Orange Blossom Time in the Desert

.....and the air smells so sweet......

So, in addition to the usual round of gym and bridge, we also had.....

....zumba classes.  Well, technically, I had started them before this, but now I have pictures...

...this is the Mizell Senior Center, where the classes are held.  I love the architecture...

...my special pals....

...the instructor.....

...and an overview.  And no, there will be no pictures of me sweating.....

...lots of pool time....

....a documentary about Antarctica, put on by the Osher folks (to remind you, I am a member of the Osher School of Life Long Learning, which, in spite of its dreadfully pretentious name, is really a great asset).  I am starting to get excited about the upcoming Antarctic trip (the date is set, folks, January, 2017)....

....the regular Thursday party, now with the longer days and hotter weather, back at poolside. (more pictures next time) ..

....coffee and a Danish with friends Geoff and Tom on their deck (yes, that is their pool in the background)...

...a lunch and lecture, suggested by friend (from the gym class) Judy, on stress and "mindfulness", the newest California buzzword.  (Let me put it to you this way:  I missed the first day of the bridge tournament to do this with Judy.  It was great spending time with her, but, really, I should have done the tournament.  A bunch of California woo-woo shit)....

....and at least one day at the bridge tournament...

.....here is our erstwhile director Scott.....

.....my sometimes partner Laurel, from Lethbridge (now gone back to the cold north)..

...and my Saturday partner, Darren...

....who, several days after this picture was taken, had a heart attack at the bridge table, just three weeks shy of his 52nd birthday (he is shaken and scared, but will fully recover) ......

You've heard me talk about Barbara Seagram before, the famed Canadian bridge guru, who has taught in Vancouver a number of times.  She was here, and we met over friend Robin's house in La Quinta for a "girls" breakfast...

...we started on Robin's patio....

...and ended up in a La Quinta dive (if anything in La Quinta can be called a dive) called L'Egg.  As you can see, the decor was, well interesting (all paintings done by the owner and available for sale)...

...and the food and company were great too.  Here are Robin and the infamous Barbara...

...and me too...

That was Tuesday.  Barbara's seminars were at the bridge club on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, with bridge play in the afternoon.

Friends Art and Wally have moved out to Indio, out beyond the bridge club in Palm Desert, so I took the opportunity to join them, and Mariah and Mar, for dinner on Wednesday night.  We went to their place first, and then had dinner at Mimi's

...Art is still recuperating from a multitude of serious health issues, so we were happy he felt up to going out.

.....especially as Mariah and Mar were - very reluctantly - heading back to Seattle on Friday, after our customary goodbye meal at Sherman's Deli (and yes, it is our "hello" meal as well)

So, that brings us to today.  A few days ago, I got a call from friend Joannie, newly arrived from Vancouver (or, to be exact, Salt Spring Island).  She had an extra ticket to Manon Lascaux, the current Metropolitan Opera Live in HD offering.  She and husband Jim stay in a resort around the corner from me, so I picked her up this morning and off we went.  Well, it will never be my favourite opera, but it was extraordinarily well staged and well sung (I have never seen a steamier Manon than Kristine Opolais, or a sexier Des Grieux than Roberto Alagna either).  Two thumbs up.  (Good thing too.  I'm seeing the encore on Wednesday night with friends Geoff and Marvin - different Geoff).

So, what else can I tell you?  I finished "A Little Life".  It was a wonderful, horrible book, so sad.  Made me think, more than is comfortable, about how my dysfunctional childhood might have maimed me.  Not physically, of course, but emotionally.

On a lighter note, I gobbled up Ruth Rendell's "From Doon with Death", the first Inspector Wexford mystery.  She's developed the characters significantly over the years, but it was still good to read the beginning of the story.

Also finished "The Year of Lear", another book about Shakespeare by James Shapiro (who also wrote Contested Will, about the controversy about whether Shakespeare really wrote the plays).  Great book, and talks in some detail about equivocation, which I knew was the name of one of my favourite plays but didn't know was a real, living, Catholic Church concept).

And am now finishing up The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson.  I read it before, a number of years ago, but it is worth rereading.  It is about the creation of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 (origin of the Ferris Wheel, Crackerjax, and a number of other things), and the serial killer on the loose in the city at the same time.  All his books are well written, although some topics attract me more than others.

I think next up will be a book on the building of the Trans Siberian Railway.  After all, 2018 will be here before you know it, and the Trans Siberian Railway is slated for then.

Oh, and one more thing.  I have added something to the bucket list.  I want to do the North West Passage.  Any takers?

To Vancouver and back

When I left you last - and yes, I know that it was more than a month ago, don't nag - I was on my way to Vancouver.  I was there for 21 days.  I worked for 21 days straight.  I am here to tell you, I am too old to do that any more.  Admittedly, I tried to have a social life as well, but I used to be able to do both work and play.  I guess I still did it, but the end result was, I was bone tired when all was said and done.  And being bone tired makes me feel old.

Part of it was the nature of the work.  I was doing oral hearings, and they are always fraught with emotion for me.  And they are messy, in the sense that they almost never go smoothly.

But, as noted above, there was some play time as well.  There was sushi and bridge with the boys, twice, once at John's place and once at mine.  There was a movie with friend Deb.  (45 Years.  The critics loved it.  I found it dreadful.  If I saw one more soulful look......perhaps the older actors couldn't remember their lines, and thought the looks would work just as well.  Anyway, I don't care what the critics thought, two thumbs down from me.)

We had two Pho lunches in one week instead of our usual Monday only; one of our departing colleagues refused all offers of a party, and opted for a celebratory Pho instead.  Hence, two in one week.

The soon to be departed is Lisa, the furthest away on the right...

There were various coffee dates and lunches with colleagues, ex-colleagues and friends..... (camera not always in evidence) .....

And, of course theater.  January being a slow season for restaurants in Vancouver, we have something called Dine-Out Vancouver in January, where participating restaurants have Prix Fixe (have I spelled that right?) and/or half price menus.  Tom and I went (as we usually do this time of year) to The Water Street Cafe....

We both love the restaurant, but seldom spring for it at full retail.  We followed it with theater - something called The Motherfucker with the Hat.  Usually, I don't go for a lot of profanity in the theater (Sam Sheppard makes me a little sick to my stomach), but this was such a good play that it just seemed to be part of the life that they were showing us a slice of.  Once again illustrating one of my favourite adages - that's what we have friends for, to drag us kicking and screaming to do things that we otherwise wouldn't have done.

A second theater outing was more conventional, Stephen Sondheim's Company at Jericho Beach.  I love musicals, and I love Sondheim (the language is the polar opposite of TMFWTH, just glorious), but it is a silly play, I think...

Friend and former neighbor from Salt Spring Island, Jean, is between city planning jobs and was coming to Vancouver from Salt Spring.  She stayed with me for a few nights, and it was lovely to catch up - it has literally been years since we have seen each other, although we play Scrabble on Facebook nightly....Here we are, at my now-go-to local Indian dive, The Original Tandoori....

 And, of course, I couldn't be in Vancouver for three weeks without going for dim sum.  The usual cast of characters went back to our favourite, Fisherman's Terrace, in Richmond, and it never disappoints.  ....

I did manage to connect with old law-school friend Philip and his wife Linda.  He lives in Victoria, and is seldom over on my side of the puddle.  They were staying at The Metropolitan Hotel, one of numerous boutique hotels that have sprung up like mushrooms in downtown Vancouver (they say I can highly recommend it.  Certainly, the martinis at the bar were good - and generous (not usual in Vancouver, where they measure, they don't pour like they do in the Desert) - as was the food.  I was sorry to have forgotten the camera for that outing - as I say, I don't get to see them that often.

Lunch with colleague Julie was memorialized....

.....mostly because, although we have known - and respected, I think - each other for years at work, this is our first lunch, and, I think, the start of a friendship.

I even had friends Deidre and Susan over for dinner - I cooked, even!  (and yes, I know how.  I even do it fairly well.  It's just that I find it way too labour intensive to do for just one!  I got good reviews, so I guess I haven't totally lost the knack.  God, food is expensive (like everything else) in Vancouver, though.  I swear, it would have been cheaper to eat out!

February 6 is the anniversary of David's death.  I can hardly believe it has been 10 years.  As most of you know by now, I go out for dinner with my husband twice a year, on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death.  I always have the same meal, bourbon and prime rib (David's two favourite food groups), followed by key lime pie if it is available (another of David's favourites).  Some people seem to think this makes me morbid..

I don't think I am morbid.  I still have a relationship with David, is all; it is just different.....

Of course, being winter in Vancouver, it rained for 19 of the 21 days I was there.  It did clear up for the last two days, however, letting my have two wonderful walks and some wonderful sunsets.

And on February 10, I flew back to paradise, a.k.a.  Palm Springs.  Friend Mariah picked me up from the wonderful Palm Springs airport, and we had our customary lunch at Sherman's Deli.

And then the Palm Springs rounds begin.  Gym, five times a week.  Zumba classes.  Bridge (way too often.  What can I say; I'm addicted.).

Dinners...

(That's Mariah and her friend Joyce, and yours truly, at our favourite Mexican joint, La Tablita...

I even hosted our weekly neighborhood Thursday party the day after I got back....

In March, April and May, we hold these by the pool, but it is still too cool when the sun goes down, so we have been rotating houses in the neighborhood, and it was my turn.

Of course, there are the movies.  Mariah and I saw Carol, another one that the critics raved over and I hated.  Another two thumbs down. Make that another two thumbs down for Hail, Caesar.  As far as I am concerned, the Coen brothers haven't made a good movie since Fargo!  However, I did love the new Star Wars.  It was neat to see old Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, and the young crew coming in.  And for a change, I actually understood the action.  And one last movie (I have been back in Palm Springs less than two weeks, and have seen four movies and played bridge seven times - do you think I might be overdoing it?  And you wonder why I don't have time to write blog posts....), Hush Up Sweet Charlotte.  Are you guys old enough to have heard of Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, the old Betty Davis movie.  Well, this is a take off on that, done completely in drag.......I walked out after a while.  Oh, well, I have walked out of more expensive performances....

Our complex had a meatball and spaghetti dinner for Valentine's Day....

Lots of familiar faces, but some new ones as well...

I've entertained twice.  Hank, my friend from San Francisco, was on the way from Phoenix to San Francisco, and stopped by for a few nights.  Mariah and Joyce joined us for breakfast ....

And I even had Mariah over for Cobb Salad one night (another one of those things that is too fussy to make for one).

And one final dinner at La Tablita with Laurel...

...who I met at the bridge tournament last December, and is soon to head back to the cold North.

Mariah and I finally made it to the street fair at College of the Desert, and even with the Canadian dollar at ridiculously low levels, I managed to spend some money.

And to top it off, it is finally warm enough for pool time, so my one retirement skill is back in play - I can still read a book on a float in the pool without getting the book wet!

Speaking of reading, aside from reading John's Economists in Vancouver, and the usually Sunday New York Times in both places, I also finished a book about Ghengis Khan by Jack Weatherford (in anticipation of the Trans Siberian Railway trip - actually a great read) and a new novel called A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, which I am in the middle of.  It is very Dickensian, and I can't put it down, but quite depressing as well - I don't dare read it before I go to bed....

So, once again, you are caught up with my boring life.  And once again, I promise not to be so long in writing.  But you can see, it is not exactly as if I am sitting around.....