Staying in a ho- tell me another one

Some Papyrus:


The quintessential font combo: Sand and Papyrus.

So it's been a minute since my regular posting. Hell, I missed "Blog Action Day" on the 15th of October. But it was not without cause. On a trip to Nashville, some bad things happened. Here's the story.

Brandon and I were heading to Tennessee to see Ron Paul give a speech in Nashville. I had been increasingly excited about it all throughout the week. Someone on the Atlanta Meetup group knew somone who ran a hotel down there and was sympathetic to the cause. She was offering "reduced" rates for people coming for the Ron Paul rally so we got a reservation there. I was excited because I could record the rally and capture anything cool with my laptop and blog it up right away with the video camera and laptop I had and it might make for a good reason to stick around to see the sights.

The drive went well.

When we got to the hotel, we quickly made it up to the counter and confirmed our reservations and were provided with a room and the keycards. We made our way to the room, opened the door, and were immediately struck by an overwhelming stench of chemicals. Reeling, I asked Brandon about it. He thought it was maybe just cleaning odor but I told Brandon it seems unsafe, like brain damage unsafe.

So made our way back down to the desk to request a new room. When we described the situation to the lady behind the counter, she casually and matter of factly brushed it off saying "oh somebody prolly just had a meth lab up there."

Just a meth lab.

Stupid us, we take another room. At least the new one didn't smell but upon further inspection, it became clear that meth is just part of the Nashville culture. Next to the Gideon's Bible was "Gideon's Guide to Making Meth for Fun and Profit".



We headed downtown to the main drag. The city was a lot of fun. Each bar offered something unique- a lot of music- lots of people out and about.

Getting late then, it was about 2:30 AM when we decided to head back to the hotel. Before we even drove 30 feet however, the cops pull us over. Brandon didn't have his headlights on, the cop made him blow, he got thrown into the back of a cruiser with a .1. He had 3 beers over the span of 4 hours.

Anyhow, that sucked. The cop wouldn't let me or anyone move the car to a lot or a parking space because he gets his jollies impounding cars. I caught a cab to the courthouse.

The courthouse is full of criminals. Then there's all the people they have arrested... it took forever for Brandon to even get processed. While waiting, I got to talk to a ton of people and everyone spoke openly about the police down there pulling people over for stuff as simple as tail lights out, dome light on while driving, not signaling, and then giving the breathalyzer. It's som major fundraising. They must need a new stadium or something. But at like, 9:30 AM, I was finally able to bail Brandon out.

We got a cab to the hotel. Relieved to some extent to be back, we found our card keys disabled. We couldn't get into the room. So we turned to head back to the desk to reauthorize the cards and just as we did, some dude opens the door. Surprised, I ask what he's doing in our room. He said it's his room. I look in and point at my clothes hanging and my backpack and say, "well that's my stuff." Surprised, he starts to allow us in whereupon we discover my laptop, external hard drive, camera, DS Lite, and iPods have checked out without me. This guy doesn't know anything about it.

I make Brandon walk in front of this guy. I'm walking behind him as we head to the front desk. I wanted to make sure if he tried to run or anything, I could be on it. I get the front desk and him talking and head outside to call the police. The police get there after some time and an attempt by this kid to jet. The cops ask me some questions, the hotel, and then this guy...

The guy doesn't have a name. He doesn't have an ID. He doesn't know his address. He doesn't have a social security number.

Oh and he didn't steal anything and doesn't know who did.

Satisfied, the cops let him go and place the blame exclusively with the hotel. Truly, it was their fault. They checked out our room to a subsequent guest who paid cash for two rooms. Our room was the room the buyer got for this dude who was in there. Cousins.

Needless to say, this was maybe the worst weekend in my life but the Ron Paul rally helped make it somewhat bearable.



Worst

road

trip

ever.

Apart from Brandon's court date, I am never going back to Nashville.

In other news, this was at Costco:

Costco got Papyrus in bulk

So there ya go... a big juicy Papyrus sandwich.