Uptown Girl

On Sunday I went to the mall. I took the bus down there as a quasi protest to the $1.19 gas prices. I also had a thought about heading downtown to the planetarium after I finished my shopping and quite liked the idea of not having to deal with downtown parking. It was almost easy. Apparently on Sunday the bus I took downtown doesn't go as far as I had hoped so I had to do some walking.

The show was good. I went there wanting to find out what the glittering diamond was that I saw the night before just below the moon. I had a hunch it was Venus and hey, I was right. I forgot how cool the planetarium was. I really enjoyed it. I think it would be a good place for a first date. The only draw back was the small crying children drowning out the presenter guy. If I was two I'd probably be crying too sitting there in the dark with some huge scary machine whirring around in the middle of the room.

Anyway, after I was reacquainted with the night sky and once again confident about locating the north star, big and little dippers and Leo the Lion, I hiked back to the bus stop. On my way I passed by two funky red chairs in the window of an antique shop. I love red. I love red Popsicles, red Lifesavers and red shoes. The shop was closed so I decided I'd go back on my lunch hour on Tuesday to check the chairs out.

Joanna drove me down (in her little red car) on Tuesday afternoon and agreed that the chairs were awesome. At $170 for the pair I figured they were a pretty good deal given the excellent condition and quality. Sold. As we drove back to the office I remarked to Jo how things seemed to line up perfectly that weekend in order for me to find the perfect chairs. The planets were quite literally aligned, because had I not noticed Venus in the sky on Saturday night I would not have gotten the idea in my head to visit the planetarium and then I would not have found myself walking down Main Street that Sunday afternoon. Hit me with a bus, I found my destiny.

Today my mom took Truck to meet me after work so we could go pick the chairs up. She slid over to the passenger side to let me drive at which point I realized that I was going to be commanding my vehicle through rush hour traffic. On a Friday afternoon. Downtown.

Construction. Closed lanes. Pylons hugging the inside lane. One way streets. Lost drivers. Casual pedestrians sauntering across the road. Pothole! Driving in circles trying to find the closest parking lot.

These things stress me out but we made it to the store without anyone getting hurt. I walked up to the lady at the cash desk and announced that I was there to pick up the two red chairs in the front window.

"Do you have anyone here with you to help?" she asked.

"My mom."

"Oh, well... you have to carry them out yourself, I can't help you and they're pretty heavy chairs."

"You don't have a dolly or something?"

"No, I'm sorry. You can come back on Sunday when the owner is here and he can help you."

So I went home chairless. Thank God it's the weekend. Someone get me a drink.

...uptown girl
She's been living in her white bread world
As long as anyone with hot blood can
And now she's looking for a downtown man

--Billy Joel, Uptown Girl