…and it’s over. Thank you, baby Jesus. Avery’s Christmas was rather plentiful this year, I think. I actually wouldn’t know as I stopped counting after $2k. It simply hurt too much. Anyways, I’ve been up all night and I’m tired, so I’m going to leave this short… for now. In the mean time, here’s four videos of Avery opening his presents…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I got two whole life experiences added to my belt today: my first plane flight (not technically) and my first visit to Atlanta, Georgia. Both were about what I figured they’d be, with the exception that turbulence is a lot more disruptive than in the movies if you don’t know what to expect. Thankfully my flight offered my choice of more than 120 satellite radio stations, so any apprehension I was feeling was quickly erased with loud, Loud, LOUD music. Thankfully. It’s also very thankful that airlines have a habit of hiring fairly attractive flight attendants. Not only are they helpful, kind and courteous, but in the event that my flight was going to crash I damned sure wasn’t going down without some sexual relations with a good-looking lady. Yes, this is pretty much what occupied my mind in-flight: if I die, that blonde flight attendant and I are going to scrog in the cramped bathroom behind and to the right of me. Yes.

Atlanta is a beautiful city. It’s airport is sprawling and cab is not the preferred temporary transportation once you figure out how to get out. I used the train, which offers the standard “subway-esque” vistas, as well as some truly breath-taking scenery of downtown and central Atlanta. As I was making my way to the most northerly point along the train’s route, my train trip took around 40 minutes. Most of that time was spent taking in how truly large Atlanta is, but how much smaller it is in many ways from Chicago. I was rather impressed with the city until the in-train television began telling me that Atlanta’s crime rate was on the rise from years past. I was watching this as a large group of people got onto the train. Oh joy. I’ve been in this city/state for all of twenty minutes and all my shit’s being eye-balled by the local riff-raff. Fucking great. Thankfully, nothing transpired, and I’m fairly sure I was making a bigger deal than was necessary after having been up since 3AM after two and a half hours of sleep, jet-lagged, and none-too-excited at the prospect of a full eight-hour work day yet to come. My nerves were fried, to say the least.

Fuck. I. Need. Sleep.