A Nearly Perfect Sunday

Maynard let me sleep past 6:00 for the first time in a long while so I knew the day was going to be a good one – I was up at 6:30 anyway.  Had some early morning ball time with the pups in the back yard before enjoying a delicious breakfast of last night’s chicken fried rice, the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.  Showered, shaved and out the front door by 9:00 without a plan.

Bought a Sunday paper from the guy on the corner in front of the liquor store just to be nice, stopped by the garden center to map out this year’s patch, got a haircut and for no discernible reason walked next door and bought a new pair of comfortable shoes.  Already having an above average Sunday, I decided to go down to Centennial Olympic Park and see what all the fuss was about.

The Final Four is in town and for me that means only one thing: free fun.  There really is nothing that compares to spring in Atlanta.  Every weekend this time of year is overflowing with tons of potential and most of it is free.  This weekend’s offering was The Big Dance Concert Series.  As an Atlantan I felt obligated almost to go check it out.  If you live in Atlanta and don’t take full advantage, you are missing a lot of good.

Having embraced my status as a one-man-wolf pack, I didn't think to ask anyone else if they were going before I left.  Scored free parking, grabbed an ice cold festival beer, found a shady spot near the stage, met up with some old friends and ending up having a blast.  Saw a band I’d never heard of that was cool in a Pacific Northwest-everything is groovy-put you to sleep sort of way, a competent DJ between bands mixing in plenty of edited House of Pain and Lynyrd Skynyrd so the white people could, uh…dance like white people and spent some much needed quality time with my imaginary girlfriend, Grace Potter before starting to stress at the gathering crowd.  Speaking of, an unexpected added bonus to the day was the multitude of Mid-Western out-of-towners gawking about.  I've never been to Wichita so I won’t judge, but the looks on the faces of the Wichita State fans that made the trip seemed to indicate that they knew they were definitely not in Kansas anymore.

After Grace the crowd started to become oppressive, so we left.  I had neither the fortitude nor the inclination to battle the masses to see a band I didn't really like so that was fine with me.  Max’s for a few tasty slices and libations and then a short walk back to the parking deck.  I saw the first glimpse of an epic sunset in my rear-view driving home, fed a late supper to the dogs and let Belle have a little more ball time.  In bed by 9:30. 

With Maynard snoring loudly on my left side and Belle spooning me from the right I drifted off to sleep, basking in the afterglow of a nearly perfect Sunday.  I don’t need or even want every day to be like that, but I am thankful for the ones that do come my way every now and then.  I've got a feeling this is going to be a good summer.