This past weekend, two ladies I know from one of the message boards I frequent came to town. Sally is from MinnesOHta, dontcha know. (I can't help but think of the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous when I think of that accent.) Corrina is an Ohio native who recently moved to FL. The two were sort of meeting halfway so that Corrina could be trained as an Arbonne cosmetics consultant. Well, partly. On Saturday Caro (another lady from the message board who lives near me) and I met them at the Cafe Sunflower to be part of a vegan meetup that was scheduled. I had been worried I'd be nervous, but they were so nice that it quickly put me at ease. Unfortunately, only one lady and her 2 kids showed up other than the four of us. Good thing we showed up!

I think the four of us made the other lady feel left out because we already knew each other (at least online) and monopolized the conversation. We tried to keep her included. Lunch was fantastic, as usual, and we all got a different dessert and sampled from each other's plates.

From there we went to Phoenix and Dragon to look at the beautiful, yet mostly overpriced jewelry. Nothing blew my skirt up, as missleigh would say. (Or is that mrsleigh?) Caro had to go to work for a while, so the three of us went to Little Five Points to piddle around until dinner. There was prime people watching and lots of eclectic shopping. There were Devil Duckies in many of the stores, a Kit Kat clock (Finally an idea of what to tell people to get me for xmas when they ask, since I've always wanted one but am too cheap to buy it myself.), those creepy real fur animal figurines (Boo!), lots of overpriced (and not) jewelry...etc. etc. etc. The incense in the stores got to be cloying, especially since most of the stores are small, cramped, and unventilated. I only bought two pairs of small earrings, despite efforts to spend more money. Sally bought a shirt that reads "Lesbians Lick Better Pussy." Oh, really?

Since our batteries were dragging, at 7-7:30 we got Red Bulls and a map at a gas station, and headed up to Harmony for dinner. Since we were closer than we thought, we made a pit stop at their hotel to freshen up. No elevators were working, so we had to walk up the stairs to the 8th floor. Not that big of a deal, except for the rotten and exploded milk container someone had thrown away. Ack. We held our breath until about the 4th or 5th floor, but could still smell it. Then, Sally's room key wouldn't work. Well, we weren't walking back down, then up the stairs again, so she called the 800 number on the key. They transferred her to the front desk, then they sent someone up. (Add to this that traffic had been shitty all damn day.)

At Harmony, we all ordered something different and then ate family style, sharing everything. I think my new favorite is the 'shrimp' lo mein. We annoyed everyone with our laughter and camera flashes. I think we took 20 pictures in there.

After dinner, we wanted to find somewhere to hang out and talk, and somewhere Sally could get a drink. We started a 3 car caravan down Buford Highway. We ended up in Buckhead only to find one of those chain coffee shops closed. I was barely awake, so Caro took me home. I think the other three ended up in Sally's hotel room for some lingerie-clad pillow fights or some such.

I stayed awake long enough to shower and drag myself to bed only to lay there for a while wondering if I was going to hurl. Later, I got up and laid in the bathroom floor wondering the same thing. I felt I needed to be close to the toilet, but I wasn't sure whether to sit on it or in front of it. Nothing ever happened, and I felt ooky the next day. Which made me the life of the party at the brunch Leigh hosted! Yeah, right.

Anyway, Leigh had us all over for brunch at her house and it was very good - 'eggs', biscuits, gravy, grits, 'bacon', fresh fruit... Well, I stuck to fruit, grits, and a biscuit because I didn't want to push it. Sally did a demonstration that she normally does at her Arbonne presentations. She placed a cracker in a bowl of water, and another in a bowl of baby oil. She took the cracker from the water and it was soft and 'hydrated.' The cracker that was in the oil broke in half and was as stiff as it had been to begin with. I, for one, was surprised this happened. I figured it would soak in. She did this to demonstrate that products with mineral oil, petrolatum, and the like are not very beneficial to your skin. Of course I checked everything when I got home. Not too bad, except for it's the third ingredient in the body lotion my husband loves, and it's the main ingredient in my beloved Aquaphor. I'm just not sure which is worse, petrolatum or parabens.