A good day with good friends

Look at this beautiful road we drove on.

Just look at it.

This? Just one of the many things I love about Florida.

Yesterday I kidnapped — er, picked up Marie in the morning and we drove out to Sharon’s house. Sharon drove us, with Chris following on his motorcycle, up to High Springs where we had lunch at the Great Outdoors Cafe. We had a long, leisurely, delicious lunch, and then Chris left to go back home and before the rest of us headed to our prime destination, we also walked around the corner to look at the Priest Theater.

The Priest Theater was built in 1914, and when we looked in the windows the lobby looks like the kind of place you could film a 1920s movie in, and not find a thing out of place. Marie had grown up in and around the area (moving around a lot, like ya do), and her dad used to run the projection booth back in the late 1970s/early 80s. As we were peeking in the window, a woman came out to see if she could help us… turned out it was the daughter of the people who own the theater, who had bought the theater from the people who owned it when Marie’s dad worked there! They still have the projection booth – they’re one of the only all-projection movie houses left. The daughter said that they’re starting a Kickstarter campaign soon to try to raise money to get digital equipment in, because that will allow them a broader range of movies — but that they’re keeping the projection setup because some small indie movies still only do theirs on film and they want to be able to show those as well.

While we were there, a woman came up with her four grand-kids, inquiring about movie times. She said that she had been telling the kids that she had her first date with her husband of 40 years at that theater…. and then the woman who works there said they were having a proposal there that night! That the guy proposing had movies, interviews with supportive friends and family members, and a film proposal all set up to run before the movie that night, and the theater was mostly going to be filled with people who knew he was asking her. How perfect is that?!

Then it was off to Fort White, where a new yarn store was opening up. You know us, you know there had to be a yarn store, right?! A former Hanks customer who lives up in the Ft. White area opened her own yarn store, after finding us so inspiring. Of course we went to her opening, and it was lovely to see that many people out supporting her. She doesn’t have much yarn yet because about half of what she ordered is on backorder… a problem at the yarn store that we had that I’d totally forgotten about until she brought it up. It’s so frustrating to order, say, eight colors of a new yarn, and get in three. “Oh, we’ll send the other five whenever!” Seriously? Because how am I supposed to tell my customers we got a brand new yarn in, and here are the three colors?! Fuck. Anyway, I know just how she felt. But everyone was very warm and supportive (her husband was so thrilled for her I just wanted to pop his head off he was so awesome) and of course I did manage to find some sock yarn to buy. I know you are all surprised. It has angora. Mmmmmmmm, bunnies!

Anyway, after that we headed back home, for naps, and all in all it was a Really Good Day. I didn’t worry once about how I wasn’t working, which I hope is a sign that I have work more under control than last year and can take a day off now and then.