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firstdegreefangirl · 4 years

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Eddie Week Day Five: Eddie and His Idiot Husband

Word Count: 2291

Original Pub Date: 19 June 2020

Relationships: Eddie Diaz & Christopher Diaz, Eddie Diaz & Abuela

Author's Note: Me? Writing Christmas fic in June? More likely than you think.

Read on ao3 here

Usual suspects: @eddiediazweek @hearteyesforbuck @rebeccaofsbfarm @thisissirius @hearteyesforbuck @dramamineontopofme @twinien @meloingly @myemergence

It started out simply enough: Eddie was picking Buck up from the car dealership, taking him to lunch with Christopher while he waited on an oil change. As soon as Buck swung himself up into the truck seat, Chris started giggling.

“What? What’s so funny, little dude?” Buck turns around in the seat to watch him laughing, and Eddie looked up in the rearview mirror to see his son practically doubled over against his seatbelt.

“You-you guys are … you guys are TWINS!” He can hardly get the words out, but as soon as Eddie realizes what he’s said, he glances across the console at Buck

Sure enough, they’re both wearing blue jeans and the same T-shirt: plain black with the LAFD logo on the chest.

It’s an easy coincidence, especially given how many shirts they both have that are identical, city-issued for special events or fundraisers. They’re not technically uniform, but everyone wears them to work, so it only takes a few months to accumulate a pretty big collection.

Eddie can see the moment when Buck realizes what’s happened, and he feels his heart swell at the way his face lights up.

“Well,” Buck exaggerates the way he winks at Eddie, makes sure Christopher can see the gesture, and looks to the backseat again. “One of us is going to have to change.”

It happens again three weeks later, just a couple of days after they take Christopher to the aquarium.

(Eddie had tried to call it a “family day,” but he saw the way Buck squirmed at the notion of being part of a family, of having a family so unlike the one where he grew up, one that does things together, has special days and events for no particular reason.

So he’d dropped it, but knows it’s something that will come up again later, something for them to work on as a family, even if they don’t call it that just yet.)

Because they are a family, and if it weren’t obvious enough, when the got through to the giftshop, Christopher had insisted on a set of three identical Stingray Bay T-shirts to commemorate the occasion. And neither of them have ever been able to tell him no, not for something as simple as that, so Buck had dropped a small fortune on them, insisted on paying after Eddie had bought the ice cream earlier in the day.

Eddie knows he should have seen this coming, should have anticipated that Buck would show up wearing his stingray shirt on Tuesday when they met at the school to surprise Chris with lunch.

Buck does this; every single time Christopher gives him something, he makes a point of showing it off, using it when he knows he’ll be able to see how much Buck loved the gift.

So Eddie should have known he’d pick today to debut the new shirt, should have planned ahead and picked something else, literally anything else, from his closet.

Not that he doesn’t love the idea of matching clothes with Buck, but that he’d at least like to be a little bit more subtle about it than a pair of blue and grey tie-dye swirled T-shirts with bright yellow lettering and a cartoon stingray. He couldn’t possibly be happier than he is when he’s with Buck; the last year and a half have been the best of his life.

But he’d rather show it off with the way they can't stop smiling when they’re together, the way they’re constantly touching, always seeking each other out. It’s a quieter, more honest demonstration of their relationship.

But there’s not much he can do about it when he meets Buck out front of the building and they’re both wearing the shirts. It’s not like he has a closet in his truck with extra clothes, so all he can do is grin and bear it.

It’s worth it though, for the way Buck pulls his sunglasses down and whistles as Eddie approaches.

“Nice shirt, babe. Where’d you get it?”

“Just this place I know.” Eddie can’t help but roll his eyes. “My kid picked it out, and the hottest guy I’ve ever seen bought it for me.”

“Oh, a hot guy? Should I be jealous?” Buck laughs and pulls the door open, settling his hand low on Eddie’s back as he kisses him gently and walks into the building.

“Only because I’m the one holding the French fries, and you know how Chris picks his favorite dad for the day.”

A month later, Eddie starts a massive load of laundry before he gets dressed for work, having put it off for long enough that he knows it’ll probably need two cycles in the dryer. Only after the machine had started filling with water did he realize that he hadn’t remembered to set aside the least-dirty shirt in the pile so he had something to wear into the station.

Which leaves him scrambling to find a shirt, any shirt he can wear until he gets to work and puts his uniform on. There’s one left, stuck way at the back of his drawer.

It’s the very epitome of a Laundry Day shirt, covered in garish black and white stripes. In one of his finer moments as a father, Eddie had let Christopher rope him into dressing up as a zebra for the station Halloween party so he could be a zookeeper.

(There had been no need to rope Buck in. In fact, the whole thing had been Buck’s idea, after he’d gone with Chris on the field trip to the zoo and sat next to him while they watched the zebra feeding.)

The costume had been great, he has to admit. But as soon as the party was over, the shirt went to the back of the drawer, waiting for yardwork season.

Or, laundry day.

Reluctantly, he pulls the shirt over his head and hopes that he’s running late enough to make it into the locker room before anyone sees him.

But why would that go in his favor when nothing else this morning has? Eddie has just made it into the station when he collides with a black and white striped blur.

“What? Ed—” Buck steadies them both and looks Eddie up and down, checking for any injuries. “I leave you alone for one night, and you hardly make it to work on—”

Eddie watches his face as Buck realizes which shirt he’s wearing, and he’s sure it must match his own expression when he sees the same garment pulled taut across Buck’s chest.

“—time.” Buck finishes, amusement shining in his eyes.

“Well maybe I wouldn’t be running late if someone hadn’t insisted on ‘saying goodbye’ before he went home last night.” Eddie raises an eyebrow and Buck flushes at the memory of how … thorough … his parting kiss had been. “Could’ve had the laundry in the machine last night, maybe even had a regular shirt to wear today.”

“I’ll have you know that I happen to think this is an excellent shirt on you.” Buck runs his hand up Eddie’s torso to wrap his fingers over his shoulders.

“Mm, there’s no way it looks better than yours does.” Eddie mirrors the gesture with a smirk. “You know my excuse; why’d you pick it out?”

He’s not sure what he’s expecting Buck to say, knows it’s nothing to do with seeing Chris since he’s at a sleepover after school tonight. But Buck still manages to surprise him when he shrugs, and responds like he’s saying the most obvious thing in the world.

“Couldn’t decide if I wanted to wear a white shirt or a black shirt today. So, both.” With his free hand, he waves up and down his body.

Eddie’s got a response all ready to go, is ready to watch the look on Buck’s face when he asks why he didn’t just split the difference and wear grey, but before he can say anything, Hen rounds the corner and bursts out laughing.

“OK,” She gasps out when she’s finally able to control her chuckles again. “Are you two only going to wear clothes from Christopher from now on? Because I’m telling you both, that is a mistake. He’s a cute kid, but the fashion doesn’t translate well to grown men.”

Neither of them respond, and she walks away after a few moments, calling out for Chimney, who “isn’t going to believe what these idiots managed today!” Once she’s gone, they look at each other and smile.

“Laundry day?”

“Only way I was going to have a shirt for tomorrow that doesn’t have the style sense of a nine-year-old.”

After that, the spell seems to be broken, whatever wardrobe-wavelength he and Buck were on shifted far enough that they’re dressing independently again.

Before Eddie knows it, there’s a chill in the air – as much as there ever is in LA – and he and Buck are taking Christopher back to the mall to see Santa again.

This year, there’s nothing stopping him from leaning against Buck while they wait in line, no reason for Buck not to tuck three of his fingers into the back pocket of Eddie’s jeans.

While they’re waiting for Chris to come back out of the little cardboard village house, something catches Eddie’s eye in the window of the nearby department store. He turns to face Buck, putting just enough distance between them for Buck’s hand to drop back to his own side.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. Long as that kid’s list is, you’ll still be waiting, but if not, meet you guys right here?”

“Sure.” Buck smiles, clearly unconcerned as Eddie walks away. He doesn’t waste any time, quickly finds what he’s looking for and waits in a miraculously short pre-Christmas line to check out and join Buck back in the winter wonderland.

He sits the paper gift bag by their feet, rebuffs Buck’s attempts to find out what’s inside.

“Would you be patient?” But he’s smiling as he nudges Buck away from him. “You’ll find out in … 18 days.”

“Fine.” Buck rolls his eyes. “But I’m not telling you what your present is either.”

Eddie picks up a few other things along the way, loves nothing more than spoiling Buck when he has the chance, but there’s no gift he’s more excited about than the one from the mall. It had been such a hit last year that the 118 decides to celebrate en masse again, so he slips the presents into a large box and slides it into the bed of his truck before making sure Christopher's ready to go.

They make it through dinner and two rounds of presents before Eddie can’t wait any longer. When it’s Buck’s turn to unwrap something again, Eddie passes him a slim, flat package.

“Open this one. You’ve waited patiently enough.”

He watches closely as Buck peels away the paper and shakes the box to reveal a silk necktie the exact same color as his eyes. He beams at Eddie, then gasps and stands up in a hurry.

“Bobby! Eddie needs to open the next gift!”

“Why? He gets to go again in two turns.” Bobby, ever the father figure, has been keeping track, making sure everything is handled diplomatically. Buck steps carefully through the children spread out in the middle of the floor, making his way across the room to whisper something in Bobby’s ear. His eyes widen as he considers whatever case it is that Buck’s making, and he nods. “Alright, I think we can make an exception just this once. Go get your present, son.”

He bounds across the room and fishes a tiny, firecracker-shaped package from underneath the tree then tosses it to Eddie.

“Your turn, honeybunches.” The over-the-top pet name elicits eye rolls from around the room – Eddie included – and Buck grins as he settles himself back in the seat beside him.

Eddie turns the present over in his hand, tries to figure out what Buck might have come up with that would be shaped like this. Finally, he gives up on trying to guess and just pulls the ribbon loose at one end, folds the wrapping back to reveal –

An identical blue necktie.

Maddie puts it together first, claps a hand over her mouth to muffle her delighted squeal.

“You bought me … your necktie?” Eddie holds it up, trying to gauge if they really are the same shade of blue.

“No. Well, yes, I did. But that wasn’t … I didn’t know you’d bought one for me. You just always look at things this color when we’re at the mall, so I figured you must like it.”

“It’s my favorite color,” Eddie replies, his voice thick with quiet wonder. “It matches your eyes.”

On Maddie’s other side, Chimney leans in to stage-whisper, loud enough for the whole group to hear. “Gee, wonder why it’s his favorite. Could it be? Do you think? Nah …"

She swats his arm and he yelps, but stops talking.

“Your favorite color … is my eyes?”

“Yeah, they’re ... blue.” There are a million other thoughts going through Eddie’s head, moving so fast that he can’t pin any one of them down enough to elaborate.

He looks up from the tie, stares into Buck’s eyes and marvels at how a ribbon of fabric was able to match the color so perfectly. As Christmas gifts go, a necktie is pretty unremarkable, but Eddie knows right away that he’ll treasure this one forever.

As the party goes on around them, Eddie’s mind wanders to the little velvet box in his pocket.

Maybe just once, he and Buck can plan to coordinate their outfits, right down to matching neckties.

#eddie diaz week #eddie diaz #evan buckley #evan buckley x eddie diaz #eddie diaz x evan buckley #buddie #911 #911 fox #911 fanfic #9-1-1 #9-1-1 fox #9-1-1 fanfic #buddie fanfic #katie writes #kw20 #originalcontentfirstdegreefangirl

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danalberard · 6 years

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52 Ways to Enjoy the Unexpected Buffalo

Earlier this year, the New York Times revealed its 52 Places to Travel in 2018. Much to the delight of fans of the 716, Buffalo was featured among the likes of Colombia, Australia, South Korea, Italy and exotic locales across the globe.

“Buffalo is making a big comeback in large part by re-purposing its historic buildings and long dormant grain silos,” The Times noted. “Downtown Buffalo now buzzes with life thanks in part to the ever-expanding Canalside entertainment and recreation complex and a host of new dining and drinking establishments.”

To offer some insider knowledge to those prospective travelers who have had their interest piqued by the Times, we’ve put together this awesome list of 52 Ways to Enjoy the Unexpected Buffalo. From food to beer, art and culture, shopping, outdoor adventure and world wonders, this list only scratches the surface. So come join us in Buffalo. There’s never been a better time to visit!

1. Sample the Delicious Dozen on the Buffalo Wing Trail A pilgrimage to the place where the wing was born is only appropriate, right?

2. Bite into a Beef on Weck Sandwich Thinly sliced roast beef, piled high on a caraway and coarse salt encrusted roll. Drool away!

3. Smell the Roses on Garden Walk Buffalo Colorful displays by Buffalo’s greatest gardeners await when you tour over 400 private and public gardens on the largest garden walk in the US.

4. Kayak Through Towering Grain Silos of Elevator Alley You’ll find yourself gawking toward the heavens in this manmade canyon along the Buffalo River.

5. Watch a Performance at Shakespeare in the Park BYOB&W (Bring Your Own Blanket & Wine) to this summertime staple of Buffalo theatre.

6. Visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex FLW called this quintessential prairie-style home a “perfect composition”.

7. Explore the Mighty Niagara Falls State Park You’ll get so close the the roaring power of Niagara Falls that you can literally reach out and touch it.

8. Take a Silo City: Vertical Tour The remnants of Buffalo’s industrial prowess are now yours to summit on this adventurous tour.

9. Catch a Live Jazz Show at the Colored Musicians Club A jazz club unlike any other, the CMC has been making music for over 100 years.

10. Watch a Movie at North Park Theatre From classic favorites to modern masterpieces, a nostalgic movie-going experience is always playing at this beautifully restored, single screen theatre.

11. Enjoy the Music of the BPO at Kleinhans Music Hall The Grammy award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is always in tune at this magnificent concert venue.

12. Cheer on the Buffalo Bisons at Coca-Cola Field Peanuts, Cracker Jack and the ol’ ball game are on deck for summer’s favorite pastime. Be sure to say hi to Buster Bison and the crew.

13. Carve up the Ice at Canalside Skating, curling and the Buffalo-born ice bikes are yours to enjoy at our waterfront winter wonderland.

14. Experience Buffalo Bills Tailgating at New Era Field Believe the hype! Nothing compares to the camaraderie and energy of tailgating before a Bills game.

15. Hike to the Eternal Flame at Chestnut Ridge Park Nestled in the middle of the woods at this state park, a natural gas spring burns beneath a magical waterfall.

16. Climb the Silos at Buffalo RiverWorks RiverWorks is Buffalo’s summertime playground! Test your climbing skill by scaling a towering concrete grain elevator.

17. Hop on the Water Bikes of Buffalo Pedal your way down the Buffalo River (yeah, you heard that right) on these floating bikes.

18. Watch a Sunset at Wilkeson Pointe Situated along Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, a sunset at Wilkeson Pointe is the perfect way to cap off a warm summer evening.

19. Shop for Easter at the Broadway Market Butter lambs, placek, horseradish, and polish sausage; the East Side’s favorite local market is the place to complete your holiday shopping list.

20. Get a Taste of Nostalgia at Parkside Candy Since 1927, the talented confectioners of this old-fashioned ice cream parlor have satisfied many a sweet tooth.

21.Get Your Fill at Food Truck Tuesday in Larkin Square Tacos, poutine, pizza and shakes, there’s a food truck for everyone’s favorite flavor. And this is the place to taste them all!

22. Catch a Fish Fry in Buffalo This ain’t your typical fish n’ chips. There’s a reason so many Buffalo expats crave this dish. Hint: it’s the huge portions served with all the fixins.

23. See the Sights on an Open Air Autobus Seeing the architectural marvels of Buffalo AND feeling the summer breeze. What’s better than that?

24. Get Artsy at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Albright-Knox is home to one of the greatest collections of modern and contemporary art in the world. That’s right, the world.

25. Take a Free Tour to the Top of City Hall The Art Deco masterpiece of Buffalo’s skyline is free to tour every weekday at noon and culminates with an elevator ride to the very top.

26. Hike the Terrain of the Niagara Gorge Just minutes from Niagara Falls you’ll find spectacular scenery and solitude on the trails that take you deep into the gorge.

27. Learn About Buffalo’s Presidential Past at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site One of Buffalo’s many presidential landmarks, the TR site is one of only four places where the oath of office was spoken outside of the nation’s capital.

28. Have a Pint with a Side of Presidential Trivia at Founding Fathers Pub Buzzfeed called this one of the 19 Bars in America You Should Drink at Before You Die. We agree.

29. Board a Ship at the Naval & Military Park Ahoy! The largest inland naval park in the United States displays a decommissioned cruiser, destroyer and submarine.

30. See a Broadway Show at Shea’s Performing Arts Center The crown jewel of Buffalo’s diverse theatre scene. Catch a performance in this opulent former movie palace.

31. Enjoy Top Speed Tobogganing at Chestnut Ridge Park Whether you’re 8 or 80, you can plunge downhill on a toboggan on these retro sledding chutes.

32.Watch a Grain Silo Light Show at Canalside Buffalo lives up to its title as the “City of Light” with a dynamic, colorful and dazzling projection display on the side of a grain elevator, visible every night until 11pm.

33. Indulge in Buffalo’s Very Own Sponge Candy Crispy, airy, chocolatey and simply delicious, many cities have tried their hand at sponge candy, but you can’t beat the Buffalo recipe.

34. Explore Arts and Crafts Roots at Roycroft Campus This National Historic Landmark where the American Arts and Crafts Movement was born has been restored to its former glory and invites you to stay, shop and eat.

35. Bite into a Chargrilled Hot Dog at Ted’s Paired with an icy loganberry drink and order of handmade onion rings, a charred dog topped with the works is a Buffalo specialty tough to top.

36. Spend a Night at Hotel Henry After nearly $100 million in renovations, the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane is now an award-winning hotel and restaurant.

37. Visit the Burchfield Penney Art Center Discover Charles Burchfield’s Buffalo roots and other Western New York artists at one of America’s finest regional museums.

38. Get Outdoorsy at Tifft Nature Preserve Traverse the trails and paths of this natural wildlife sanctuary, all within the Buffalo city limits.

39. Visit Vidler’s 5 & 10 in East Aurora Knick-knacks and tchotchkes as far as the eye can see (over 75,000 to be exact) at this famous five and dime.

40. Tour FLW’s Lakeside Masterpiece at Graycliff Estate The summertime home of the Martin family, this Frank Lloyd Wright-designed retreat is the perfect bit of timeless architecture outside of the big city.

41. Set Sail on the Spirit of Buffalo No matter the occasion, this 73-foot schooner offers cruises for families, wine lovers, beer lovers and sunset lovers.

42. Travel Back in Time at Old Fort Niagara Dating back 300 years, history buffs will feel right at home among historic relics and reenactments in the oldest buildings left on the Great Lakes.

43. Geek Out at the Buffalo Museum of Science Put on your thinking caps and venture from the microscopic to the interstellar at this multi-level museum.

44. Make it a 4AM Night in Allentown Some of Buffalo’s best bars, dives and taverns are in the artful, eclectic Allentown neighborhood, which benefit from one of the latest “last calls” in the nation.

45. Catch a Live Show at Sportsmens Tavern Touring bands and local musicians frequent this unassuming Black Rock bar that boasts a live concert every single night.

46. Have a Day in the Elmwood Village Shopping, cafes, breweries, awesome eats and historic charm, packed into just a few easily walkable Buffalo blocks.

47. Experience the Beauty of the Botanical Gardens Built within Olmsted’s South Park, the botanical gardens bloom with an amazing array of exotic flowers and themed greenhouses.

48. Take a Walk on the Wild Side at the Buffalo Zoo From the rainforest to the arctic, let your inner animal lover roar at one of the oldest zoos in the country.

49. Rev Your Engines at Buffalo Transportation / Pierce Arrow Museum You wouldn’t know it just looking at it, but within the walls of this museum is an impressive collection of cars, motorcycles, bicycles and even a replica of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed filling station.

50. Explore Buffalo’s Background at Buffalo History Museum Relive Buffalo’s heyday and historic moments in politics, industry, innovation and sports at the Buffalo History Museum.

51. Snap a Selfie in Front of Buffalo’s Best Public Art Local artists and international mural superstars have transformed the walls of Buffalo into colorful canvases all around town.

52. Sip on Craft Beer at Nearly 30 Local Breweries From pilsners to IPAs and experimental brews, Buffalo’s booming craft beer scene offers great beer made by great people.

The post 52 Ways to Enjoy the Unexpected Buffalo appeared first on Visit Buffalo Niagara.

from Blog – Visit Buffalo Niagara https://www.visitbuffaloniagara.com/52-ways-enjoy-unexpected-buffalo/

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pavementdad · 7 years

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Hey for your unusual asks you should do 1-100 :)

mary i did them. all for you

you’re a star

Spotify, SoundCloud, or Pandora? Listen... I fuckin hate spotify. pandora

is your room messy or clean? messy

what color are your eyes? brown or something

do you like your name? why? yes bc it’s pretty and i think it fits me

what is your relationship status? alone by myself singular

describe your personality in 3 words or less: stupid dumb idiot

what color hair do you have? black

what kind of car do you drive? color? ford focus, grandma grey

where do you shop? i dont leave my home

how would you describe your style? tired lesbian

favorite social media account i hate them all but am i constantly refreshing every single one? yes

what size bed do you have? full

any siblings? 5 i think

if you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? why? i can’t decide this is too much pressure i choose all

favorite snapchat filter? the one with the beard in the beard

favorite makeup brand(s) what is this

how many times a week do you shower? 7 sometimes 8

favorite tv show? shameless rn but of all time prob the l word

shoe size? 8.5

how tall are you? 5′6 or maybe 5′7

sandals or sneakers? NEITHER

do you go to the gym?

describe your dream date. okay so listen. it’s night time. like 11:45. i borrow my dads crappy truck. i put a shit ton of blankets and some pillows in the back. i go and get her. we drive somewhere. like an open field or on top of a mountain or something. somewhere with a nice view of the sky. ight so. then we just chill in the back and watch the stars and we talk about our dreams and our thoughts and ideas and ASPIRATIONS AND AMBITIONS just everything. we dont have curfews so we don’t have to worry about time. that’s it my dude

how much money do you have in your wallet at the moment? one dollar

what color socks are you wearing? one green one blue

how many pillows do you sleep with? two

do you have a job? what do you do? i take care of old people

how many friends do you have? six close

whats the worst thing you have ever done? there’s too many

whats your favorite candle scent?

3 favorite boy names: elliot and that’s it

3 favorite girl names: lorelai and that’s all i can think of

favorite actor? i rlly love jake from scream

favorite actress? emmy rossum

who is your celebrity crush? EMMY ROSSUM

favorite movie? la la land and comet rn

do you read a lot? whats your favorite book? fave book IS one day

money or brains? i don’t have either

do you have a nickname? what is it? sydward

how many times have you been to the hospital? like 3

top 10 favorite songs: 1: ballad of big nothing - julien baker 2. i can’t think of any more i dont have a brain

do you take any medications daily? no

what is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc) oily and dry

what is your biggest fear? all things thru god who strengthens me

how many kids do you want? 2 max

whats your go to hair style? always up

what type of house do you live in? (big, small, etc) it never ends

who is your role model? myself in 10 years

what was the last compliment you received? i was called cute

what was the last text you sent? “i hope you sleep good!!! i’ll see you tomorrow!!!”

how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real? likr 8

what is your dream car? anything michelle rodriguez has driven in f&f

opinion on smoking? i think it’s kind yuck but you do what you gotta DO

do you go to college? yes

what is your dream job? leslie knope

would you rather live in rural areas or the suburbs? BOTH god both are my dream

do you take shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels? no but my sister sure as shit does

do you have freckles? YES

do you smile for pictures? uncomfortably

how many pictures do you have on your phone? like 300

have you ever peed in the woods? YES

do you still watch cartoons? YES

do you prefer chicken nuggets from Wendy’s or McDonalds? mcdonalds

Favorite dipping sauce? all except bbq

what do you wear to bed? what kind of question is this

have you ever won a spelling bee? no i certainly haven’t

what are your hobbies? listening to records, laying on the floor, that’s it

can you draw? NOPE

do you play an instrument? YES

what was the last concert you saw? fuck if i know

tea or coffee? COFFEE coffee coffee coffee

Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts? idk man

do you want to get married? yeeeeees

what is your crush’s first and last initial? I DON’T HAVE ONE for once in my fucking life i don’t have a crush on anyone and i am so proud of myself it’s wild

are you going to change your last name when you get married? my girl literally will have to have to coolest last name ever for me to change mine

what color looks best on you? idk ! maroon looks good ive been told

do you miss anyone right now? yes

do you sleep with your door open or closed? CLOSED

do you believe in ghosts? yes certainly

what is your biggest pet peeve? whistling i fucking hate when people whistle

last person you called: probably liz

favorite ice cream flavor? ALL i love all ice cream

regular oreos or golden oreos? neither jesus fuck horrid

chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? why can’t i have both :(

what shirt are you wearing? its a tan sweater that has a walmart stamp embroidered on it

what is your phone background? my co-worker tiffany the cutest girl ever

are you outgoing or shy? im shy as fuck yall

do you like it when people play with your hair? depends on who tf it is

do you like your neighbors? yeah except when one of their kids sometimes just decides to scream for no reason and it vibrates my brain and all of my bones

do you wash your face? at night? in the morning? in the mornin

have you ever been high? no

have you ever been drunk? yeeeaaa

last thing you ate? pizza

favorite lyrics right now: isnt this weather nice are you ok

summer or winter? i dont love either of them tbh

day or night? night

dark, milk, or white chocolate? ALL

favorite month? DECEMBER

what is your zodiac sign: sagittarius

who was the last person you cried in front of? liz and cheyenne

p.s. mary u should do these... 1-100

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junker-town · 7 years

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The Georgia Dome got the farewell it deserved

Monster Jam was the last memorable event in a stadium that begged to be forgotten.

Monster Jam fills up enough of the Georgia Dome — most of the bottom bowl, and a good chunk of the mezzanines and upper deck. There is competition in town — but there also probably isn’t a lot of Sunday night overlap between the monster truck crowd and the people across town at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium watching Atlanta United lose its first game ever to New York Red Bulls.

There are mostly dads, myself included, towing kids there with the promise of monster trucks and multiple concession stand runs.

One of these runs: for a $20 Monster Jam official Grave Digger sno-cone with commemorative Grave Digger cup with molded grinning skeleton face and flashing lights triggered via a button in its plastic forehead. I bought it; one $15 commemorative non-truck-specific Monster Jam sno-cone; a $15 pair of headphones/ear protectors, with rubber tires mounted around the ear cups for one child; a $20 pair of less-elaborate ear protection for the other kid, who could not be persuaded to get the cheaper ones because, “I need different daddy”; at least $30 worth of bribes in the form of food and drink to keep them in the stands for half the show; $0 in alcohol, somehow, because two children at a monster truck show keep you so busy and running that you cannot find the time to get drunk enough to deal with the children.

While waiting, a towheaded 3-year-old behind us pointed to the beer man selling $12 oil cans of Busch Light.

“Daddy, you could get a beer.”

“You know Daddy only drinks crown.”

The Omni

The first thing I can remember about going to a live sports event involves DeBarge, and the memory is wrong. Wrong may not be the right word, actually. Better put, I misremembered because I was probably 6 years old, and 6-year-olds can’t be counted on to provide accurate testimony in a court of law or in a recollection involving the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers.

My dad took me to a Hawks game at the Omni. The Omni was the least-lovable building ever constructed, a black cube with tented pyramids of black sheet metal jutting from the roof, weird angular corner windows, and the street presence of a giant, menacing blast furnace. I thought it looked cool because it reminded me of the doomed spaceship in Disney’s The Black Hole. Kids have bad memories and deplorable taste in architecture.

The Omni was built to rust, to be an uncherished memory before it ever happened.

The first claim there is literal. By rusting, the steel elements of the building would become even more fused to each other. In its later years, it started to look like an overturned running shoe or waffle iron left outside to the elements. The designers reportedly did not factor in Atlanta’s subtropical climate, and the Omni kept rusting and rusting until the entire building had an incurable form of architectural arthritis. Holes appeared in the building’s frame, holes big enough for people to pass through without tickets or permission. Rather than fix the gaping holes in the building designed to rust in one of the United States’ most humid places, management instead put up chain-link fences along them.

The second claim, that the Omni was designed to be an uncherished memory, is a guess. The Hawks played there either way. My dad drove me down into the city with the radio on — never the rock station, but always the R&B station with Switch, Brick, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Gap Band, Roger and Zapp, or Kool and the Gang on. I knew the Hawks had a player named “Tree Rollins.” This was enough all by itself, but I would also get to go to Burger King for a kids meal, which, for a kid who was avowedly not into sports, was a low, low bribe bar to clear.

Tree Rollins totally looked like someone named Tree. I remember the Omni very much looking like the inside of a doomed spaceship, and that everyone was very excited that someone called Dr. J was there, even though he was evidently some off-brand version of Dr. J not equal to a previous version. There were men there with giant Jheri curls and Magnum, P.I. sunglasses and mustaches indicating that they were serious, wealthy, and just dangerous enough to wear a mustache. I remember the hair across all races and genders being massive and more carefully constructed than the arena they were standing in; I remember being one of the few kids in the building, and thinking that maybe, sometimes, my dad might just be taking me to stuff he liked in order to get out of the house and have a few too many beers by himself.

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On the way home, I remember passing the few super-distinct pieces of the Atlanta skyline: the Peachtree Westin that Dar Robinson jumped out of for a Burt Reynolds stunt, the UFO-shaped alien cake of Fulton County Stadium where the Braves played and where my dad would later take us to sit in empty seats and pick up fiendish sunburns, the Georgia Capital that always seemed completely out of place in all that retro-futurism and brutalist forestry around it. That’s the kind of place Atlanta was and still is — a place where the past is what seems unnecessary, not the future.

The music had changed. My dad drove in silence and smoked Vantage cigarettes with the window cracked even though it was winter, I think, and cold enough to have the heat cranking. It was Quiet Storm time on the radio, and that meant Jeffrey Osborne, Marvin Gaye, Rita Coolidge, and Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Teddy Pendergrass. DeBarge’s “All This Love” came on and the nylon string guitar solo played and I looked up and thought how the streetlights were on but still looked so dark against the streets and the houses of what I now know was a decimated Techwood.

I’m pretty sure since that song came out in 1982 that we’d already moved to Tennessee by then, but at a certain point emotional memories are immune to fact-checking. The fadeout and ride in the song is endless over the background singers going say you really love me baby/ say you really love me darling/for I really love you baby/sure enough love you darlin’

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At the Georgia Dome, there is some of exactly what you think should be at a Monster Jam show in the South.

There was, for example, a terrifying man in the sleeveless Confederate flag shirt eight rows below our seats. I asked him if he knew where I could get ear protection before the race. He looked at me for about five seconds before responding because he:

comes from someplace where there is a daily quota on words for interpersonal communication

thought I was a godless bearded urbanite hitting on him

or was very drunk and hearing me talking on a built-in beer-induced tape delay.

I hope he was drunk, and also that he thought I was hitting on him.

The trucks have names ranging from the super-uninspiring and corporate — the FS1 Cleatus Truck! the Team Hot Wheels Firestorm! — to the classic and menacing (Bounty Hunter and El Toro Loco). There is a truck called Obsession and its unimaginatively named partner, Obsessed. One is called Ice Cream Man, easily the least-intimidating monster truck of all time because it comes out to tinkly ice cream van chimes, or the most unsettling because it plays a song synonymous with the sketchiest non-related regular cast member of most people’s childhoods — the neighborhood ice cream man who might have lived in the van he worked in.

There is a Monster Energy truck with green neon lights built into the undercarriage. I am here to report against my will that it looks absolutely and positively sick. It is called “the Monster Energy Truck” because there are two good monster truck names in the universe, and both are taken. (Grave Digger and Bigfoot, to be specific.)

The anthem is sung while a bald eagle flaps in slow motion on the end-zone video boards.

The Georgia Dome was built in 1992, and it will be imploded in the summer of 2017. It will never see its 30th birthday, and it will not be missed because it, too, was built to be forgotten. The last event in the dome will be Monster Jam. If you are from outside of the state, you will think it is appropriate because LOL REDNECKS; if you are from here, you will probably also think it is appropriate because LOL REDNECKS, but will get mad when anyone else says it.

For the record, the Dome didn’t even try to be interesting on the level of the Omni or Fulton County Stadium. It was fine but unmemorable as something you drove past, sat in, or saw in shots of the city skyline. Take a hotel bathtub, preferably one of the cheap ones, too shallow to do anything in but sit unhappily for five minutes before giving up and draining the water. Cover it with a large golf umbrella blown inside out by the wind. Solder the two together. Paint it first teal and maroon, because someone in 1991 thought putting the bedroom color scheme from a Florida vacation rental on the outside of a stadium in Atlanta was a good idea.

When you remember the Atlanta Falcons play football there, paint it in a new scheme with red and black in it to remind everyone of their existence. Don’t do this until 16 years after you open the stadium, and only nine years before its eventual demolition.

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Monster Jam is the last event here. Other things happened before that. The Atlanta Falcons played mostly forgettable football here, unless you take out the Vick years, which you might want to given how they ended. If there were some way to keep the part where all the mostly African-American fans in the upper deck went bonkers the minute they started playing “Bring ’Em Out” for those teams, you should do that. That may be the most excited single concentration of minutes you could salvage from the team’s history at the Georgia Dome: Before the team played, but after they remembered they were going to watch the fastest player in the NFL touch the ball on every play. This is a happy memory. There aren’t a lot of those there.

It hosted a lot of college football, including the annual SEC Championship game. Tim Tebow cried on the sideline there after Alabama clipped Florida’s undefeated streak short in 2009; Les Miles in 2007 used his backup quarterback to win an SEC title there, and then a national title LSU somehow got with two losses later in New Orleans. Before that game he hustled every reporter in reach to a press conference where he denied Kirk Herbstreit’s report that he was going to take the Michigan job, and then with his chest at full inflation demanded that the room “have a great day.” I was there for that and, yes, it was just as confusing in person as it was on television.

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LSU coach Les Miles after defeating the University of Miami, 40-3, in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

There was Wrestlemania in 2011, when the Rock returned and I nearly flipped my laptop off a table when the glass broke and Stone Cold Steve Austin ripped down the entry ramp on an ATV like the Pope of All Shitkicking Rednecks. In 1994, Deion Sanders and Andre Rison punched each other while wearing helmets in fight during a football game, an event that easily clears the hurdle to being one of the top 25 most memorable moments in Atlanta history, and was also incredibly dumb. Those two circles overlap a lot here.

There were two Super Bowls in the Dome. The first was a forgettable one in 1994 where the Cowboys beat the Bills. This beating was different from the seven other Bills/Cowboys Super Bowls in the 1990s because the pregame show featured Kriss Kross, Charlie Daniels, the Georgia Satellites, and the Morehouse Marching Band doing a tribute to “Georgia Music Makers.” Charlie Daniels is from North Carolina but did a song about an unenforceable contract between the Devil and a mentally ill violin player, so by any standard he counted.

The second is best remembered for an unseasonably brutal ice storm and Ray Lewis picking up two murder charges from the Fulton County District Attorney after a very bad night out on the town with his friends. The Tennessee Titans came up a yard short in Atlanta, but most Nashville things measured in Atlanta terms fail by much, much more than that. Feel better thinking about it in those terms, Nashville.

There was also the time the tornado struck the Georgia Dome while I was inside it during the 2008 SEC basketball tournament, rippling the ceiling like water and throwing the scoreboard around like a weight on a fishing lure. That happened, too.

Other than all that, there’s not much else. Monster Jam will close out the building’s life, if you like to anthropomorphize a stadium no one ever thought to give a personality or memory. The seats will be auctioned off or sold to high schools for repurposing. The innards will be sold in stages, right down to a yard sale of whatever’s left in the building getting gutted and gaveled out right on the sidewalk outside the Dome on Northside Drive.

Sometime during the summer it will be imploded and become a parking lot for the new stadium. It’s a corporate-sponsored metallic oculus someone will probably remember as looking like a very old future. The Falcons and Atlanta United will call it home, and the Georgia Dome will be gone and not mourned. That’s fine, and I don’t want you to think for a second it isn’t. Some things are built to be forgotten, and the Georgia Dome is one of them.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The trucks spend the first half of the show racing by pairs in heats. They can sort of drift a corner — sort of, as much as a 10,000-pound truck can slide on dirt. The drivers don’t hammer the gas so much as they get up to speed, and then feather the throttle to keep the trucks moving with careful blasts of the engine. It’s like watching extremely short rallycross races run by farting whales in track shoes.

Finishing fast is interesting. Finishing sideways doing something reckless and badass is better, but finishing first and flying sideways across the finish line is best. This is particularly true if you can roll the truck over, hit the throttle, catch one enormous tire in the dirt on the end of the roll, and flip the entire vehicle back onto all four tires for a save, a round of WOOOOS and applause, and a pass to the next round of racing.

This happens twice in the racing segment of the show, which is two more times than anyone should be able to pull that off in the aforementioned 10,000-pound trucks. Grave Digger sacrificed itself for the crowd’s pleasure early — it hit a massive jump while trying to speed across the finish line, bouncing sideways, blowing out one enormous tire and a mess of important-looking metal stuff in the chassis on impact, and then rolling to stop on its ceiling while soaking up the applause. Grave Digger left the arena with three good wheels, one completely destroyed tire, and the limp of a champion who’d given their all. If I had been drinking, I might have teared up a little.

The second half is the freestyle, the more entertaining part where Monster Jam ditches the entire concept of racing, and just lets drivers try to tear apart their cars for the crowd. The drivers have two minutes to run through their routine. The most popular runs don’t even make it that long, though. They end abruptly and satisfactorily when the driver rolls their truck onto its roof off an ill-advised but spectacular jump, breaks an axle or blows out a tire, or cripples the thing trying to land a backflip.

The Monster Energy truck — the one with the absolutely sick neon — whipped itself around during the freestyle event with such force that its flimsy body panels sheared off in every direction. One truck just did donuts for the last 20 seconds of their routine. If a monster truck rips donuts on dirt, there is an involuntary response from the body. “WOOOOOOOO” leaps from the diaphragm. You can’t fight it, and wouldn’t want to if you could.

The MCs yell out this or something like it repeatedly.

“DOIN’ IT ONE LAST TIME FOR THE GEORGIA DOME.”

It doesn’t have much effect, not even when a local DJ yells it out during a bike race between three audience members racing on children’s bikes. But then, the Georgia Dome is used to quiet echoing off its cavernous walls, or having fan noise piped in to ricochet between its empty seats. There is nothing more to give from this afternoon’s audience, for one: Being at Monster Jam is getting blasted in the face for three hours with engine noise, and then coated with a gentle drizzle of dirt floating down between runs. Maximum audience participation is clapping and yelling just loudly enough to be heard over engines that burn a gallon of fuel a minute. There is no 11, or giving it up any harder than one is already giving it up.

Very few people seemed to realize this was the end, or at least attached any significance to it, or cared whether anyone would begin gutting the building the instant the last earth-mover carried out the dirt.

We had to leave three trucks into the freestyle when both of their attention spans wore out, and were unrecoverable. We left before the Georgia Dome paid one last tribute to itself: A grease fire broke out in a concession stand, which was quickly put out only after filling a concourse with smoke and scaring the hell out of a few patrons. Remember that on the way out: that the building tried to save everyone the trouble of demolition by burning itself down.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

A tear in the ceiling of the Georgia Dome is visible after severe weather passed over the building during the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament on March 14, 2008.

Walking out with my kids, they were about the same age I was when I left the Omni with my dad at the Omni in 1982, or 1983, or whenever it was in fuzzy kid-time. They saw the new stadium next door and thought it looked pretty much like a spaceship, or like someplace where Skylanders would live.

That is exactly what the Omni and Fulton County Stadium looked like to me as a kid —so much so that later, when my dad and another dad would awkwardly hang out for the benefit of their sons’ juvenile need to socialize with other dudes, my friend Jim and I would sit in the backseat as they drove and point out the buildings we would own in the future. He’d take the Westin, and keep all his Legos there. I’d take Fulton County Stadium, and reserve it exclusively for my collection of helicopters. A city was a place to be had, a thing to be purchased for your convenience.

Kids, weirdly enough, understand that a city is just something to be bought and sold.

Later, weirder, less-tenable ideas creep into your head: That it could be home, that the buildings you can name mean something beyond the names, that there might be some kind of resonant harmony between you and this random system of properties and spaces. Sometime someone might superimpose a sports team into that imaginary relationship, making this city not just a place, but a place for you, and people like you, and that all of you can thrive here. It is special. You are special, and the team, its players, and all the spaces they pass through and live in are special and remarkable and unlike anything else in the world.

There is a magic you can believe about a place as an adult that children do not even begin to believe or accept. A 7-year-old would laugh you out of the room, probably while telling you that the new place was much better, both because it looked like a place where Skylanders would live, and also because it was new. New things are better, and you should always take the new thing.

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That shouldn’t be hard to accept. Take the new thing, even if the nagging, haunting feeling of living somewhere boils down to a problem with you, with that thing where you’re looking for something in tangible space to consider a landmark, a guidepost. To consider something significant, if only so that you, in relation to it, can have a bit of that significance. The city I live in makes that hard to do, though there’s an honesty in that constant self-digestion and auto-demolition. Do not get attached. It, and everything in it, will eventually move, just like the teams and the people who call it home.

That’s the rational, reasonable thing to think, yet even with an intentionally blank, mostly unmemorable empty space like the Georgia Dome I want something to be there, to definitively have happened there. There should be a definite something there, thinks some deeply schizophrenic part of my brain that doesn’t want so much as a garden shed to collapse around me without some memory attached to it. Otherwise it’s just a thing — and by extension, so is the city, and the very personally important me I’ve attached to it.

I have a definite thing to attach myself to here. After all, I thought for a few seconds on March 14, 2008 that I was going to die on the floor of the Georgia Dome on press row at the SEC men’s basketball tournament.

I thought Kentucky fans were stomping their feet in unison on the bleachers at first, but the noise swelled, and swelled more, and grew so loud and limitless all at once. It felt limitless in the sense of being infinitely powerful with no range or end to the noise, so loud and yet so obviously just getting started on the way to a theoretical full volume. What do you think a tornado at pace is? It’s actually just clearing its throat and warming up, volume-wise. It’s whispering, holding back. You just hear it as a roar.

There wasn’t even a shudder from impact. There was just the sensation that the entire building was next to an immense floor buffer, spinning and vibrating at thousands of RPM. When that vibration turned into waves the roof flapped like a subwoofer, the air vents started spitting out pieces of insulating foam, and for one second I weighed the options of dying standing up and being crushed by the falling roof and lighting, or taking my chances ducking under a table, only to be crushed by all that plus one flimsy plywood table. The lights swayed 10 to 15 feet in either direction. The waves got stronger, and the entire overturned bathtub of the stadium was now being thumped by a very pissed off janitor pushing that giant floor buffer into the side of the Georgia Dome.

I was sitting next to Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. That would have been memorable for me, at least, getting crushed next to a legendary announcer, in the few seconds I had to have a last memory. If I’d heard Verne say “oh my” as it collapsed, it would have been my last tweet, and the RTs and favs would be infinite.

Instead of bearing down at full speed and colliding with the Dome, though, the tornado drunkenly staggered into the Georgia Congress Center next door, then down Marietta Street and into Cabbagetown before dissipating into the night. Not knowing what else to do, I walked out and took pictures of holes in the walls of the Congress Center, and thought about how great I felt about not dying in the Georgia Dome that night.

Leaving the last event at a building that was designed to be forgotten, I didn’t even really think about the one thing I should remember and attach to the spot.

Instead I thought about the only song I think about when I think about the irrational need for a place to give me something only a human can — especially this place, the first place I did so many things, like leaning my head against the window listening to DeBarge after a Hawks game. That need will never make sense, no matter how many games you watch there, or how many moments you spend there. It won’t make sense, not even after years of silently asking a place to just talk back to you once after you spend years monologuing to it. To look at a place that eats its own every day, and buries its stadiums and buildings and places under like daisies beneath a plow, and ask it, as if you were some exception to the rule, to sing the outro to you:

say you really love me baby

say you really love me darling

for I really love you baby

sure enough love you darlin’

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