Living in Altanta

The way we interact with each have changed significantly over the past ten years.  The Internet has grown and spawned new ways to communicate.  Social networks and Peer to Peer programs are only a couple of the new ways to keep in touch with old friends, talk to your wife, and waste time at work.  But with this new wave of technology, I feel that some people forget just how they are perceived online.  All the information you put on your Facebook, your Linkin, your blog, and even your American Express labels you as a person.  It creates your Internet Identity.

Since the beginning for Social Networks I have tried to put my name out there and sign up for as many as possible.  I have to admit I am not scared to input my address and phone number into any off the wall database to store on some server in China.  I try to put my name out there as much as possible so it is easier for people to know who I am.  For people to distinguish me from other Dave Caselli’s.   For Search Engines to have my name out there more than any other Caselli, or any other Dave even.  This is why I establish such an Identity.  I want my name on the map.

So because I am so adamant about my own Internet Identity, I cant believe how other people abuse and tarnish their own identity.  I am not going to name any names, but I will state this:  What people see on the Internet is what they believe is true.  If the majority of the photos you have of yourself are half naked pictures of yourself on the beach, people are going to ask themselves why is this person parading themselves online this way?

Also, people don’t realize that everyone “Googles” everyone.  If you are trying to get a job, make sure you know what a potential employer will find when they “Google” your name.  It might be time to take down the picture from that Bachelorhood party in Vegas.  Things like this might not just get you in trouble from a potential employer, but also a current employer.  I also have to say that if you have a ton of people from your past on Facebook, try to understand how they will perceive you.  They don’t know you, but they know your Facebook.

Overall, I am most likely different than most people.  I don’t care if I have “cooky” pictures of myself online.  I right this blog putting my life in the public eye for anyone to read.  I like to keep myself honest with the people around me so I can be honest with myself.  I try not to hide from who I am.  But I still will never put up those pictures I took with that donkey in Mexico.

Sometimes it is hard to find a weekend when everyone is in town and willing to hit the town hard.  This was not one of those weekends.  Our good friend Mandi came into town with her boyfriend Kevin.  Mandi is a good friend of our little click and when she moved back home to Michigan we immediately anticipating her return.  Kevin planned this surprise vacation and wanted it to be a special one.  This is because he ended up popping the big question just one day before the plan ride down here.  The way I see it, it’s just one more reason to party.

Now living in Atlanta we have a number of great restaurants to choose when deciding where to eat, but most of the time you pick the spot you like and the one that’s convenient.  Well this weekend we were venturing out into the unknown.  Friday night we went to a restaurant in Inman Park.  Inman Park is an area we rarely visit, but has a number of great spots to eat.  That night we tried P’Cheens.  With a mixed variety of food, P’Cheens was a great place for a night out.  I got the Tom Yom Noodle Bowl which ended up being pretty damn good.  I tried a new beer to Atlanta called Mothership Wit made by New Belgium.  It’s made by the company that makes Fat Tire.  I guess it is supposed to be awesome.  It was ok.  

Anyway, after dinner we went down Highland Avenue to Dark Horse Tavern.  Now, Dark Horse is actually a place we have all been to quite a few times before, but it was close, convienent and it is a pretty awesome little bar.  We took a Jack Daniels shot and watched Lebron hit a ridiculous game winning shot with 1 second left then made our way home.  Since Priscilla and I live in Smyrna, the ride was about 20 minutes.  That 20 minutes seemed like an eternity to Kevin and Mandi.  I guess they drank more than I thought cause when we stopped for a pee, Kevin lost his dinner in the parking lot.  I guess that means we are showing them a good time.  That, or they can’t handle their Jack Daniels.

Saturday was a “hung over” day and amounted to watching movies at home and straight chillin’.  We knew that Saturday night was going to be another great night out.  We made our plan, got pimped out and made our way to yet another new restaurant.  This time we headed to Cabbagetown to a little restaurant called Agave.  This fancy Mexican place has a cool vibe plus it has over 100 different tequilas on their menu.  After some good food, good times and some 100 proof Margaritas we made our way to El Bar on Poune de Leon Avenue.  It’s the place no one knows about but everyone would love.  Literally attached to  the back of an El Aztca Restaurant, this little bar was small and loud, blasting the hits from the 90’s and 80’s.  It was awesome.

After way too many shots, we walked down to The Clairmont Lounge.  If you don’t already know, the Clairmont is the oldest strip club in Atlanta.  They have been around for more than 50 years.  The catch is that most of their strippers have been too.  Headlined by their most famous dancer ” Blondie” who crushes beer cans with her boobs, Clairmont is the strip club where strippers go to die.  It is a freak show at it’s best, but the drinks are cheap and the crowd is always entertaining.  As for me, I was in bad shape before I walked in the door.  I could only handle an hour before I decided to leave everyone and take a cab home.  I drank too much.  What can I say.

The next day we were all miserable but once again decided to make our way to a bar.  (I wasn’t the one voting for more drinking.)  So we decided to (yep again) try something new.  We made our way all the way to Decatur to a small but incredibly awesome bar called Brick Store pub.  With an endless amount of beers on their menu we had plenty to choose from.  We ate some food and drank some strange brews and called it a day.  

Monday was Memorial day and honestly the nicest, sunniest day of the weekend.  We went to lunch at Garrisons and then went to the movies and saw Terminator Salvation.  The movie was better than I thought.  Later that day we dropped Kevin and Mandi off at the airport and sent them on their way.  It was a great weekend full of new experiences and lots of drinking.  CONGRATS MANDI AND KEVIN!!

So I bought a new house so I live in a new spot.  New spot.  New Commute.  Now when I was looking at houses the location was a huge deal for me.  Not so much for Priscilla, but she considered it.  I had to make sure where we were made sense for both of us now and in the long term.  Obviously location in Atlanta effected the price significantly so when looking I limited our search to only the convenient locations.  

Atlanta is a big city.  There are a lot of choices on neighborhoods and communities to live in.  But not all of them made sense for us.  Before we bought our house we rented in a condo in Vinings.  We love Vinings and the area around it.  We didn’t want to go far so Smyrna was an obvious choice. Smyrna is located just outside of Vinings and just outside the perimeter of Atlanta.  Yep OTP.  Though Smyrna is not the hippest neighborhood in Altanta, it is close to the city and it is reasonably priced.  Because of this, there are a ton of young families that call Smyrna home.  It may not have the party atmosphere of Brookhaven, but it does have new houses that are affordable.

Our new house is located on the corner of Atlanta Road and Spring Road. It is the heart of Smyrna and is located just a block from the Smyrna Market Village. My office is in midtown off Northside Drive right across from Six Feet Under. My commute from Vinnings, even though it was only three miles from our new house, was a lot better and quicker. It was more convenient because it was located so close to the freeway which made it a quick 10 minutes to work. Now with living in Smyrna, I am a good ten minutes from the freeway and the same 10 minutes from there. Because of this, I take the back roads.

A straight shot down Atlanta road takes you to Chattahoochee Road which then hits Howell Mill. My office is on 11th Street which is right off of Howell Mill. It clocks in at about 15 to 20 minutes but with no freeways.  The trip is painless on most days.  Some are worse than others, but there is very little traffic and never any cops or accidents.  This mostly just means that the commute is mostly the same day to day.  

The only thing I would have to say is a deciding factor is the bridge that crosses the Chattahoochee on Atlanta road next to the Water plant.  From what I have heard, the bridge has always been two lanes.  It has always taken Atlanta road from 4 lanes to 2.  Who planned this city anyway?  The traffic is pretty much the same everyday.  Easier in the afternoons, but it still sucks.  The light has five roads coming together which makes the light extremely long anyway, then add that it’s backed up a half mile.  It takes me at least ten minutes just to get through the light.  When it is done, my commute will improve immensely.

Overall I love my new commute.  It is quick and safe and isn’t through a ghetto.  My new commute is only one of the great new things I get with living in our new house.  Now lets just hope that Indigo doesn’t move to Kennesaw.

We closed on our house on February 24th 2009 at 12:00.  The events that lead up to that day were littered with fear, anger, frustration, stress, and excitement.  You see, after the official acceptance of the offer we had three weeks of Due Diligence and Financial Contingency.  What this means is that we had three weeks to get financed, get appraised, get inspected and make a decision.  During this period, we could walk away for any reason at all.  So we had a lot of decisions to make.  But, in the beginning, it was a waiting game.  We had to wait on our Mortgage Broker and our Realtor to set up our appraisal and inspection and get us financing asap.  Fortunately this was the least of our worries as the appointments were made for early the next week.

We didn’t say much to the appraiser, but the inspector took us on a quick tour of our new home pointing out all the imperfections along the way.  From the beginning, I was nervous that Priscilla would find something to make her change her mind as I knew that inspectors are paid to find something wrong.  That wasn’t the case though and she was surprisingly accepting about the homes tiny faults.  They were minor though.  A few boards that needed to be replaced.  A leaky pressure valve.  Some other little minor things, but nothing to keep us from closing on our new home.

Next we had to wait on the finances.  At the moment we had an acceptance letter James Willard was in contact with us requesting a number of documents including proof of employment, credit checks, proof of funds, etc., etc.  After that it was in someone else’s hands.  Mostly the Banks as they have a list of potential mortgages and they were not going to even get to ours for more than a week.  We waited, but I wasn’t too worried.  This market wants buyers like us and we fit all the requirements.  Plus we had the money and credit.  We waited.

Closing was on Friday, so we decided to do a final walk through on the Monday before.  Everything was looking perfect.  That was about to change.  

Quick back story on the house:  There was a lady living in the house that was not the true owner.  She was renting the house from a young guy that bought the house in 2008.  The details from there get a little cloudy, but all I know was that she did not want to move out.  From what I can gather, she had been doing small renovations throughout the house since she had lived there.  I am not sure why a renter would spend the money to renovate a house they do not own, but, as far as I know, she was responsible for a the dishwasher, the carpet, the unpainted crown molding throughout the kitchen, the updated thermostats, and alarm system, to name a few.  She did these things thinking she would be buying the house.  I guess.  We found out she had lost her job and ran out of funds.  All in all, she was not happy about loosing the home.  OK end of back story.

Our walk through was interesting from the start as when we walked in we heard noises from the upstairs.  Not wanting to freak anyone out, we talked loudly to make sure they knew we were here.  A young African American man came down the stairs and said all of three words to us.  Our Realtor David Willard asked if his mother was home and that we had an appointment to see the house.  That is when we noticed some things.  A broken marble fireplace corner, a broken baluster, and a few ten inch gashes on the stairway wall.  These were things that were new and the boy confirmed that.  We also noticed the alarm system and the thermostats had been yanked off the walls throughout the house leaving large holes in the drywall.  It was not pretty.  As we were leaving the lady living in the house came home and as she walked in the door she threw her hands up in disgust.  Unaware why we were there, she was pissed.

We didn’t know just how pissed til a couple days later.

I get a call from David Willard stating that they would offer $500 as compensation from the new damages, but there was a kicker.  The Lady had taken a key to the front of the super nice dishwasher and scratched up the whole front.  We were not sure just why she did it, but we assumed it was out of spite.  This lady was growing more annoying by the hour.  After I had agreed to the terms and a few hours later, I got a call from David that she has done damage to the dishwasher and that it may not work.  Now, let me remind you, this was a “short sale.”  The seller was broke and had now way of compensating us for the new damages.  The $500 was the limit.  Our only choice was to completely back out, and David seemed to think that they would just let it happen if that is what we decided.  In other words they would call our bluff and let the house go into foreclosure.  He seemed to think we had no other choice but to let it ride out and take what we get.  We were stressed and confused and pissed.  We let it ride out.

The next day the owner decided to replace the thermostats and try to fix the dishwasher before we moved in.  We were pleasantly surprised.  By this time he had kicked the Lady that was renting out of the house and changed the locks.  She had no more overnight privileges.  The only thing was that when we signed he was going to put the old locks back on.  Crazy Lady had the keys to the old locks.  First chore and expense in our new house was a set of new locks throughout. (but that’s for the next blog entry)  We found out the dishwasher was not broken at all.  It was disconnected because the Lady tried to take it!!  We couldn’t believe it.  But really we could.  She was nuts.  But is didn’t matter.  We were happy with our functioning dishwasher.  When we signed the papers, we were content and convinced this was the house we wanted. 

We are officially home owners.

So a couple of years back I heard of this awesome invention called ear candles.  It was actually my good friend Kiki that first told me about them and from the start I loved them.  With a history of ear issues I thought that a natural safe cleanse of ear wax would be good for me and feel awesome.  So I went for it.  Kiki, Priscilla and I all took turns watching the candles burn down to nothing and cutting them open to find out who had the most nastiness inside.

Ear candles are easy to use.  They come in packages of two and are basically a thick wax sheet rolled into a tube that has a cone at the end.  That end is placed into your ear and the other end is lit like a candle.  It burns for about ten to fifteen minutes.  It needs to be monitored by someone else so the ashes don’t fall on your head and light your hair on fire Michael Jackson style.  It’s not hard but definitely takes patients.  I have ADD so it’s not easy for me, but neither is getting my hair cut.  haha.  Anyway, when you are done you go to the sink and with some basic scissors you cut the rest of the tube open and examine the insides.  They always include a collection of yellow and white stuff that is bunched up like ear wax.  The reason that has the most wins a prize of the knowledge that they have the most ear wax in their head.  I won most of the time.  But later I would find out that our competition really meant very little.

About a year ago I was ready for my next ear candle experience and I went online to search for the best place in Atlanta to buy some.  The health food store by my house had gone out of business so I was left with no place to go.  Whole Foods does not carry them and Whole foods has basically wiped out all the “Mom and Pops” health food stores so my search was not easy.  I resorted to Google and what I found was alarming.

The first article that came up was an article explaining how Ear Candles were not only ineffective, but extremely dangerous.  I continued to read and found out tha ear candles have been around for centuries, but only recently has been considered a waste of time.  The current Wikipedia stats:

“Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal. According to medical researchers, it is both dangerous and ineffective. ^[2]Claims that the practice removes earwax have been thoroughly debunked.”

It’s amazing just how many people I know personally still stand by ear candling and use them to this day.  My own wife needed proof before she believed me and so that exactly what I got her.  Priscilla, not believing my warnings, insisted we buy some ear candles.  So I said that as long as we can burn one by itself, we can seek out and buy some for her to use.  All I wanted to do was run a simple experiment to see if the contents of the candle after it is burned is truly only the residue left from the candle itself.  And thats exactly what we found.  After letting the candle burn for over fifteen minutes without an ear to accompany it, the inside looked identical to that of one that had it’s ear partner.  Priscilla was convinced and so was I.  

After realizing that the wax found inside was indeed from the candle it scares me to think that some of that wax could drop down inside the ear itself while candling.  This is the main reason doctors are against them.  So stay away and dont believe the believers. Tell them to do the experiment themselves and they too will believe.

(All these pictures are from our experiment. No Ears included.)

So my wife Priscilla and I have been talking about buying a house for a couple of years now.  After long discussions about where we want to live, what cities we like, and where we feel we can see ourselves settleing down, we decided that we both love Atlanta.  It’s a big city, but not too big.  It’s constantly growing with new hip, cool places to go to all the time.  Traffic blows, but it takes about a half hour to get anywhere in the city (without traffic).  It has nice neighborhoods, new neighborhoods, expensive neighborhoods, and a whole lot of ghetto.  There is a river, but no ocean.  Everything outside of Atlanta is at least four hours away from including the ocean, but Florida is right next door.  Tallahassee, Destin, Jacksonville, Savannah, Reighle, Charlette, Memphis, New Orleans, and Biloxi are all close enough to drive to.  It’s a five hour flight home to California, and a five hour drive to Priscilla’s parents house in Beaufort, South Carolina.  I think the biggest reason Priscilla and I love Atlanta so much is because it is neutral for the both of us, there is nothing we hate about it.  Plus we have a bunch of friends here and there is no reason to move.

Our journey began a few years back.  We had no idea where to start.  We just got engaged but we were not yet married and, as you could imagin, we were busy with a number of other things.  We asked our friends and family what to do first but we realized that none of our friends own their owned house.  We were lucky though becuase our friend Matt was friends with a realitor.  I wanted to do everything I could to learn about Real Estate before I actually bought something, so I wanted to get hooked up with a realitor as soon as possible.  

Brent Garrison taught us the beginings of Real Estate.  He hooked us up with a lender and we found out our price range.  At this point I realized why the economy and real estate business failed like it did.  We were aproved for some rediculous amount that would put our payments at over half our take home as a couple. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to know a house and be broke because of it.  So we decided our price range was nothing more than $300,000 which is pretty normal for a starter home in Atlanta.  Our house hunt began.

Brent hooked us up with a series of emails every week with updates of new houses that come on the market.  We checked them out as they came, but nothing really caught our attention.  Priscilla and I were too caught up in everything else in our lives, so buying a house was soon put on the backburner.  We then decided to wait til after the wedding maddness was over before be began to dig into the house buying process once again.

to be continued…

Irish Car Bomb   \ˈī-rish ˈkär ˈbäm\   noun   A boilermaker made with stout (e.g. Guinness), Irish Cream (e.g. Baileys) and Irish whiskey (e.g.Jameson). The name references the drink’s Irish components and the car bombings used most notoriously by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) during The Troubles. The Baileys is floated on top of the Jameson in a shot glass, and the shot glass is then dropped into the stout. Once mixed the drink must be consumed quickly, because it will curdle.

I first had an Irish Car Bomb when I first came to Atlanta.  I’m not 100% sure who I was with or what exact day it was on, or what exact bar I was in.  All I can remember is someone telling me,”It tastes like chocolate cake.”  I thought,”I like chocolate cake.  That sounds good.  Let’s try it.”  If I only knew.  It was awesome.

Now if someone was to explain to me the whole process I initially would spend most of my time on the other side of the bar from the intriguing drink, but after a few tries, you learn to truly appreciate this wonder of this cocktail.  Yes, it takes a strong stomach to handle it. Yes, it takes a quick drinker to get it all down.  Yes, it could curdle on you if your too slow.  Yes, it gets you pretty drunk, pretty fast.  But it’s fun, it looks rad, you get to race all your friends and it tastes like cake.  Come on!  What else can you ask for?

I’ve had plenty of friends that can not quite handle an Irish Car Bomb, and in my opinion that’s weak.  If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. (at least once) And if you are intimidated just know that this is one of Priscilla’s favorite drinks.  She can take them like a champ and beats me every time.

Priscilla and I just got back from another wonderful trip to Jacksonville, Florida.  Jacksonville has always been a fun trip because it’s only a meager 5 hours away from Atlanta and it’s got water.  Jacksonville is cut in two by the St. Johns River and is butted up against the Atlantic Ocean.  It is the United States largest city in actually land mass.  It is located in north eastern Florida only  2 hours from Savannah, Georgia and twenty minutes to the South Georgia border.

We were in Florida visiting Priscilla’s sister Ashley, her husband Jay, their 3 year old Kent and they’re new addition, 3 month old Elle.  Ashley and Jay have recently remodeled their home by adding an extra guest room (for us), a full outside patio with a built in grill, and a full on theater with a 105 inch HD Projection TV.  Awesome.  So it was a fun filled trip full of babies, babies and giant TVs.

One of the things that really makes Jacksonville so enticing to me, is the water element.  It seems like every time we visit Jay takes us out on his boat.  Honestly it’s super convienent because he has it docked just two blocks away from his house at his sister’s boat dock.  We usually just take a couple of hours to cruise around Jacksonville past Alltell Stadium, the Maxwell house factory and the Landing. 

The Landing is a downtown square that includes several restaurants and bars and is located right off the St Johns River.  It’s a cool little area that pertains mostly to tourists and business lunch meetings, but is always a fun place to visit in the boat.

Jacksonville is smaller than Atlanta, but not in a bad way.  It actually reminds me a lot of Sacramento, in that it has a river, is smaller in size and is not directly adjacent to the ocean.  It also has an extremely high property value which is also similar to Sacramento. 

All in all, I would definitely move to Jacksonville.  It most likely would be number one on my list if I had a choice on where to move.  But the main reason is that Ashely and Jay are there.  Plus, when P and I are ready to have kids, our kids will be able to have a relationship with their cousins just as I did with mine.  It definitely is something to consider.

So I have lived in Atlanta for about eight years now and I can truly say that this is NOT the city I originally moved to. This city changes more times then any other city I have ever seen. I mean I go back to Sacramento at least twice and year for a couple of days at a time and I see buildings and houses I’ve never seen before. But when I get back from Atlanta after those two or three days, I see full skyscrapers I’ve never seen before. I remember empty abandoned parking lots that now have high rise condos for sale. I’ve seen hip Midtown dance clubs leveled and giant thirty story hotels put in it’s place. Just recently I moved from Buckhead to Vinings and every time I go back there is another street corner gone. Now all Buckhead is is a giant hole in the ground, waiting for high end store front shopping to go in.

But recently Atlanta decided to take a bad traffic situation and make a really bad traffic mess by tearing down the whole 14th Street Bridge and build a new one. Now I know this is going to be nice when it’s finished. I know it will make my commute better in the long run. I know I should just be happy they are making the city better for the future. But man does it suck. Not only does it suck because 75 South is pretty much slammed everyday I drive to work. It sucks because I am getting married in July and my whole wedding guest list is staying in Midtown. Not to mention they are all from out of town. I just hope that all their navigation systems know about all the detours. It will be a mess anyway, so hopefully most people will take the streets and stay away from the highways.

So I did a little research and found some cool new photos of the new 14th Street Bridge. It will have “Several enhancements will be made to improve aesthetics, functionality, and safety in the corridor.

• Midtown’s streetscape palette will be extended throughout the 14th Street corridor and will include wider sidewalks, new street trees, decorative lighting, pavers and street furniture. The bridge itself will have decorative fencing and light pylons to enhance the pedestrian experience.
• The 14th Street corridor will contain a median extending from Fowler Street to West Peachtree Street to improve safety and help beautify this major gateway to Midtown. The medians will bplanted with seasonal flowers, trees, and shrubs and will be maintained by Midtown Alliance.
• A slip ramp will be created on the west side of the connector for southbound vehicles from I-85 that are exiting to 10th Street. Vehicles will no longer”

So I guess it’s cool for now. They never even gave a estimated finish date so I assume this will be going on for years to come. But downtown will be nicer. It should accommodate all the new high rise condos they will be building in the oncomings years. So I can’t complain too much.

Check out this picture from the view of the original 14th Street Bridge in 1953.

resource: http://www.14thstreetbridge.com/