Dreaming of California and Other Exotic Places

My fingers were numb when I came in from the barn this evening. The wind chill makes the temperature about five below right now, and we got several inches of snow yesterday. I had a harrowing adventure driving my husband to the airport while this unexpected little blizzard created a snow and ice nightmare Thursday morning. Cars without 4-wheel drive were spinning wildly around the highways. I witnessed at least eight huge accidents, with many cars and trucks, several of which almost hit our sturdy old tank. These are the days that I really love our old Landcruiser, or the Landcrusher, as my husband likes to call it.

I locked the horses inside early today because the wind was howling. I’ll go out later tonight and give them more hay to stoke their furnaces again. The cold is supposed to drag on all weekend, I’m sad to say. So, when I was yanking off my wool socks and my daughter complained that she was hungry, I decided to create a mini-vacation.

I pulled out the avocados and whipped up some guacamole. All those years living in California have made us addicted to Mexican food. I always have tortillas, salsa, cilantro, black beans, avocados and queso in the kitchen, not to mention fresh limes. My friends and neighbors in New England tease me about it, but my husband especially appreciates it. Munching on just one little blue corn chip with some guacamole was enough to boost my spirits and start me California dreaming. I realized that I even had margarita fixings. Things were definitely looking up.

It reminded me of being in my 20’s, living in New York City, working at NBC as a lowly page. Nobody had money for vacations. My friends and I used to go to Trader Vic’s restaurant in the Plaza Hotel and order silly rum drinks with names like “the fog-cutter” or “Maui wowie”. We’d share a platter of Polynesian appetizers and pretend that we were somewhere warm and exotic. Then, we’d tramp outside into the snow and head back to our dumpy tiny apartments. It was all we could afford, but it always did the trick to cheer us up in February.

One bonus for me in all this frigid weather is that the moon is full and every star in the sky is out tonight. And for Silk and Siete, there’s the bonus of carrots before bedtime. It could be worse.