Royal Lace 10" round vegetable bowl in crystal, by Anchor H0cking, circa 1934-1941
Well Sherman showed up right around 11am, when he said. I had ended up cleaning house for two hours, just because I felt like it and it needed doing, and was trying to get cleaned up to get to the hotel to see him, and my phone just kept ringing. Miss Kat called and we set up a flea market run for tomorrow morning. Eve called and I set up dinner with her and Dad for Tuesday night, my birthday.
I finally got to the hotel and picked up Sherman, and we headed for Spartanburg. When we got to Justin's, he gave me a wonderful gift - a new depression glass book!! I had been needing one forever, and was thrilled to get it. The new Gene Florence book is really nice too. It has been re-tooled, the pictures are better, and they list a lot more patterns now. After a brief debate, we decided on Thai Taste for lunch - yay! Sherman had told me he was a picky eater, so I wasn't expecting to be able to go there today.
After lunch, Justin headed off antiquing with us. I was really happy about that, since I figured he would be off as soon as lunch was over. He also knows the good places around there to hunt through.
We started with a new place. They had some nice things, but the store wasn't full yet, and the owner didn't have a credit card line in yet. That proved to be a problem, since I found a #13 Mason jar for dana, and couldn't get it since I didn't have the cash.
The second place we went to had a bunch of cool stuff (including a big selection of Bubble glass), but their prices were really high. I found a frosted Mayfair platter, valued at a bit less than $40 if the paint wasn't chipped up (and it was on this one) priced at $95. I didn't buy anything there, but did look longingly at the Bubble glass.
Then we went back to the place I found those wonderful Morgan Fairy plates in January. This is a great store, and I can see why it is Justin's favorite. It once again proved a treasure trove. I got four new sapphire blue Fire King pieces - the large and small refrigerator dishes for $3 and $5 respectively, the small "pie plate" lid for the 1 quart casserole dish, and a 6 7/8" utility bowl. I didn't know they made mixing bowls in the pattern. I LOVE bowls, so this was a match made in heaven. It was $20, but according to the book, it was worth that. Plus, I just fell in love with it and had to have it. It was my birthday trip, what the hell, right?
I also found a round Royal Lace vegetable bowl for only $14. It had some small chips on the inner rim, but I just had to have it, and the price was right. I already have the 3-toed footed bowl in that pattern, the cream and sugar (although no sugar lid), a sherbert (I would have sworn I had two, but can find only one), and the butter dish and lid. I don't like most of the patterns in crystal, but I think this pattern is one of the prettiest of all. Oddly, the green looks cheap to me. The Cobalt Blue is gorgeous, of course, but it three times the price of the crystal. Plus I just keep running across pieces of crystal in this pattern, for some reason.
I also found a Manhattan pink footed sherbert for only a dollar. So of course I had to have that. Justin likes that pattern too, but since he doesn't like the pink glass, and I don't want the crystal in that, it works out well. We thought initially it was the insert for the 14" relish tray (which I am thinking has to actually have been intended for crudites - who in the hell eats enough relish to fill a 14' tray - even at a party?!), but when I looked it up, I found difinitively that it was not. I still love it. It's a cute little thing.
I also bought an end table. I wasn't expecting to. This was the table we had looked all over the place for last year and couldn't find. It's mahogany, and has the angled v-shaped book shelf underneath. The sides have a beautiful shell shaped cut-out, and lots of carved straight-line striations that run down the legs and across the side bars. It is really pretty, and was only $40. I just couldn't resist. The top needs some work, which is why it was so cheap, but the wood is in pretty good shape, someone just got impatient re-doing the top and messed it up. I should be able to put it to rights with no problem. It is also a little wobbly, but some wood glue should fix that right up. It really is very pretty. Since I had bought so much stuff, the store gave me a 10% discount off of it too - bonus!
Sherman, meanwhile, had stood up through all this with fairly marked stoicism, considering that a) he has no interest in antiques any longer (he explained that he has inherited a lot of them from his family, and they are in storage for his younger relatives - he likes new things); and b) he was wearing new shoes, and his feet were killing him. I understand how that is. I once went on a walking tour of Chicago once in new shoes, idiot that I am. He also sat through the "post-mortem" of the excursion with Justin and I, where we go through the books, talk about the finds, and discuss other glass buys, deals and rip-offs, etc. During this process, we discovered that the store mistakenly hadn't charged me for the $20 bowl that I last picked up.
After all this, we were both pretty tired, but we stopped a shoe place on the way home, where Sherman bought three pairs of comfy shoes - especially important since we are going to the flea market tomorrow. He tried his best to buy me a pair of white suede bucks I was longing for, but although they were beautiful, I would never have anywhere to wear them, so I didn't get them.
***
We got home and rested up for a bit. I called the Peppermill (where we had decided to have dinner), and found that my Dad and Eve were going to be eating there this evening as well. I had forgotten it was their anniversary. After some discussion about that, we decided to go on.
Dinner was interesting. I had asked for the sommelier to come over because I wanted to ask him if they had any more Vouvray. They had some the last time I was there, but it wasn't on the wine list. When the sommelier came over, after the wine discussion, Sherman asked him about whether or not they were doing Bananas Foster that night. Bananas Foster is one of my favorite things in life, and had been the tipping factor on the dinner decision. I had told him on the way over there that they don't do it during the holidays, and I was hoping they were doing it tonight. So it was very sweet of him to ask for me. But of course you don't ask the wine steward about menu items. You ask the waiter. The sommelier was quiet for just a tick, and I just said under my breath "that's the sommelier". The guy was very nice about it, and answered Sherman's question in a gracious way. Immediately after he left, Sherman was all over me about why I had said that, etc. He was embarrassed, which he chose to cover up by being belligerent ("I'm paying my money, I'll ask any damn person I want whatever I want to, and if they don't like it"..etc etc etc). This went on through a good portion of the meal. I explained, and was pretty tired of apologizing after a while, as he continued to insist he was not embarrassed, while going on and on about it.
I finally managed to change the subject, and things went well for a while. I had a spinach salad that was incredible. In fact, I was wondering if I could just get a couple of those to go sometimes. They are only $6. A bit much for a salad, but it was really good. They do a parmesan-crusted garlic sesame bread there that is to die for. We both had a couple of pieces of that. I had seared ahi tuna with white truffle mashed potatoes. The tuna was good, but very stark, and a bit overdone - I had asked for it very rare. It could have used a soy-based sauce of some kind to liven it up a bit. Sherman had a filet, and asked for it medium to medium-well (no comment). It came out as a briquette. He said it was overdone a bit even for him, but that it was OK. It looked ruined to me, but it wasn't my food. Sherman declared that he loved the restaurant and could eat there every night.
Eve and Dad came over and spoke. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I was afraid it would be. I noticed that when I went over to their table to tell them happy anniversary, Dad defensively stuck out his hand for me to shake, not wanting to be hugged in public. I can't decide if this bothers me or if I feel sorry for him.
The pitch started over entrees. We had started talking about relationships and how hard it was to date. I had told him it was just damn near impossible it is to meet guys around here with common interests. He began talking to me about "not being able to see the forest for the trees", and "not having the perspective to see the situation you're in when you're in it", and "sometimes not being able to see the things you are looking for right in front of you".
We ended up getting into a whole discussion. First of all, he was acting like he had great loads of perspective from being 45. I was like, dude, you are four years older than me - stop playing Yoda. Then he told me his impression was that I was just not willing to get back up on the horse since it had thrown me. I explained that I was willing to get back up there, but it was going to take a damn good reason to get me back on, and that I hadn't found that reason yet. Bascially, the failure of my relationship with Michael damn near killed me, and it has taken me over a year to feel like getting out there again - and there are days I still don't feel ready. I told him that at this point, if I was going back in the game, I wasn't going in unless I found the Total Package. Someone I was compatible with, yes, but also someone who was sexy and turned on to me, who was fun to be around, and basically my soulmate.
I explained that I knew what he was trying to tell me, but that I just wasn't interested in him in that way - I had explained this before he came down. After that, he basically intimated that I was just too picky to find anyone, and that I would end up alone. It was a very intense and uncomfortable conversation for me, and ruined my enjoyment of my Bananas Foster, dammit.
I guess I was a bit more defensive because there was a part of me that felt a bit like I was taking advantage of him. He was buying me an expensive dinner (and had paid for lunch too). But then he apparently eats like this all the time, and thinks nothing of it. He has been at great pains to tell me that money means nothing to him. He is a very successful real estate agent. I reasoned that if he had a bunch of tomatoes, I would take some with no qualms. He just happens to have a bunch of money. Also, I had kind of been roped into being tour guide for the weekend. What had started out as a meeting ended up being a whole weekend. I had a good time today, but I hadn't really intended to commit to so much time when we initially talked.
Anyway, tensions eased somewhat when we both agreed to change the subject. As we left the restaurant, there was a gorgeous vintage navy Rolls out front. As we admired it, we got back into the whole "new vs. old" thing. I can't imagine wanting a new Rolls if you could have such a gorgeous old one, and he couldn't imagine wanting a used one when you could buy new.
***
We got him back to the hotel and checked him in, and I talked him into walking down to the foot bridge over Reedy River Falls, which is even prettier at night. A bit reluctantly, he went, but I think he did enjoy it. We walked back to the Poinsett along the Reedy River and up by the Peace Center. I noticed they have fixed the horseshoe fountain down there, which has never worked properly. When we got back up to the hotel, I told him good night.
He called me shortly after I got home, to tell me what a nice day he'd had, and wish me good night, which I thought was very nice of him - particularly since I felt like somewhat of an ingrate through a good portion of the evening. I told him before he came down that I felt like I was leading him on by inviting him down, but he insisted I wasn't, and that he understood. But somehow that didn't make me feel much better.
I had indigestion from the rich food, and ended up drinking lime seltzer. It was a good while before I got to sleep.
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