Girls Weekend

Not a little girls weekend but a big girls weekend. I took a weekend trip all by herself which in itself is pretty rare these days and I seem to travel as part of a trio. Not bad because Arnie always takes care of everything and I am just along for the ride like the family pet. However when its my turn to negotiate airports, new technology and the like, it seems large. Of course it's all quite doable and I like the freedom to wander through the airport bookstores and buy things I don't need. Anyway it was a last minute trip to Atlanta to hang out with Spook who is as working on a film full of fabulous stars that of course we never see on her days off. Nothing to trade as gossip unfortunately. It was a great fall day in New York but in Atlanta it was all about rain and several weeks of rain. We landed without incident and I got to the hotel easily and then stretched out in my new digs. I haven't been to Atlanta recently except to rent a car and drive to Columbus or no, a couple of years ago, we went to their amazing new aquarium. But this trip involved neither dogs, nor husbands, nor children. How many times have I said that? Saturday night Dinner at the Palm with Spooky which is in the hotel. It turns out that Atlanta has morphed into a pretty sophisticated town and all the many sky scrapers in the Buckhead area of Atlanta remind me somewhat of the crazy buildings that we saw in China. Both Beijing and Shanghai have amazing, truly out of this world architecture and several of Atlanta's building were constructed with the same intent: to amaze and delight. They have lit half arches, or tops that don't match the bottoms. I'm not an architectural writer but suffice to say it was interesting. It sounds relaxing this grown up time but it doesn't take into account the several conversations about how and where Kate might have lost her very new cellphone. She's only had it 2 weeks. I blew my cover by acknowledging that I had insurance on the damn thing but as she is also tracked by GPS we figured out that the phone could find itself. Which it did. It was just playing games in the apartment. Kate went off to her first bat mitzvah in a fabulous dress she got as an hand me down from one of our friends on the floor. She looked stunning and had a great time. The pictures Arnie took show Kate in all her finery and prove what make up can do. Sunday in Atlanta was bright and sunny so we went to Decatur for a garden tour and by the end of the day we were able to sit outside for dinner.

My single purchase was grits from Publix and my purloined item was a towel. Have you tried to buy what my mother used to call a thirsty towel recently? All the towels are these soft cotton things that seem to be coming out of Egypt or Turkey. They are caressable/kissable but they ain't thirsty tough towels. But Spook had a great white towel that was rough and made you feel like you had towelled off. So I asked if I could have it. So like Countee Cullen's wonderful poem about a trip to Baltimore where he says that he saw great things but only remembers being called Nigger, I saw great things in Atlanta but brought home a tough towel.