Spontaneous Delight

My July was practically booked before it even started. It's all good stuff, mind you, but there's something truly lovely about the unplanned. I assume that everyone is just as scheduled as I am, so I rarely dare to call anyone last minute about anything. But yesterday at work I started craving Hugo's Tacos with a vengeance. And, because of the wicked heat, Menchie's. The last few nights have been real summer nights, the kind where you can walk around in a tank and shorts and not be chilly. It's a desert out here and it took me a good 15 years to accept that you usually need a sweater after the sun goes down, even in the summer. But not this week and I loves me warm summer nights where I can saunter around unhindered by layers. So I left work and headed to Hugo's, on the way calling KK and letting her know of my hankering and asking her to join. A little while later she called me back and said "heck ya" and we met up for my favorite Hugo's Tacos treat, the Bowl. Interesting, well-seasoned chunks of chicken on a bed of rice, white beans, and lettuce sprinkled with a little cotija cheese, a dollop of guacamole, and best of all, their honey chipotle salsa that is simply stunningly sumptuous.

After lots of eating, talking, and a little saunter through Whole Foods next door, where we sampled gummy bear vitamins for kids (those things are good and thusly, I could never buy them because I would eat the bottle for an afternoon snack and be dangerously packed with vitamins. Childhood confession: Mom, I used to take the Johnson's orange baby aspirin out of your medicine cabinet and eat fistfuls of them because they tasted like candy.). Then to Menchie's for some fro yo. I don't know what it is that makes Menchie's such a hotspot with white people. Seriously. It seems like the only place in LA where everyone is white. It's a shocker, like when I go down to Orange County or mosey over to South Pasadena. I'm so used to being a minority at work and in my neighborhood that it seems odd to be staring at a bunch of white folk all of the sudden. Anyway, it is probably some of the best frozen yogurt around (yes, Marianne - Golden Spoon is awesome, too) and you get to serve yourself and have a choice of at least 10 flavors. This seems to make people crazy giddy. The simple pleasures. Then we just went for a summer night stroll around the neighborhood and talked. Very nice, simple night. Oh, how me likee spontaneity...