Zen.

I went in to work for two hours yesterday, but there wasn't much to do so I left early. I knew the b.h. would be working for several more hours yet, so i slipped over to Thym3 After Thym3, a local nursery, to try to find a birthday gift for his dad.
The place was a little overwhelming, frankly. I spent a good hour or more wandering around, and finally settled on a Winter Jasmine for his dad, while picking up some African Blue Basil (kind of peppery, in a way- it is beautiful and tasty), Orange Thyme (smells like it sounds- I can't wait for it to get big enough to snip some and throw it in a soup), Lime Thyme (the b.h. is particularly fond of limes, and the plant is also beautiful and healthy- I split it when I got home), and a couple of very small ornamental perennials. Hope fully the drought will let up so I can get some more, but for the time being I am being very conservative. When I got back in the car, I was in a fantastic mood, and it was still quite early, so I decided to venture out a bit further and see if I could find G00dness Gr0ws, another locally owned place, out in L3xington. It couldn't have been a nicer day. There were scattered clouds, it was breezy and warm but not hot, and I cranked up the radio and cranked down the windows and drove. I stopped for gas in Crawford, bought myself a c0ke, and continued on until I saw signs for Lexington. When I got there, I simply pulled over in front of a small government building, hopped out, and asked an older man who was smoking outside where to find G00dness Gr0ws. Two quick turns later iI was there.
The place is beautiful. When I got out of the car and walked up the driveway, there was a woman quietly snipping some ornamental grass in pots on a table. Everything there was neat, orderly, and looked individually cared for. We chatted for a minute and she pointed me toward what I was looking for. I picked out some bay and fennel for the herb garden, as well as a Pee Gee Hydrangea for the b.h.'s dad. I got a couple of very nice shade perennials, too, and an ornamental grass that looks similar to bamboo that I will plant in a particularly tough spot next to the house. The woman ( I supposed that she was the owner, based on our conversation) told me that it could be quite invasive, but since I have failed to grow anything in that spot successfully in the three years we have lived in this house, I thought Id risk it. In all I probably spent an hour and a half wandering around the place, and honestly if it weren't for the fear that I would spend all of my money i probably would have stayed longer. I wrestled the hydrangea into the back seat, climbed in, and was pulling out of the parking lot when I looked up and saw one of the women waving at me.
I waved back enthusiastically, thinking what a great experience that was. Then I pulled back out onto the highway, humming happily and rolling the window down. Another woman in a truck was driving toward me. She rolled her window down and stuck her arm out of the window, gesturing wildly. Just as I was thinking what an insanely friendly place Lexington was turning out to be, I realized that I had left the rest of my plants, as well as a long-sleeved shirt and a catalog, on the roof of the car.
I stopped in the middle of the road. They were all intact. I started laughing out loud and waved back at the woman in the truck. Potential disaster averted, I returned to my exuberant singing and driving.
I went into town and got a cup of coffee at the Jittery Jo3's Roaster. I sat outside in my favorite chair (an antique metal glider- they have two and I covet them), listening to a selection of old R&B and Soul that my friend MT gave me on the iP0d, swinging and reading and generally enjoying the hell out of life. This is Spring in Athens. This is why I came here in the first place.