"This Is My Life," the November Edition

Outside the living room window there was a loud booming that began exactly at 11pm. I thought it was thunder or the neighborhood garbage truck. So I went outside and found out that it wasn't thunder or the neighborhood garbage truck, not even a shooting on Boulevard -- it was the sound of fireworks!

In some countries, November is an appropriate time for a fireworks display -- for example, Guy Fawkes Day in the UK, which celebrates the man who tried to blow up Parliament. But it is late November in the US and there is absolutely no reason for the fireworks. It was an amazing display, though -- pink hearts, planets, chandeleirs, shooting stars...

Perplexed by this, my roommates and I did what any normal person would do...

We Googled.

A few keywords and calendar searches later, I couldn't find the reason for this fireworks display anywhere. Instead I learned that today is America Recyles Day, National Philanthropy Day, and Clean Your Refridgerator Day (find a complete list of November holidays here)

But regardless of the reason, being able to sit on the porch and watch fireworks coming from downtown for free when it's 60 degrees outside (in November) was pretty neat. As we like to say over here in these parts, "This is my life."

BrandAtlanta

I was listening to the radio the other day and learned that the city has a new slogan -- "Atlanta: Every Day is Opening Day." The cost of this new branding effort? $4.5 million... that includes a theme song from R&B producer Dallas Austin, called "The ATL"... a website promoting tourism too, obviously named www.brandatlanta.com.

$4.5 million? Seriously? I could have come up with something much better if they'd paid me with a few beers. But then we wouldn't have a new ringtone for "The ATL," and that's certainly important for tourism.