The Girl and the Fig

Char and I had lunch together a few months back and had such a good time we decided to do it again, and include, we hoped, the three other women in our Pinata Group.  We are somewhat scattered, with Pat in Sacramento, Char in San Ramon, Audrey in Santa Rosa, and Jeri--who knows where, since she and her husband travel around in their RV.  We figured getting Jeri here was a stretch (and were were right), but we managed to find an OK date for the rest of us.

It takes me an hour to drive to Char's house, probably and hour and a half or two hours to get to Audrey's house, in the opposite direction from Char's, and Pat is the closest, but she's still 40 miles away, the farthest from Audrey and Char.  Also, things are complicated by the fact that she doesn't drive.

But nevertheless, we found a date and place to meet.   Audrey chose a restaurant called The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma, which was a shorter distance from Audrey and about equidistant for Char and me, and Pat's husband would drive her to our house so I could take her with me.

We got there about 15 minutes early and I found "Gilbert parking."  Gilbert has been my parking angel since he died in 1986, usually finding me places either directly in front of or very close to my destination.  I would say he outdid himself today.

When we were all there, we were shown to a lovely table out on the patio.  I loved it because there was a fan directly opposite where I was sitting, so it blew cool air right into my face, which I love, but didn't bother the other three women.

Pat and Audrey each had salads, Char and I had quiche.  It was quite a different kind of quiche from what I normally make.

I found myself analyzing it in the way that panelists on one of our favorite shows, "Check, Please, Bay Area" might, concentrating mostly on how fresh the salad was ("fresh" seems to be a buzz word in culinary descriptions these days!).  But it did taste fresh, if a tad over-dressed.  I liked the quiche, which was more airy than my custard, but I don't know what they used for crust.  Whatever it was, it soaked up all the moisture in the quiche and where you should have a nice crisp bottom crust with the bacon and onions, all I got was mushy bacon.  The shoestring potatoes were my favorite kind of fries, but it was all too much and I left part of everything.  When I got home and was feeling queasy, I wondered if that was why I couldn't finish my lunch--I think I was the only one of the 4 of us who didn't.

Before we left the restaurant I made a stop in the bathroom and discovered they had a rather unique way of marking "men" and "women."

I kind of got the idea that Ken had had his way with Barbie and she looked a bit the worse for wear, while Ken still looked bright and chipper.

We wandered around a little in Sonoma, but had to get back on the road, each to our respective corners of California.  I was feeling worse and worse on the long ride home.  Just definitely not up to snuff.  And the ride seemed interminable because they are widening part of the little highway we had to travel and for the better part of 30 minutes, I think my top speed was 5 mph and that wasn't very often.   It was a joy to finally connect to I-80 and be able to go at a normal speed.

Rich was here to get Pat and I staggered into the house.  Ifelt bad that Jeri and Phil were here and all I wanted to do was sleep.  I finally went into the couch and slept for about an hour and a half and felt almost human when I woke up, though I still didn't feel like food, so I fixed dinner for the others and sat there drinking water.

At some point I remembered that the Emmys were on and had started about 2 hours earlier, so I just let the show record and then when dinner was over and Jeri was going upstairs to practice her cello, I watched the show, being careful not to look at any social media first.  I hate knowing the results before I get a chance to see the show.

I will say that "flaming red" seemed to be the color of the evening for women's dresses and nobody wore a more dramatic dress than Uzo Aduba, who plays "Crazy Eyes" on Orange is the New Black.  She was stunning....and so nice that she won an Emmy, though her category had been given out the day before, so we didn't get a chance to see her accept.  I also wept, as I expected to, at Billy Crystal's tribute to his friend Robin Williams.

So it's now pushing 1 a.m. and it's time for me to head off to sleep, hoping I'll feel better in the morning.  Jeri and Phil leave tomorrow and we will miss them, but we are going to Boston next month, so it won't be for long.

Day 57:  Lunching with friends of more than 50 years.