The Atlanta Layover

Holy crap, how could I not finish telling you about the lady who talked my ear off in Atlanta on my way to Valdosta?!?!

She was really sweet, but boy could she talk. At first, she was chatting it up with me and the girl sitting on her other side, but somehow that girl got out of the conversation... very clever. Hmm...
So, we started off talking about the weather. She said she had flown in from North Carolina where there had been a huge storm just a few days before. So huge that she had worn a plastic bag over her head when running from her hair salon to the car... a plastic bag... she was afraid her umbrella would stop the rain, but not the wind... so she chose a method that might possibly suffocate her, but would keep her locks looking great! Priorities! Anyway, we go to talking about how it was so hot in Atlanta that day. You know... we talked about so much I can't even remember the order. I'm just going to list them.

Things I discussed with the sweet old lady, whose name I forget, in Atlanta, Georgia:

1. The weather in North Carolina, Georgia, and California.
2. She loves to do yard work and is the only person on her block that does not have a gardener.
3. She sometimes does yard work in her neighbors yards.
4. She is a widower.
5. She walks a mile every morning.
6. Her son works as a school counselor for a second chance school and how the kids love him and he really helps them turn their lives around and he somehow finds a way to connect with them and seems to know how to get down to the core of their problems so he can help them and how he is always getting stopped while out from a kid who thanks him for helping them.
7. Her 55th high school reunion is a couple of days away and over 300 people have RSVP'ed already.
8. How the balloon boy and his family are crazy and she doesn't understand why anyone would have thought it was real because clearly a boy couldn't have survived in that contraption, it was "too small and had no air" (her words, not mine)
9. She likes Starbucks.
10. For some reason it was cheaper for her to fly through Valdosta to get to Texas, but we can't figure out why.
11. How clean the Atlanta airport is.
12. San Diego's gorgeous scenery and perfect weather (most of the time).
13. Military bases in general and loud jets.
14. How annoying it is when there are last minute gate changes.
15. Technology changing how children are raised these days (including cell phones and texting and their relation to spelling and curfews)
16. The proper way to raise a child

... and more stuff that I'm forgetting at the moment.

She even offered me a piece of candy. She was really very sweet, but made it so I couldn't read my book like I planned. That's alright though, I finished the book later.

The actual flight from Atlanta to Valdosta was fine. There was a woman and her 1 year old son sitting next to me. He was cute but teething so he was a wee bit fussy until she gave him a bottle. When he started to cry once or twice I made funny faces at him and he stopped. It was an okay flight, with the exception of the dog food smell. I have no idea where that smell came from, but it completely smelled like dog food to me. Oh well.

That's pretty much it for my travel stories. I have more from actually being in Valdosta that I'll have to post later.