A Good Day

Today has been a good day.

Nathan left yesterday for L.A. to do some seismic data acquisition (that's fancy talk for "research"), so I was by myself today. I might have been mightily bored, but I have been saving up lots of errands for when we finally got a car, and I am one of those people who really likes running errands (especially the shopping kind), so I had a lovely day. I took my cousin to the airport, had the car inspected, had my glucose tolerance test, went to Trader Joe's (only one of the best grocery stores ever invented), went to Target, and went to Russo's (another one of the best grocery stores ever invented).

I just got back from Russo's, which is basically a produce market, but it's more or less upscale in the quality and atmosphere and cheap on the prices. This makes it high on Lauren's happy scale. One of the reasons today was such a good day was that I got to go to Russo's and take all the time I wanted to browse. I love looking at their produce because it inspires me. Don't you ever feel that way? When food is beautiful and at its peak, it makes me want to eat it and wonder what I could do with it. Anyway, not only does everything look wonderful, but Russo's also has a lot of things I've literally never seen before. They had this really spikey cucumber-looking thing called a bitter melon, they have a lot of Asian fruits and veggies I've never seen before, they had huge pomegranates, an amazing and inspirational assortment of cheeses, the best butter I've ever had (it's Irish), and so on. I picked up some local butternut, acorn, and carnival squash, along with some purple potatoes, fresh green beans, and so on. I was tempted by the fresh butternut squash ravioli, but I figured that since I got a butternut solely for the purpose of making my own butternut pasta, I'd pass it up this time.

Anyway, I don't know if any of you can relate, but I really enjoyed that trip to the market. For some reason, I find it really soothing to go by myself, not be rushed, and just browse.

Besides that, today was a beautiful day. It was sunny but chilly. That's another reason today was a good day. This weather just makes me feel good. Something about it just feels, I don't know, wholesome.

*By the way, if you live in the area and are wondering, Russo's is on Pleasant Street in Watertown.
**Also, this butternut squash pasta I made up (inspired by the ravioli) is yummy. Roast a squash, peel the skin off, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Mix with cooked penne, a little garlic alfredo, some rosemary, a dash or two of nutmeg, and salt & pepper. Yum.

On a totally different topic, I have been noticing lately that I'm becoming clumsier. I keep reading about how this happens during pregnancy, but I had not really noticed it in myself until the last week or so. I drop things continually. Three people picked up my dropped items in the grocery store today. And I have been cutting up a lot of apples and peppers for snacks lately, and I invariably drop a slice or two on the floor. And to top it all off, I dripped soup on my shirt today--not once, but twice. Both at lunch and at dinner. What is up with that?