Weekend

Ahhhhh, the luxury of a weekend with no homework.  Yesterday, instead of either grinding at the books or feeling guilty because I wasn't, I savored a day full of pure, guilt-free (well, relatively, anyway; there were still lovebugs floating around on my floors) enjoyment, from one end to the other.  Morning consisted of some long overdue girl time with Becca.  You see, I spent nearly every day of the past two years with her, until she moved on to her new career as a teacher.  While I am thrilled that she has begun this new phase of her life, one gets rather attached, spending that much time with a person that one loves, and one suffers a bit of withdrawal when one is deprived of said loved-one's company for too long.

We started off with a visit to the Haile Plantation farmer's market in Gainesville.  Becca has developed an interest in the Paleo diet (and CrossFit. I'm scared of her.  But that's another story.) and part of that eating plan is to be more aware of the food that one consumes, including where it comes from.  She was thinking that perhaps a farmer's market would provide a source for some of the foods that she wants to eat.  I'm always on-board when it comes to natural, unprocessed, healthy foods, and if those foods are produced locally, so much the better.  That being said, I haven't been overly impressed with the offerings at the local farmer's markets I've visited, so my expectations were pretty low.  I must admit, though; I was very pleasantly surprised.  Granted, the market was pretty small; maybe 20 or 30 vendors, max, but their wares had some pretty serious cred.  (Leave it to Gainesville!  Say what you will, those college-town hippies are light-years ahead of the local pack in the gastronomic arena, anyway.)  Offerings included grass-fed meats, free-range eggs and poultry, seafood, cheese, coffee, produce, breads, cakes and pastries, jams, mustards, and honey products, all locally produced, not to mention a few quirkier items including Indian take-out, cashew cream cheese (perfect for vegans, raw food devotees, or the occasional Paleo fan) and positively delicious lemonade and mixed fruit drinks.  (I could totally see incorporating those fruit juices into my everyday life.)

(I know, the pictures are kinda bad.  I have to get over my embarrassment at snapping pictures of strangers...)

As we browsed, we both became more and more inspired to incorporate foods like this into our daily regimens.  How exciting to think of having delicious, healthy options, many of them organic, this readily available!  Granted, Gainesville isn't quite as close to home as we're accustomed to, and one does pay a little more to eat like this, but with a bit of planning and thought, a better lifestyle really is within reach.

What I'm thinking of doing right off the bat is joining a CSA (which stands for community supported agriculture).  One of the vendors at the market was offering memberships, and after giving it some thought, I think I'm sold.  For a reasonable fee, I'll get a box full of produce every week from October through June, containing whatever happens to be in season that week.  Everything is grown organically right in Hawthorne, which means that not only will I be eating far more healthily, what with all of the vegetables arriving in my kitchen every week, but I'll be able to incorporate more variety into my diet (yesterday's offerings included callaloo, hibiscus flowers and sweet potato greens among other things) AND support a local farmer.  All things that make a person positively glow with good feelings.

So, yeah, anyway.  We were pretty stoked.  We decided to grab lunch when we were done shopping, and, oddly enough, neither of us was craving a burger...  Funny how that happens!  We popped into Jones B-Side; after a morning spent soaking up the gospel of healthy eating, it somehow felt appropriate.  After browsing the menu and turning up our noses at the heavier, meat and carb-laden offerings, we both settled on the vegetable and chevre-laden omelet, served with grits and multi-grain toast.  Then we got to have some fun.  When our meals were served, Becca reached into her purse and pulled out her just-purchased jar of homemade, low-sugar pear-ginger butter.  Oh, we reveled in that!  No nasty Smuckers for us...  Lots of hilarity at our apparent food-snottiness.  (Don't worry; we both have enough junk food in our systems to remove any danger of taking this whole thing too seriously.)

After enjoying lunch (eaten on the patio, enjoying the breeze and the NICE, LOW TEMPERATURES!) and popping in at Alachua Farm and Lumber to assess firearms for Tyler (no, I am not panicked about this at all...), we headed home.  Becca had to get out to the farm, so the portion of my day spent with her came to a close.  But the day itself was young...  After a quick rest, I picked up Nat and Tune and we three headed out to Perry for Pickin in the Pines, a local bluegrass-fest.  It ended up being extremely small and low-key, but after weeks of non-stop craziness that left little or no time to spend together, it was pure bliss to have a couple of hours of chat time driving down the backroads of North Florida, and then an hour or two of just chilling, listening to music, browsing the jewelry booths (Nat and I both hit the jackpot), petting pooches, sipping milkshakes and munching on nachos, and spending time with two of my favorite people in all the world.  It really wasn't much in terms of an outing, and yet, I was left with a feeling of genuine contentment and satisfaction.  All in all, beginning to end, I really couldn't have asked for a better Saturday.

Such a gorgeous guy.  Sigh.