Yesterday was mostly just settling in. Alex had to attend a work meeting that turned into a full-on conference/work session, so he sent Dan and I out to eat on our own—spicy chicken at Pei-Wei followed by ice cream at Larry’s. Though it’s only 30 years old, Larry’s reminds me a lot of Weldon’s at Buckeye Lake (which is much older). I ate too much chocolate chip, but such is the burden I have to bear. Sigh.
Before dinner, though, we did make a stop to see Dan’s tatoo artist and to get another layer of color and touch-ups on Dan’s new tatoo.
I’ve never watched a tattoo artist at work—never really interacted with one, actually. J. Michael was really interesting to talk with and was very friendly. He attended Columbus College of Art and Design, so we talked a little about the people he knew there and about the art contest that I orchestrated with CCAD students to commission sculptures in Harrison Park. At one point, he asked if I was planning on taking home a tattoo souvenir, to which I responded, “Do I look like a tattoo guy?” I could have bit off my own tongue. I don’t think I offended him, though, because he continue to talk to me. He gets back to Columbus about once every year or so and is trying to get into the Hell City Tattoo Festival.
Today, Dan and I ran a few errands in the morning—mundane stuff like a trip to the pool store and then to Walgreen’s for vitamins. A few storms rolled in, so we postponed our drives by potential rentals until it was too late for Alex to join us, unfortunately. After the skies cleared, though, Dan I and drove around pretty much the entire city to see three neighborhoods. One was okay—a historic area that has seen better days—one was in the heart of tourist country—not bad, but also not ideal, and not my first choice—and one that was lovely. My first choice neighborhood is home to a rental cottage that I’ve already spoken to the owner about renting. She’s not sure if it will be available in the winter but asked me to contact her in September. I hope to have a place lined up before then, but if all else fails, I’d love to stay there!
When we got back, I called Mark only to find that Columbus has been inundated in the last 24 hours and that our power was out. The Gay Pride Parade went on through the rain, but the festival in Goodale Park was shut down at 1:15 p.m. due to water in the park. I guess I picked at good year to be out of town for the festivities.
Tonight we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant called D’Mexican with Dan and Alex’s friends, James and Tom. D’Mexican was more of a bar than a restaurant, really, and they seemed to be having a rough day—out of Coke, out of lemonade. Still, the food was better than average, and afterward, we went to Pass-a-Grille (an are of St. Petersburg, not a restaurant, even though it sounds like one) for ice cream. Some of you will gasp to hear it, but I didn’t have ice cream tonight. They didn’t have plain old chocolate chip, and I am still pretty full, and I had two scoops last night, so I just skipped it. I did get a sunset shot at the beach (on my camera phone; ugh), but it’s kind of dark. Here it is, anyway, as a closing image.
