A weekend with Julia

As Bobby mentioned in his "Sunday Summary", I took a trip to Milwaukee this weekend to help celebrate my friend's birthday. I arrived solo Friday night feeling fancy-free and strangely homesick...already?! I think this pregnancy is stunting my desire for adventure ;) Anyway, it was 10:30 at night but we decided to go grocery shopping. Julia had invited 10 friends to her house the next afternoon for a fancy English tea party. We must be ready!

We picked up a heap of ingredients and went home to bed. I got to sleep in for the first time in many, many years. What a treat! Then Julia and I got to work in the kitchen preparing a sumptuous feast of teeny finger sandwiches, scones, and other delicacies. Here's what I remember from the menu:

Mint cucumber sandwiches
Dill cucumber sandwiches
Smoked turkey and homemade cranberry sauce sandwiches
Roast beef and homemade apricot chutney sandwiches
Crumpets (a lucky find at the grocery store)
Pumpkin scones
Chocolate chip scones
Orange cranberry scones
(served with clotted cream...kinda like a mildly sweet, slightly sour whipped cream)
Pumpkin cake (cream cheese frosting built in!)
Vanilla cream puffs
Herbal teas and a variety of cocoa were also served

Julia donned her fancy Jane Austen-style dress and poured out for all. She had worked hard on the spread, too, which was beautiful. I loved meeting her witty and welcoming friends. Julia received a few presents that we all swooned over: a picture frame with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy (A&E Pride and Prejudice mini series), a picture frame with the "new" Dr. Who (I have yet to experience this series), and a huge volume of "Miss Manners" letters. There was plenty of laughter and conversation to fill the afternoon!

Julia and I were both exhausted after the party. So much work! So much fun! We just crashed on the couch and munched on Belly Flops (another thoughtful birthday gift!), chatting, until it was time to dress for the opera that night. Julia had made a perfectly creamy and heartwarming butternut squash soup earlier that day so we could eat and run as necessary. We packed some pumpkin cake in her purse just in case we got the munchies between acts.

On our way to the opera, we stopped at a Trader Joe's grocery. I had never been to TJ's, but it had been recommended again and again to me by several friends. Julia was curious to check it out, too. I was amazed at the funky variety of products and the excellent prices. We wandered every aisle, tasted free samples, and picked up a few souvenirs. I purchased a large wedge of St. Andre (a super-mild stinky cheese from France that brought back fond memories of trips to Liberty Heights in SLC with my sister, Heidi), a wedge of domestic gruyere cheese, a small peppered salami, and 2 pounds of dry wild rice. Wild rice is hard to find by itself in C-U. Now that I can make delicious artisan bread in 5 minutes a day ;) (thanks, Ashley, for the recommendation), stinky cheese may become a regular inhabitant of my home.

The opera itself was lackluster. I had SUCH high hopes, since Tosca has been my favorite tragedy ever since I first saw it in Salt Lake City. I just couldn't get into the story this time. The characters were less lovable and more absurd. The sets on stage were minimal, at best, and the tower she was supposed to leap from was nothing but a staircase. Disappointing!

Julia and I got home late and went straight to bed. I got to sleep in AGAIN! *sigh* what a great treat. We ate scones for breakfast and then settled down to watch the new "Emma" mini series (4 episodes). It finished just in time for me to shower and pack and rush to Julia's church. We were only a few minutes late :) Church was deathly silent, and I didn't have a 2-year-old climbing all over me, so I got to listen pretty well. Messages on gratitude. After the first hour of church, Julia and I said our goodbyes and she led me to the freeway home.

It's a 4.5 hour drive home. I had a lot of time to surf the radio and think. I was in the mood for more church, though, so I settled on the preaching stations whenever there was one available. Messages on mercy, hypocrisy, gratitude, and resisting temptation rattled around in my brain all the way home. I wondered why I was so willing to listen to 4 hours of sermons on the radio when I always have a hard time mustering any interest in Ensign articles or 'extracurricular' broadcasts. I think it's related to the amount of personal responsibility I feel in response to the message...messages coming from my own faith, I feel a greater responsibility. Messages from other faiths just don't use the vocabulary words that actually prick my conscience (i.e. Visiting Teaching, regular personal scripture study, meaningful personal prayer, every member a missionary, etc.). Even without the pricking vocabulary, I managed to come home with a renewed determination to get more out of my scripture study.

Overall, a lovely weekend. Julia and I will be getting together again in a couple weeks to see the Lyric Opera of Chicago's rendition of "The Merry Widow." It's a comedy. That's the last of my operatic adventures for a while and the finishing touch to my 30th Year Celebrations. Now to plan my 40th Year Celebrations!