Sex and the City (of Atlanta)

Though I sincerely wish I was coming in here to write about the fabulous sex I had last night, alas, I am not. I am instead going to tell you about the fabulous dinner I had last night, which is a close second. Okay, not so close, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I had been working at the library all day, and planned to meet Domenica at Starbuck's or something afterwards, cause we needed to catch up.

Domenica:God, I love her. Anyway, I called her as I was leaving, and she said (in a much more roundabout way, as she is wont to do): "I'm leaving the Fox Theatre now and am stopping at a restaurant to get a to-go salad for lunch tomorrow. Do you want to meet at Apres Diem for dinner?" Though technically I had my evening planned out...go home, eat with kids, bathtime, Extreme Home Makeover...this sounded so much more fun and, well, slightly decadent. So I accepted.

Now, I have a theory about Atlanta which is this: poor old Atlanta has tried for so long to carve out an identity for itself that it lost any inherent natural charm it ever had in the first place. But somehow, once the push to be an 'international' city ended, once city planners stopped insisting that some slogan would give it character and personality, it acquired something resembling cosmopolitanism all on its own. And last night at Diem just brought that fact home to me once again.

It was a lovely, balmy night. I walked through the outdoor cafe and into the restaurant. The cafe was completely full of real city-dwellers - artists, families, dogs, couples - and amazingly enough, the vibe was totally European. I felt like I had arrived at a neighborhood bistro in a particularly interesting part of Paris. Fabulous.

Inside it was a bit quieter, but no less interesting. Professor-types, young women celebrating birthdays, gay couples, another family (this one speaking French)...very fun. I made my way to a corner table by the window, ordered a Cosmo and waited for Domenica. Sitting there alone, I had a distinct feeling of being in a real city, a part of some kind of buzz. It was nice, because most of my life I spend in the same old circle of kids' schools, my school, and our neighborhood, with an occasional exciting foray into the wilds of downtown Decatur. But to come to Midtown and rub elbows with the elite and the well-heeled intelligensia, now that was something new.

My girl finally arrived, cell phone in hand, wearing a leather jacket and red velvet pants, and of course, no makeup. She's 30 and beautiful, what can I say? She sat down and we gnoshed and talked well into the night, mainly about our love lives: her unexpectedly complicated one and my unexpectedly amazing new one. It felt very Sex and the City...you know how they're always eating salads and drinking alcohol and generally being fabulous as they talk about men and sex and stuff? That was me and Domenica last night.


Sometimes, life is unbelieveably good. It's kind of been that way for me for the last four weeks. Last night brought it all home.