The Absolute Most First World Of All First World Problems

Glen and I met up with Lon and Lis in Monticello today at the Mexican restaurant. As Lis said, it feels like being retired neighbors who can just meet up whenever! And so it does. I think she should consider that house for sale on Main Street in Lloyd because then we really would be. 
I know she's never leaving Gatorbone. Her heart and soul are there and so are Lon's. 

We had good food, good conversation. The men do tend to talk about their stuff while Lis and I talk about our stuff but that's okay. We go back and forth between that and then all four of us together. I guess we have a pattern now, the four of us. It is so good to be with them. 

After lunch we decided to hit up Wag and I found my treasure right away. Six gorgeous wooden salad bowls for fifteen dollars. 
Come to mama, babies.

Are they beautiful or what? 
Here's a funny story. 

Back in 1978, and I am sure of that because it was right after May was born, I bought four salad bowls that I had been lusting after at the hardware store in Monticello. At that time, the hardware store doubled as an almost-everything-else store and you could buy toys, rocking chairs, pots, pans, cooking utensils, canning supplies- you name it, they probably had it. Including some wooden salad bowls. 
And I got four of them. Those salad bowls have been with me all these years, although the number has been pared down to two. The other two cracked and became unusable. But we still use the two that are left along with some other wooden salad bowls that I bought at the Methodist thrift store in Roseland. 

Here's one of the Monticello hardware store bowls. 

As you can see, that one has a crack in it but it still serves us well when we want a snack of peanuts in the shell or something like that. It does exactly what a bowl is meant to do- it holds things. 

And the thing is- that hardware store was in the exact same building that Wag the Dog is now in. The store took up the whole block front, whereas Wag only takes up about half of it, but still, same building, just many years later. 

And of course the hardware store is long gone and the tacky places that opened which caused it to close its doors are also gone, but those are not even a memory. 

I feel very, very pleased with my new bowls. Now-here's the question I am having, buying these new things that are supposedly for the cabin- do I take them to the cabin or do I keep them here and take things I already have to the lake? I mean, that would be fine but you know how emotionally attached I get to my things. I mean, I just spent many words talking about my forty-seven year old salad bowls and I had to restrain myself from talking about how much I love my Roseland thrift store salad bowls. I also love the wooden bowl I make my salads in and it has a crack in it but not so wide that the olive oil escapes. I need another wooden bowl to make my salads in at the lake and I just looked up large bowls by the same company that made the bowls I got today (David & Carey International) and they have one but it costs $79 and I think, eh, matchy-matchy, who cares? 

All right. But as you can see- the things I love are the things I love. I am not an unfaithful lover of either my husband or my salad bowls. Which makes it sound as if the decision should be easy- take the new bowls to the lake! But, but...they're so pretty! 

Oh god. I'm crazy. 

And then, THEN, Glen and I went to the antique store where I freed  Dorothy Anne from the dark, musty shelf where she was hidden away for so long. Glen likes this shop. They sell some car and farm related things he likes to look at. 

When we walked in, Glen noticed, before I did, a very large rug. He's been talking about how we're going to need rugs to bring color to the cabin. "What do you think about this rug?" he asked. 
"I like the one next to it better," I said. 
The one he'd noticed first was mainly blue and probably fairly old and thus valuable. I don't know squat about rugs but I did know that the other rug was a color that made me happy. 

I'm pretty sure it's a Chinese wool rug, not very old, certainly not antique, and it looks to be in excellent shape. 

Long story short, Glen asked the store guy how much they were asking for it and the number he gave us was so much lower than I had thought it would be that I actually said, "In dollars?" 
What did I think? It was going to be rupees? Or yen? 
I honestly thought that the number was going to have another zero on it. 
And so, as we looked around the store we discussed the rug and I finally said, "Look, we're not going to find anything nearly as nice to cover that much area for that price." 
And he agreed that was true and so, we have bought a rug. It's still at the store, but we'll be picking it up soon. 

This does feel like a start for me. It can either go in the bedroom or the living room and I think I'd like it in the bedroom. It can be MY rug. The rug that makes me happy. It is thick, and soft, and the colors please me very much. 

So that is that. 

I can go from here. 

Clean sheets, martinis, a supper of Mexican restaurant left-overs for him and a salad and leftover grouper for me. Too bad we don't have any of the okra and tomatoes from last night but we ate them all. I've always made my okra and tomatoes with canned tomatoes and making them with fresh cherry tomatoes was a revelation. So sweet, so fresh, so damn good. 

While I was picking beans this morning, I almost picked a very green anole by mistake. Luckily he was too fast for that nonsense. But it made me laugh. He did rather resemble a bean. 

We shall not at this moment discuss the boat Mr. Moon has bought which needs to be picked up in Texas. 
The man is living the dream. And hey! It's his birthday on Sunday and I definitely do not need to figure out what to get him this year. 

Sigh. 

Love...Ms. Moon