Apparently it does not take much to humor me or allow my emotions to go overboard. I am in love with Ikea! (henceforth how I will write it since I shout it excitedly whenever I say it’s name) and cannot believe it has taken me this long to visit.
Bird and I got on the road by 9:30 (after a much needed stop to pick up some food at Chick-Fil-A) to head down south. Our trip wasn’t too terribly long and as a coworker told me, I took Northside Drive on my quest to visit this long elusive store. But in true form I forgot to turn left onto 17th, so after being taunted by Ikea! being so close yet so far I finally got us there.
I was overwhelmed from the moment we stepped into the store. Too.much.stuff.to.look.at! After a brief potty break (and seriously, I could have held it because I just wanted to get into the store and start the adventure) we found a shopping cart and bags and shuffled off to start looking at all the stuff. We started in the kitchen section and let’s just be honest for a minute, I have all kinds of kitchen gadgets, I really don’t need anything else and when I do it will be upgrading what I have now but… I just had to pick up everything, look at it longingly and then stop myself from throwing it in my bag. I did pick up a couple of funnels (I swear I had one but during one of my many moves it has flown the coup).
And then on and on through all the departments, seriously, I wasn’t sure we would ever make it to the end. And all that PT, while has helped greatly, wasn’t a match for all the walking we did.
We took a break once we got through all of the first floor and headed to the cafe for lunch. While I love food and really love to eat, I do better with kid’s meals because the portions are usually just right. Ikea! has a great kid’s menu and had a special that day for buy one dessert, get one free. So for $3.50 this is what I got. . .
There was a cute picture of me stuff my face with a meatball but somehow it wasn’t on my phone today once I started looking for it.
Once fed we went for round two of browsing through the store. This time on the second floor where they have the furniture and room layouts. I fell in love with several kitchens and became convinced that I should immediately sell my furniture, move to NYC and live in a 375 sq ft apartment, decked out with all things Ikea! Of course reality sunk in and I realized that I would need a job, money and a very large sedative for Wookie.
After spending almost four hours in the store, it was time to say goodbye. I had grabbed a bunch of goodies throughout our adventure but left with a tab of only $16.75. I was quite proud of myself since I really kept check of what I was throwing my cart.
After a quick trip to H&M to share with Bird one of my finds while shopping up north we headed to The Varsity. An institution in Atlanta and the mortal enemy to my waistline. But it isn’t everyday that I can be greeted with “Whata ya havin, whata ya havin?!” so I marched right up to the counter and ordered my chili dog, onion rings and chocolate shake.
And what trip to The Varsity is complete without putting on the hat and taking a picture of yourself looking like a complete dork. Actually, I made Bird take the picture. . .
It was a very fun day in Atlanta but now I must start an email campaign to get Ikea! to Nashville. Once we finally got home, between the cat and my body screaming at me, it was definitely time to hit the hay. I was beat!
Stumbling Through Life 