New addition to TSF fam. I hope you enjoy the talented Co Co on the site. ‘Bout time a sista represented

She’ll post a few words about herself tomorrow.

Let’s Get It!

Mizzo

Friday, March 14^th started out like any other day for me. I got out of bed after about four hours of sleep which is all my body will allow me to get at any given time. I logged on to the internet, checked my four email accounts and began visiting some of my favorite websites to see what some of my favorite writers were yapping about. After a couple of hours of internet surfing, I decided it was time that I get on with my day. I had a few errands to run before I had to head down to the Highlight Factory b.k.a. Philips Arena where the Hawks were taking on the Los Angeles Clippers.

There was a lot going on downtown on this particular Friday because of the SEC basketball tournament being at the Georgia Dome. In case you didn’t know, SEC fans travel well! There was a sea of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi State fans walking around the area. Tennessee definitely looked the deepest. Everywhere I turned I saw orange and white and just so you know, orange is not a flattering color on everyone.

A lot of people were just hanging around outside because the way the area is set up everything is in walking distance. Philips Arena is connected to the CNN Center and the Georgia Dome is right behind or beside them. I honestly can’t tell which it is. The Georgia Aquarium is across the street and the Underground is a couple of blocks away. It’s a very people friendly area, convenient with shopping and various tourist attractions.

Anyway, I fought my way through traffic narrowly dodging pedestrians, parked and went about my business. I walked over to Centennial Towers to get some of the things I would need later that night, then I headed to Philips Arena.

I won’t bore you with the setup and meetings and etc. I’ll just fast forward to the point that I realized my night was going to be strange.

The halftime performance for the night was this Jazz musician. He’s a pretty decent trumpeter, but he’s not nearly as good as he or his entourage thinks he is. His stature (in his mind) is only a notch below that of The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. The way they were carrying on you would have sworn he was about to go give a two hour performance complete with several opening acts and a couple of intermissions. The reality of the situation was that he was going to perform for about 8 minutes.

I had the pleasure of being selected to escort him and his crew through the arena before and after the show. I knew early on they were going to annoy me, but I had to do what I had to do.

He had two guys with him and both of them got on my nerves for very different reasons. One of them wouldn’t stop hitting on me, and the other one kept talking to me like I was a personal servant of his. It was during those moments that I realized how much I’ve grown as a person. When I was younger I probably would have snapped on both of them. The older more mature me decided to let the sexual harassment and ego tripping slide.

After the show they were supposed to go up to a suite to eat and watch some of the game if they so desired. There were a few of us who couldn’t leave until they got all of their stuff situated and were on their way out. These people were not in a hurry to do anything so I was mentally prepared for the fact that it was going to take them forever to get the hell out of the arena.

After the show they went up to the suite and I went about my normal routine hoping they’d be close to getting ready to leave when I got finished. After I did everything I had to do, I went up to the suite to try to get an idea of how much longer they were going to need, then my phone started ringing.

The first call was from my little brother’s best friend. The second call was from my dad. They both were watching the Alabama vs. Miss. St. game which had to be stopped temporarily due to tornado damage to the Georgia Dome. They told me the catwalk and video board were swaying above everyone. Needless to say this shouldn’t be happening in a dome. They just wanted to know if I was alright since I was in the area. Luckily for me I was oblivious to everything going on outside. I’m a bit of a worrier and I think its better that I didn’t know.

Shortly after I got off the phone with my dad, my boss called and told me he heard that a tornado hit the CNN Center and I should try to get them downstairs. I told the group about the tornado, but it didn’t alarm them enough to put down their chicken wings and cake. People who aren’t from the south don’t take tornadoes seriously. Hell, some people who have lived in the south forever don’t take tornadoes seriously. I’m not one of those people. If I hear there’s a tornado anywhere near me, I’m trying to make sure I’m somewhere safe.

I felt safe enough where I was presently located, but I wanted them to hurry the hell up anyway. When I finally got them to walk downstairs I ran into my boss who decided to take over in the hope that he could hurry them along. He couldn’t, but deep down I think he knew that.

I began watching the news to get an idea of what was going on outside before I hopped into my car and headed home. I needed to make damn sure I wasn’t jumping out into an extremely unsafe situation.

All over the local news stations there were pictures of debris outside of Philips and the CNN Center, but they didn’t show the extent of what really happened as it was still early. They were also reluctant to call it a tornado. Even though it had all the symptoms of a tornado, I guess they needed an expert to confirm it before they started calling it one.

After about thirty minutes of watching the news, I decided I would try to head home. The weather was only going to get worse before it got better, plus it’s not like they were going to let me sleep at the arena.

Driving conditions were very unfavorable to say the least. Atlanta interstates are hazardous under the best of circumstances. Inclement weather escalates those hazards tremendously. It took me about ten minutes longer than it normally does, but I got home safely. I’m always happy to get home, but Friday night I was extremely happy.

During the drive home, I couldn’t help but think about how lucky everyone in Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome truly were. Philips Arena had about 16,000 people in it Friday night and the Georgia Dome had about 18,000 people. Imagine if a tornado had landed on either building. It would have been tragic on so many levels. The city is in distress, but I have no doubt Atlanta can pull through this. When Katrina happened in New Orleans all I could do was write a check. This latest disaster happened in my backyard so I’m going to get out there and get my hands dirty. I really don’t have an excuse not to.

(Photos: AP)

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 3:53 am and is filed under blogrolll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.