21 July 2008

Davelanta 2008!

This past Saturday was a nice, lazy day. It was my day off from the kids and I spent the whole morning and early afternoon scrap booking upstairs and listening to the train wreck of whining kids downstairs and a very frustrated Ty-man ready to rip out the rest of his hair.

Suddenly, it was 4 o'clock! I had 90 minutes to get ready and get to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Atlanta for Davelanta hosted by Dave of Blogography. He's doing a lot of work-related travel this year and wherever he goes, he gets all us local bloggers together for dinner and gabbing!

I got myself together within 30 minutes (together as in "Dang! She's hawt! She can't be a mom! She's a supermodel!" - don't I wish) and out of the house one hour before meet-time. According to Ty-man's car, the drive was supposed to take 35 minutes.

Yeah, whateva! It actually took 75 minutes thanks to the Georgia Department of Transportation who decided to not only resurface the connector through the main part of Atlanta, but who also took out the 14th street bridge (One of those bridges - 14th, 10th, Courtland, what the hell do I know? I live in the 'Burbs with Tom Hanks!). Fun! Every time I tried a new route, that bitch of a car navigation system would tell me to U-turn and go over a non-existent bridge or get back into stand-still traffic. GPS can suck it!

Finally, I made it and walked into the Hard Rock and almost walked into Dave. I sat down at the bar and got this:


Yes! He made name tags for all of us! And flair! We got flair! The man has talent!

After the shock of a Davelanta name tag and flair, I met Copasetic Beth and her husband Kevin from Houston, We Have a Problem:

(Obviously, the Hard Rock was dark and my iPhone has no flash. So my pictures are... interesting. Sorry.)

As the three of us sat and stared at each other, trying to figure out why we looked so familiar to one another, we started narrowing down the possibilities. High school? Nope. Hometown? Nada. College? YES! The three of us went to the same college (Beth and Kevin were class of 1993 - one year ahead of me)! Kevin was in the Army ROTC with Ty-man! Beth and I lived in the same dorm! How cool! We were able to reminisce about school chums (yes, I said chums) and even found out that for five years after college, we lived just a quarter mile from one another and didn't know it. Small world, people. Small world indeed.

I also met Elizabeth (big Dr. Who fan and fellow X-Phile) from Mentally Rehearsed and Mike & Diane (thanks for the key lime pie!) from Americans in Singapore. We all had a great time YELLING at one another over dinner at the Hard Rock because obviously the goal at the Atlanta Hard Rock is to Love Y'all, Serve Y'all, DEAFEN Y'ALL! My ears are still ringing and my voice is still hoarse. After dinner, we wandered over to the quieter Mexican/Latin fusion restaurant across the street for better conversation (although we were probably yelling over the Hard Rock music still ringing in our ears) and some yummy, tart key lime pie! We all agreed that Davelanta was much cooler than BlogHer and, unfortunately, the evening ended too soon. Elizabeth was off to see The Dark Knight and Dave had an early morning flight back to Seattle. It took me 20 minutes to drive one mile to the interstate and 20 minutes to drive 30 miles home. Georgia DOT! One construction project in downtown Atlanta at a time! Please!

It was an awesome evening and I have to give myself props for not being nervous. A few years back I would have worked myself up into a skyrocketing blood pressure, cold sweat situation over meeting people I didn't know. Saturday? I was nervous about surviving Atlanta traffic and finding parking. Once that was accomplished I was cool as a cucumber. Thanks much Dave and can't wait until next year's Davelanta!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like y'all had a great time!

'A few years back I would have worked myself up into a skyrocketing blood pressure, cold sweat situation over meeting people I didn't know."

That's me!

RiverPoet said...

Awesome! I wish I had been there, but no, I don't miss Atlanta traffic. There was always something bizarre going on with road construction. Piss poor planning!

Glad you had a good time!

Peace - D

Liz Hill said...

Glad you had a great time sugar.

Avitable said...

You were relaxed because you met me earlier this year. And if I, of all people, didn't turn out to be a crazy serial killer, nobody will.

Amy and I almost drove up just for the weekend, but it didn't work out. Damn.

Donna said...

Yeah!! Small world, indeed.

Now I want to do some get-to-gether-with-bloggers-and-have-some-fun thing too!
Any one coming in the country anytime soon?
Yeah, didn't thinks so.

Miss Britt said...

So glad you to got to go and have fun!

That One said...

Sounds like a wonderful time!

That One said...

Finally added you to my "check 'em out" list over at Defective Typewriter. I don't often comment, but I subscribe and read all your posts. :)

Expat No. 3699 said...

Driving to Atlanta sounds like driving to downtown Chicago...Sucks ass.

How cool to run into people from the same college. Yes it is a small world.

Anyhoo, glad you had a good time.

Tim Appleton (Applehead) said...

don't point out the double chin, I wouldn't have noticed...

Molly's Mom said...

How awesome for you! And cool that you discovered people you went to college with!
I discovered a small world right here on your little ol' site...I found out that Tuli (who commented today, actually) is a high school bud of my husband's - she wouldn't have known if she hadn't looked at one of my wordless wednesday pics where husband just happened to be in the background. Too funny! So now we're each sworn to secrecy since our blogs are hush hush from the guys.

Kevin said...

Great post, and great seeing you again. Can't believe how small of a world it is! Can't wait to break out the ole college yearbook!

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Miss Night Owl - If I can get past it, you can, too!

River Poet - Atlanta traffic is horrible because instead of preparing for the onslaught of population growth, they wait until it's too late and then realize they're screwed and have to fix problems. ARG!

Turnbaby - Thanks, hon!

Avitable - True, hon. :) Wish you could have made it, but I'm glad you got Halloween party stuff done. :)

Donna - Tiny. Minuscule. And the next time I'm up there, we're hanging girl!

Britt - Thanks, darlin'!

Tuli - Thanks and thanks also for adding me and reading! :)

Employee #3699 - Total ass suckage. Thanks!

Tim Appleton - You didn't notice?!? Bless you, sweetie.

Molly's Mom - That's great! Glad you two found each other! :)

Kevin - Honey, I've already broken out the yearbook! :) We look so young! Great seeing you, too!

josetteplank.com said...

Way cool!

And holy cripes, I swear you look like someone I went to school with!

Except I'm an old lady who graduated college way back when term papers were still typed on typewriters.

Dave2 said...

Sooooooo happy you could make it and had fun! I've been to quite a few blogger meets, and they always go very well... no stress, just a good group of people chatting, eating, drinking, and having fun! See you next year!

Not Afraid to Use It said...

What a cool idea that man has! That is so awesome that you guys got to go! And you KNOW you had an evil smirk on your face listening to Ty-man deal with the kids.

Gypsy said...

[Thinking] You know, Atlanta is only a four hour drive for me... ;)

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Jozet at Halushki - Hey, I wrote my term papers on type writers! Where did you go to school?

Dave2 - Thanks again, hon!

NATUI - I'm thinking when I get up to New City this fall, we're going to have to get name tags, girl! :)

Gypsy - Hey, I've been dying to get together with you, woman! Do it!