California Dreamin'

What a wonderful time I had in California last week! Dan flew with me out there with me on Saturday night in order to be there for my Gram's Celebration of Life service/reception in Los Angeles on Sunday. Poor guy, he had to fly back to Boston first thing Monday morning - he wasn't even in California for a full two days and those are some very long flights back/forth. It meant a lot, not just to me, but my entire extended family to have him there. I will give a more in depth recap of that special time, hopefully, by early next week.

The rest of the week, from Monday on, I spent hanging around Redlands. HIGHLIGHTS:

• The Weather! The first few days were rainy and cold (by CA standards) but by Wednesday it was warm (60's and 70's!!) and gorgeous. The sky was so clear and the view of the snow-peaked mountains surrounding us in the valley were a sight to behold, it was unbelievably beautiful. Epic fail: I didn't take any pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Ugh, I was so bad about photos on the entire trip.
  
• Eating like a Queen! I had Mexican food twice (Las Brasas and Casa Maya), Thai food three times (Thai House and Benjarong twice), frozen yogurt at Golden Spoon at least three times and brunch at The Eating Room twice. And my parents treated me to a fabulous dinner at a new (at least, to me) restaurant on State Street, The Farm. My parents said they have found The Farm to be overrated, but I couldn't disagree more: it was fantastic and Redlands definitely needs/deserves a restaurant that good - the prices were very fair for the quality and portions. I've turned into a bit of a Boston food snob but The Farm was every bit as good as any great place out here. I'm looking forward to taking Dan there whenever we visit next. I ate my way through the entire week, thank goodness for lots and lots of long, meandering walks around town every day.
  
• $2 Tuesdays at The Vault! Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to serve well drinks for $2? Very dangerous, if you ask me! But as a girl who loves, loves, LOVES a vodka tonic (with two limes, please) and lives in a city where drink specials are against the law (that's right, no happy hours in Boston),$2 Tuesdays is practically reason enough to make it home regularly. It doesn't hurt that my parents live 3/4 of a mile up the street, so driving isn't exactly a requirement. Good times.
• Old friends! I was able to have some great, quality time with four of my all-time favorite old friends: Danielle, Sarah M. (and met her boyfriend Doug), Frank and Michelle. If you read this space regularly, you know that I have had a tough time making close friends since I moved to Boston. Its bittersweet for me to go home and see the wonderful people that I've left behind; its rejuvenating to see them and catch up on life, but it is also a painful reminder of how much I miss them almost all of the time. At least it helped me to remember the that I do have the ability to make wonderful, real friends -- I've just been experiencing a day-to-day friendship drought for the last, ohhhh, four and a half years. My Redlands friends hold so much of my history, know me through and through, love me anyway in spite of myself and the distance between us. I am so fortunate for them, but continue to pray that I will also form close friendships in my adopted city one day.
• My Sweet Mom! My mother and I are very close, and she was able to take a lot of time off work while I was home to spend with me. We went out to lunch daily, shopped 'til we dropped and had a great time walking and talking and eating.
  
• Slumdog Millionaire! Mom and I went to see this a few days before the Oscars. It's a great movie, although I think some of the hype diminished its impact on me; the curse of too high expectations. I think I would have liked it better if I hadn't heard so much about it already from others - the curse of high expectations. While I loved the movie, it didn't quite "change my life" the way some people had gone on and on about. Tonight I am going on a date(!!) with Dan to Ivy for dinner and then to see it again, since he missed out and it just won Best Picture. Slumdog deserved to win Best Picture, I think, even though I also thought Milk was incredible. Because, according to Sean Penn, I am a " commie homo-loving son of a gun".
  
• The Weather! Oh, I already said that? Well, its worth saying again: my poor weary bones hadn't felt 70 degrees in months. The sun was an elixir to my darkened soul.
• Reading! Haven't read a good book in awhile, but on this trip I made it through two: Gilead and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Both were worth the time, but Edgar Sawtelle was the better of the two (also 300 pages longer).
• Roberta! My brother and niece were in town until Tuesday, so it was great to spend some time with the cutest five year old ever. Here's a video of Roberta and my cousin Matt playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin together at my Gram's recpection:

Mattie & Bertie's Violin Recital from Christina on Vimeo

As much as I missed Dan and Flutie (a little bit desperately, I must say), I was sad to leave because I don't know when I'll be back -- hopefully it won't be another 15 months, that was way too long! Until then, I will continue to encourage everyone I know from California to make a trip to Boston -- we've got a guest bedroom and bath with YOUR name on it! There is almost nothing I like more than playing hostess and tour-guide in the city. I'm totally serious: please please please come visit :)

One last thing, before I forget: just before leaving for California, I baked a tasty new treat -- found this recipe for a homemade version of Girl Scout Samoa's on a friend of a friend's blog (hmmm, yes, I cut a wide swath of blog-reading, friends ... and friends of friends). Oh. My. Gosh. They were OUT OF CONTROL delicious! And because I was feeling evil, I made a double batch to use up all the ingredients I bought -- I sent a huge tin of them to work with Dan, brought over two plates worth to Chloe's Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day party ("I Love You So Much, It's Scary" = best party theme ever) and STILL had tons left over at home. Here's a peak at how they turned out:

Um, YUM!

The shortbread turned out a little too thick and crumbly; not sure if the fault is with me or the recipe, but if I make them again (and I will) then I will attempt to adjust for that. They were messy but relatively easy to make overall, and much too easy to eat. Dan said of all the baked goods I have sent with him to work (his co-workers love me) that these got, by far, the biggest, best response.

And this week I have made two batches of cookies (Oatmeal Craisin and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut) and two batches of homemade ice cream (fresh strawberry and bluberry, respectively). There's a reason, it turns out, that you don't often see blueberry ice cream in the store -- the berries turned into hard pebbles frozen in the ice cream, not too fun to eat. Also, I tested out a lower fat version in the ice cream maker and it came out rather icey, so I'll need to work on perfecting the right churn-to-fat ratio going forward. Now I just need to find people to give all these deserts to in order to get them away from my chubby hips ... boredom/comfort baking is a tragic sympton of unemployment malaise, I'm afraid.