Beautiful Day

The sun was shining.  The birds were singing.  I was off to the hair salon and trying not to be terrified out of my mind.  If you've read the blog before you know I'd rather do just about anything other than find a new hair stylist. Seriously.  I think I might rather dig holes in the middle of a field or something equally tiring and dirty.  (Misadventures of a Gypsy, anyone?) However, this trip to the hair salon was not the horror show I imagined.  In fact it was down right lovely.  I think even if my hair hadn't turned out so fabulous I would have enjoyed the day anyway, but great hair makes a wonderful day even better.

The day began with this guy:

Isn't he dreamy?

He was the chauffeur (had to spell check that one) and even though Ms. Daisy grumped at him for taking too long to get ready and she had to skip her trip through the Starbucks drive thru he still happily drove her to the salon.  First we made a stop at the gas station for a Red Bull and Starbucks in a glass jar.  Then off to the salon!

We arrived at the salon ahead of schedule despite our late start.  As we parked I kindly told my chauffeur he had an hour or two to kill while I got my hair did.  He was a little bewildered for a minute.  He knew he didn't want to spend all that time in the salon with me though, so off he went to explore.

While I spent time changing into my smock, using the magic words my stylist in Ohio gave me to tell the Alabama stylist what I wanted, getting foiled up, steaming, washing, getting the dead ends cut, and then getting all dried off Dave was busy finding a delightful surprise just for me.  There are cool little shops in downtown Homewood that I hadn't had the joy of exploring before.  He hadn't explored them either until that day.  Once my hair was complete in all its fabulousness we decided to explore together, he wanted to show me some of the cool shops he found.  I wish I had a camera with me because they were so very unique and wonderful.  But first he had a surprise.  The man is wonderful at surprises.  He said "do you want to put your purse in the car and just carry your clutch?"  Great idea.  The purse does get heavy after awhile, why not?  So he unlocks the car and I go to tuck my book in the front seat and grab what I need from the purse before I put it in the trunk.  I stop though because there is a white plastic bag with a present all wrapped up in black tissue paper and tied with a twine bow.  I say "what's this?"  He says "something I found for you."  I carefully open it and am delighted to read little bits like this:

Most of the time, and I do too

I live for his silly stories.  They make my day.

Without him I'm lost

Me too babe.

Almost 6 years already? You're kidding me...

These little bits make up this lovely beauty.  As soon as we got home that evening we had to find it a place on the wall.  A place where everyone else can see its wonderfulness.

My favorite piece of word art yet.

After he unveiled this beauty I gave him a huge hug, we tucked this safely into the car, and we were off to explore the shops together.  I found an idea for the new bed of my dreams, canopy and all.  He showed me a super cool idea for a spare room couch/raft bed.  We dreamed of all the crazy things we would love to do with our house some day.  We just have to find the perfect house...

Once we were done exploring the shops of Homewood it was off to a gun store.  There's always a gun store involved in any perfect day isn't there?  Maybe not in your perfect day, but there has to be in mine. I married a man who loves weapons.  I patiently roamed up and down the gun counter with him as he carefully looked over each of the jewels.  They look like guns to me, but to him they're jewels.  Some need a little more polishing than others.  I didn't care.  I was happy to be with my man.  I also realized with each passing year my gun knowledge grows just a little bit more.  I can kinda tell some of them apart from others.  My eyes don't glaze over quite as quickly as they used to when he starts talking about them.  I can even kind of talk about them myself.  Sort of.  I am by no means an expert, but I'm learning.  After the gun counter it was the knife counter, then to look at bows (the kind you hunt with, not the ones you put in your hair), and then back to the gun counter. Sigh.  Yep, kinda bored now...but still being patient.  He found one he wanted to we wait while the paperwork is completed.  We stop by the register and we're off...

...to another gun store.  This time it is the one where he works so he can show off his newest buy.  I wait patiently and play with my new fabulous hair.  It feels nice and soft so I keep running my fingers through it and pulling it out far enough to check out the amazing color.  The boys, er guys, all ooh and ahh over his newest weapon.  They talk about refinishing it, because it looks a little rough.  It was a great deal though.  Me?  I could care less, but I'm happy in my own little world.  One of the guys says "how do I get that?"  I say "get what?"  He says "get that.  He buys a gun and you don't care."  I said "he buys guns and I don't care.  I buy clothes and shoes and he doesn't care.  The bills are paid.  I don't care."  He shakes his head still mystified.  Seriously.  It makes my man happy so I don't care.

By this time I was hungry.  I decided we needed to pause for a dinner break.  My treat since he bought me such a lovely present and I'm feeling generous.

Then we head to the second hand bookstore.  I could spend days in that store.  I found a whole stack of books I can hardly wait to read.  They're all from the military section of the store though.  I still enjoy reading girly books, but I've been captivated by the military section.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day spent with my man.  Days like this are rare.  Days when I don't have a million other errands I'm worrying about getting done.  Days when I can just stop and enjoy the moment with my man.  Enjoy spending time with him, enjoy Loving him in all his crazy wonderfulness.