The main reason for the trip was so we could be at my sister’s 40th birthday party. The party was a surprise party on Friday night, so she didn’t know that we (and one of her friends that lives in Maine) were coming into town. It was good to see some people that we hadn’t seen since we moved AND there was birthday cake. I love cake. The party was another strong dose of birth control for me, as there were about a dozen kids, romping around in a birthday cake frosting induced buzz.
The big event in town on Saturday was the Georgia/Auburn game at 3:30pm. We went downtown around 10:30am and the place was already full of people dressed in red and black, with a few faithful, soon to be disappointed, Auburn fans in blue and orange. You just can’t beat the energy of a SEC college town on game day; it is one of the parts of Athens that I miss. Even if you aren’t going to the game, the vibe downtown is always really nice. Illinois States’ mediocre teams don’t create anything close to the draw; I can barely notice a difference around our on game days Saturdays vs. non game days. Ticket prices for the UGA game were in the $160’s and up (each!), so we opted to watch it on TV with my family. Georgia crushed Auburn and it was entertaining to watch my 5 year old nephew cheering and calling out the players by their names. However, don’t get all “see, kids are fun and great” on me because of that comment. That time with him was not nearly enough to undue the mental damage created by the dozen kids the night before.
On Sunday, my parents dropped us off in Norcross,GA and we had lunch with a few of my friends from the Atlanta area. This is a great group of guys that I have been hanging out with for years; we all share a love of cars, sarcasm and food. When I lived in Georgia, the first Friday of the month was reserved for meeting them for dinner. Every month, like clockwork, everyone showed up for dinner, followed by hours of hanging out in the restaurant parking lot talking about cars (unless it was too cold outside). It was such a monthly habit that Karen knew not to attempt to make plans with others that night, I already had plans. I have yet to find any people that come close to them up here in Illinois, Obviously they are also high on my list of “things I miss” about Georgia.
After lunch we were off to the ATL airport and were back in IL by 5:00. After landing in IL, we ran to the auto parts store to pick up some hydraulic fluid for my floor jack. I got it operational and then proceeded to pull the dead starter from the 626. I installed the new starter Monday night after work and the car is operational again (knock on wood). After fixing the car, I went to curling (busy night). Since we were on a losing streak, we reconfigured our team order and went out on the ice to face the remaining undefeated team in the league. The shakeup of our lineup must have worked, as the Phenomenal Husbands of Doctors pulled out a surprising upset by scoring 3 points in the final end to win 7 to 6. Everything is more fun when you walk away with a WIN.
Karen and I are closing in on our 5 year wedding anniversary… in a way it seems like it has gone by fast, until you consider that in that time period she has earned her PhD and we moved halfway across the county. I guess those two events themselves are a lot for 5 years! If you have trouble reaching us around our anniversary, it will be because we will be relaxing here:
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