Labor Day

Happy Labor Day. I celebrated by oversleeping, then hopping into the car with Sunshine and Bet for the hour-and-a-half drive due east to Lexington. We were going to see longtime friends Gwenda and Christopher who celebrated their three-year anniversary today; but I thought we'd also sneak in some edgewise holiday shopping since I like the "liberal arts college" nature of several downtown places. I was surprised to learn that many KY stores actually do close for today's holiday (stores normally closed on Monday open for Labor Day shoppers in NC). This reverence didn't affect us overmuch: while one coffee shop was closed, every other place we tried all day--including the second coffee shop--was open for business. To be fair to KY retailers, there were no crowds out today. Traffic was light and stores were empty. We ate a great Indian dinner smack downtown in a primo corner-lot dining room which was otherwise deserted. I had mutter paneer, my new Indian restaurant litmus, and some very fine spicy tomato saag soup. The onion chutney was awful, catsupy, the worst thing on the table. The bread basket, however, was one of the best I've ever had. None of the above outshined the company. Catching up with scarce friends and family is always good, but the general level of charm and hilarity at the table tonight was rare. So that worked out, even if my shopping day was limited: one CD store, one special culture shop, one warehouse-sized Liquor Barn, and all we walked away with was a bottle of Old Pappy Van Winkle's and a magazine. Oh yeah: Gwenda and I bought each other books at the famous local Joseph-Beth Bookstore (I received Ursula Dubosarsky's well-reviewed¹ novel The Red Shoe and Gwenda got James Maxey's thoughtful² socio-fantasy Bitterwood). [Cavin]