Here’s what really happened to Atlanta. It wasn’t the snow or the sprawl or inept politicians that caused the giant problem, the blame falls squarely on us. What were we thinking? The weather report started on Monday by saying there was a 30% chance of snow for Tuesday, but that climbed throughout the day, first to 50%, then finally 70% by Monday evening. I kept checking the Cobb County website, because SURELY they’d cancel school, but no, schools remained open. While Moon was getting dressed on Tuesday, I thought briefly about keeping her home anyway, but the pressure of those unexcused absences and thoughts of what she might miss, and GRADES convinced me to go ahead and send her.

Once it started snowing, I wanted JD to go and bring her home, but it was 11:30, her lunch time, so we waited an hour. THANKFULLY, that was all we waited or who knows when or IF we’d gotten her at all.

I’m sure lots of people had the same thought. Why am I going to work, why am I sending my kid off, why am I still here when the snow is sticking? Somewhere in the back of our minds, I guess we kept thinking the powers-that-be, the GOVERNMENT had it all under control. It’s like those people you hear about who are stranded in the middle of the desert because they listened to their GPS and just kept going, long after common sense told them they’d made a wrong turn. We’ve become so dependent on the government, so used to being told what to do, we’ve forgotten how to THINK for ourselves.

I agree with Al Roker – our elected officials gambled that the snow would pass us, or that they’d have time to treat the roads once it was a sure thing – so they decided not to pre-treat the roads to save money.

The good stories that you’re hearing, the ones about strangers taking food out to the streets and offering their homes as temporary lodging, those were stories about the PEOPLE of Atlanta, not the elected officials. And I bet those people were Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians. One day, we’ll all realize that our problems are not with the people that vote differently from us, but with the people we’ve all been voting FOR.

Or maybe I’m wrong. That dude in the back looks totally trustworthy.

I woke up this morning, and like every other morning, went straight for Facebook. Except this time I didn’t feel guilty because I was looking for updates. A friend of mine was on the interstate for 12 hours yesterday, finally finding her way to a fire station to spend the night. Awesome! If you’re going to be stranded, you might as well spend your time with firemen, amiright Kittens?

Before the snow storm hit, I’d planned on attending a conference downtown for investment bankers and money people investor types working for companies with names like AIF and FCD and IDK. I was attending because I have great interest in things like Limited Partner Fundraising, Managing Post-M&A Integrations and the Credit Market. Also, Charles Krauthammer was scheduled to speak. Once the weather rolled in, I assumed it would be cancelled and that the people inviting me to come would bail. I was wrong on both accounts. Which is why I found myself in a 4-wheel drive heading INTO the great wasteland that was the 41/75 interchange. Except for the hundreds of abandoned cars on the side of the road, it was an easy drive. For us, anyway. Apparently Charles didn’t get the message and was a no-show.

The good news is that since I was out and in a 4-wheel drive, I was able to stop at the store for more essentials. I came home with wine for me, chocolate milk for Moon and beef jerky for JD.

So, totally worth the risk of icy roads and death.

While I was out doing my best to provide for the family, Moon was laying in bed watching television and JD was sitting in his pj’s by the fire, also known as the usual. I slept fitfully last night worrying about friends on the road, but tonight I think I’ll be fine. I’ve got lots of Managing Post-M&A Integrations literature that should put me right out.

I was laying in the bed last night thinking about how I was sick of the internet, tablets, texting, etc. and sort of wishing that all the electricity would go out, in the WHOLE WORLD. Because, extreme. Then I was thinking about what that would actually BE like – no heat, no light, no ATM machines, and I decided that perhaps that wasn’t the best idea since I’d be dead in about 48 hours.

Which led me to think about Gilligan’s Island. Why didn’t the batteries in their radio ever die? And do you remember the episode where a phone cable was blown onto the island during a storm and they were able to tap into the line and call people? Why are there phone cables lying on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean?? Why didn’t they just cut the lines and wait for AT&T to show up?

Gilligan’s Island was cool back in the day. I used to play out a scene over and over with my cousins, Lisa and Petey. We always fought over who had to be Mrs. Howell, but since we were usually playing on MY porch, I got either Ginger or Maryann.

I was too concerned with the cool dancing and remembering the lyrics to ever wonder how they powered that record player. Oh well, it wasn’t a documentary.

I’m guessing if it were real, they’d all have died in about 48 hours.

We went to several estate sales over the weekend and while my mom and the Aunts’ were able to find something wherever we went, I was not so lucky. It wasn’t for lack of trying. One of the sales was a lesson in What Not To Do. The woman holding the sale had evidently put a sign in the yard and just opened the door because NOTHING was priced. That’s a pain in the rear under any circumstances, but couple it with the fact that she was the only person running the sale, and it was nearly impossible to buy anything. If you were upstairs looking at a table, you either had to carry it downstairs or leave it and go downstairs, wait until she finished pricing items and/or taking money from someone else then ask her to come upstairs, see the table and give you a price. Horrible estate sale management, amiright Kittens?

Lucky for me, all I wanted was some stupid dvd’s. Apparently her father enjoyed watching movies about history because he had approximately 794 dvd’s with titles like Guadacanal Diary and WWII Planes. There wasn’t just ONE about WWII but several. I picked through them and found 5 that I thought they might be good for Moon, the history buff. The woman told me they were $3.00 bucks each and when I offered her $10.00 bucks instead, she said no. Oh, well. I placed them in the living-room next to the checkout table and left them behind. And I was totally fine with that.

The next day, since we’d been in the area anyway, we decided to go back and see if anything else had been unearthed. The dvd’s were sitting in the exact same spot. The woman was making deals left and right, so I decided to give it another go. How much for the dvd’s? $3.00 dollars. I politely explained that they were $3.00 YESTERDAY, that they were sitting in the same spot, that I was buying them as SCHOOLWORK, and that she’d be taking them to GOODWILL soon, but she refused to let me have them. So I left them behind, AGAIN. And I was totally fine with that.

Who acts like that over stupid, war dvd’s that no one else will look at twice. She was dealing with EVERYONE else, but not me, no I had to put the merchandise down or pay full price.

People are annoying.

Speaking of which, this email between neighbors reminded my of something AmmoGuy would do. And that is a TOTAL compliment.

I wish I had estate woman’s email address.

God help me if I ever try crack.

I must be  the most delusional person in the world. Last night when I went to bed, I really planned my day like this:

Tomorrow, I’ll start my juice/raw diet.

Then I got up and realized that juicing would wake the whole house so I opted for a banana. Then I realized that I would not be home for lunch so I took some roasted corn and red pepper soup to eat. Then I got home and ate some leftover trout, 2 chicken Mcnuggets, some leftover spaghetti and washed it down with some wine.

Then I had ice cream.

But I will not be discouraged. I have a new plan – tomorrow I’m going to get up and EXERCISE, then start my juice/raw diet. I feel sure it’s totally gonna work this time.

You had me at Harry Connick, Jr.

He’s just so, TALENTED.

While the show was mainly about Harry, there were some other people on it as well. I’m not sure what they were doing – talking, singing, dancing, whatever. But this dude was pretty good:

HARRY will definitely win, but this guy could do as well as second.