It's a Far Cry from Huddle House

So here I am in Athens, GA sitting at a Starbucks doing school work on my Labor Day holiday. And while I thought it would be relatively quiet, it turns out that there are least 10 other people in here doing the same. I guess this should come as no surprise considering UGA is the flagship university of the state. Whatever. As I settled into my studying I couldn't help but think back to my undergrad days at NGCSU and the many of hours we spent socializing (wait, scratch that)...studying at Huddle House. It was the spot for late night studying in good old Gold City considering it was the only place in town open 24 hours and well, the atmosphere just couldn't be beat. What a great combination of Nuggets just being Nuggets (Nuggets = locals), drunk college students filling their bellies with grease as a means of hangover prevention and studious college students cramming away in order to keep their HOPE scholarships. Of course I always fell into the last category. My time there was also prior to the whole indoor smoking ban so my bookbag constantly reeked of cigarette smoke. Ahh...what a lovely scent. How in the world did my lungs handle that?!? It was at the Huddle House that I developed my addiction to Diet Mountain Dew (the least dangerous of all addictions to be developed there, I might add considering it was shut down years later because the staff was cooking up meth along with eggs and bacon) and I just learned a lot about life in general and the people who make up this world. The lesbian sister waitresses (wait, maybe they weren't sisters after all...hmm) were a hit and were as nice as they could be to us college kids. What patience they must have exercised to work amongst obnoxious college kids for mere pennies a day. Hey...I do that now in my job. At least there is no cigarette smoke to contend with. While I also directly hold Huddle (as we affectionately referred to it) responsible for unnecessary weight gain (greasy buttered biscuits at 2 in the morning will catch up with you eventually even if you are counteracting by drinking Diet Mt. Dew) and I'm positive that I could have found a spot more conducive for studying, I loved the times there with my pals. Usually Maggie, Katie and Kristen in some combination or another. Mag and I would scrounge around for quarters to play Smoke and Ashes by Tracy Chapman on the jukebox and if we were lucky we'd find enough to play a ridiculous Garth Brooks song or a tune from the Hope Floats soundtrack as well. And now here I am many years later sitting in a stuffy Starbucks listening to even stuffier music as I study. (I'm on a blog break, by the way.) But at least it's stuffy in a non-smoky way. Back to work...