An Ideal Life
What is a life that is ideal? What does that entail, to you or to those that you know? For some people they dream of living near the snow, skiing and snowboarding all day long while their frosty breath creates crystals in their beards. For others the heat and swelter of an island paradise calls to their instinct to strip down and skinny dip. I think though no matter what, any extreme for me is not the ideal; I don't know exactly why I an pondering what an ideal life is at this very moment but that's where my stream of consciousness pooled for a few minutes.
This weekend was one of those ideal days, in my opinion. Friday night, after work, I met up with a friend to watch a movie that I have to review for our work's newsletter. We saw "Just Like Heaven", and while I'm not a huge fan of "chick flicks" I have to admit I enjoyed this movie. Well-acted, not too schlocky, and light enough to make even the most staunch romcom hater chuckle here and there. I'll give it a good review.
Woke up at 4 am on Saturday to go to work, the only stressful blip on my weekend. I worked until around 10, and I'm currently internalizing a good bit of stress about the work done this weekend, mostly in my insecurity about my worthiness as a supervisor. I'm not so good at this. But I let it go for now, and determined to enjoy the rest of Saturday. I napped away the sleepiness encountered from working so early, and got a call from an old friend who lives in Mission Viejo. She was at the beach with her daughter, and we met up for an impromptu barbeque at her house with her husband, another couple I am friends with, and their neighbor. We enjoyed beer brats, salmon on the grill, lots of snacky foods, wine, beer, and Bailey's. Mostly I just enjoyed seeing some wonderful people I don't get to see much anymore.
As the night wound down, I excused myself to go meet up with some other friends closer to home. We went to a fun, low-key bar where a great live band was covering the classics. I dropped a $5 into the tip jar, and requested "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Stones. The smiling guitar player turned to his drummer and said "Let's do it!" and they proceded to play a wonderful cover of one of my favorite Stones songs. I love a great, unpretentious band that just wants to play good music, and with some good friends and good beer we all had a good time.
After staying out too late Saturday night, enjoying friends and music and fun, I slept in much later than my body clock usually allows. Waking up with most of the morning gone felt so indulgent. I had a message from my neighbors, inviting me over for the usual Sunday Brazilian-style breakfast. I had missed their mealtime, but they still brought out fresh hot coffee for me and a few warm cinnamon rolls. We sat on the porch in the sunshine, sleepily talking about the day.
My neighbor Krista and I went to Trader Joe's and Stater Brothers to get our weekly groceries. A few people mistook us for a "couple", which we thought was pretty cute...I guess when two girls pushing one cart start affectionately and wittily quipping about the benefits of chard versus spinach, and what curry spices work best with the cauliflour they plan to make that night, one might draw certain conclusions. Her husband Alex found this amusing.
Krista and I, both hailing from New Jersey, have a fondness for liverwurst which is often discussed in our conversations. Its not exactly easy to find here in California; in NJ, delis often have at least 3 kinds of liverwurst that you can get fresh-sliced just like any deli meat, but out here we kind of had to hunt a little. We found some today at Stater Brothers going under the code name Braunschweiger, and I cannot even tell you how excited it made us. We sped home, threw the rest of our groceries into our respective kitchens, and lovingly made liverwurst, cucumber and red-onion sandwiches for lunch. Savoring the rich, soft lunchmeat brought me back to my childhood...sitting in the scratched-up wooden table in the kitchen, peeling the yellow circular wrapping off the liverwurst slice, and placing it on mustard-slathered bread, while my dad mowed the lawn outside the window. It was like eating a memory. Its not a taste for everyone, but for Krista and I, on such a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, no other taste would have done.
With so much satisfaction before 3 pm, I was tired and so I enjoyed a nap while the day wound down. I woke up to a bright golden sunset outside my windows, and started preparing dinner. Krista came over to cook with me, and before long we had a vegan feast...curried cauliflour and squash, a chick-pea and vegetable stew/casserole that was incredible, bruschetta and crackers with soy cream cheese, and olive bread. The meal became vegetarian when I burned the cauliflour, and saved the flavor with a copius topping of mozzarella cheese...but still, healthy and meatless and fabulous nonetheless.
Eating dinner with Krista and Alex was the perfect cap to an already pretty great weekend. The stress of the work-week almost seems worth it when I can have a good 2 and 1/2 days (I found Friday nights as weekends) of what I would consider to be my ideal life.
This weekend was one of those ideal days, in my opinion. Friday night, after work, I met up with a friend to watch a movie that I have to review for our work's newsletter. We saw "Just Like Heaven", and while I'm not a huge fan of "chick flicks" I have to admit I enjoyed this movie. Well-acted, not too schlocky, and light enough to make even the most staunch romcom hater chuckle here and there. I'll give it a good review.
Woke up at 4 am on Saturday to go to work, the only stressful blip on my weekend. I worked until around 10, and I'm currently internalizing a good bit of stress about the work done this weekend, mostly in my insecurity about my worthiness as a supervisor. I'm not so good at this. But I let it go for now, and determined to enjoy the rest of Saturday. I napped away the sleepiness encountered from working so early, and got a call from an old friend who lives in Mission Viejo. She was at the beach with her daughter, and we met up for an impromptu barbeque at her house with her husband, another couple I am friends with, and their neighbor. We enjoyed beer brats, salmon on the grill, lots of snacky foods, wine, beer, and Bailey's. Mostly I just enjoyed seeing some wonderful people I don't get to see much anymore.
As the night wound down, I excused myself to go meet up with some other friends closer to home. We went to a fun, low-key bar where a great live band was covering the classics. I dropped a $5 into the tip jar, and requested "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Stones. The smiling guitar player turned to his drummer and said "Let's do it!" and they proceded to play a wonderful cover of one of my favorite Stones songs. I love a great, unpretentious band that just wants to play good music, and with some good friends and good beer we all had a good time.
After staying out too late Saturday night, enjoying friends and music and fun, I slept in much later than my body clock usually allows. Waking up with most of the morning gone felt so indulgent. I had a message from my neighbors, inviting me over for the usual Sunday Brazilian-style breakfast. I had missed their mealtime, but they still brought out fresh hot coffee for me and a few warm cinnamon rolls. We sat on the porch in the sunshine, sleepily talking about the day.
My neighbor Krista and I went to Trader Joe's and Stater Brothers to get our weekly groceries. A few people mistook us for a "couple", which we thought was pretty cute...I guess when two girls pushing one cart start affectionately and wittily quipping about the benefits of chard versus spinach, and what curry spices work best with the cauliflour they plan to make that night, one might draw certain conclusions. Her husband Alex found this amusing.
Krista and I, both hailing from New Jersey, have a fondness for liverwurst which is often discussed in our conversations. Its not exactly easy to find here in California; in NJ, delis often have at least 3 kinds of liverwurst that you can get fresh-sliced just like any deli meat, but out here we kind of had to hunt a little. We found some today at Stater Brothers going under the code name Braunschweiger, and I cannot even tell you how excited it made us. We sped home, threw the rest of our groceries into our respective kitchens, and lovingly made liverwurst, cucumber and red-onion sandwiches for lunch. Savoring the rich, soft lunchmeat brought me back to my childhood...sitting in the scratched-up wooden table in the kitchen, peeling the yellow circular wrapping off the liverwurst slice, and placing it on mustard-slathered bread, while my dad mowed the lawn outside the window. It was like eating a memory. Its not a taste for everyone, but for Krista and I, on such a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, no other taste would have done.
With so much satisfaction before 3 pm, I was tired and so I enjoyed a nap while the day wound down. I woke up to a bright golden sunset outside my windows, and started preparing dinner. Krista came over to cook with me, and before long we had a vegan feast...curried cauliflour and squash, a chick-pea and vegetable stew/casserole that was incredible, bruschetta and crackers with soy cream cheese, and olive bread. The meal became vegetarian when I burned the cauliflour, and saved the flavor with a copius topping of mozzarella cheese...but still, healthy and meatless and fabulous nonetheless.
Eating dinner with Krista and Alex was the perfect cap to an already pretty great weekend. The stress of the work-week almost seems worth it when I can have a good 2 and 1/2 days (I found Friday nights as weekends) of what I would consider to be my ideal life.
posted by The Semi-Pro Chef at Sunday, September 25, 2005
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