Wednesday, August 02, 2017

the girl you’ll always love, the one you have no memory of

Today was really lovely, all in all. I slept in a little later than planned, so I waited to walk the dog until after Veronica arrived - the dog (Lily) is now totally fine with me, so that's a good thing. Then I spent the morning writing and journaling, all of which was v. good for me.

But I had to get myself out of the story and into the shower so that I could get ready for my big plan of the day. V and I had a reservation for late lunch (1:45!) at Chez Panisse Cafe, which I was super excited for. I've been to a lot of great/famous restaurants in the Bay Area, but somehow I've never been to Chez Panisse. The lunch scene is more lowkey (especially in terms of ability to get reservations) than the dinner scene, and it was totally perfect. We sat by a window overlooking Berkeley, and it was a delightful place to have a glass of rosé and some wonderful conversation with a great friend. It was also a delightful place to eat duck (I don't usually order duck, but this was too delish to resist), and our dessert was somehow amazing despite being a relatively simple pairing of a blackberry sherbet on top of a meringue.

After that, I could have easily napped/daydreamed away the afternoon, but instead I parted ways with Veronica and went across the street to the grocery store, where I got stuff to make dinner tonight. I was in the mood for chicken tortilla soup, and I'd invited John and Jess over to partake of it with me. The cooking all went well and I was really enjoying it...until I discovered that the tortillas I bought today were somehow moldy even though they claimed they weren't expired yet. Gross. Luckily, I still had four from the fish tacos I'd made yesterday, and also John came to the rescue - he brought Ian and some corn masa and a tortilla press over and made me three more tortillas, which were perfect for the soup. We also had quite the adventure trying to keep Ian and Lily separate when they both wanted to get in each other's faces - perhaps it all would have turned out fine, but it seemed like a high possibility for disaster if they hung out in each other's space.

When the soup was done, John and Jess and Ian came back over, and we had a rather idyllic time outside until a bee drove us inside. We still enjoyed soup and limoncello inside until it was time for Ian to go to bed. Then I cleaned up, took Lily for another walk, and spent some quality time outside in the twilight with my laptop and my exploding to-do list.

And now I need to sleep so that I can repeat some aspects of this process tomorrow (mostly the friend time, sans the delish Chez Panisse lunch and my adventures in soup-making). Goodnight!

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