As several of you know, yesterday I began my solo road trip. It will be a total of 39 days on the road, just me, myself, and the Hamilton soundtrack, because let's be real, I am not throwing away my shot here. Leg one of the trip took me from good old Enterprise, AL, to Atlanta, GA to visit my freshman year roommate. Other than having to buy a new toothbrush, it's been going pretty well. I have packed a massive amount of fall clothes in the vain hope that cooler weather is coming, but we'll see.
As I rode into Atlanta on in my loyal road-tripping car, Sophie, I said a silent thank-you to God that I did not live in a city where rush hour is a thing. I don't know how on earth people can get used to that. I approached Meagan's apartment in Midtown and per the usual realized that I had timed things very poorly. My original plan of getting there early enough to go to the botanical gardens did not work out, and I had an urgent need for the restroom. Meagan was not due home for another 25-30 minutes, so I went to google and discovered there was a mall nearby. News flash: Colony Square Mall is not a real mall. Turns out I spent $4 to walk around a closed food court and use the restroom. Lies and deceit, I tell you. By then I had heard from Meagan and she was on her way home so met her at her apartment. After a quick catch-up hug and greeting, food became a priority for the evening. I had my first Uber experience from her house, and we chose to do the Uber share, which was all well and good, until I tried to strike up a friendly conversation upon entering the car with the young man across the backseat from me. "Hey, how are you?" I asked. He promptly stared out the window and awkwardly ignored us the whole ride. It wasn't until after he exited the car that our driver confirmed to Meagan and me that the young man was not rude, but deaf. I'm glad that I did not try to continue conversation.
We went to one of Meagan's favorite restaurants that screams hipster, and I was thrilled about it. If you go to the Midtown area, look up "Ladybird" and order the fried pimento cheese appetizer. The food and drink there are on-point, and I couldn't breathe after eating because I was so full. The best cure for this was to walk the BeltLine path, which was absolutely brilliant and beautiful. People have turned the area into live art areas, including pianos along the trail. As you walk along, you can view the city skyline twinkling in the background, passing the Ponce City Market and probably hundreds of local breweries. I think that's the moment I started to fall in love with the city. Atlanta has always been a huge, overwhelming, and intimidating place in my mind, but as I walked along with a longtime friend and saw the calmer side of Hotlanta, I began to wonder what other things I have misconstrued in my life; things that I've been scared of when they're really beautiful, or seen as harmless when they've really torn me apart.
Some of you know the deeper reason behind the road trip. For anyone still curious about it, please read the previous post. The simple point is that I am working at not only putting pieces back together, but finding pieces of myself that I didn't even know existed. I'm pretty much showing up in these cities where my friends live and saying, "Let's adventure!" I have an adventurous spirit, and I have to utilize that to discover what I truly love. That goes from food to activities to what personality traits I want to surround myself with. I will eventually figure out what I want to do with my life, but not until I am solid enough in myself. Okay, jump out of the deeper stuff here and go back into the Atlanta adventures.
Our walk along the BeltLine brought us to a lovely treat of Jeni's ice cream, another reminder of my life in Tennessee that I am trying to disassociate from my most recent experience, because no one wants to let a break-up ruin ice cream. We also decided to go out for a night on the town. One Ubershare with a rather intoxicated, but friendly gentleman, later, we were ready to begin. First stop was a very chill place called The Book House Pub, which is a pub-like atmosphere with shelves of books all around. Be still my nerding heart <3 Everyone with a taste for beer and books simply must experience the atmosphere of this place.
Afterwards we found ourselves at a night club that we thought would be playing techno jams that evening; it turns out it was hip-hop night. We made friends with a girl from Philly and her cousins, and we gloriously re-invented my famous move: The Shopping Cart. It now has Philly swag, and is therefore 10x better. By the time 1AM hit, we were dead to the world and ready to call our "wild" night.
This morning started with my Hamilton sing-alongs as we got ready for the day. Meagan took me to the Dancing Goat coffee house where I saw the happiest group of dogs waiting for their owners, and got some delicious coffee and a mini-donut. She took me to Ponce City Market, where we roamed dangerously into Anthropologie. I purchased two wrap-around headbands for a total of $26. Was it a waste? I didn't think so, until I lost one in the botanical gardens today #RIPheadband. Speaking of beautiful things, the Atlanta Botanical gardens are like nothing I've ever seen before. The combination of art, architecture, and horticulture that exists in the gardens is unmatched by any others that I've been to. Being immersed in the natural beauty of flora and fauna is fantastic. Despite the heat, it's one of the coolest things I've done in Atlanta (pun 100% intended).
I headed to Winston-Salem this afternoon, and again spent most of the time on the road learning as much of the Hamilton soundtrack as possible. Even through Hamilton, I am learning things about myself. For example, I have been a Burr in a lot of the scenes of my life; hiding my beliefs except to my close friends, molding to the situation, and not standing up for what I really believe in. Unlike Burr, however, I am not doing that for my own advancement. I'm literally doing it because I don't know what is true to me. I know how to adapt, and I have about 5 fundamental truths to myself, but beyond that, I get to rediscover myself. It's very hard work, don't get me wrong, and it's sometimes incredibly painful, but i'm discovering it's worth it.
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