A Tale of Two Cities, or . . .

Do-do-do, lookin' out my front door. Yup. Compare the pictures. New York vs. Atlanta. Big difference.

I was in Atlanta the end of last week to attend a function in my new "official" capacity and ended up staying until Sunday morning. It was a weekend of packing up more stuff in the house and shipping stuff I've discovered I really, really need (like my own salt and pepper shakers).

And because you can't get real Southern food in New York, I made two trips to my favorite fried-chicken-collard-greens restaurant, The Colonnade. Yu-um! That should hold me for a while. Also had dinner with friends and took young Joanna to the movies - RV (actually funnier than I thought it would be).

When I wasn't packing, I was shopping like a maniac. Things are so much cheaper in Atlanta (no surprise), so I stocked up on everything from teabags to makeup. Also did a clothes run at good old SteinMart. It was nice to see colorful clothes again. Everything in NY store windows runs the vast color range from white to beige to gray to black. That's it. I swear, I'm the only person in Gotham who wears pink! Sheesh! I've got to bring color to this city, I mean it.

Still, I had mixed emotions about landing back in Atlanta so soon after moving away. Yes, I did perform my official duties, and yes, I needed to tie up some loose ends (not to mention hook up to the fried chicken IV-drip). But I was antsy to get back to New York. And once I returned on Sunday, things felt more normal.

So normal, in fact, that I even went to see The DaVinci Code Sunday night. ($10.75 a ticket! Yikes! Not much first-run movie-going in my future while I'm in NY!) But that's another story.