A post in which I go to the Barnyard very late*

I got up this morning more than half expecting not to hear from Asheville guy, whom I’ll call R. But he did call, first thing actually. We chatted online, and eventually he told me he was headed my way. He had to come to Greenville today anyway to get a friend to fix his laptop.

He showed up at the house, and we met and greeted for a while, after which he wanted to go up to Barnyard in Duncan. It’s a great flea market, but it had rained this morning (that was why I hadn’t gone over to White Horse today), and by this time it was about 11:30. Still, he wanted to go, and I had nothing planned, so we rode on up. Surprisingly, for this late in the day and this weather, the place was packed.

I found a royal lace saucer in Cobalt blue. I love this pattern, but only have clear pieces in it. The green in it looks cheap to me, and I’ve never cared for it.

Royal Lace saucer in cobalt blue by Hazel-Atlas, circa 1934-1941

I also found some cool wine glasses on sale for cheap. I broke one of my good red wine glasses a couple of months ago, and had been looking for some good burgundy balloons for when Donnie comes over.

My new red fancy wine glasses

We did the whole flea market, and had a really nice time. R enjoys old things too.

After the flea market, we were both hungry. We stopped off for Mexican at Corona’s because I know they have good food. I had seafood nachos. I know I shouldn’t have. I’ve eaten SO much seafood the last two weeks. But that was what I wanted.

In conversations with R over lunch (and at other times) I have found that he is unfortunately involved in a ‘relationship’ with a 22 year old boy. Of course said boy is thoughtless, flighty, dates other guys, etc, and just expects R to be available when it is convenient for him. I listened to a long litany of complaints and injuries R has suffered at the hands of this boy, but basically, the problem is self-evident. R is 34, and is trying to have an adult relationship with a child. After saying this eight or ten times, I just let him vent. Which he did. For a while.

Apparently the boy is beautiful, and R has not yet realized that he can’t have the boy without the drama and heartache. He’s still holding on, saying ‘if only’. Well I guess if only this guy matures 10 years or so, develops a sense of compassion for others, stops being an egomaniac, and gets a lobotomy, it will work. For R’s sake, I hope all that happens. In the meantime, R lives a life of frustration and hurt. More importantly to me, he is WAY not ready to move on to something else, but that's fine. He's a nice guy. I enjoyed meeting him. We can be friends.

But I'm kind of tired of playing father confessor to everyone's fucked-up relationships, frankly.

We decided to get a movie, but R has a decided taste for really, really bad movies. I don’t mind those on occasion myself, as you well know gentle reader, but I was just not in the mood for a Tyler Perry Madea-fest today. He said he wanted to see Jackass II, which I had at the house anyway. I had been meaning to watch it (Russ loaned it to me), but that just isn’t the kind of thing you watch by yourself. So we went back to the house, put it in, and enjoyed the movie and the homoeroticism which is Johnny Knoxville’s stock in trade.

When the movie was over, R needed to get going. It was about 5:30. I debated what I should do. Miss Kat and dana had called me earlier in the day to invite me over, but I needed to get some lunches made and some other domestic stuff done. I really argued with myself. On the one hand, you get only so many Sunday afternoons in your life to spend with friends, you know? But on the other hand, if I didn’t get on top of stuff that needed doing today, I would pay for it all week next week. Eventually, I decided to be a good boy and stay in.

I went to the store, made a pot of spaghetti with veggie balls to eat on next week, changed the sheets, switched out a load of laundry, and had leftovers for dinner. By the time I got the kitchen cleaned up, I was wiped and it was time for bed.