park, and created a wasteland that sat empty for nearly 20 years.
Click through and view the large size to be able to see the proposed highway routes more clearly.
More info from Wikipedia:
The Stone Mountain Freeway shares state route number 10 with Freedom Parkway, a two-mile (3km) road in northeast Atlanta that connects with the Interstate highway system at a major highway interchange on the Downtown Connector. As that designation suggests, state officials originally intended the Stone Mountain Freeway to continue west, through Decatur, Druid Hills and Candler Park, to downtown Atlanta. In pursuit of those plans, in 1969 the GDOT purchased an X-shaped swath of land designed to carry two roads: Interstate 485, running from east to west, and another freeway connecting what are now Georgia 400 to the north and Interstate 675 to the south.
Neighborhood groups and local preservationists worked together to block road construction of the highways. After 20 years of litigation and political maneuvering, community groups and state and local officials in 1991 compromised and set much of the state-purchased right of way aside as parkland, later named Freedom Park. The land proposed as the interchange of the two cancelled highways, by then, had become the site of the Carter Center.
Freedom Parkway – the last vestige of the planned downtown link of the Stone Mountain Freeway – opened in 1994.
I’m still curious as to how this all fits in w/ Sherwood Harrington’s 1963 photo of (what became) Freedom Parkway under construction, if the land wasn’t purchased until 1969. On Flickr, zeusface says:
At the time this photo was taken, this highway was going to run all the way to Stone Mountain, but was thwarted by residents of the upscale Druid Hills area. That’s why there is so much park space around the Carter Center, North Avenue, and Little Five Points. It was originally cleared for this highway. That’s also why there is so much undeveloped land bordering the North DeKalb Mall parking lot. The Stone Mt. Freeway would have continued where the QT and Saturn dealership now stand, and would have gone through Medlock park where that new nature trail is.
But if the photo was taken in 1963, how does that jibe? Does anyone have any insight?
House updates
Bedroom painting is done (except for a few minor touch-ups which I’ll do tomorrow or Wednesday).
My office/pole studio/guest bedroom painting is done, as well. I finally have a yellow room!
Curtains will be up shortly.