Shannon and I decide, "Let's go to Atlanta and surprise Megan. It will be so much fun! What will she say, how will she react, do you think she'll be surprised?" We get a date set, call Byron and begin the planning. We leave work early this Friday and begin our journey to Atlanta, GA. We cross into South Carolina and I need Starbucks, BAD. We stop at the next exit and it takes about fifteen minutes to get off of the exit and onto the main road. I have a lot of suggestions for the SCDOT!! We arrive at Starbucks, but have no idea where we are. Pelham?? When we enter the Starbucks Shannon is on the phone with Steve and he is asking where we are. So Shannon asks an older gentlemen about our location; he informs us that we are in Greenville. "Is that closer to North Carolina or Georgia?" As this conversation is taking place, I am in line ordering my Starbucks fix, Caramel White Mocha!! It is the best coffee drink after Caramel Brulee (which is only served in December, and Yes, I do have issues with that!). As we are leaving, I turn to Shannon and offer her, "Would you like to sample crack?" She agrees that the Caramel White Mocha is very much addicting and orders it later in our trip!
"Welcome to Atlanta where the playas play/And we ride on them things like everyday/Big Beats, hit streets, see gangstas roamin'/And parties don't stop til eight in the mornin'" actually comes on the radio as we are leaving South Carolina and entering Georgia....coincidence? I think not, Atlanta knew what was up!! When we arrive at Arena Tavern we inform the hostess that we are surprising a friend and I detail how this will go down. Since I am a hosting connoisseur (thanks Outback) I feel that I have the right to tell her how this will go down effectively. We grab our table and wait for Megan and Byron to arrive. Megan tells the hostess that she has a party of two and the waitress informs her they are on a wait; however, when Megan gives her her last name, the waitress "sees" that there is a table available. She walks Megan over, who thinks, "Why is she seating me at a table with other people?" and then quickly recognizes us. Her reaction is priceless, "What are yall doing here? When did you get here? I didn't even recognize you." Byron comes in and joins us, and she begins the conversation with "But, where are your parents going to sleep?" "These are my parents," is his reply. She is bewildered, "How did you ever keep me from figuring this out? I always figure out surprises!!" We have dinner, reminisce, and start making plans for the weekend. When we get back to the house, we call it an early night, afterall, we have some serious shopping to do tomorrow.
Mall of Georgia is our first choice to being our shopping adventure. Before we can begin any shopping though ,we must prepare for the endeavor by feasting with Iraq soldiers at PF Changs. After filling our bellies, we headed to H&M first and began the shopping spree. After hitting all of the hot spots at the mall, we headed out and on to Discovery Mills. Let me say, from ny experience working in a mall I do believe it should be required that all employees know where other stores are located, or at least that they are IN the mall. We need to find BCBG Final Cut, so I begin asking an associate at a kiosk. Me: Can you tell us where BCBG is located? Associate: B-C-B-G??? Do you mean Burlington Coat Factory? Me: No, not BCF, BCBG. Ass: (confused -obviously) "B-C-B-G??" Me: Yes, as in the designer!! Ass: I don't think we have one. Me: Obviously. Frustrated, we detour through the food court and see Forever 21. Browsing through we see another associate, who looks to be dressed like Peter Freakin' Pan. He has on an adult onesie (or romper), fake eyelashes, makeup, and high heels. Undoubtedly, he will know where BCBG is located. To our surprise, he has no idea what we are talking about and thus steers us in the direction of the directory; you can imagine, he sends us the wrong way. C'mon, you dress like that, work at Forever 21 and YOU don't know what BCBG is?? We finally find our store, shop around, and leave the mall. It's time for dinner, and we're all starving. Bahama Breeze is our choice for this evening. We eat dinner, have some drinks, and begin planning our next reunion and our 30th birthday parties. We are planners at heart and this planning keeps us out at Bahama Breeze until they close and send us home. After 13 hours of shopping, eating, and planning, we are pooped and go straight to bed.
After lunch, Shannon and I head back home to NC. Our trip up 85 is smooth and we make good enough time to stop and shop in Gaffney at the outlet mall there. Traveling back, we hear on the radio that Greenville, the city we passed through 3o minutes earlier, is on a Tornado watch and people in their cars should get out and seek shelter. Thank goodness we left early. We make it back to Concord, have dinner waiting on us, and these blogs have offcially begun
What have I learned: 1. Surprising your best friend is a wonderful gift. 2. Starbucks coffee can be referred to as crack, because it is addiciting. and 3. Not all gay men know where designer stores are located in a mall.
