Visit from Seven and other Updates

From a few weeks ago....I'm behind on blogging as most of you know.

This weekend my friend Seven, from Albany, came to visit. He arrived Thursday and we immediately went condo shopping. We looked at 4 places. Most of them were pretty mediocre, but two sort of stood out as possibilities. Shopping for condos is fun, but I am imagining that actually purchasing one will be a lot more stressful. The condo I really like (a really cool mid-century modern building in Brookwood Park) is a no-go from the start because the association fees are $561 per month. I'm thinking of buying so that I can STOP wasting money, so fees like that would defeat the purpose.

Friday, Seven and I were hanging out in Midtown, the "gay area" of Atlanta, when we saw a man walking his pet Pig. As you can see in the above photo (sorry for the blurriness, I took the photo w/ my phone cam), the old adage that people come to resemble their pets turns out to be true. One time when I was in Manhattan, I saw a woman walking a cougar. Having a cougar for a pet seems exotic and dangerous and New Yorky. But a pig? Only in Atlanta would you see something like this. I was reminded of the fact that Susanne Sugarbaker, in the show "Designing Women," had a pet pig (named Penelope), and Susanne was also from Atlanta. They say that pigs are very clean animals, but I think they're still gross. This pig, whose name it turns out is -- get this -- Beef, was really, really, really disgusting. He has wiry hair that is about five inches long. His entire nose is wet from mucous. And even from a distance he smelled -- so much for clean pigs. His owner, whose name I did not ask, asked me if I wanted to feed Beef some cereal. He poured some in my hand and I knelt over closer to Beef (who didn't even raise his fat, lazy head.....he just wiggled his nasty snout some more), and I sort of tossed the cereal in his nose's direction. Then his owner said, "no you gotta hold it in your hand because he likes the human contact." To which I wanted to reply, "well if he likes human contact, why is he with you?"

Anyway, pigs are filthy, gross, ugly animals; I don't care what anyone else says.

Friday night Seven and I went to see Ben (Wendy's son) perform in his school's talent contest. Ben and his partner Yassin were really good and the other children were awful...except for one group of prodigious siblings named the Kliebers who did an interesting jazz medley. Ben and Yassin sang "We are Going to be Friends" by the White Stripes. Ben played his guitar really, really well. Then, afterward, we went to a nice Tapas restaurant, followed by wine and cookies at Wendy's house. Fun day.

Saturday, we went to the Scott Antique market. If you like antiques this is the place for you. There are thousands upon thousand of booths. I didn't buy anything, thankfully, but I talked my friend Katherine (who joined us) into buying $600 worth of dining room chairs. I love watching my friends spend money, knowing that I'll go home richer than they are. It's fun! After the antique market, Seven and I went to Decatur and walked around in the sun for a while. Then we went to see Zodiak (great movie......as is any movie with Jake Gyllenhaal....I would watch a movie with him in it without any sound and still like it). And THEN, we went to dinner at Fritti, a really yummy pizza joint.

Today (Sunday) is Seven's last day in Atlanta -- until I talk him into moving here, that is. We went to breakfast at Crescent Moon in Decatur (their food was great except for my bagel, which was too moist and too chewy). I also had a side order of bacon -- sorry Beef! Then we went to East Atlanta Village for coffee and more walking around. Then we came back to Little Five Points for even more walking around in the glorious sunshine.

I think Seven really likes it here. What's not to like about sunshine and 70 degree weather (sorry Northern readers)? I have to take Seven to the airport in a little while. This is the first time I've seen him in THREE years!! I've really missed him a lot and I'm so happy that he came to Atlanta to see me, a pig and his owner, hundreds of 6-10 year olds singing out of tune (but not my Benny), and all of the other wonderful things Atlanta has to offer!

Love you Seven!