Being Amber Rhea

This weekend, Rusty got his truck washed for the first time in years:

Shiny!

Also, we went down to the bird fair in Forest Park and got two new zebra finches. They are named Puff and Stuff. The girl is Puff, because she’s bigger.

I’ll post more (and closer-up) photos soon. I didn’t want to disturb them too much while they’re still getting adjusted to their new home, so I haven’t been hovering around their cage with the camera just yet.

This weekend, I’m going on a retreat with Georgians for Choice. We’ll be staying in somebody’s cabin near Ellijay, and there won’t be internet access or a cell phone signal. Am I allowed to use the phrase “off the grid” to describe what my weekend will look like? (Probably not, because there’s a landline and electricity at the cabin.) I’m not sure what we’re going to do at the retreat other than eat and sit around; but that’s okay, because eating and sitting around sounds like a damn fine weekend to me.

On one hand, I’m looking forward to the retreat, but on the other hand, I’ll be missing Rusty and looking forward to getting back to Atlanta (civilization) on Sunday afternoon.

Oh, for those of you who don’t pay attention to my Twitter updates, our AC is fixed now. Last night we slept at our apartment for the first time in 11 days. There are other updates regarding this situation, but I’ll post them later.

And now that we can actually stay at our apartment again, I will post about the pole saga soon, too. Executive summary: Platinum Stages is a shady company that has fucking awful customer service. Don’t buy anything from them.

Rusty and I spent the weekend in Milledgeville, which is about two hours south of Atlanta. (Don’t you love how it’s possible to measure distance in hours?) We went on some tours, took a bunch of photos, and spent a lot of time in the big comfy bed at the B&B where we stayed.

I love when we take these little weekend trips. Even though the inn had free wifi of which we partook a bit, it still felt like we were “off the grid” for the most part. And even though I don’t usually go for touristy stuff, I make exceptions when the touristy stuff involves history or other nerdy pursuits. We really enjoyed the tour of the Old Governor’s Mansion and the trolley tour of downtown.

One thing that stood out to me about Milledgeville was that everything is so old. I know there are plenty of old small towns in Georgia, but something about Milledgeville in particular… it seems older. I don’t think that’s just a random perception, either. First of all, it wasn’t burned by Sherman’s troops during the March to the Sea, so there are a lot of actual antebellum buildings. (Peeve: we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called the Antebellum Inn, but it was built in 1890.) It also didn’t get hit with a bunch of “urban renewal” in the 1960s. (I overheard someone talking about that while we were on the trolley tour, and I gleaned that Milledgeville had an active historical society way before most other places.) It was the state capital from 1803-1868, and, as the tour guide was saying, when the capital moved to Atlanta, Milledgeville pretty much became a ghost town. Its heyday was in the early/mid 1800s.

Speaking of ghosts… yes, of course we went to Central State Hospital! We didn’t go inside any of the buildings, because we’re not down with the B&E; in fact, we didn’t even get out of the car. (We rolled down the windows to take photos.) The place had a very creepy vibe, and I just did not want to be walking around.

Nevertheless, I may have inadvertently photographed a ghost. Generally I think the talk of “orbs” as something paranormal is crap. It’s dust on the lens, people. But what showed up in my photo was much bigger than your typical orb/dust. And I see the vague shape of a face in it (you have to view the original size to be able to make that out). Who knows, it could be something else… but, well, judge for yourselves:

There will be a podcast about our Milledgevile trip soon. In the meantime, check out my photos on Flickr: Downtown Milledgeville and Central State Hospital. And don’t forget to listen to our podcast reviewing two Atlanta swinger’s clubs!

It’s shaping up!

More here.

Soon we’ll have curtains… and there will be more photos.

The good thing about automatic del.icio.us and Twitter posting is that it makes it look like I update my blog every day. (Reminder: if you find those things annoying, you can always subscribe to the “actual posts only” feed.)

It’s been a good, calm weekend. Yesterday morning, my Online International Podcasting Expo session went well. Then last night we had dinner with some friends at the Vortex in Little Five Points - which was a lot of fun, but goddamn are some of the people at the Vortex annoying. (I would attribute that attitude to me getting old, but I felt the same way about such people when I was 21.) Today we did our requisite weekly brunch at Radial, I had my requisite afternoon nap and my requisite persistent headache; then we went to the Container Store and spent about $1,000 on elfa equipment so that we can build a closet in our lofted bedroom.

Once our place all set up, it’s going to be awesome. The upstairs in particular is going to be cozy and kick-ass (yes, it can be both). Also, it’s going to be our personal Porno Central.

Downstairs, the furniture arranging and box unpacking is coming along. We have so much space that we basically have two living rooms (or living-room-like areas, since there are no walls) - one with a TV and one without. The kitchen is another matter, however… I need to get on top of that soon, because eating out all the damn time has gotten really old.

I can’t believe it’s already 9:00 p.m. This weekend has flown by. I still might edit a podcast tonight… we’ll see.

I’ll be back to writing posts about feminism and shit next week, I imagine. For now, this is what you get. -Oh! I would like to say publicly, CONGRATS to Jenny on landing an awesome new job in Washington D.C.!! It’ll be great to have you on the east coast. :)