A Water, A Miller Lite, and A Gatorade

So on Tuesday I woke up at 4:15 am. Actually, I crawled out of bed and rolled on the floor into the shower. I lathered up, rinsed off, dried myself, and got dressed. I think by that time I would actually consider myself awake. Now some of you may think this is a normal time to get up. Well, I usually don't even go to bed until around 5:30 am... so needless to say, it was quite the shock to my system. The reason for this early rise and shine episode was a trip to the deep south. I was off to Atlanta, Georgia. For the first few days of my trip, I'm visiting my younger brother, his wife and there soon to be six month-old son. Then I'm off to Panama City, FL for a little R & R before heading back home. So after a very long day yesterday and getting some much needed sleep, today was my first full day of the visit.

I woke up around 11 am. Since I'm staying in someones house, I put on a shirt before heading out to the bathroom to take a shower. After shutting the bathroom door, I pulled my shirt off. Along with the shirt, a scorpion flew past my face and landed on the floor just by my feet. I'm not even sure if it was on my shirt or actually under my shirt and against my skin. It wasn't that big of a scorpion... about an inch and a half long... maybe two inches if you stretched out the stinger, but I haven't seen a scorpion outside of a cage for quite some time. To be exact, it's probably been all the way back to when I used to live in Indonesia. I can't say I'm too fond of the creatures... so it gave me quite the surprise. After giving myself CPR (It's difficult to do... but can be done) and coming back to life, I threw a hand towel on the critter and stomped on it really hard with my foot. (If you are a member of PETA, please remove yourself from my blog as I don't want you here anyway) Everything went great after that... but I was checking every nook and cranny for scorpions all day long. The shoes, clothes, the bed, every time I felt something on my feet, rechecking the shoes... and the bed. Nope, no problem here. I'll sleep fantastic tonight. Hey, what's that on my leg?!

So after breakfast, Sean showed me a tour of the house. Then we went golfing. Lately I've been honing my skills on the golf course by playing Tiger Woods Golf 2010 on the Wii. Some people say it's too hard of a game. It is fairly difficult, but after many hours of playing, I have actually become a pretty descent player. I was excited to play since it would be my first time in almost two years. But that was okay, since I had so much time playing on the Wii... it was like practicing on a flight simulator before piloting an aircraft. I was ready to conquer the course!

But wait! I was already sweating in the muggy heat of North Atlanta. I needed something to drink. So I meandered into the cafe and asked for two bottles of water. Oh, and then I saw some Gatorade and asked for two of those. I handed the lady my debit card and she took it and then looked at the items I was purchasing. "You need $10 to use a card", she told me. Goodness gracious! I know this is the South and all, but seriously, when will businesses finally wake up and realize that cash is the currency of yesterday. I get pretty irritated when places like Arco Fuel and Dairy Queen charge a transaction fee for using a debit card. Well, I was already thirsty, and four hours of playing in this heat was going to kill me. So I looked at the drinks in the fridge. Let's see... I have water to keep hydrated. I have Gatorade, so we're good on electrolytes. Then I saw beer. Oh, gotta have that if I'm golfing. So, I ordered two Miller Lite's and now my bill was acceptable at $12. The waitress gave me the bill to sign and then turned to another customer. I had just finished signing it when she turned back towards me and said that if I wanted to leave a tip to just write it below the total on the receipt. Both of us looked down at the already signed receipt. I looked back up and said, "Oh, sorry". I grabbed my drinks and left as she muttered something under her breath. A tip?! For what? All you did was grab a few drinks out of a fridge and place them on the counter in front of me. You want a tip for that! I'll give you a tip. How about you get a job at a place that doesn't require a $10 purchase to use a debit card.

Okay, so were finally ready to golf. I'm stretching out and feeling quite tight. Airplane seats are not made for 6' 3" human being with long legs. So I stretch some more and try a few warm up swings. But I have a secret up my sleeve. I've been practicing on the Wii... and with that new Motion Plus controller, it's supposed to be super realistic. It had to help my game. I'm all set on the tee box. Ball is on the tee. One last practice swing. Set my feet and let it rip! Oh my! Haven't seen a fade like that in quite some time. Don't think I'm going to find that one. I hate losing a ball on the first shot! I guess I'll start drinking the beer first. It's going to be a very long four hours.