After being in Atlanta for five straight days, I live to tell the tale. I think I'd been undersold on Atlanta my whole life. Talking with others left me with the impression that it had all the danger of Detroit, the charm of Gary, and the social life of East St. Louis. I was expecting something along the lines of Mogadishu. After exploring the city rather exhaustively with the intrepid Aaron Klocker, I now consider it a little like a southern Boulder. Lots of bucolic little urban areas, curving hilly streets, colleges, warmth, etc.
Charming as it may have been, home is a righteous place to return to (I think Homer wrote that), so I'm very keen on being back. Thanks to a maintenance delay and switched airplanes, I just barely made it back in time to pick up the kids from day care. I was very excited; surely they would go out of their little toddler skulls at the first sight of their long-lost dada.
Lily just seemed a little confused, and looked to the daycare workers, seemingly for some clue as to whether or not I was qualified to pick them up. She came around to me, but it certainly wasn't a thrilling first moment. Abby, however, was quite excited, but she'd just been given a cracker and that could have accounted for much of that.
It's astounding how different they seem after 5 days. Jen must have been feeding them smart pills, because they can do stuff that was unthinkable last week. An example:
We started playing with those big block legos on the porch. They were hip to it; fun was had. At one point I dumped all the legos out and showed them how to throw them back in the tub, one at a time. It took one single solitary demonstration of this before Abby threw one in and looked at me for approval. I clapped. Lily followed suit...more clapping. They picked up every lego and threw it right in that tub. I was agog. Maybe it's not as notable as I think, but they did it with a very deliberate and intelligent air. If there's one thing I'm very smart about, it's intelligence.
There was more of everything than I remember. Laughing was abundant, especially from Abby. Lily started throwing the legos out of the tub, and Abigail was laughing so hard I was worried she might slip a disc or maybe her head might explode. There was more crankiness when they were hungry; they went from 0 to 130 kilocrankies in no time flat right before dinner. There was more interaction between them. There was more of everything about them that I remember. They seem to have ratcheted up the intensity this week. It's nice to be back home in the mix.
Good job Jenny with the blog, it was great fun to be a spectator for a bit. You've earned yourself some time off so you can get back to studying.
And a quick thanks to all the people who helped or offered to help out while I was away. We are, as always, humbled and elated with your generosity.
Day sixty eight.
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