blank white canvasses

Today is the last forcasted day of our Indian summer here in the Puget Sound region.  I've heard rumors that we're in the midst of a record-breaking sunny streak, and I'm struggling to recall the last time the clouds broke loose and drenched the Emerald City with its signature rain fall.

Besides walking footloose and fancy free around town without socks or a jacket, huge aviators shading my baby blues from the abundant sunshine, I've been out and about making friends, eating food with them, and otherwise posing as the social butterfly that I normally am not.

Don't misunderstand, I love being social.  Especially when BBQ or dinner party escape my lips when describing my plans.  Already this week I've been to one dinner party and have two BBQ's waiting ahead of me... I couldn't be happier.  

The reality, though, is that I also love to be alone. 

Without the distractions or demands of anyone else in the world, I feel more me than at any other time.  My thoughts, my hobbies, my senses... and nothing else.  Ever since I was a child, I've preferred solitude to being surrounded.  Reading, writing, thinking... my favorite hobbies, all require it.  Even cooking and baking gain a sort of joy and luxury for me when I can do them solo, my complete focus on the ingredients, the measurements, the flavors.  Painting a blank white canvas in my mind.

Food becomes meditation.

Merry Christmas

The sun has set this Christmas day, and I type this as we've reached a lull in the action of our day.  I'm drinking tea, and Dan is napping on the couch.  Not that there's really been too much action.  Wedecided that this year we'd spend a quiet day, just the two of us, free from the strains of company and a dinner deadline.  No time schedules today.  No planning around anyone else but us.  Sound selfish?  Good.  That's what we were going for.

It's been a good Christmas so far.  We ate a killer breakfast that included potato cakes and poached eggs.  Expect more on that later.  After we'd digested a bit and talked on the phone to our families in their parts of the country, we went for a walk.  Someone ordered sunshine today, and the weather gods relented, giving us clear skies as the short afternoon turned to dusk.  We sojourned to our community garden to pick rosemary and sage for our dinner tonight.  Then we pseudo-hiked through Ravenna Park, the wooded ravine near our apartment with trails cutting through amongst giant trees and ferns and other greenery that almost lets you feel like you're walking in the woods.  The sun and the park turned into a great prize in the Cracker Jack box of our day.