Turns out I've been eating lettuce wrong all
these years. I'll bet you have too.
Today I met my friend Lisa for lunch.
Lisa and I both worked for Women's Health Associates in the "golden years,"
before the Sutter system ruined it. She has always been a good friend
and every so often -- every year or so -- we think about each other and get
together for lunch.
We had gone several years without seeing each
other when we met for tea a couple of years ago, when I had a Groupon for a
quaint tea room in nearby Dixon and when the person I had intended to go to
tea with could not come with me, I called Lisa and invited her.
As you do, when you haven't seen each other
in a long time, you start with the usual questions. What are you doing
now? How's the husband? How're the kids? (Actually "how's the
husband" can be a dangerous topic, given the rate of divorce these days.)
I was not prepared for the bombshell she
dropped, which was that one of her children had died two years before.
I was so sad for so many reasons, that she had lost her son, primarily, but
that nobody that we knew told me about it. I recall so strongly in the days
after David and Paul died, the people around with whom I felt the most
comfortable were a couple who had also lost a child.
I think it was good for her that we could
talk about losing children without it becoming one of those uncomfortable
subjects that it often is when people who have not been through that
terrible experience meet you.
We left tea determined to stay in touch more
closely and we sort of have. Today's lunch came about because both of
us have relatives at Atria (her mother-in-law has been there for three
years) and we were going to have lunch and see Still Alice together,
but it turned out it has not come to Davis yet, so we decided to go to lunch
anyway.
Osteria Fasulo is a delightful little Italian
restaurant, tucked away at the edge of
Village Homes, the
country's first all solar-powered community, with community gardens for
growing fresh produce to serve at the restaurant.
When I read over the menu, my eyes lit on the
only selection that included Dungeness crab. "Grilled Romaine lettuce
topped with Dungeness crab, olives and boiled eggs, lemon and olive oil
dressing." Salads aren't usually my lunch of choice, when I'm being
treated to a fancy restaurant, but I ordered this.
Oh. my. word.
Who knew that "grilled lettuce" could be so
delicious! It had the smokey flavor of a barbeque mixed with the lemon
dressing, and some brown sauce that was under the lettuce too. After
the first bite, I didn't even care about how much crab was on my lunch!
Maybe I should start barbequing my salads
from now on. Maybe it will help me enjoy them more!
At the end of the meal, the waiter who had
seen Lisa give me a birthday present (2 weeks early), surprised us with two tiny meringues
topped with a berry sauce and a lit candle for my birthday. The
perfect end to a perfect lunch.
After lunch, I drove to Atria to visit my
mother, who acted as if I hadn't been there in two weeks (it had been two
days). She was remarkably "with it" today. Other than asking me
a dozen times what I was going to do in the afternoon, she really engaged
and I could have a conversation with her. In fact, I brought her a
fund raising card from St. Baldrick and told her of the overwhelming, and
humbling, response I've had to my request for support yesterday (I had to up
my goal from $500 to $1,000 because I reached $500 in less than 24 hours).
Thank goodness, she did not get angry at the
thought of my head being shaved, as she usually does, and she actually said she
wanted to make a contribution, and gave me a check for $50. Whew.
I stayed an hour. I've been cutting my visits shorter lately because
we have nothing to say to each other, but we did today and it was very nice.
When I left, she decided to walk me out to
the front of the building. She won't go out the front door, but she
stood there and waved goodbye to me as I left.
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