Well, that was anti-climactic.

The journey to Atlanta to get my visa yesterday did not start off well.

Since I had (naturally) waited until the last minute to

 get my important papers together, there was a thunderstorm.

Now, just a little history:

We moved to the boondocks three years ago, and in the first 2-3 months we lived here, our power went out literally six times. At least. So, being the rational, clear-thinking people that we are, we put about five hundred lightning rods on our roof, turning our house into what looks like the headquarters of a radio station. But at least it solved our power-outage problem because our power has not gone out since.

...Until yesterday, when I needed to use the copier.

But not wanting to wait around for the power to come back on, we decide to go to the UPS store to make copies. So we load up and hop into the car, and proceed to realize that - there ain no way we gettin out of the garage.

Well, a ladder, some pullies, and two diet cokes later, my mother and I (two minute females) manage to manually open the door, drive the car out, and manually reclose it (which, believe it or not, was the more difficult feat), and finally get the trip underway. By the time we have made the copies at the UPS store and run the errands that my mother had conveniently left until then to run, it was well past five o'clock, which put us right in the middle of getting-off-work traffic.

We did finally make it, munching on the way on burnt popcorn & chocolate chip cookie "100-calorie packs" that tasted like popsicle sticks. As we arrive into the hotel, check in and waddle, encumbered by luggage, up to the elevators, several other people have also arrived (at this point, I want you to take out your list of stereotypes and see if there's anyone missing in this crowd):

1. Family of four - the children hugging pillows and following doggedly behind the parents

2. Two middle-aged heavyset businessmen with New Jersey accents and probably violin cases in their rooms

3. Two blonde "early thirties" businesswomen being chatted up by the men, "You two look like sisters! harharhar"

4. Asian delivery man holding two or three bags of chinese food

5. Us - Vera Bradley-toting, shorts sporting, unassuming southern us.

And we all crowd into the elevator together. ...well, everyone but the asian delivery guy who stands at the back of the line to get in, then, realizing with dismay that there's no more room, backs off to wait for the next elevator.

----Okay, I'll post more from Day 2 when it's not past my bedtime.