Another long day, but with a lot of really good laughter, conversation, connection and good hard work.
Woke early to get Cinnamon Rolls rolled out, proofed and baked for the first South Bay delivery. Thanks, Kimberly, for reaching out! The drive down there was so lovely along the 280. And I got to have a nice long chat with Elizabeth as I drove. We talked life and love and work and comfort zones and bravery and events and how life changes. It was so nice to have the time and space to just talk as long as we wanted.
Great Zoom call with the CAROL survival buddies. So much fun and love and support in that group of people. There are many things that I have come to see as true upsides of this quarantine time. And that group of people...who I ALWAYS felt grateful for... has been such a sense of mutual support and love and advice and laughter.
By midday, Willi and I were DEEP into cooking. We are trying to take a real day off tomorrow, and so today was spent testing and styling and photographing the rest of the Meals on Heels menus that we are doing for the month. Oasis and D'Arcy have given us the whole month of July. We are thrilled to have this opportunity! We also were able to offer the extras on our website on Wednesday night, which meant that a few of our customers benefited from the special menu as well!
We cooked from about 10am to 6pm straight through and the kitchen looked like true battle had been waged... but we (mostly Willi Nordby) created some truly beautiful food. I can't wait to offer it to the SF Oasis customers for the next three Fridays! I will add photos here to tempt folks as well. If you are interested, you can check out the offerings at https://www.toasttab.com/oasis/v3
When we got all the food prepped and looking gorgeous, we set it all out on a table on our deck and photographed it. We are so lucky to live with Jamye and Chris. Not only because we all have a good time together, but it also means that between the two households, we have SO MANY DISHES to choose from. It means that we can really match dishes to meals and make things look pretty. After we finished photographing everything, we brought out a handful of forks and napkins, invited Jamye and Chris and Calum to come out and join us, and we had an impromptu dinner party with all the yummy food! So much laughter and so much deliciousness. It really felt like winning quarantine today. Some days are really crappy and hard, but today was not that at all.
Of course, after the fun and games, the kitchen awaited swamped with dishes and leftovers and compost overflowing. I tackled the work while Willi read aloud from our book. I ended up weeping at a passage about how the women of the group were the ones who ended up being the strongest... finally taking over with leadership, nurturing, protecting... and how sad it is that for most of recorded history, women have been treated as less than. And yet, are so very strong and resilient and brave. Too bad our society doesn't see that and cant figure out how to let more women lead.
Winding down my day writing to all of you. Wishing that I could figure out how to start this ritual a little earlier in the evening so that I could do a little more thoughtful writing in addition to the general journaling. Elizabeth and I had such a good conversation today that put all sorts of ideas into my head that I was hoping to explore here, but right now I am too tired. Just waiting for a cake to come out of the oven... my niece's birthday is tomorrow... and then I am going to hit the hay.
Menu for Monday (SF and North Bay Deliver) below. Orders should be placed by noon-ish tomorrow.
I hope that you are finding bright spots in your days. That you have good conversation and laughter. That you care for your heart and your body and your mind. That you give yourself a big hug from me. xoxo