The Beauty Of It All

OK, I admit it, I'm a bit bummed. The story goes like this--I slept in this morning. Well, actually I laid in. I stayed in bed late and watched clips of old Shirley Temple movies. Thus my earlier post of the day. I loved Shirley Temple when I was a kid and I've probably watched all of her movies several times each. Shirley did something for me. What exactly I'm not sure. but all the singing and dancing certainly had something to do with it. She touched me in some deep and sweetly profound way.

So anyway, I finally pulled myself up out of bed and walked to the natural foods store which is approximately six blocks away. Have I mentioned before how appreciative I am to live downtown? Yes, of course I have. Anyway, it was about 11:00 by the time I made it out the door to get myself a coffee and yogurt. The coffee was for the walk home and the yogurt was for the strawberries I bought last night at the Thursday night downtown market.

My sweet friend K. came by last night and I made us Cosmopolitans. Now, I've never been much of a drinker...well, yes, of course I have, on and off. I'm a social drinker mostly but up until recently my habit has been to usually keep it simple with wine or beer or if I'm out drinking I'll often order whatever my companion is drinking. I have a friend who always has her evening cocktail so when she has us over for dinner, or when I happen to stop by at the right time, I've gotten used to partaking in cocktail hour with her. Then there is another friend who drinks shots of whiskey when she goes out dancing, and another friend who brought Scotch to a party which I really enjoyed. The other night I had a friend over for dinner and she brought all the makings for margaritas. Then there is the friend who ordered me a martini the first night we met, it was my first martini ever and I now I have an infinity towards them (and him.) Needless to say, I've been influenced in the alcoholic beverage department and I've decided that I want to educate myself more about how to make various cocktails. I decided to start with martinis so I looked up martini recipes on the Internet and found several but in the process I got intrigued with Cosmopolitans so I ended up there as a starting point. I found the perfect antique martini shaker for $10. at the second hand store just 1/2 alley up from my house, along with two martini glasses for .50 each. I then secured the proper ingredients and voila, I was ready to make my hostess of the martini mostess, er, well, cosmopolitan, debut.

Back to my friend K. We made a date for the downtown Thursday night market and happy hour and happy hour ended up being in my own kitchen. With martini glasses in hand, we made our way out the back door for a tour of Jerry's and mine new home on wheels. Afterwards, as Jerry was drumming for the Afro-Brazilian dance troupe at the downtown city plaza we made our way there for the second of three performances before making our way through the market and buying a few fruits, vegetables and flowers along with frozen-chocolate-strawberry shish kabobs for dinner. Then we came back home for another cosmopolitan and conversation about health care and insurance companies! Not my favorite topic but we somehow ended up there and it was a lovely evening just the same.

Now back to this morning after my walk and coffee--with a bowl of yogurt and strawberries with some almonds on top, I got all appreciative of the beauty of my life and I was just feeling so thankful of the moment I decided I had to capture it on camera. I went throughout my house and yard, snapping photos of many simple pleasures in my life that make me happy such as cherries hanging in the tree and the colors and textures of the new fabric I bought to cover the cushions in our motor home. I planned to download the pictures onto my computer and then post them on this blog, which I was originally going to write this morning while I eat my bowl of yogurt, strawberries and almonds. Instead, I got all distracted by my camera which refused to download the pics and thus the post never happened. I proceeded to have a wonderful day regardless.

At this point I've just drank another cosmopolitan, made love with my husband, and we are leaving for the Downtown Friday Night Concert In The Park with Big Mo with plans to meet up with a lovely friend.

I have no pictures to go along with this post, and yet as I write I realize that I'm not bummed at all. I'll keep you updated on my bartending abilities. Jerry isn't much of a drinker but he likes mohitos so I'll be learning to make those next.

Recipe for Cosmopolitans:

4 parts vodka
2 parts cranberry juice (not just cranberry but the cocktail stuff--by the way, I think pomegranate juice would be really yummy--who knows maybe just cranberry would be too)
1 part triple sec
1 part lime juice
fill martini shaker with crushed ice, shake, and fill 2 martini glasses!