a ride down memory lane
This morning I woke up to sunshine shimmering and broadcasting through every window in my bedroom -- "wake up! come outside! go out on a bike ride to well...anywhere! You have no place to be for the first time in days!". So, I finally rolled myself out of bed...made me something to eat and thought about what I needed to do to get on my bike and go...like change out of the pijamas...adjust my new bike pedals (Brian installed them after Xmas dinner...weeeee! I hate trying to get those off my bike.) Make.coffee.right.now. But I'm low on coffee...but I have enough for one more press pot -- this I knew. The bike ride would include a stop at Peet's for sures. Well but which Peet's? Well... the best Peet's -- the original...Vine Street! That's as much as I could plan for this morning. After 3 days spent pretty much just in my kitchen, I just needed to get me to Peet's then decide what's next. The minute I locked my cleats into the pedals, I heard my Dad ride up behind me. He was also in search of some coffee and a ride down memory lane. Off we went wheel to wheel and my Dad shouting (he was a LOUD talker...everybody knew that) at me about his days at Cal with my "uncles and aunties" -- his closest friends, my true family. Then I took the helm and shared with him a few of MY memories with my best friend, Kell. How I miss her. Since 10 we've known each other and 20 years and probably about 20 plus-Cheese Board-pounds-now-shed (thank goodness) ago, we lived at the corner of Oxford and Cedar -- TWO point FIVE blocks from Cheese Board, TWO blocks from Peet's on Vine, THREE blocks from Black Oak Books. We religiously walked in a triangle almost every Saturday morning...me for a loaf of Sunday bread (I know...it was not Sunday but Cheese Board isn't open on Sundays) maybe a brioche knot (I truly miss these...you have no idea), Kell for a loaf of curry onion (we wouldn't always get those two loaves but it was more often than not), a coupla cups-a urn coffee from Peet's then to the bookstore to peruse the rows of books not in our "small school budgets" at Black Oak for sometimes hours.
I remembered and I remember. I miss those days of struggle and angst -- trying to make ends meet, trying to not disappear under a sea of some 35, 000 others competing just for a seat in the actual Biology lecture hall and not some satellite room listening to a filming of the actual lecture. I do not "miss" those days but I do. I miss Kell. I miss my initiation into a world of food and flavors like I had never really imagined in all those years working in restaurants and dating restaurant chefs. I had no idea the world my eyes, ears and taste buds would experience over all these years since.
Did I say I miss Kell? Yes...I did...the keeper of my secrets and all the silly things we'd do and buy for each other as small as they may have been; they made our days easier and worth every second of our survival. But the food -- King Pin donut filled "O Chem tutorials" (I was not good at math nor science but I longed to be. Kell could do that stuff with her eyes closed and often did.) and the ensuing naps we took instead of. Zach's Pizza after we finished finals...bagels from the pre-IPO Noah's...the cheese scones and brioche knots from Cheeseboard... Intermezzo for Veggie Delight bowls of salad bigger than our heads and the best piping hot honey wheat bread CHUNKS possibly ever for like 4 bucks 75 or was that 4 bucks 25? Oh the days!
I texted Kell while sitting in front of the Peet's on Vine. I didn't say my Dad was with me...that might've freaked her out just a little. But seeing that she's just living on the other side of the Bay, maybe we could meet for a bit during my week off from Sunnyvale. I hope I hear from her soon and that I can tell her everything that has happened in the last weeks...year of my life. We have a way of just picking things up where we left off...I hope for that and I look forward to some really good, new memories.