Okay you know that scene in trainspotting, "The worst toilet in scotland"? I think we might have found the worst in Atlanta... it's hard to tell, but if there was a contest this might be my submission.

Let me take you to MJQ, an underground club downtown.

There are two restrooms, presumably men's and women's, but the doors aren't marked so you just kinda watch which gender seems to be going in where and guess.

The one with more women going into it has two stalls. Both stalls have doors that go to the ceiling, and the doors have a hole where a doorknob maybe once existed. But there are no latches or locks or anything.

The stall on the right has a toilet that does not flush.

The stall on the left has no light. It's pitch black since the door goes to the ceiling. You can kinda use your cell phone to illuminate the basic situation and get an idea of what you're getting into.

Since the doors aren't marked, not everyone agrees that this is the ladies' room. I walked in there once to find a guy peeing in the left stall... which means, of course, that this (dark) one is now subject to the normal horrible things men do to public bathrooms.

At that same time, the right stall was occupied. I know, because I opened the door and found a girl sitting on the toilet blowing a dude. I guess people might as well use that stall for non-bathroom things since the toilet doesn't flush, right?

We were only at this place for a few hours but in that time I saw it get progressively worse. Women were apologizing to one another as they entered, like, "I'm sorry for what you're about to endure, I had to do it too. Good luck hovering. Hope you've got strong thighs."

Other than that I had fun at the club! The DJs were good, the lighting was cool, the bar drinks were reasonably priced and the wall art was neat. I got some cool fashion ideas and got to dance some. I just tried to drink a little less so I wouldn't have to pee, that's all.

Last week when I was in KC with Mom we got to talking about state capitols. We were at the Nelson and they have Thomas Hart Benton paintings, which just made me think of Missouri. When I was in grade school we went to Jefferson City and toured the capitol building and the one big thing I remember is the murals showing plane old everyday life. Missouri was a setting off point for the west, the gateway if you will, and so its cities were a mix of crazy bustling and cultures mixing together. The capitol murals ended up being more shocking than the commissioners had planned... rugged frontier people in all shapes, sizes and activities, a baby getting its diaper changed, livestock, that sort of thing. All over the walls of the house lounge. But they went with it and it's wonderful and says something about Missouri, how it the people were searching for something real, how everyone was leaving cities to find the raw frontier and there was a great sense of adventure.

The Kansas state capitol isn't as much about rugged individualism, when I think about it I think of a struggling society trying to find its place. First, there's this giant mural of John Brown fighting for Bleeding Kansas - if a crazy man holding a gun and a bible in the state capitol building doesn't say something about us, what does. Kansas was a state where groups of people, not individuals, saw an opportunity to have the place they wanted. The top of the capitol dome features a statue of an indian shooting an arrow skyward, related to our optimistic state motto "To the stars through difficulty". But there's a deep story there... when a determined group of people want something wonderful, conflicts can happen. And that's why we have a convicted felon painted on the wall.

I have also been to the Texas capitol, which is huge and crazy and makes me think of people playing cowboy and trampling muddy boots in to exchange money back in the day. And I've been to the California capitol in Sacramento, which makes me think of pride in natural resources combined with the modern hippyism of governor Jerry Brown's portrait. According to my parents I've been to the Illinois state capitol but I don't remember it very well, Dad says it's one of his favorites though, and that it has wonderful artifacts pertaining to Abraham Lincoln and strongly honors the intellectual aspects of politics and debates.

Two nights ago in my post-bar Atlanta funk I noticed the Georgia state building and said I wanted to go. We trekked downtown, which was a scary traffic experience but we survived, paid $5 to park and walked a few blocks to the capitol. The Georgia capitol has a bright gold dome. It's surrounded by trees and plants with huge waxy leaves that only grow in southern climates. There are statues of confederate war heroes. It sort of gives a "Look what we got for reconstruction!" vibe... things are matched and well-coordinated, because it was suddenly just all built after the civil war destroyed Atlanta. The top floor features a museum to let people know about the history of Georgia. There's a clock frozen in a display case that a governor tried to set back, nearly killing himself in the process, to prolong a debate about redrawing voting lines that prevented blacks from having a voice at the polls. In fact there are lots of references to racial segregation and the resulting conflicts. Georgia is a humble state, honoring its heritage and contributions to the civil war, quietly acknowleging the peanut farmers. You get the feeling that they weren't violently opposed to change, just didn't see why they had to bother with it. It came to them and they were forced to confront. It happened that way with civil rights. It happened that way with the civil war... trying to succeed from the union to avoid having to change. But they were unable to run, shaken down to nothing, and then what?

In the end, there's Jimmy Carter... his statue outside the capital with palms up to offer service and encourage generosity, telling Georgia that they can honor past and future at the same time, do good things and you will find your pride. The Texas capitol seems to really live in the here and now, Georgia's seems a little unsure of where it set its next foot. But it will set it among lovely magnolia trees.

So here I get to mark another notch on my list of capitol buildings... Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia. It was a nice day and the guys with me agreed it was interesting, and we were all happy that our afternoon activities only cost us a few dollars to park.

here we are in atlanta! It's a party let me tell you. We drove. Yes, flights here are cheap because it's a hub but driving is still cheaper, plus we were able to take our friend's truck that runs on recycled vegetable oil so driving has been FREE so far.

We set out from wichita at 6am and drove. through KC, St. Louis, Nashville, all day and into the night, and arrived at our friends' house in Atlanta a little after midnight with the time change. We didn't have to stop for gas so that was awesome, but were a little slowed down sometimes for construction. We ate lunch at a KFC and ate dinner at a little mexican place outside chatanooga. I slept a lot and didn't drive at all. I offered to drive but the guys were just switching off and it's a huge truck we took, that apparently doesn't drive like the focus, so our friend who owns it wanted to be the one driving in all urban traffic.

Despite my long hard day of sleeping, I crashed out when we got to a soft bed and slept like a rock. This morning we woke up and marc did some work while I puttered around on the internet, and then we headed out to Six Flags Over Georgia! It was very fun. We pretty much did the roller coasters. I had none fun on the Ninja and the line for the Superman ride was way too long for what we got out of it, but others were great... we rode Goliath twice, MindBender had no line and was incredible so we rode it twice, the batman ride was excellent.

I did really well on all the roller coasters today. I've had problems with some in the past because of an overwhelming fear of heights but today I didn't notice. Someone asked me how I could be afraid of heights while learning to fly airplanes and it's weird, I'd have to say that the heights thing has never bothered me in the least bit while I'm in an airplane. There have been other times in my life where the fear has been paralyzing... once on a powerplant tour, we took an elevator up 11 stories and stepped out onto a grated floor I could see through and I FROZE. They finally coaxed me out by telling me to hang onto a guy in front of me. And on roller coasters in the past, the slow clicking climb upward has been scary enough that I either chickened out or had to close my eyes the whole time and wish it'd end. But airplanes? No problem. Even when I'm flying the airplane... which is irrational, because if I'm going to die by falling the odds of crashing an airplane are much higher than the odds of a roller coaster letting me go. Maybe flying a lot has helped me with the height thing? Or maybe my early fearful lessons were the last few kicks I needed to get over it? Either way we went on some high up roller coasters today and I was fine... looking out, looking down, enjoying the ride. I'm cured.

we made it back! time for normal life to start again, I'm almost happy to be going back to work and getting into the swing of things. cooking. doing laundry. that kinda stuff.

we flew out of atlanta today so of course our flight was delayed... we showed up and it said there'd be a 30 minute delay so I just went off about how this had to be just the tip of the iceburg. last time i had a flight delay out of atlanta, it turned into six hours of delays... 30-45 minutes at a time, so we had to stay right by the gate. it was horrible. but today that 30 minutes pretty much stayed 30 minutes and we were home at a reasonable time.

it's cold here but for heaven's sake it's winter and it's supposed to be cold. why are there even christmas decorations in florida? the lights around the swimming pool at the condos we stayed at had snowmen heads on them. as if anyone there knows what a snowman is.

Dear Mom, Dad, and Everybody:

I am in Atlanta. Now, I know you probably think this is a little irrational, but I drove down with Jason... would Jason have driven down with me if it was totally insane? He really wanted to go, and let's face it, I haven't had a good long road trip since late July. There's a good party going on tonight and I'm on fall break from classes next week, that's why we knew the trip would have to be this weekend. Hey, they wouldn't give us breaks if we weren't actually supposed to take one.

So anyway I know you'll be worried but so far I'm having the time of my life and I'm just taking a long weekend from work... I will not end up in the hospital or jail. I'm meeting lots of cool people and getting a good citizen's view of a city I've never seen before. I've already noticed how miserable the urban sprawl is here, which means I'll definitely be happy going home to Wichita when the visit's over.

Sarah, sorry I blew off your wedding. But the opportunity really wouldn't come any other weekend. You can blow off mine someday and I'll understand.

So anyway, yup, I'm fine! Don't worry about me! Hey, most kids do weird crazy stuff when they're kids and stupid and don't know how to be responsible. I'm old enough to know how to be responsible. 25 is really the perfect time for random stuff like this, am I right?

Love, Spacefem