More fond memories

Now that the bat situation is dealt with, I thought I'd go back to reminiscing about Atlanta. So, if you don't want the travelogue, you can skip this post.

Because I was in Atlanta for a conference, I was there with a bunch of co-workers and, somehow, our schedules just weren't in sync which meant that when they all went to the Aquarium, I was in class. That didn't stop me though. I just went the next day by myself, which actually turned out to be perfect because it meant I could take the camera and practice my photography. That wouldn't have happened if I'd been with a group, but since I went solo, I could take my time. I did have to remind myself to put down the lens and enjoy, but it all balanced out.

The Georgia Aquarium advertises itself as the largest in the US. I can't say I have anything to compare it to, but I think maybe I was dreaming a bit too big. It was pretty great, though. And now I have an excuse to go to more aquariums to compare. I definitely concur with general opinion (at least, the general opinion of my friends who went the day before) that you can't miss the dolphin show. And I did get some good pictures:

And of course, I couldn't pass up the gift shop. What better place to get a souvenir? I was very tempted by plush toy animals (everyone needs stuffed animals) and I did see a great squid hat that grabbed my attention, but settled for a snow globe and some postcards.

But I couldn't shake off that squid hat. So the next night, my co-worker/friend and I went back to see if we could get in to just the gift shop. My friend kindly explained to the guard on duty that I just had to get a squid hat, and she kindly let us in. Totally worth it:

Did you say 'bats'? Yes, yes I did. Or: "Holy Bat Infestation, Batman!" Or, "For Rent: 1 apartment, bats included"

Friday night, I was doing some dishes around 9:30 and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fly by a couple of times, but didn't catch what it was. Figuring it was a moth, I finished the dishes and headed to the living room where I discovered, no, it was not a moth. It was a bat. A BAT. Flying around my living room. And I let out one yelp, ducked to the floor, and tried to figure out what one does when one has a bat in one's living room.

I decided I would turn off the lights and open the front door and hope the bat flew out. (Logically it didn't really play out in my mind, but apparently it was the right thing to do, according to a website about wild bats). It didn't seem like it was really working and for some reason I peeked out in the hallway. Lo and behold, there was a bat! So I slammed the door shut, turned around, and realized it was not the same bat because there was still one flying around my living room.

At this point, I ran in my room and shut the door and called Animal control. While waiting for them, another bat flew out of my closet. This one kindly landed on the floor and held very still, allowing me to put a box over him. And there I waited for the animal guys to come. Which also meant braving a trip out of my apartment to let them in, but I survived. 

My friendly Animal Control officer caught both bats, informed me that he'd contact the Public Health department and test the two bats for rabies and let me know if I would need a rabies vaccination. And he warned me not to stay in my apartment until the situation was resolved.

Since Friday, I have found 3 more bats in my apartment on my random stops in to pick up a change of clothes, seen one in the hallway, one in the window of another apartment, learned that my neighbors had three in their apartment, and I have talked to the emergency management line, the night manager, Animal Services twice, the security company for my complex twice, still don't know when I'll be able to move back in (or if I will want to! I'm terrified that I'll be finding bats long afterwards. It's a little traumatic, okay?), whether I need a rabies shot, where I'm going to stay if I can't get back in soon, etc. And, of course, none of the necessary businesses are open on the weekend, so I just have to wait til tomorrow. In the meantime, who knows how many bats are partying in my house. 

Give me frogs any day. 

Somehow, it was less creepy taking a picture of this bat in the building hallway than trying to photograph one in my apartment. Still gives me the shudders though. 

What to do at an MLB game

As mentioned, I recently attended my first ever Major League game. Now, baseball is not the most engaging of sports. Most of the time is spent with the pitcher throwing the ball to the guy at home plate, who then doesn't hit it or hits a foul. Then the catcher throws it back. And repeat until finally, the batter is out or hits a ball and then gets out. Or, amazingly, makes it to base. There's really not very much running involved. (And I now have a better understanding of why the game shirts they were selling--shirts players wore during a game, going rate of about $150 or so--were so clean. But if I'm paying that much for a shirt that has been worn during a professional baseball game, it darn well better look like it played in the game).

So, what does an out-of-towner audience do to entertain themselves in the twenty minutes between actual moments of running? I'm glad you asked.

1) The obvious, obviously. You take pictures and post them to Instagram. I personally did not do this, because I don't really do social media. But, pictures were taken. Including a picture of one of us eating a hot dog (also not me). I think that's a requirement.

Yes. I did take some photos. I just didn't post them. Except this one, right here.

2) Trash talk. Again, I didn't do any trash-talking, but the hot dog eater did. (Hey, she had paid to go to a baseball game. She was going to trash talk). To the Pirates player that she called a bum, it wasn't personal.

3) Cheer. And have fun saying all the Polish last names as you do.

4) Review high school physics to see if you can calculate the velocity of a sky diver. And then resort to Google, because high school physics was almost 20 years ago.* (Yes, I really did this).

5) Marvel at how fast they are throwing that baseball. It's fast, usually 94-ish mph. Then compare that to, say, a car. Then imagine getting hit with something that small moving that fast. And really, really feeling for the player who actually does get hit by that ball.

6) Give the players friendly reminders that they aren't supposed to hit the ball to the fans in the stands. One fella in particular seemed to be really confused about this. Pretty much every time he was at bat, you knew you had a while because he hit at least 6 fouls each time. "Nice job, you hit the ball. Now turn just a bit, so you hit it on the field. Okay, you got it. Nope. Inside the white lines buddy. Inside the lines."

7) Hypothesize about what the players are talking about while the all stand around waiting for someone to hit the ball. Or when they huddle up. Top picks: where to eat after the game, fantasy football teams, player x forgot his anniversary--what should he do?

8) Enjoy the skyline. At least if you are in Atlanta.

9) Try to figure out why they are tearing down the stadium and become incensed over it. And wonder what do you do with the seats that have been torn out of a baseball stadium.**

10) Text friends. Surf the web. Stare out into left field and contemplate your existence. Well, not really, because your seats are so high up that you are pretty much staring at the entire field and you'd have to turn your head to only get left field, and that would be weird.

11) Try to get on camera. Or not. I vote for not, but you know. Whatever.

12) Debate what is meant by the 50/50 raffle. It's definitely not referring to my odds of winning. And if it is, they need to seriously brush up on probabilities. Or I could nail them for false advertising.***

13) Contemplate what you would do with your winnings from the 50/50 raffle.

14) Enjoy and pity the poor people dressed as giant tools who competed in a race in between innings. And feel really really bad when the drill had to be carried off the field.

So there you have it. All the things you can do during a baseball game to entertain yourself. Have fun!


*If you are spread eagle the average speed is 120 mph. If you go head first, you can get up to 200 mph. 
**Our Uber driver back to the hotel filled us in on the shadiness of the decision. And at some point, a local did inform us that the universities in the area would be using the stadium, so it's not actually being torn down or going to waste. So, I feel a little better. 
***So, it really meant that the winner gets half the prize money and I think the other half went to a charity or the foundation or something. 

Time Travel

When I finally dragged myself out of bed yesterday, I realized that I have only been home from Georgia for a week and was startled by that. At the beginning of the week, it was looming so large in my mind: "Georgia. I was in Georgia. It was great. Who can I tell about Georgia?" And now it seems so long ago and everything has fallen back into the routine of before.

So you now get to be my audience while I reminisce on the highlights of my trip to Atlanta. But I promise I won't bust out the slides :)

The people you meet:
I managed to spend the first couple of days with co-workers who were very good at picking up people to hang out with. On night 1, the lovely Sarah of South Dakota joined my co-worker and I for dinner. This was the same excursion on which my inner 5-year old got really excited about sky bridges and I laid out mental bread crumbs to be able to find my way across the sky bridge, through the neighboring hotel, and to the food court beyond. (Sky bridge to escalators where you have to look up because it's such an awesome view to the "Session Evaluation" kiosk to the next sky bridge. And on the way out, find the DQ and go in reverse.) The next night we picked up Rebecca of Utah, just down the road and at a sister institution. And I even braved it enough to bring along Kelly, from Chicago, during lunch one day. I enjoyed this accumulation of acquaintances and realized it's pretty easy to befriend fellow archivists.
I also ran into old colleagues, including my dear and wonderful other half of "Melise" which was a delight. It was kind of cathartic to see some of these people and especially helpful to see my current situation through their eyes, without any of the baggage.

Technically, this is not a slide, so I didn't lie. This is the view going up the escalators in my bread crumb trail. Turns out, scenes from Catching Fire and Mockingjay were filmed here. 

The Hotel:
During the whole trip, there was this fight to get out of the Hotel bubble. We were in a spot in Atlanta that had half a dozen hotels all right next to each other and several of these were linked with sky bridges so conceivably, you could spend the whole week there and feel like you never left the building. There were times when this drove me crazy, which makes me think I will not do well in a post-apocalyptic world that requires remaining indoors or underground.
My room was on the 18th floor, which was fine, but the elevator service was rough going. I did manage at least once to go all the way from the 18th floor to the lobby without stopping for anyone else. Once or twice I only had to do one or two stops, but when the conference was in full swing, well, it was no picnic. Imagine 200 people all getting done with their sessions at the same time and all going to their rooms on 27 different floors. And there are no stairs (except emergency stairs), so you don't have the option to get off a floor or two before yours. You just have to stop at every floor. And, of course, the people getting off first were at the back of the elevator. The one cool thing was they had a couple of elevators that went down the outside of the building. These were my favorites, although getting one was a bit of a gamble--it was like an amusement park ride (only not as fast).

For some odd reason, the elevators had mirrors on the ceiling. 

Site Seeing:
Of course there was a lot of site-seeing to be done. I found myself wandering out alone quite a bit, which may seem odd, but due to the pre-conference workshop I took, my schedule was just a bit out of sync with everyone else's. It worked out okay, though, because going alone gave me some photo-ops I wouldn't have had with the crowd. Among the sites visited were the Georgia Aquarium (we missed the Olympic swim team by 3 days), Centennial Park, the State Capitol, the Martin Luther King Historic Park, the Coke museum, and the Center for Civil and Human Rights. I also attended a Braves game.
I can't say that I'm a huge enthusiast when it comes to state capitol buildings, but this one did have some really good displays in it. Other than that, it's probably your typical state capitol. Dome, fancy staircases, portraits of politicians. While looking at the exhibits, there were 2 different stories that I was familiar with because of my podcast listening, which was awesome--first, that I remembered the podcasts, and second, that all my podcast listening paid off. (Of course, I think it pays off even if it doesn't get mentioned in exhibits in state capitols, but you know what I mean).
As for the other tourist sties, I'll go into them next time. Be excited. Be very excited. At the very least, it beats news about the presidential campaign.

Firsts

This week was a week of firsts for me:

First time in the South (Atlanta, GA. I loved it!)
First time on a subway (I am counting it as a subway, even though it isn't called a subway. I had to get on the train underground. It's a subway)
First MLB game
First Uber ride
First dolphin show
First SAA conference. (Society of American Archivists. Not to be confused with South African Airways, Syracuse Arts Academy, Society for American Archaeology, South African Army, Syrian Arab Army, Savannah Arts Academy, Spencerville Adventist Academy, Southern Athletic Association, Stock Artists Alliance, Sub Aqua Association, or any of the other SAAs)
First time in North Carolina - even though it was just the airport, it counts
First time being entrusted with a company card (not as great as you might think, really)
First encounters with old colleagues since switching jobs (went alright)

And, it's the last of my summer travels. Now I'm home for a few weeks, which is probably good, but makes me sad. The world is a big place and there is a lot to see and do.