I'm sweeping up big yellow leaves, Fall is nearly here.
The signs have been slowly emerging..
A pumpkin spice latte sign at Starbucks
Cinnamon pine cones at the craft store
Back to school supplies
Squash displays at the market
...since these are commercial signs and they can be ad-set months in advance, I didn't buy into it.
But you can't argue with big yellow leaves.
Fall is my favorite time of year. Always. There is nothing I love more than boot weather, hot chocolate, nearly naked trees, couch snuggling and the fall premier of The Vampire Diaries.
Yes there is... Pumpkin flavored everything, It's a Wonderful Life, Halloween costumes, slouchy hats, big piles of leaves and the color Orange.
I know that here in California Fall will be different than it was back home in Kitsap. Which is okay because I don't like frozen sidewalks or monsoon rains. But I'm looking forward to whatever change may come.
When we knew we were moving to Las Vegas, which was approximately 1 year ago, I was so worried about what would happen to Fall. I estimated that living in Las Vegas would be like an endless summer. And that proved to be true. When I arrived in January it was 70 degrees. I had my sun dress on right away because to me it was summer temperatures. Our endless summer began. I haven't had a day below 70 degrees in 8 months.Chris hates it when I say the endless summer part because it implies some sort of vacation and our day to day life was far from a vacation. But we are settling in to Sacramento quite nicely. Chris is still on his training schedule so he is home most evenings and weekends. I am enjoying my first ever stretch of unemployment by being a better housekeeper and learning to do new things.
As it turns out, it's impossible for me to sit still. In addition to cooking recipes out of the Julia Child cook book I have canned several types of jam, a batch of pear chutney, and a huge crock pot of tomato sauce THAT I MADE FROM SCRATCH. And as most things I cook, will never be replicated ever again because I tend to throw pinches and hand fulls in the pot and never write anything down. But when you find beautiful San Marzano tomatoes at the market for .80/lb, buying 6 lbs of them, roasting them up, mashing them down and sprinkling them with with herbs from your own garden seems like the right thing to do.
And I made homemade butter. For real. Chris said I'm cheating because I used my Ninja instead of a freaking churn, but it's the 21st century my friend. And I'm not Amish. In the event that China attacks and enslaves us all for not being able to pay our debts there will still be gourmet eating at my hut. I know how to make butter in a mason jar and a blender and have 100+ jars of sauce to pour over our Soylent Green. ( I'm mixing futures here but you get the idea.)
I also made a batch of home made granola. Pennies on the dollar cheaper then the grocery store. And my apartments smelled fantastic.
My gardening is going well. My beans are growing like wildfire, or like Kentucky Pole Beans.
I have crocheted over 20 hats with the intention of opening a shop on Etsy in September. Last year I intended to keep my head fashionable and warm but had to throw an elbow or two to get people to stop snatching them off my head. That shouldn't be a problem this year as I plan on opening an Etsy shop where all of you can acquire my style through less violent means :)
Speaking of Kentucky, in a few days I will be there! Another perk of my temporary housewivery is that I can travel with my husband for his job. He has gone on trips to Utah and Arizona this year without me which is all good and fine. But Tennessee? No way he is going without me! Friday we fly into Nashville and since he doesn't start work stuff until Tuesday, we are spending the weekend in Kentucky. Elizabethtown KY to be exact. This is a big deal to me because the movie Elizabethtown is one of my favorite movies of all time. Chris and I have always loved it and we have really bonded over it. Whenever we are sad about something we watch it and remind ourselves "If it wasn't this, it would be something else." We constantly makes comments about our friends Chuck and Cindy, who are loving life 24/7. It has my second favorite funeral scene in a movie ( the first is Eulogy). Chris can recite entire passages from that movie and that is not something that Chris regularly does. I named my blog after something Claire Colburn says. And while I know that most of the movie was filmed in Louisville I still can't wait to actually see the town. And go on the tour of Makers Mark. 'cause we're loving life 24/7 :) Our hotel is on music row and I have a list of places I want to check out in Nashville like The Country Music Hall of Fame, The Parthenon, The Hermitage etc. I've been scoping out cemeteries too. I love historic cemeteries.
And because September can't possibly be busy enough, I have two job interviews the two days before we fly to Tennessee. So I will very likely get the rejection/acceptance phone calls while in Nashville. Neither job would start until October which is good because we just found out this week that Chris has to go to a 2 day conference in San Francisco a couple of days after we get back from TN. I've never been and unless something pressing comes up, I'm going to San Francisco too.
And at some point during all of this, I have to squeeze in some training for a volunteer position I will be starting at the end of the month.... Reading Tutor. The paperwork ball is already rolling and barring something like me actually having Tuberculosis, I will start tutoring 1 or 2 kids at a local elementary school in October. This is something I have always wanted to do, but I have always worked during school hours. I know that this will be challenging but I think the rewards will out weigh the hardships. Chris is afraid that I will have to end my commitment when I find a job and therefore I shouldn't even start. But I think I have to know that I at least tried.
All of this coupled with the fact that we opened a credit union account here means we are actually putting down some roots. In Vegas we always felt the need to remain portable. I guess we always knew Vegas was semi-permanent. I have even started to go through and update our addresses with our accounts. Which was something I was way to lazy to do before. One account even had our address from 3 years ago on it. Sometimes I wonder if that was my subconscious trying to not admit that the last two years happened. Like if there isn't a permanent record of it, we can try to deny it's existence. But all the hardships and OMG-IS-THIS-REALLY-MY-LIFE? 's we've endured have brought us to this spot. The spot where I wonder OMG-IS-THIS-REALLY-MY-LIFE? because of wonderful things.
Like this weekend...
I told Chris I needed to go to Penney's. He said he knows where a good outlet mall is instead. We hit the road and somewhere near Vacaville...
Chris: Are you going to ask where we are going?
Me: You said the outlet mall. Right now I'm assuming one in San Jose.
Chris: Nope.
Me: Are we just driving to San Francisco for the day?
Chris: Nope. Better. Napa.
Bra shopping at Penney's can wait. We're going to Napa Valley.
It was beautiful. I guess Chris drives through there every week to go to Santa Rosa and he wanted to show me our future house. I was expecting a great big villa in Sonoma naturally.
Welcome to the Ledson Winery. Which was originaly built as Steve Ledson's home. But he got so tired of people driving up and asking when the winery was going to open, he ran with it. He built a smaller McMansion out back to live in, quit selling his grapes to others and the Ledson Winery was born.
I just can't understand why people were driving up his driveway and asking him so many questions. You can tell by the understated driveway and entry that a Quasimodo style hermit lives here. Nothing says " Leave me alone, I'm recluse" like columns. And turrets. And medevil architecture. Seriously.
(And in between those columns is my 6'3" husband for scale.)
We had a fabulous tasting and then drove back to downtown Napa. We had dinner at a little cafe called Downtown Joe's next to the Napa River. We talked about what we need to pack for our trip down south next week and it hit me.
OMG-IS-THIS-REALLY-MY-LIFE?
Eating dinner at this adorable cafe next to an adorable river in Napa discussing what distilleries we want to visit while we are in Kentucky next week. And how big of a cooler should I bring when I go to Fisherman's Wharf when we get back? And I hope I get the last spot in that cheese-making class I signed up for? And don't forget we have to cook up that King Salmon I bought at Whole Foods?
Yes, somehow this really became my life.
And trust me, I do not take one single minute of it for granted.
I know what it is like to lose your job, sell everything you own, move into a bedroom at your mom's and be diagnosed with a debilitating disease. Some of you may not be enchanted with the idea and think a vineyard is a vineyard but I so clearly remember what it was like to not see straight for a week and I still want to look at everything possible. Especially when I know in the back of my mind that this is only the beginning and at any point Chris could be pushing my wheelchair up those steps.
Next blog will be coming from Nashville. Stay tuned.
Your my pen pal bestie Shauna :)
ReplyDelete