Summer Days

Wednesday evening I declared the Summer 2015 the best summer since 2008. I made the declaration over at some friends' house where we were preparing a salad collected entirely from their garden (save for apricots that they brought back from their trip to the Okanagan). We were sipping on glasses of white wine before starting the meal, which was paired with Hillside Merlot-Malbec. (Hillside is my favourite BC winery because they made a Muscat Ottonel that is very similar to my favourite wine, a Muscat Sec from France.)

Summer 2008, I recalled there in the kitchen, was a good one. I was subletting a place on Fraser and 12th with a colourful kitchen and spent many evenings that summer drinking Chardonnay on the back patio with Anna. I also quipped that the financial meltdown hadn't yet happened, so we didn't know our job prospects as young professionals were about to be doomed. (In a bit of back-to-the-future, there's debate again about whether Canada is entering another recession.)

In an entry that summer, I wrote:

I've been in my sublet for almost one month now and started my job at the museum almost two weeks ago. ...
I really like my place. It's big. Much better than the closet I looked at in the West End. It has a big turquoise kitchen with a blue formica table.

That was the summer I was beginning to discover my love of cooking.

I was reading a piece about food the other day. The author argued that produce bought locally always tastes best and that we should try and eat what is locally grown rather than what is imported from around the world. ... I'm nowhere near ready to embark on the 100 mile diet, but I will try my best to buy fresh Canadian-grown produce.

If we take the school's-out definition of summer, so far I've:

1. Been to Mexico
2. Visited Peter in New York City for three-and-a-half weeks (more on that soon!)
3. Visited my friend Jacky in Washington, D.C.

Then that lovely meal on Wednesday was icing on top. Or rather, I brought dessert--a Black Magic Bundt Cake from Whole Foods (my favourite chocolate cake), and seasonal black cherries, which we paired with a late harvest dessert wine. It was so delicious.

I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the uncertainty in my life, what with the post-graduation multi-city job search and not knowing where I'll be sleeping in a few weeks from now. Fortunately I've got the latter sorted out for now (which is a big relief), and the former is going pretty well.

I was had lunch with a friend yesterday who is in a similar situation to me, having just finished law school. I remarked, it's actually kind of an exciting time in our lives, really. It is. Amid all the uncertainty, the story of our lives is unfolding and we just have to enjoy every day and trust that it will end well.