Guest Blogger Week: The Perfect Day - Central Valley, California
Those small, chance meetings are part of what living in a small-to-mid-sized town is to me. I enjoy knowing that I’ll run into people I haven’t seen in ten years or who had my mother as their kindergarten teacher or bought a house from my dad or went to elementary school with my sister.
There’s a little boutique / artist’s collective on the corner of the street & I was finally there when it was open. I wandered in, found a great pendant necklace & eyed some neat headbands (too avant garde for my style?) and hand-sewn blouses.
The Amgen bike tour has a leg in my city, and the qualifying races for next year’s tour (held in February, if I recall), were today. I sat on my cruiser bike for a few minutes and marveled at the amazing speed & endurance of the riders.
I headed home, grabbed a drink & my very favorite cheese crisps (it’s a weakness), and settled into my very favorite spot (the corner of our couch) for my favorite activity (reading). I whiled away the hot afternoon with a book & chatting on the phone with my mama. This is my mellow afternoon music for fiddling around at home.
However, my dad was in town for the evening as were all of his friends. When growing up, we’d all meet up a few times a year for BBQ, socializing, and – most importantly – music. I’ve spent hundreds of hours sitting outside listening to them somehow meld 5 to 25 disparate musicians & instruments into one beautiful evening of music. I see them all less often now that I’m Officially a Grown Up & have all those grown up responsibilities (a job, etc.), so I was particularly looking forward to seeing everyone. I decided to try the Oreo Truffle recipe from Bakerella that everyone had raved about & I’d never got around to trying.
Now, I meant to take a better photo, but people just Hoovered them up. They were absolutely delicious! If you like Oreos at all, I highly recommend them. Do not skip the “putting them in the freezer” step. I took cherries & those truffles & we drove the 45 minutes over to our neighboring town (approximately 70 minutes, honestly, after I entered the wrong address in our GPS & got us lost a couple of times, but we made it!).
Then we spent the rest of the evening chatting with my little sister, my dad, and about a dozen people I rarely see. I got a bunch of hugs and kisses & the opportunity to listen to people play new music & old favorites. It was at our friend Ben’s house (he’s about my age) & he had invited some of his friends, so it was a lot of old vs. new, in the best way. People in their 60s & 70s sat around and played songs with folks in their 20s and 30s. There was a bass, a ukulele, a banjo, a mess of guitars & who knows what else!
As I sat in the backyard on a bench between my dad & my husband, I was just so glad to be where I was. It was a “heart is full” kind of day.
Saturday that is just exactly the kind of Saturday that makes me appreciate where I live. To top it all off, we slept for 14 hours (I really don’t know why) & went out for pancakes at the best pancake place ever, so life continues to be wonderful.
Written By Ellen.
