I didn’t get STARBUCKS this morning, because I was so busy fixing up the apartment for Richie’s arrival tonight that I didn’t have time. I drove straight to work and didn’t even stop at the coffee cart. I had purchased INTERNATIONAL FOODS CAFÉ MOCHA this week at KEIL’S, so I figured I’d try it. It wasn’t very good. So, I wasted money on a jar of FOLGERS DECAF COFFEE, and now I wasted money on a tin of INTERNATIONAL FOODS CAFÉ MOCHA. I better stick to my brew-a-cup STARBUCKS. At least that tasted great!
I had a lovely day (as always) in HR. I did a huge filing job and scouted the entire firm for box-bottom legal-size pendaflex folders. If you know what they are, you know how great they work for large stacks of paper that need to be filed. If you don’t, it’s not important!
Anyway, I got the supplies I needed, typed up a lot of beautiful labels for the folders and got it all organized and into two drawers in the file room. I do enjoy organizing and making things look beautiful and work efficiently. It’s the best of both worlds!
I trained the KRM temp for an hour from 1-2. She’s not the brightest bulb in the bunch, I’ll tell you. I explain things to her, and then a few days later it’s like I never spoke to her about it. She even types up notes and instructions, but her notes don’t have all the details she originally wrote down, so she can’t work from the typewritten sheets.
Thank goodness I only had to work an hour, because my head was spinning when I got downstairs. Everyone leaves early on Fridays, so the place was practically empty by 4:00pm and I snuck out at 4:30pm. There was a lot of traffic, so I didn’t get home until 5:00pm. I decided to lie down until Rich called when his plane got in.
He called at 5:40pm, and I got up, got dressed, refreshed my make-up, and organized the apartment some more. He didn’t call again until 6:30pm – it took almost an hour to get from the airport to the HERTZ car rental place and get his car. He finally got here a little before 7:00pm. He put his suitcase in the apartment and we got in his rental – a silver Chrysler Sebring convertible (but the top was up) – and we drove to his friends’ house in La Jolla.
Rich is an optometrist, but I call him a “celebrity optometrist,” because he travels all over the world lecturing, teaching, and speaking about different optometrical health issues.
Lisa and John are also optometrists and have a practice together in Del Mar. They both went to school with Rich, and have known each other for almost 30 years.
They have a gorgeous house up on a hill. It was beautifully decorated with a mix of modern furniture and lovely vintage and antique pieces. The interesting thing was that all the antiques and vintage pieces were handed down from her parents and grandparents, which is the best way to collect things. She had a great vintage suitcase, and Lisa explained that her grandparents were from France and came to America with THAT suitcase. I thought that was SO fabulous! She also had their sewing table, and a few other tables and antique pieces.
I got to meet their daughter, Gina, but their other daughter, Lindsay was away at a Girl Scout’s camping trip in Julian – where I’m going tomorrow with Rosemary!
I also got to meet their 22-year-old cockatiel who looked like he was on his last leg, but was still very sweet.
We drove in John’s car to Prospect Avenue and had dinner at the CRAB CATCHER – the same restaurant where Kris treated me when she came in with Stephanie and Suzanna. I had the crab bisque with a roasted red pepper shrimp broth to start. It was so magnificent I would have licked the bowl if I could!
I then had the grilled prawns, which were herb marinated, over semolina fettuccine with roasted garlic, tomatoes and white wine. There was so much food and of course I ate all the shrimp, which were grilled to perfection, and left most of the pasta.
John, Rich and Lisa at the Crab Catcher!
Rich started with a Ceasar salad and then had the Halibut (he said he had a hankering for the halibut, but I said, “Just for the halibut?”). John started with a salad of wild arugula and roasted beets with teardrop tomatoes, fennel and a parmesan vinaigrette.
Lisa started with mussels in garlic and white wine and then had the Ono, which I had the last time I was there. It has an Alaskan king crab stuffing, Thai basil potatoes, and a grilled blood orange beurre blanc.
We all enjoyed the food so much. We shared a bottle of white wine, which Richie picked out (he’s quite the wine connoisseur). I just had a few sips and also ordered an unsweetened iced tea. John and Lisa treated us, which was so lovely and totally unexpected. We were stuffed, so instead of having dessert there, we decided to go for a little walk.
We decided to walk to a local gelato place (which I had never tried before) called GELATERIA FRIZZANTE. I explained to them that I was NOT wearing walking shoes (I had dressed up and was wearing a pink sparkly sweater set, a black lace skirt with a pale pink slip underneath and my VIA SPIGA black spiked heel mules. They are DEFINITELY not walking shoes. If we were going to go downtown as originally planned I would have worn practical shoes, because you could park blocks away, but I knew we were going to La Jolla where most restaurants have valet parking, so I figured we wouldn’t be walking much.
Anyway, I explained that I was NOT wearing walking shoes and asked how far away the place was. John said it wasn’t far away. We walked there (it was around three blocks) and on the way I showed them GILI ANNA’S and they were able to see a few of my pieces through the window. By the time we got to the Gelateria, my feet were hurting, but it wasn’t too bad.
Rich treated us all to gelato. I got half and half coffee and chocolate. They had some interesting flavors, but nothing that called to me, so I got my usual.
Rich got Bananas Foster. I’m not sure what Lisa and John got, but we all enjoyed it and ate as we walked. As we started walking back, John suggested we go a different way, so we could walk along the water.
Well, to make a long story short, it was at least a half mile and my feet were KILLING me, not to mention the fact that you don’t wear leather-sole Italian designer shoes when walking around city streets. It just ruins them! My feet were now positively BURNING and rubbing and hurting everywhere. I was miserable. John wanted to go a long way, so we could walk along the water, but I refused. I reminded them that I had explained I wasn’t wearing walking shoes! It’s obvious that Lisa doesn’t wear impractical shoes very often, because I could see he was totally oblivious.
I was telling Lisa that Eric is ALWAYS so considerate about things like that. He knows I always wear high heels and don’t like to walk far in them, so he’ll usually say, “You stay here and I’ll go get the car.” That’s my darling Eric. My knight in shining armor. He always takes care of me that way.
Anyway, we finally got back to the car (and not a moment too soon). When we got back to their house, I went inside to use their bathroom and took my shoes off the second I got inside.
We said our goodbyes and I told them I hope I’ll see them again. They really were a lovely couple and Lisa and I really hit it off. There was never a lull in the conversation and she was interesting and funny.
Then, I had my shoes off in the car driving home, and I made Rich drop me off right at the entrance and I waited for him while he parked and I walked barefoot up to the apartment.
I washed off my poor aching feet and put some moisturizer on. The thing that worried me the most is that I’m supposed to go walking ALL DAY tomorrow with Rosemary in Julian. We’re going to go window shopping, have lunch, see the sights, and enjoy the day. I don’t want to be worrying about aching feet!
When we got back to the apartment I told Rich I wanted him to sleep in the bedroom. He put up a big fight, until he laid down on my bed and felt how comfy it was. He then relented. He was practically asleep in his clothes and I went into the bathroom to wash up and then came out here to blog. He went into the bathroom, came out, said goodnight and went inside. I’m sure he’ll sleep like a baby. It’s SUCH a comfortable bed!
Tomorrow I’m going to take Rich out for breakfast, go to the post office and then wait for Rosemary to pick me up around 12:30pm. I’m so excited to go to Julian with her. She’s a lot of fun to be with and we always have a lot to talk about. Everyone’s been saying what a fun place Julian is (Lisa said tonight that she wants to go soon, because it’s the Apple Season there and it’s all about the apples!). I’m excited to have another fun day with a friend. I had such a great time last weekend with Jimmy and it’s nice to know I’ll have company tomorrow morning with Rich, and then get to spend the rest of the day with Rosemary!
Conrad and I will have a cozy night together out here in the living room and Rich will sleep like a king on the tempurpedic-style mattress. He’s going to be teaching all day on Sunday, so he needs his rest!