Every year when the temperature breaks into the 90’s, Alan Jackson resumes rotation in my daily listening. It’s not intentional. It’s like on the first blisteringly hot day, I turn on my car and Summertime Blues is playing on the radio or shows up in a random commercial. It’s fate. Alan Jackson is from Newnan, Georgia which is a little bit aways from where I grew up. I feel like every Southern family has a few unsubstantiated claims of connection to fame and/or fortune. It's a different kind of brag. It’s not “I am validated as a person because I met a celebrity” it’s “I met them and they weren’t full of themselves. Isn’t this celebrity lucky that they can fit in and get along with people like me?”
Supposedly my aunt’s best friend used to babysit Alan Jackson’s kids. These claims are unsubstatiated and currently under review. But from what I heard he wasn’t full of himself or nothing and if he wouldn’ta said his name you wouldn’ta even known it was him at all!
As a hoochie with a coochie living way down yonder on the Chattahoochee, I gotta say his description of a Georgia summer is spot on.
Atlanta summers are chaotic. You spend every day trying to act like a well-mannered, civilized person. But the fact of the matter is that it’s 100 degrees outside with enough humidity to soak your undershirt right through. From May to September, though I seem like a well-mannered, civilized person, it’s a costume. Because the “real me” during a Southern summer is a barefoot, redneck child with a perpetual, unavoidable sunburn who drinks from the hose with a red popsicle-stained mouth. I do not drink from the hose anymore. I wear ample sunscreen every day. I don shoes when I leave the house (and only when I leave the house.) But I always have popsicles in the freezer. And I will always love Alan Jackson.
Turns out he’s on tour. Maybe we take a little trip to Savannah as a little late-birthday celebration? (*ahem* August 5th.)
The Agenda
Visiting NYC July 7-12
I’ll be in NYC for my next photoshoot the second week in July. This isn’t really a tour as I am traveling for the serious business of having pretty pictures taken. The plan is to arrive in NYC on the 7th in the early afternoon and depart on the 12th in the early afternoon. The 8th will be busy with the photoshoot. I can be persuaded to stay a day longer with the right incentive…
I only have time to see one or two people this trip, so reach out sooner rather than later. Longer dates prioritized, dinner dates enthusiastically encouraged.
Screening and deposit required, etc. Enquire for details.
I will be in Atlanta the rest of July, let’s make some plans?
Atlanta July Date Ideas:
Braves Game at Truist Park
Seeing a movie in a ice cold, air conditioned theatre
Summer Outdoor Dining and Drinking Wishlist:
· King + Duke
· The Garden Room
· Miller Union
· Canoe
· Nick’s Westside
· Forza Storico
I have a lot more exciting stuff to talk about (*ahem* my 30th birthday is at the beginning of August) but hopefully I can tell you all about it in person.
Until then,