MARTA encounters

Some of the folks I’ve encountered on my adventures on MARTA- never a dull moment..!

Every morning, I’m always greeted by the same newspaper man. He always tells me good morning- how are you? And have a good day! Except today he switched it up to have a good weekend. He makes my day more cheery and he’s always there without fail- so maybe one of these days I’ll switch it up and actually buy a paper (even though I get my news from the internet)

Last week, I had the good fortune of getting on a train with a crazy Asian woman. She was sitting in her seat looking around and speaking Chinese quite loudly and animatedly like she was having a conversation with someone. Except she wasn’t having a conversation with someone- just a conversation with herself.. she looked quiet normal, so it was surprising to see her doing that (there are plenty of people who get on MARTA talking to themselves, but its normally because they are rather inebriated). People kept their distance from her, but as the train started to fill up, a lady wound up sitting next to her who didn’t know she was a crazy talker. The look on her face was priceless when the Asian woman started talking again… I had a hard time that morning not laughing out-loud.. The lady quickly changed seats at the next stop.. I was trying to think of a legitimate reason for the Asian woman to have been talking like that- maybe she was praying out loud? Or practicing for a presentation? Or maybe she was just crazy? I wish I could have understood what she was saying!

For those who watched the Atlanta auditions of American Idol, you are familiar with the “pants on the ground” guy. I’m sure you can look it up on YouTube if you don’t know what I’m talking about… So several months ago I get on a train to go home from a work, and there’s a man who’s in the aisle singing some really weird song about ‘pants on the ground’ and all the sudden he gets down on the ground on his back and starts gesticulating around doing some sort of weird dance. I thought he must be some crazy or drunk guy and I started to get a little worried that he was actually going to take his pants off- People were looking around the train thinking “what is going on!!?!” Thankfully, he kept his pants on. Well, this guy was the same guy on American Idol! So I’m thinking I must have seen him right after his American Idol auditions- it all makes sense now!

About twice a month, I get on a train with an African woman (meaning born in Africa- she has a very thick accent). She gets on the train, stares straight ahead, and starts preaching about the second coming of Jesus. I can’t understand anything she’s saying except when she says “Jesus Christ” and an occasional other word or two. One time, another passenger got quite unruly about it all and started standing up and speaking something else really loudly to drown out the voice of the African woman- and she proceeded to speak even louder. It was like a shouting match was going on. She was actually on my train yesterday, but thankfully no shouting matches happened.

About three times a month, I see a rather angry woman who walks up and down the train asking for money. She gets very cranky if you don’t give her something, and she makes it a point to ask everyone on the train for money. I’m actually scared of her because she seems like a rather violent women so I sort of shrink in my seat whenever I see her.

So these are just a few of the MARTA characters that I’ve encountered…I’m sure I’ll have more postings later- this is all I wanted to write about for now :)

Happy Friday!

Emily Piper McGill

My friend Emily passed away on Monday morning. She was in my pledge class at Phi Mu and was involved in CCF, the campus ministry I was involved in at GT. She was the best of the best. A woman of incredible faith who made everyone around her feel loved and cherished. A woman who devoted her life to serving others. A women, that as Joe, her husband said, lived more in 26 years than most people live their entire lives. I will miss her. I will never forget her incredible smile, her zest for life, her willingness to try new things, the way she made others feel, her incredible faith...

I never realized she said this, but according to our campus minister, right before her first surgery when her brain cancer had just been discovered, she looked at Rick and said- "The worst thing that can happen Rick is I will get to see Jesus sooner than you." Its hard not to be sad about the loss of such an incredible girl, but I rejoice in knowing she's in a better place.

Here are some of my pics that I have of emily that make me smile (well all of her pics make me smile, but I narrowed it down)-


Emily having fun on a cruise we took in college :)



Emily enjoying her food on the cruise with Laura looking on



Emily looking beautiful at one of our Phi Mu formals



Emily and I at CCF



Emily hugging Lindsey at mellow mushroom



Ashley, Bethany, the chick-fil-a cow, Emily, and I at the Mission Massai benefit concert


Emily, me, and Ashley sitting outside of Phi Mu


"There will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain, no more fears. There will be a day, when the burdens of this place, will be no more- we'll see Jesus face to face"

muddy pups

Here's a quick picture of our mischievous puppy, Bella, covered in mud. Hopefully it'll make yall laugh as much as it made Chad and I laugh :)

6 years ago

Today, Jan 13th, marks the anniversary of day I will never forget- a day when the world lost 2 amazing people.

they will walk and not grow weary- they will run and not be faint.

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/fulltext/sr1093.htm

No Heat!!

I left work early yesterday because I wanted to make sure I had plenty of sunlight to see the ice on my way home- the interstate was ok, but just like my morning commute, as soon as I got off the interstate, ice was everywhere- I saw at least 4 cars on my way home which were stuck in various ditches on the side of the road! Thankfully, I made it home ok.

However, upon arriving at home, I realized the house was very cold. 53 degrees to be exact!! I checked the thermostat and the heat was definitely not working. This has happened in the past and Chad has been able to fix the problem, but this time, he couln't fix it (something with the ignitor in the furnace). We proceeded to call repair-people to come and fix the problem, but everyone was busy or refused to come out with all of the ice on the roads. So Chad and I spent a very cold night last night!! (we stayed at home because I was too scared to get back on the roads last night!) We dragged some mattresses upstairs into the office and shut the door and turned on a space heater and stayed relatively warm (I had 5 layers of blankets). However, this morning when we went downstairs, the house was a chilly 39 degrees!!! ......Of course the furnace would decide to stop working on the coldest night ever (our thermometer said it was 12degrees outside this morning!)

Thankfully, the heater repairman guy just arrived so we should have heat restored sometime soon. Until then, Chad and I will continue to wear our winter coats around the house! :)

Emily Piper McGill

This post is about my friend, Emily Piper McGill- one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. She just exudes so much love and light and happinness. For those that know Emily, you can keep up with what's going on here (a website that Joe made)

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilypipermcgill

Please keep Emily, Joe, and her family and friends in your prayers

Ice!

So, just one more mention about creepy marta guy.. he hasn't bothered me since, and I got pepper spray and a taser for Christmas- so I'll be prepared if he approaches me again...

In other news, the roads are crazy today!! I listened to the news this morning, and the anchors encouraged everyone to stay home because of the icy roads- I thought it was just typical Atlanta paranoia, so I proceeded to drive to work... bad idea!!! The fact that our driveway was covered with ice should have clued me in about the rest of the drive....but I figured that the actual neighborhood street would be less icy than the driveway. and it wasn't. So I figured that the busier road outside of our neighborhood would be less icy, and it wasn't...it was absolutely covered.. so I started to freak out! There was a car coming up behind me, and I wanted to drive really slowly so I decided I would turn into a neighborhood up ahead and let the car pass me. Unfortunately, when I pressed the brake pedal, I lost complete control of the car- Luckily, I wasn't going very fast so my car only slightly ran off of the road. The guy in the car behind me got out of his car and helped me get my car out of the ice (thank you random stranger!)

By that point, I figured there would be less ice if I continued to work rather than turning around to go back home, so I kept driving. Luckily, I-85 was ok, but once I got off of the interstate, it was horrible again! When I finally made it to the parking lot, it was so icy that I couldnt even see the lines for the parking spaces, so I just sort of made up my own space (hopefully my car will be ok!).

People are slowly trickling into work now and everyone has horror stories of the ride in.- apparently on Williams street (which is in the heart of downtown) there is so much ice on a hill that cars can't make it to the top and are sliding backwards. Everyone walking on the sidewalks are afraid that they are going to slip on the ice or that cars are going to lose control and drive them over.... Its verrry scary out there. I really can't believe that work wasn't cancelled- I'm positive that someone is going to get into a wreck coming to work...

The main problem is that GA DOT is spending all of their time keeping the ice off the interstates (the interstates keep refreezing) that there is absolutely no way they can get to the secondary/surface streets.. anyways, moral of my story- stay home today!!!! Do not go to work!!!! I'm so scared about my drive home.... maybe I'll just stay here overnight..