A nice meal

When Jeff tells people that he's a sports writer and has to go to football, basketball and baseball games, they usually all say the same thing, "I wish I had a job going to sporting events."

What they don't understand is that he has to get to the stadium or gym two hours before the game starts. Then he has a ton of paperwork to go through — rosters, quotes, notes, etc. Then as he's watching the game, he's constantly taking notes and posting on social media sites. He's not sitting back enjoying the game. He's watching for patterns, standout players, trying to figure out how this game will affect the upcoming ones. It's mentally hard work.

Then after the game, he has to do interviews, often jockeying position with other writers, TV reporters and others. That can take about half an hour. He's also gathering quotes and information for future stories.

Then he finally gets to sit down and start writing.

Depending on how close the print deadlines are, he might have spent the last part of the game writing ahead. Within 5 minutes of the game ending, he posts several paragraphs with just the basics. Then he expands the story for print. Then he adds quotes and other information for the full version, which goes on the website.

Tired yet?

So when we were in Atlanta, the game Jeff had to cover was an all-day thing. Biscuit and I were on our own from 10 a.m. until 8:30 that evening.

Jeff called about 4:30 to say the game was over, and he was going to start writing.

Almost four hours later, he was ready to leave the stadium. Except he realized that he was the last media person there, and he was locked inside. He had to find one of the maintenance crew members to help him get out.

The guy finally showed him a back way out, then Jeff had to walk all the way around the stadium to get to his car.

He called to say he was on his way back to the hotel. After we got off the phone, I said to Biscuit, "We need to take Dad somewhere good for dinner."

I had found an Italian restaurant that was well-known for its pizza. It had started raining again, so we traveled through our newly found inside passageway.

The restaurant was on the second floor of an old warehouse building. You come in off the street, walk through a short hallway with fountains and plants, then up a staircase. They've left a lot of the warehouse-looking features — exposed beams and brick walls, etc.

Don't worry. Biscuit wasn't drinking wine. The blue glasses were for water.

Biscuit hit it off with the server. She asked him how old he was, and when he told her, she said she has a son his same age. And that's all it took to get the two of them chatting.

The kitchen is open, so you can see them making the pizzas. All their ingredients are fresh and local. And you can tell it. It was some of the best pizza I've ever had.

Jeff got the stuffed crust. Each of the points had homemade ricotta in it.

As we talked and laughed and ate, I could see Jeff relaxing. I was really glad that Biscuit and I were there. I would've hated to think he was alone after such a long day.

And if we do go back to do touristy things, we will definitely go back to the pizza place.

Name and eye color

The first night we were in Atlanta, it was pouring rain.

The hotel has a covered entrance, and you have to give your car to a valet when you arrive. So we were quickly grabbing everything we needed to take inside, but it didn't occur to us to grab umbrellas.

So when we went out to dinner Friday night, we got rained on to and from the diner we went to. We were wet and cold. But then, you know, we got cake!

I've told Biscuit that if a restaurant server tells you his or her name, you should remember it and use it if you need something.

I also told him about something I recently decided.

I completed a transaction at a store one day, and when I got back to the car, I realized that I couldn't have picked the cashier out of a lineup. I don't think I ever even looked at her.

So I told Biscuit that I decided then that whenever I interacted with somebody, when I walked away, I would know what color his or her eyes were. That would make sure that I looked him or her in the eyes.

So we were sitting at the restaurant, and the server came over, introduced herself and took our drink orders. 

As she walked away, Biscuit leaned over to me and whispered, "Nancy. Brown."

Jeff had no idea what we were talking about, so we had to explain.

"See, Dad," Biscuit said, "Nancy is her name, and her eyes are brown."

When she brought the cake at the end of dinner, she set mine and Biscuit's down, and he looked up and said, "Thank you, Nancy." I wish I had a picture of her face. She seemed so surprised. So then they started a full-fledged conversation.

By the time we left, we knew a great deal about Nancy. She was a nice lady, and she treated us, especially our boy, very well.

We were dreading walking back in the rain. It was only a block and a half, but that seems a lot farther when it's cold and raining.

But as we were walking toward the door, we saw some people taking a right down a hallway. They were wearing jackets and shirts for the team we were there for. 

"Let's follow them," Jeff said.

"We don't know where they're going," I said.

"They're headed in the general direction of the hotel," Jeff said.

So we followed them.

Sure enough, they were going back to our same hotel. But instead of walking in the rain like we did, they walked through a small mall, across a covered pedestrian bridge and right into the hotel lobby.

Once we got to the hotel, we told them that we saw what they were wearing and followed them. Turns out they were from our town.

It was really weird meeting so many people from our town so far away from home.

Trip to Atlanta

Jeff had to cover a football bowl game in Atlanta, and his hotel room had two beds. So Biscuit and I hitched a ride with him. I figured that even if we never left the room, it would still be a fun little getaway.

We drove down Friday. Jeff worked all day Saturday. Then we drove home Sunday. I told Biscuit that we would have all day Saturday to ourselves and gave him some options of tourist things that were close enough for us to walk to.

"They all look like fun, Mom," Biscuit said, "but I'd rather take another trip down here when Dad can do things with us."

That was fine by me.

The hotel was 50 stories tall. It had 47 floors of rooms (the 47th floor was all suites) and three lower floors (atrium, lobby, lower lobby). Since Biscuit had never stayed in a building that tall, Jeff asked if we could get a room pretty high up. They put us on the 28th floor. The hotel was so big that they had different banks of elevators to get to different floors. And the elevators were packed every time we got on them.

Well, almost every time. Since our hotel was the fan hotel, there were some big parties and events Friday evening. That left the elevators pretty free.

Friday night, we went to a dinner up the street from the hotel. It was an evil place! As the hostess took us to our table, she led us right past this display case of CAKE! You can't walk past a case like this and not plan to eat cake for dessert.

Biscuit and I split a piece of Oreo cake and still couldn't finish it. We took it back to the hotel and had it for breakfast Saturday morning.

As we finished off our cake, Biscuit and I watched a superhero movie. After that, we went downstairs to the indoor heated swimming pool.

Biscuit and I walked into the hallway, which is not so much a hallway as a balcony that overlooked the 31 floors below us. It was really cool looking until someone said it look like a monster's rib cage from the inside.

Biscuit pushed the button to call and elevator car, and it took about 30 seconds for one to arrive. It had been taking at least 5 or so minutes, sometimes longer.

When the doors opened, Biscuit and I were stunned. There was nobody in there. It was completely empty.

We rode from the 28th floor to the lobby with no stops!

The door opened, and the place was deserted.

"Where is everybody?" Biscuit asked.

"They're all at the game," I told him. It was a little eerie.

Biscuit was the only person in the pool for most of the time we were down there.

The whole time Biscuit played, I was watching the score of the game. It was close several times, but the team Jeff went to cover came out victorious. And since our hotel was also the fan hotel, we were really glad the team won.

Here are some other pictures from our trip:

I squatted down to take this so you could see the structure of the place inside. But it makes Biscuit look like a giant! See the elevator in the background? They had glass walls so you could look out as you rode up and down.

The view from our room. See the two tall buildings on the right? The top floors lit up at night. Since it was in December, one was red and the other one was green.

The building with the gold dome is the state capital.

This parking lot was straight down from our window. Biscuit said when the cars were moving around it looked like a video game.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope it's off to a good start for you all.

Things have been in a whirlwind around here.

Normally, my rush is earlier. This year, my rush came and never went away!

It starts with Halloween. We enjoy making costumes, so we put some effort into it. Then a little over a week later, it's Biscuit's birthday. Then everyone comes from out of town to our house for Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving, I'm usually in the clear. I just get to relax and enjoy the rest of the year.

But this year, there was Thanksgiving, then an unexpected trip, then my mama had hip replacement surgery, and I went down to stay a week with her. (The surgery was successful, and she's traded in her walker for a cane!)

Jeff had to go to Atlanta to cover a football bowl game in the middle of December. He was going by himself, but his hotel room had two beds. So Biscuit and I hitched a ride. We stayed at the hotel the while Jeff went to the game. 

On the way home Sunday, Jeff and Biscuit dropped me off at my parents' house so I could be there for mama's Monday morning surgery and stay with her several days after that.

I came home on Thursday, went to work Friday morning, then went back down to my parents' house Friday evening for Christmas. It's about 2 1/2 hours, so it's not just down the road. We spent the weekend there.

Then on Christmas Eve, we went to Jeff's brother's house. That's about 1 1/2 hours from us.

On the way home, I asked Biscuit, "Hey, guess where we're going tomorrow?"

"Where?" he asked.

"NOWHERE!" I yelled.

"YAY!" he yelled.

We had a great Christmas.

I ordered two action figures from an anime (Japanese cartoons) show Biscuit watches. They were hard to find. I finally found some that would ship from China. 

I wrapped them and put them under the tree. Biscuit was so excited, he told two or three people that they were shipped "all the way from Japan." I guess he figured since they're Japanese characters, they came from Japan. I didn't have the heart to correct him.

Things are finally starting to settle back down. Jeff's mom is here with us, so we're enjoying her company. Jeff and I got two restaurant gift cards for Christmas, so we're gonna have to plan a couple of date nights while Grandma is here!