Sunday, May 10, 2009
Can you check a Sack Full?
| I know it's been a while since I have posted. Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I have been thinking Krystal. Over the next week or two I'll be posting a couple of "mini series" posts that are intricately connected to each other. Like a Stephen King novel, I really don't know how it'll turn out in the end, so let's find out together, ok? The end of the semester is always a hectic time and not just for the students. Graduation was on Friday and I have about 10 days until Summer Semester starts up. Much like last summer I'm going to be teaching. In fact my schedule appears to be exactly the same as last summer. There is a difference though. I have picked up an online class as well. It'll be my first online class, which is a bit scary, but having roughly 5 days a week to deal with any issues that arise should help me get into the groove for the online class I have next Fall. So what will I do with all this free time? Well I plan to travel. A lot. In fact I have just put the finishing touches on a short trip I'll be doing this week. I won't go into the details on that just yet, but it should be fun. Hectic, but fun. Instead I want to talk about the next trip coming in about 2 weeks. Over the past 6 months or so I have reconnected with a lot of old college friends and fraternity brothers through the wonders of Facebook. As usually happens when a small group of ATO's get together, someone will mention either having a reunion, or "Spring Weekend" our annual trip to Panama City Beach every year during Spring Quarter. There's always excited discussion and everyone agrees we need to get together. Then nothing happens. Well it came as no surprise that once people starting linking together on Facebook the reunions and Spring Weekend discussions started up. Knowing where the discussion would eventually go (nowhere) I decided to push the issue. I called a bluff. I said "put up or shut up." I announced there would be a Spring Weekend, and also when and where it would be. Pretty much no one involved knows this, but I never expected anything to happen. I figured discussions would end and life would go on. I seriously underestimated the wives of my brothers. I have always talked about "Carrot vs Stick" motivation. Some people need positive motivation (the carrot) and some need to be beaten with a stick (negative consequences). Missy and Greta have somehow made an art out of beating people with the carrot. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I believe I got set up. Apparently I am in charge of this insanity. Again, I "volunteered" with the belief that it would fizzle out and I could walk away, head high, with the belief that "I tried." I never even imaged that, 3 or 4 months later, I would have a list of 67 ATO's, Sweethearts, and friends of the fraternity, that have all been tracked down and contacted. In hindsight I think part of the reason I got hoodwinked was that the last ATO reunion was back in about 1997, and I was very involved in making that happen. Once it was clear that this wasn't going to go away, I realized that I would have to actually attend. Since Spring Weekend was always at The Sea Lodge in Panama City beach, that was the obvious choice. The problem was, the Sea Lodge had long ago been washed into the Gulf by a hurricane. 
So, you may be wondering why I have over 2 hours layover in Atlanta when I could have gotten flights out less than 45 minutes after arrival. Well it's not because I'll have far to walk to change flights. After extensive research, I have found that both legs of the flights are on the Regional carrier, Atlantic Southeast Airlines , and the gates used are either right beside each other or across the concourse C. I won't need the extra time to deal with luggage and TSA because once you've gone thru screening you don't go through again as long as you don't leave the gate area. I will admit I have some concern over my flights being on time. Atlanta is notorious for planes arriving late. But that's not the real reason.  Because they are on different concourses, I'll probably have to take the famous People Mover. I have tried desperately to find a sound clip of the famous People Mover voice from my childhood that sounded like the original Battlestar Galactica Cylons. Several years ago they changed it to a generic female voice and thus took all the fun out of the ride. The Cylon voice struck a nerve deep down inside that made you that if you didn't "Step away from the doors and to the center of the vehicle" that you'd be blasted to bits. Back to my original point. I cannot say for sure, but I believe I may be the first person to eat Krystals in international waters. I know I won't be the first person to eat them on a plane. Heck Ronald Reagan did that. (Be careful clicking the link on the word Krystal in that article!) But if I am allowed to stretch the definition a bit, I may be the first person to have eaten a Krystal on a boat (ship), a plane, and a train (people mover). Maybe later this summer I can work on eating Krystals with a goat, a fox, or a mouse.  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
