Not the prettiest things I’ve ever made but damn tasty.
Steel cut oats and chia seeds that I soaked in coconut milk for 8 hours or so, then added some egg whites and baked with preserves I made from nectarines, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar and a little salt.
Not bad for having no idea what I was doing.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at work at the restaurant, filling in for our hostess who was out of town. These two women came in right about when I first got there ”just have a glass of wine.” Four hours later, when I was leaving, they were still there. I stopped by their table as I was walking out, to joke, “You guys are going to be here longer than I am!” I thought we’d have a quick chuckle and that would be it, but it ended up turning into a 30-minute conversation.
Of course.
It came up that one of the women was going to Miami in a couple weeks. So I mentioned how I lived there and how much Miami taught me about LA, namely that it’s so segregated, and that led to a discussion on the differences in immigration communities between Cubans and Mexican/Central Americans.
Her: Yeah, I lived in Canada so–
Me: Oh, really? Where’d you live?
Her: Vancouver.
Me: Of course you did.
Turns out she was from Kits and went to high school with Ryan Reynolds and Joshua Jackson who are among Canada’s best gifts to the world. But that is an aside.
We talked a little bit about the similarities between the Chinese immigrants there and the Cubans in Miami and then she asked me about my time living there: when I went, for how long, what did I do, etc. And I realized in talking to her that the day before was my 2-yr. anniversary of leaving LA. TWO YEARS. Last year, I was hyperaware of all that, but this year I had forgotten. It was…weird to realize it’s been that long.
In public.
In front of strangers.
The question isn’t: "Why do I have a birthday tiara?"
It’s: "Why don’t you?"
