Happy Holiday Weekend!

Forgive the lapse in writing--things have gotten a little crazy at work, and that seems to have taken up my every thinking minute, but this long holiday weekend has felt like one life affirming, restorative exhale. I've had some time to do some grinworthy things, like yoga at Jaya, pie at Four & Twenty Blackbirds (Strawberry Balsamic, and Buttermilk Chess pie to be deliciously exact), time with Katina and Alicia, a fabulous pool party at Caroline's snazzy new home, watching fireworks with mom, and brunches with excellent company at Prune and Cafe Gitane, which is my new favorite place. We had this lovely appetizer of Egyptian Dukkah, which is a nut and spice mixture. You dip your bread into olive oil and then into the mixture and pop it oh so happily into your mouth. I found a recipe here, and I'll have to try it out as soon as the weather dips below 95 and I can turn the oven on. (Seriously--high of 100 tomorrow? Mother Nature, I feel your ire about the oil spill, but send this weather over to England! It's their fault!)

It feels so luxurious to have time and mental spaciousness. It is a true vacation to be simple, tending to the house, reading (The 19th Wife is quite the page turner!), or just being present. Thomas Mann said, "Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state." How wonderful that feels! Independence celebration indeed!