~Saturday~ Xolani were up and at ’em in time to leave the house for a 9:00 walk around Lake Johnson. We started at the boathouse side this time, and we made excellent time, completing the three-mile walk in 45 minutes. I usually do it in 50 minutes.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous today.
After our walk and showering, we went out to Crossroads Plaza to The Men’s Warehouse, as Xolani wanted to buy a couple of suits. I pretty much just sat at the door and waited, taking in the comings and goings of all the young men stopping by for tuxedo fittings—either for an upcoming prom or the slew of June weddings that straight people so love.
I had a thought observing the guys working there. There was actually one woman working there, who kept a very long, yellow tape measure hanging off her shoulders, but I digress. So, I thought this as I observed one of the guys, who was just a little overweight and heading out the door to lunch: “I would never work in a men’s clothing store, not to mention one in which you had to wear a suit to work.”
At one point three women came in who thought it might be a good idea to try and buy a suit jacket for a man who wasn’t with them.
“What size suit does he wear?” the salesperson asked—to a cricket chorus in response.
“How tall is he?” the salesperson tried another tactic. Looks all between and betwixt each other, with one finally raising her hand about three inches above her head and saying, “About this tall.”
After about an hour, Xolani had settled on one suit and one sports jacket that would qualify for the “Buy one suit and get another suit for $100” special.
“I’m not technically supposed to count this sports jacket toward the markdown to $100,” the salesperson said as an aside to me, “But we want to do whatever will make the customer happy.”
“Whatever,” I thought. And then, “Why are you telling me this?”
After all that time, the sales person said, “So the hemming of the pants of the suit will be done by the 27th. Is that okay?”
Um, actually, no. “He’s leaving on May 2nd, and he’s buying this suit to wear while he’s here for the next two weeks,” I pointed out.
“How about this coming Wednesday?” the salesman tried again.
Xolani said, “No. I need it for work on Tuesday,” which somewhat exasperated the salesperson.
After suggesting that we might be able to get it done more quickly at an independent tailor (and not offering to pay for the $12 he estimated it would cost to have it done), I said to Xolani, “Why don’t we go look at that place in the mall that had the buy a suit get one free, and see if they have anything that can be ready sooner. If not, then maybe we’ll come back here.”
“Let me run and talk to my tailor and see if she could possibly move it into Monday’s work. Would that work for you? If we had it ready at the end of the day Monday?”
“Yes,” Xolani said, and the sales guy eventually returned letting us know how hard he’d worked to accomplish the task that would save the sale.
We had dinner at the nearby Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, to which I’d never been before. They had some cool electronics gadgets to alert the waiter as to what seat you were in so they could find you to deliver your order. I had their Polish Sausage and Xolani tried the Pulled Pork Barbecue. Mine was absolutely delicious to me, and I’ll most likely return there some time.
The rest of our afternoon was pretty much a lazy one. I caught up my blog from Wednesday, and then fell asleep for a couple of hours.
Xolani and I had our leftovers from Two Guys last night, Grilled Chicken Calzone and Pepperoni Stromboli, respectively. As is often the case—mine anyways—was better than it was last night.
After dinner, we made a grocery run, in which I pretty much just let Xolani shop. I’m going to be gone from Thursday through Monday of this coming week, and he didn’t want to run out of food while I was gone.
I was amused at the sheer volume of some of the fruit he bought. Now, I buy maybe two oranges at a time, three, maybe four apples some times, and either three or four bananas, as they all tend to come ripe at once and I can’t eat them all before they go bad. He grabbed two bunches of bananas, each of which had at least six, if not eight, bananas on them, and he grabbed two bags of oranges, again each with at least six, if not eight, oranges in them. It just made me smile being reminded of how one gets used to a certain way of being and doing when one lives alone for a long time.
I met Joe out at Flex at 10:00, where it was Bear Night. We had fun talking with Phil M., Jeffrey M., and Alex T. and spent other time reminding ourselves that we only go there with one goal in mind—to enjoy reasonably priced alcohol. It’s all about managing expectations so as not to be disappointed.
Today is my 16-year anniversary of coming out. I’ve now been out of the closet for as long as I was married.
