Arriving in Atlanta

I woke up and Ben's house and he took me to get some food at Fido and then dropped me off at the Greyhound station. I was on my way to Atlanta, back to the East Coast, which was kind of bumming me out, as New York was getting closer and my epic trip was drawing to a close.
I made it to the ATL around 9 and Stephanie, a friend of a friend I had never met before, picked me up at the Greyhound station and brought me back to the awesome warehouse space that she lived in with a bunch of other punks.


I settled in and Stephanie got ready and then we went out on the town. The first place she took me was called Star Community Bar, and there was a karaoke night going on. I sang a song, of course, and had some drinks. Then the best thing ever happened: some random dude I had never seen before tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a business card that had the message "Call me in 10 minutes" written on the back of it, and then walked out before I could get a good look at him. Now, I'm sure that it was just a cheesy attempt at a pickup, but I kind of like to pretend he was about to involve me in some crazy film noir bull shit.


The rest of the night got a little crazy. I had heard that Ex Humans and Foster Care were hanging out at The Clermont Lounge, a dive bar/seedy strip club that's also apparently a totally normal place for people to hang out in Atlanta? I had never been to a strip club before and it was a total trip. The strippers were mostly older, unattractive women, and since it was December most of them had some kind of Christmas theme to their outfits. I hung out and talked to friends, and eventually Patrick from Foster Care insisted on buying me a lap dance... so I had that happen.
Eventually, Stephanie and a friend of hers whisked me away to Southern Comfort, a truck stop bar a few miles out of town... it was insane.


Atlanta is weird.