in Atlanta

I am here. The experience has been optimal, so far. There was a bit of confusion at the ticket counter, where at first I was told there was no point in standing by because the flight was full. I asked if I could buy a regular ticket for the 6:00 flight, and was told yes, but that I couldn't buy one for the 8:30 flight. I took this to mean that there should still be a chance of getting on the 6:00 flight on standby, so I asked the agent to try again. After some conversations with his colleagues, they gave me something even better - a boarding pass with an assigned seat number! I couldn't really believe it, but there it was. Sure enough, not only was it a boarding pass, but the seat was in an exit row, so I got all the legroom in the world....something AirTran usually charges extra for. Even after boarding, I was a bit nervous that someone would decide that it was ridiculous that they had let me on the plane that easily and yank me off the flight. In the end, I don't believe there was a single empty seat on the plane.

The flight was fairly uneventful, but I did have a long conversation with my seatmate, who happened to be looking at Consumer Reports' 2009 Car Buying Guide. I told him about the Rebel, and he told me about the first car he ever owned, which was a '74 Gremlin.

Now I'm sitting in the airport, trying to decide what to do next. I could rent a car, or I could get breakfast. I don't have anything to do for the next three hours, so it's hard to plan for anything specific. It's a shame I don't know anyone down here well enough to visit them.

Hopefully y'all are all having fairly normal Saturdays back in the real world. And hopefully I can get back to the real world within the next couple of days...maybe even with a car!