A post in which there is triumphant shopping, and much talk

I was up in the night again hurting. Once I made it to an upright position I went and took some Ibuprofen. When I got back up I actually felt pretty decent.

Mom and I went out to breakfast. She loves it, and it’s a pampering thing I try to indulge. We went to Stax Omega, a big Greek diner where they make excellent omelets. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out shopping.

I am Mom’s design consultant. In the past, she has gotten herself into some precarious predicaments as far as colors go, so she was under strict instructions to not start painting until we had picked out fabric and gotten the color scheme in mind. She’s bad to pick out a color and then try to find fabric that goes with it. We had a list of fabric places to go, but couldn’t find the first one – it may be out of business. We went by the old tried and true, Tony’s Fabric. I have found so many pretty things there. We were going through the remnant tables, when Mom picked up a swatch and then put it aside. “Wait a minute,” I said. “I like this, and it’s close to the colors we talked about.” I held it up, and asked her to picture it against a melon-colored wall. That was it. Once she saw it in her mind, she was ready to roll. When we checked out, the remnants were on sale for half price, so she got her fabric for like $25. Sweet.

Because we’d gotten the fabric so quickly, we went on over to Home Depot and did color swatches to pick out the paint color. That gave me a chance to pick some up also, since after Justin’s last visit I had decided on another color scheme. I’m thinking a traditional French provincial palate at this point, with Robin’s egg blue walls and a deep mossy/pea-green ceiling. I found some colors I really liked when I got them home and looked at them. I want a complete change, and this will be.

We had done so well on time that we had time to see about some new sofa cushions for my house. The ones I have had just been wallowed to death, and I was embarrassed for people to see them. I have been limited to navy only pretty much with this sofa, but I picked out some pretty ultra-suede ones in rust today. I had thought that I might have to return them, but when I got them home they looked great.

I was leaving for Atlanta today, but we took the time to run by the Brick Street Café for lunch. I just love their food, and it was the perfect place to take Mom. Its basic southern food, with just a tiny twist, and done very well. We ate among the ladies who lunch and the other gay boys in there with their moms.

I bid Mom farewell, threw the stuff into the car, and went to pick up Rhonda. It was very good to see her. It had been a while. We headed out together and started talking. We used to be very close, and I have missed her. It was really good to get her in the car to myself and catch up. The drive to Atlanta just flew by. By the time I thought about setting the GPS, we weren’t in time and missed the exit for the hotel – we thought. We had made really good time until we got to Atlanta proper just in time for rush hour traffic. We sat in traffic for about 45 minutes to go the last ten miles or so.

We turned around and went back to that exit, only to find we were at the wrong hotel. They gave us very vague directions to the correct hotel, and we got lost. Eventually we just got a number for the correct hotel, got a street address, and let the GPS take us over there. When we got there, we found that they had booked me into a single bed room rather than a double bed room as I had requested. There were no more two bed rooms available, but they did upgrade us to a king. Rhonda and I have known each other for a long time. It wasn’t a real problem for us to bunk together. I just wanted her to be comfortable.

Everyone wasn’t coming down Friday. Lady Beth and Lynn had come down that night, but it was to spend some quality time together, since Lynn lives in Texas. We texted them to let them know we had arrived, and said if they wanted to have dinner to let us know. We hung out in the room for a bit and just relaxed.

Eventually, we decided we were on our own, which was actually just fine. At loose ends for the evening, I told Rhonda we would go to the movies. Rhonda hadn’t seen a movie in the new 3D yet, and we both wanted to see Alice in Wonderland. I had hoped for an IMAX showing since we were so close to the Mall of Georgia, but they were only showing Alice in IMAX at midnight. After all the talking and the long drive, neither of us was up for staying up that late – plus we knew there would be a lot going on tomorrow.

When we got there, they had a 3D showing at 10:30, which was actually fine. We had to eat dinner anyway. I was hoping for something a bit exotic tonight, because I knew we’d be eating more plain fare this weekend with the group, but we were in suburban chain restaurant hell around the mall. The wait at PF Chang’s (at 9:00pm for cryin out loud) was an hour to an hour and a half. So we ended up at Ruby Tuesdays. Which was fine. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I wasn’t as tempted to cheat there, and they have a great salad bar.

So we had a salad, and went to see the movie, which we both enjoyed. The mood and look was spectacular, of course, since it was a Tim Burton vehicle, but as many of the critics had said, the plot kind of went wonky towards the end, and I thought the end was pretty stupid. Still, it was a beautifully done film, and I was entertained. Rhonda was quite astonished at the new 3D. Apparently she rarely makes it to the movies.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were both pretty done in. She had some muscle relaxers with her, so I took a half one and we hit the hay. I was so tired I fell asleep as if I had fallen down a rabbit hole myself.