atl by iphone

i recently and finally finished up PTA school for EVER. and in order to celebrate, i got an emergency root canal. holy frijoles, i have never been in so much pain. but the good news is i managed to pass my exit exam with a pretty good grade while on percocet. and without a single second of studying. because i was too doped up to know what a book was at the time.

ok so that's not actually how i celebrated the summation of a two year hard-as-heck pta program. in fact, austin surprised me with a little trip to atlanta to celebrate. so after i took my exit exam and after austin got home from work, we jumped in the car to head down south.

although it took us 3 different gps systems and every ounce of patience i have in my body to finally find the hotel, we did eventually arrive at the intercontinental buckhead atlanta. i'm pretty sure this is the first hotel i've ever stayed at that actually had mints on the pillows!

after a quick wardrobe change, we no longer looked like we had just left work/were on narcotics {just me, not austin, of course} and we headed down to the bourbon bar for a drink. possibly to calm my nerves after the gps fiasco.

and if you were impressed by the mints on the pillows, whoa man would you be impressed by this bar. i've never even heard of some of the things they had to put in your drinks. a whole collection of extracts and bitters to add a little something. some kind of drink that austin ordered they actually used a spritzer to coat his glass with absinthe, for the aromatic experience as you take a sip of your drink. whaaa?

after that, we took a freezing cold walk {apparently winter made a guest appearance in atlanta that weekend} to grab some dinner at bricktop's. we had some guacamole {because the spinach dip had chicken stock in it... boooo} and i had the goat cheese flatbread pizza and austin had the chilean seabass. the food there was seriously delicious.

after stuffing our faces, we made our way back to the bourbon bar where we had another drink and sat and giggled like we were kids. my recently operated on face hurt sooo bad from laughing too much. i also ordered the twelve layer red velvet cake for some dessert. and although it was good... it wasn't as awesome as a twelve layer red velvet cake sounds.

don't get me wrong, i ate it. all twelve layers of it. but i think some cheesecake probably would have been better.

saturday morning, we walked through the freezing cold rain to grab some breakfast at the flying biscuit cafe. and oh, did we eat. we only ordered two meals, but i swear it was enough food to feed at least six people. there were eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, omelets, the best grits i've ever had in my life, whole wheat french toast and, of course, biscuits. austin was disappointed that no biscuits actually flew at any point during the meal.

then it was time for what austin had actually planned the weekend for... we went to the bodies exhibition! it was pretty cool. of course, i was quizzing austin the entire time on what muscle was what and what it did. he was less than impressed with my knowledge. waaamp waaamp.

after the exhibit, we wandered around atlantic station for a bit checking out some stores here and there and then we grabbed some lunch at yard house because austin had checked around and found that they had an entire section of their menu devoted to vegetarian friendly gardein products!

austin ordered a delicious grilled cheese and tomato bisque and i got the gardein bbq chicken pizza. oh, and we had a tower of onion rings, as well. mostly because they looked really cool.

and then i found this onion ring that looked like a face to me. i may or may not have held it up to my face like a mask. austin was not amused.

and then we did something i've wanted to do for years. years! that's right, we went to ikea.

and i have to say, having never been to an ikea before, i was really, really confused. once i finally got the hang of it, sorta, i realized we were being herded through this gigantic store like cattle. and it was not my cup of tea. the only thing i really wanted to buy were some house plants. but austin wouldn't let me. booo.

after the chaos of ikea, it was time to head home. but not without one more stop. i just happened to spy a giant billboard advertising over 250 flavors of popcorn. and how could i possibly pass that up?? answer: i couldn't. we stopped at popcorn haven. three free samples later austin and i each had chosen our picks. he went with caramel toffee almond and i, of course, got cheesy.

eventually our overstuffed selves made it back home and picked up the pup. i swear i've never eaten so much food in one weekend. but it's fine. we were celebrating the last two years being finished, right? nevermind the fact that we're going to the beach in a few weeks. guess i'll be hitting the gym soon...

and i gotta give austin credit for planning a super fun weekend trip to atlanta for me. sometime that kid can really get things right. :)

{also, i just feel like i need to let everyone know that no, i did not actually consume drinks while on percocet. i actually had stopped taking my pain meds because they made me so loopy. i know better than to combine things like that. that and austin can barely put up with me when i'm not under the influence of anything.}

an amazing weekend.

this weekend was a roller coaster of emotions.

friday night, austin and i just did our usual. we rented a movie {the oxford murders, pretty good} and ate a frozen pizza. saturday moring, austin's mom picked up julie boo to watch her for the weekend as austin and i headed to the atl. that's atlanta, georgia, in case you didn't know.

first stop, dave & buster's in marietta. basically it's a chuck e. cheese for adults. you buy tokens, play all sorts of games, win tickets and then cash in those tickets for {mostly crappy} prizes.

we played a football game. i beat austin. i also beat him at skeeball and basketball. he was mad.

austin did the flight simulator. note the concentration in his face.

then we found this janky little game hid way back in a corner. austin won the jackpot on it. twice.

we ended up with 1,314 tickets. yeah, we really racked up. check out our loot.

yep. a d&b glass. a giant pixie stick. a giant pen. a stuffed junior mints box. and an airplane shaped eraser. be jealous.

after we left dave & buster's, we headed to downtown atlanta to check into our hotel. after navigating some really obnoxious one-way streets, we finally found it: the hyatt regency. pretty nice, if i must say so myself. {we got it on priceline, we're not that fancy on purpose}. the lobby is under construction, but it was really nice regardless.

austin snapped these pictures from our window/tiny balcony.

saturday night, austin and i met up with j.j., my cousin who lives in atlanta. we went out to dinner at mellow mushroom with her and one of her friends, then we met up with a few more people to go out for the night.

here's j.j., her friend ava {maybe eva?} and myself.

sunday, austin and i took a detour for me to try on bridesmaids dresses for a friend's wedding i'm in next year. then we grabbed lunch at a mexican restaurant and then it was time to head back to downtown atl for the concert we were going to, which was the actual reason for the weekend trip.

so here's the emotional roller coaster part. motion city soundtrack is pretty much our favorite band. we've seen them a few times and have all of their cds. we missed their show in february due to weather, but anxiously awaited their show in atlanta. we didn't buy tickets in advance, their shows are never sold out and the processing charges online are ridiculous.

mistake. sometime saturday night, i noticed the band's facebook page say the show was sold out.

disaster.

as an act of desperation, i found the band manager's e-mail address and sent an e-mail explaining how we were huge fans, drove all the way to atlanta, missed their show in february due to weather and how badly we wanted to make it to this one. we figured there was no chance in them responding.

we were wrong! he wrote me back and put us on the guest list! we couldn't believe it!

austin and me at variety playhouse before the show started.

the opening bands included a great big pile of leaves, saves the day, and say anything. {no picture of agbpol}

 

i have to say, all the opening bands were great. say anything really put on a great show. then mcs came out and rocked our faces off.

after the show, austin and i waited around to meet the band and get their signatures on the set list we snagged. the only band member missing was the synth player. don't know where he ran off to.

so that was our mcs adventure for this weekend. we left atlanta around 11:45 sunday night and got back to our house around 1 in the morning.

this morning we met austin's mom at her work to pick up juliet.  the second we got home, she snuggled up in her blankets on the couch. she's adorable. 

oh, and then i gave her the junior mints box. we picked it out at dave & buster's just for her. and she loves it.

this has been a pretty long post, but it was an eventful weekend. lessons learned: atlanta is fun, but only for visiting. dave & buster's is fun, but expensive. and most important: buy. tickets. in. advance.