Hunters and gatherers

As much as I would love to spend all night posting about the wonders of the Austin/Athow family Thanksgiving, I have a rough week of school work ahead of me and the creative juices are temporarily stalled. Instead, though, I can give you a short anecdote about last weekend.

Darling boyfriend decided to take me on a date to Outback Steakhouse because he had a gift card. Unfortunately, we've never gone to the Outback by his house in Atlanta so we had to Google it. Once we found the closest location we plugged it in the GPS and were on our way.

At about Lenox mall we got kind of lost so we just parked and decided to walk. Seeing how there are a bunch of office buildings on the side where the GPS was leading us, we figured Outback was in between them or on the bottom level.

So we set out on foot.

We walked about six buildings to the right, decided the numbers were going the wrong way, and doubled back.

Then we saw a parking sign for the number we were looking for. Which led us to a parking garage. Which we walked through for a few minutes before we realized we were nowhere close to an Outback.

Finally we found the right street number, but the doors were locked to get into the building. The security guard looked alarmed and a few employees leaving the building looked at us quizzically.

Employee: Can I help you?
Jason: Yea, we're looking for Outback.
Employee: Outback what?
Jason: Outback Steakhouse. There's supposed to be one at this address.
Employee: Oh. Well this is Outback... corporate.
**pause**
Me: Some date.

After some "Awwww"s from the employees I explained that it wasn't anywhere close to our first date and I was joking.

And then we walked back to the car, looked up the next closest Outback, and eventually enjoyed a nice meal. Only after working for it though.

Baby steps...

I was just sent this link and I'm in awe.

If you don't have time to read it all, here's the jist:

A teacher in Howell, Michigan asked a student to remove a confederate flag belt buckle and later asked two students to leave the classroom after a heated discussion about gay rights. This video of a 14-year-old student standing up for that teacher has gone viral. I am AMAZED at his confidence and tact.

Walk the walk

Thursday I went to the gym, but there was a volleyball game which means you have to pay to park, and my health is not worth $5 so I came home. Since I was all ready to break a sweat, I thought doing YouTube workout videos would be a good alternative.

I only did 20 minutes of legs, butt and abs, but I had trouble walking for the next two days. Which was a problem. Because Saturday morning, while at the mountains with my whole family, we went on a six mile walk. First half is up a mountain to a tower and the second half is back down.

I repeat, first half is UP.



As if my butt wasn't sore enough, I am once again immobilized.

My hopeful boyfriend says it's just growing pains.

Keyed

Today I worked out. After watching the last half an hour of Gilmore Girls on the elliptical I decided to visit my recent friend, the Stairmaster.

As I was climbing onto the machine, I put my towel and iPod into the little cup, and then grabbed my key. As I was going to put it in the cup, it slipped out of my hand, tumbling in slow motion onto the stair below me and then bouncing into the gap between the fake stairs and the side panel.

I stared into the gap for a second and lifted my head to meet the eye of the girl on the elliptical next to me who was now giving me a look that clearly said she was glad she wasn't me.

I stepped down and did an awkward side-squat to see if the key had dropped onto the ground but if it had I wouldn't be blogging about it.

I probably would have walked away, ignoring the predicament, if my wallet, phone and keys weren't in the locker that could only be opened by that key.

So I did the walk of shame to the front desk and, head hanging, told the guy what I had done.

He asked which of the two Stairmasters I was on and I said, "The one no one's on." At which point he nodded and then said, "The one that girl is about to get on?!" And I said yes.

With that, he sprinted across the gym and yelled, "DON'T GET ON THERE!" to the now terrified, probably freshman girl. I hung my head again and did a speed walk back to the Stairmaster, pretending Super Gym Guy hadn't made a scene.

After I explained where the key was, the dude had to go get a screwdriver and told me to make sure no one else tried to get on. So I stood behind the Master and pretended like I was stretching until he got back.

With half the gym watching and me still stretching, pretending I had nothing to do with it, he dissembled the left side of the machine until I could reach in and grab my little key.

I am well stretched and borderline mortified.

Life's a Beach

Saturday, October 30, 2010 marked my first ever Georgia/Florida game as a student of the University of Georgia.

And it was epic.

Thursday at noon we packed up the car and headed out to St. Simons. Apparently the UGA fans stay in St. Simons because real fans of Georgia stay in Georgia, not Florida, so we didn't stay in Jacksonville.

Friday is beach day. Everyone packs up coolers and dresses up (since the game is always on Halloween weekend) and heads out to the affectionately nicknamed Frat Beach. Five of my friends and I went as Carebears. I was the pink one with the rainbow stomach. I hate pink. But my roommates said I should be the rainbow because I love the gays. They're smart.



Naturally we dressed up in t-shirts and shorts. Other people took advantage of the well known mean girls rule: "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."

Which is fine. For some people. Nottttt so much for other people.



There should be an application process for people that want to bare that much skin. Complete with an interview.



Once we got to the actual game, we had the most annoying fans behind us that I am ashamed to say were UGA alum. I got spit on, spilled on, yelled at, and called a few choice words. Then I had coke spilled in my seat and was told that I shouldn't be sitting (during time outs) anyway, I should be standing and cheering for the Dawgs.

I was suddenly very angry with whoever wrote the chant, "Ain't nothin finer in the land than a drunk, obnoxious Georgia fan."

They were wrong. Sober, calm, yet excited and enthusiastic fans are probably better.



We lost the game, but it was the most exciting game I've ever been in the stands for, and my cake of a weekend already had plenty of icing so I wasn't too upset.

PLUS, I got to come back to the number one party school and, more importantly, one of the top college towns in the nation.

I count this weekend as a win.