I had my plans all formulated about how my day would go today. Clay and I would have breakfast and then drive to Gainesville to visit Truett. Easy as pie. But things got quirky. This is how my day actually went:
* At 9:30 A.M. Clay and I drive to town to the post office and then to the bank.
* Following that, we drove to High Springs to a pawn shop for Clay to see about upgrading his electric guitar. That didn't work out for him.
* Next, we drove to Waffle House and ate breakfast. Yum!
* Then we drove to Gainesville and stopped at the new Wal*Mart on Hwy. 441. I sat in the car for twenty minutes while Clay searched for two videos to play. While there, I saw fifty or more water birds at a small pond. Herons, Ibis, Cranes. I got out of the car to photograph them, but my small Canon was out of battery. Lesson learned. Always carry my Nikon!
* As we drove on into Gainesville, we stopped at two more pawn shops while Clay still searched the possibility of upgrading his electric guitar. No dice.
*Finally, we headed down University Avenue to visit Truett at Gainesville Health Care Center; but, somehow Clay asked me to look at one of his tattoos on his arm. I did. It was his name written in Arabic, but somehow I thought it just looked like two fish hooks. It seems someone questioned Clay about that tattoo and asked if Clay was from a third world country. Without profiling intentionally, Clay does have those big brown eyes and olive complexion.
So here is where the day becomes atypical.
"Mom, I want to get this tattoo covered up." Silly me. I thought he meant to put a big ace bandage over it. But, no. He wanted to get a new tattoo over that arabic name of his. No problem. By now it was 11:15 which meant we would probably visit Truett during lunch, an hour later.
HA! Clay parked me in a gated parking lot where I waited and waited and waited and waited. Enough already! I got out of the car and headed to the tattoo shop in the hippie section on University Avenue. I stood on the sidewalk and waited for Clay to come out of the tattoo shop. I tried to look inconspicious. . . me a 70 year old woman just 'hanging out'.
In the meantime, a young woman walked up to me and looked me square in the eyes. "Do you have any elderly words of wisdom you can give me?" she asked. "What?" I answered. I wasn't ready for a conversation. Then she repeated the question. "Words of wisdom? No, I don't." Guess which word she said that gave me pause.
In retrospect, I should have told this young woman, "Yes, wear a skirt a little longer, ditch the shredded tights, take that nose ring out of your nose, throw away that tacky white wig, and don't talk to strangers!" But, I didn't say that to this girl who resembeled a prostitute to me..I think..but I'm not sure if I would know what a prostitute looked like.
Anyway, to complete this story, the young woman then said, "Well, do you have a cigarette we could share?" Can you imagine the look on my face when she used the word 'share'? I told her I didn't smoke and she told me to have a nice day and then she sauntered off, looking for words of wisdom . . . but a cigarette for sure.
Eventually, I moved the car for fear of being towed away. I walked across University Avenue all the while watching homeless men dig through garbage cans for used cigarette butts. I was not comfortable one iota, so I went into the tattoo shop to wait for Clay. "We're almost done, Mom." he said. "What's wrong? You look stressed out." I pointed to my watch, which wasn't actually on my arm."I am son. This was not how I wanted my day to go. You've been in this shop almost two hours!"
Then I fidgeted and fidgeted. I scanned the walls and noticed every freaking, ugly, disgusting tattoo cartoon possible. I felt claustrophobic. Clay winced a couple of times while the old dude with the foul mouth turned the two fish hooks on Clay's arm into a black rooster. "Serves you right," I thought.
* Finally. Finally. Finally we left and headed to Gainesville Health Care Center. But, guess what? There was not one parking space available. Not there. Not at the Emergency room parking lot. Not at the Cancer Center parking lot. I threw up my hands and stated, "Let's go. I've had it." Better yet, I suggested we go to Cody's Grill and get a long island iced tea and have some lunch. Which we did. Clay had a coke to drink so all was well. My nerves finally untangled and I made the decision that going to the grocery could wait until tomorrow. Everything else could wait until tomorrow. Just get me home.
* As we headed out Archer Road to I-75, we saw black flumes of smoke. Ambulances and policemen and fire trucks passed us. Something was on fire or there had to have been a horrible wreck. Sure enough, firemen were climbing to the roof of Best Buy and Pet Smart. My first thought with the way the world is today: BOMB. But, to my understanding it was not a bomb. Then I worried about all the cats, dogs, snake, iguanas, and fish at Pet Smart. And that stressed me out.
*One final stop before Clay and I ended our atypical Monday. CVS drugstore to purchase vanilla frappachinos for Mom. That was one thing on my list that could not wait.
*When we got home, I exhaled real loud and prayed, "Just give me a normal Monday, God."
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