Hi Gram,
I got up this morning, excited to go try the empanadas at Buena Gente. Imagine my dismay when I arrived to find out they’re not open on Mondays! Not only that, but they don’t open again until Thursday, by which time I’ll have already left on my journey north. Monica and I have decided that I’ll just have to come back to Decatur so I can try them. It leaves me with something to look forward to.

I went for a walk on a trail nearby and saw some beautiful nature. There were benches along the route to stop and rest, and a number of little bridges built up to keep feet out of the mud. I’m really impressed by all of the well cared-for trails in this area. This town puts pride in their walkability and keeping the citizens healthy and happy. Smiling at passersby, I listened to an Indonesian language learning podcast as I wound through the trails and breathed in the fresh air.

After my walk, I headed back to the hotel to get some studying and work done on my computer. Getting hungry, I decided to run and grab some lunch. As I headed towards the string of restaurants, though, I realized I’d lost my phone, so I turned around and re-traced my steps. Luckily, I found it so I knew it hadn’t been stolen or found and my data was safe. Unfortunately, though, I wasn’t going to be getting at my data either. It looked like it had taken a ride in the tumbler of traffic and didn’t fare well.

Brokenhearted by the inconvenience (because a phone is just a thing that can be replaced), I headed back to the hotel to find where the nearest Apple store was. Reverting to my former self from the 1990’s, I transcribed the directions from my computer to paper and set off on an adventure, hoping I wouldn’t get lost or miss a turn. I took a few wrong turns and was nervous, but I found my way to the mall and the Apple store. A VERY helpful gentleman named Michael helped me acquire a new phone. Since we couldn’t access my old phone to migrate my phone plan, he sent me down to the AT&T store at the other end of the mall so they could switch me over. Then it was back to the Apple store to see Michael, who set me up at a table to migrate the data from my most recent backup to the new phone. A few hours (and a lot of dollars) later, I was connected back to the world at large and able to get on with my day. I’d chosen the iPhone 14 Max Pro, which felt bigger than my old phone, the 11 Max Pro.

With my new phone in hand, I navigated to Argosy in East Atlanta to meet my college friend Matt, whom I haven’t seen in a number of years. It was a cute little area of town, felt rather hipster-ish, but with plenty of parking. Matt and I caught up on our current lives, reminisced about our college days, and discussed where some of our old friends were now. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was lively and fun.

The next day, I decided that the new Pro Max was just too big. It didn’t fit well in my pocket and felt almost too big for one-handed use. So back to the Apple store I went to repeat the Groundhog Day experience of getting a new phone. This time, I brought the broken phone in for them to recycle though. The process of switching between functional phones was much easier this time, and much quicker. The migration process moves over the critical data from one phone to the other, but leaves all of the apps and less critical data to download over the internet so I sat at a table in the Apple store, beholden to their WiFi, and listened to an instructor talk about how to get the most out of your iPhone and iPad.

Once my data was loaded, I walked through the mall to find a store where I could find a case and screen protector. It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone shopping at a mall, and I can’t say that I missed it at all. Every store has shiny, flashing displays intended to draw you in, vendors at kiosks try to lure you in with their offers of timeshares, sunglasses, or perfumes, and the place is just so big that it’s easy to get lost. The saddest part of this experience, though, was found at the bottom of the escalator. As I stepped off the escalator, a police officer called me aside because I was wearing a backpack. She insisted that she needed to inspect my backpack as part of their prevention of gun violence. It makes me sad that people feel threatened, walking through a mall, that there might be another mass shooting. It also makes me sad that everyone just lines up for these inspections, willing to let someone rifle through their bag without question, just because they’re wearing a uniform. I had a friendly discussion with the officer, let her feel that my bag didn’t have any guns or knives in it (the only thing in there, in fact, was my laptop), but did not let her reach or look into my bag. It would have been faster to let her into my bag, but I feel it’s important to maintain privacy and control. I don’t believe in the “if you have nothing to hide, then you’ll be fine” mentality. We don’t go from freedom to autocracy in one fell swoop – our liberties are eroded slowly until we don’t know how we lost them. Finished with that interaction, I found a shop selling what I needed a few stores away and bought what I needed to protect my new purchase. I got out of the mall as quickly as I could and headed back to Decatur to meet up with Monica and Zakia for dinner. I knew they wouldn’t erode my liberties! More about that in the next post…