Grafitti off of Euclid

Barack, Charlotte, Samantha

Britney

We had a couple of friends in town from Florida for the 4th of July weekend.  We decided to hit the mountain bike trails for the 4th of July and headed over to Yellow River mountain bike trail near Stone Mountain, GA.  It was a lovely day for biking!

Yesterday was day 2 of not having a car.  I biked to my dentist appointment about a mile away on Peachtree Street.  Not bad at all!  In the past the only places I’ve biked in the city was to Piedmont Park or to the Virginia Highlands.  This is the first time I’ve biked on a busier road.  I do wish we had bike lanes though.

Later that morning, I walked just a few blocks south of my neighborhood to get my car at Midtown Tire (if you’re looking for a repair shop they’re good people) located on Ponce de Leon.  I know Ponce is WAAAAAY shady, but I figured I’d be okay since I’m just crossing to the other side of the street to get to the shop.  Nonetheless, I prepared for this.  I put on my darkest pair of sunglasses so I wouldn’t have to make eye contact with the crazies.  I put on long pants so I wouldn’t be mistaken for a hooker and a plain black shirt to not call attention to myself.  I put on athletic shoes just in case I had to make a run for it.  I even had my fanny pack on, although a stylish one, so that my wallet wouldn’t get snatched.

So I’m walking down Charles Allen in my nice little neighborhood and the absolute SPLIT SECOND I get on to the intersection of Charles Allen and Ponce I see this crackhead coming toward me.  He mumbles something and I tell him I don’t have any cash on me.  He mumbles something again and I notice he already has cash in his hand.  Then he says it again, even louder… “Suck my —- for 5 dollars???”.  I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO INSULTED IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!!  Probably against my better judgement I started cursing him out on the street, which in turn probably made ME look like I belonged on Ponce.  “Are you f#(*$%&#(*&$% crazy???  I’m not a prostitute you nasty bum!!! #)($*#)$*)#*$!!!!”

I made it across the street in one piece and HAPPILY drove my car back home.  I’m never doing that ever again.  I will walk everywhere in Midtown, but I’m not touching Ponce de Leon Ave!!!  It’s crazy how just one block up you’re in a really nice neighborhood, but you get to Ponce and it’s like day and night.

Sorry… no pictures for this post… I was too busy watching out for my own safety!!!!!

For a looong time I’ve been thinking about how I should be using my car less because of its toll on the environment, the issue of obesity in America, political issues like offshore drilling, and simply because it’s just plain dumb for me to be driving to the places I’ve been driving to.  I have zero excuses for driving as much as I do.  It’s just become a bad habit.  I live in the heart of the city where many things I need are within a mile or less.

Sunday night, Mike and I were getting ready to pick up some dinner (around the corner). We jumped in my car and as it started moving forward we heard this painfully loud, terrible screeching noise like metal scraping metal.  My trusty car was sick for the first time and had to be taken in.

So this week, I’ve had to rely on walking and biking for everything I needed to do.  Yesterday, I walked over to Gilbert’s Meditteranean Cafe for their lunch specials.  I love this place.  They have one of the best weekday lunch deals ever and everything is crazy delicious.

Lovely open air dining area with a nice people watching view of Piedmont & 10th.

Cute decor in the friendly and cozy dining area.

Pick 3 combo for $8.99 - Caprese Salad, Babaganoush with Pita, Lemon Chicken Sandwich.

Later that afternoon, I walked to Trader Joe’s on Monroe & 8th to pick up groceries for dinner.  I broke a little sweat, but it was pretty painless!  Their recyclable bags make it easy for you to throw your purchases over your shoulder and carry home.  By the end of the day I felt really good about walking everywhere.  I think I’ll do this more often and pretend like I don’t have a car.  Too bad it took my car being screwed up for me to FINALLY start doing this.

I went to Atlantic Station on Friday to go see the Incredible Hulk (not bad) and it also happened to be the grand opening of H&M in Atlanta.  There were tons of people walking around with huge H&M shopping bags packed full of goodies that I thought maybe I’d stop by and check it out.  I had been to the one in NYC a few years ago and it didn’t interest me much, but I figured I’d give it another try before the movie started.  Mike was still on his way to meet me there after work anyway.  That was… I was going to check H&M out until I saw the line!!!  I headed over to West Elm instead.

I’m not sure if the line was like this purely because of safety code OR if it was like this because H&M was trying to make it look like you were trying to get into an exclusive Miami club.  I once went down to South Beach for spring break in college with some friends.  We stood in line outside of this club for an hour as if it was something special and eventually got in only to find the place was practically empty.  How tricky of them to make us form a crowd outside by letting us in slowly just to hype it up!  The red carpet and velvet ropes here reminds me of the same thing.

I ended up checking out the store after watching the Hulk.  30 minutes before H&M was to close and no line!  Once again, I was underwhelmed but did come out with a couple of very inexpensive accessories… plumeria barrettes that remind me of Hawaii and ice blue, flat bead necklace.

Midtown Art Cinema is probably my favorite place to watch a movie in Atlanta.  It’s a little more low-key than say, Atlantic Station and has more of a local type feel.  It’s also where all of the indie films show in town which is another reason I like to go.

So this time I went and checked out the movie Surfwise, a documentary about a Stanford educated doctor who decided to drop everything to travel around the country, live out of his camper with his wife and nine kids, and just surf.  I’d probably give the movie a 7 out of 10.  One part when the son was singing a story about his scarred relationship with his dad was kind of corny and painful to watch and other parts I wish they went more in detail with the story… but overall the movie was pretty good.

In a backwards way the movie reminds me of how I ended up in Atlanta.  Basically, before I moved to Atlanta in 2005 I was in Hawaii living a ridiculous lifestyle to some and I thought maybe I’d get my shit together.. go to grad school on the mainland.. make more money.. be more successful.. buy a house.. blah blah blah… all the things you’re supposed to do.  What I realized after I got here and accomplished almost all of it.. is who the hell cares?  I had the time of my life living on my brother’s couch and being a beach bum.  I could practically fit all of my belongings into 2 suitcases.  Yes, I worked… but that was never a priority for me at the time.  I eventually got my own studio that had absolutely nothing in it, but gave in to mainland society’s idea that I needed more.  Looking back.. I was living in extreme simplicity to get by, but also living some of the happiest days of my life.  It’s still something I struggle with these days, the urge to go back, but we’ll see!  I’ll have to convince Mike… it would be twice as good this time around with him there with me!  One of the old Hawaiians told me before I left that the islands would never stop calling me back…=P

But yeah!  Go watch a movie at the Midtown Art Cinema!

Mike and I checked out the Virginia Highland’s annual Summerfest yesterday.  The temp was in the mid 90’s and humidity almost unbearable, but we still had a good time.  There was your typical festival food, free wine tasting, entertainment, beer, and a large artist market.  The art I enjoyed the most was by Atlanta artist Timothy Boyd… the particular piece I wanted was already sold, but I’ll probably end up buying a reproduction of the print.  Summerfest is definitely worth going to if you’ve never been.

Along Virginia Ave

Art vendor

Gyros?

This picture cracks me up.  It’s so weirdly sexual…

But I decided to go for a gyro wrap anyway… not bad!

Mike ate this thing… I think it’s a chicken kabob

Mike and I biked to Piedmont Park today to attend the Piedmont Park Conservancy lunch and listen to stuff about the expansion and grab some grub.  I’m at the park at least 3 or 4 days a week either jogging, biking, or taking the dogs for a walk so I joined the conservancy hoping to give back somehow for all of my time spent there.  I also ended up giving money to a homeless man.  He came up to Mike and I and before we could nicely dodge him and started to play his guitar and sing to us.  He then proceeded to show us his giant tumor on his shoulder (I probably could’ve done without seeing it but I guess it was more effective for him to show it) and asked for money… which I gave him. I’m usually a sucker for giving homeless people money if they play nice.