Hotter than Hot

[Market flowers, May 2008.]

Yesterday felt like summer vacation. I arrived back to San Francisco from Austin, TX, where I’d spent three days for a work trip, to a blazingly hot day — so hot, in fact, that when I got out of the Oakland airport, a bit bleary-eyed from jetlag and a four+ hour flight, I did a double-take. Was I in the Bay Area or did I somehow catch a flight to Washington, DC by accident?

But no, here I was home sweet home again, wiping sweat out of my eyes and thinking, As soon as I get home, I have to go to the beach, because what else can you do when it’s so hot out that you deliriously hardly recognize your home state? Many other San Franciscans had the same idea I did, because Ocean Beach was packed with people and dogs; luckily I found a little spot just for me, spread out my towel, took a deep drink of water, and settled in happily for over two hours with my book. Every so often I’d take a break to look at the water and take a little sigh at how nice it was to be able to hop on the bus and easily access the ocean, and once or twice I may even have dozed off to the sound of the waves.

After, I came home and had pizza and beer for dinner. See what I mean about summer vacation?

Today is what I call a ‘free day’: no plans, a long sleep-in, just catching up on the little businesses that need to be caught up on such as laundry, email, unpacking … I went to the farmers’ market this morning and came home with lots of strawberries, lots of flowers (I got a great deal, with some thrown in for free!), and lots of small cucumbers and radishes. Now I’m listening to the Thistle and Shamrock and appreciating the cooler breeze blowing through my living room windows. I’m thinking about Scotland, because Celtic music always makes me think about Scotland and its windy hills, and trying to motivate myself to go on a run in the lovely day outside.

[Breakfast remnants, May 2008.]

I’m also soaking some beans to make for dinner later. Dinner, by necessity, will also include a lot of fresh vegetables because Texas, while definitely a place I’d like to visit again, didn’t provide me with much vegetarian options. Oh, there were these greens beans one night at dinner that I think I’ll be thinking about for a good long time to come (probably cooked in scads of butter, but perfectly cooked even so), and some decent salads. On the whole, however, I ate a lot of cheese and avoided the mashed potatoes that every single night disappointingly contained bacon (disappointing for me, of course, because I don’t eat bacon. Everyone else seemed to love them).

I have a fantastic recipe for white bean soup that I’ll share next time; but for now, you must excuse my lack of posting it. Summer vacation, you see, demands glasses of lemonade and lounging on the couch with a magazine or two, and later, maybe a bowl of ice cream.