9:22 a.m. They're about to name a new Pope. I was watching Today on TV, when they switched to the Vatican where grey-white smoke was fluttering forth from the chimney, but was straight away dismissed as black. No Pope. So I went and took a nice, long shower. When I emerged, I heard bells ringing on the television and the sounds of people cheering, and it was official: a new Pope had in fact been elected.

I'm not even catholic, yet I'm caught up in the excitement of the moment, just as I was caught up in the mourning when Pope John Paul II passed away. I can't explain it, it just is.

So, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Monterey, CA while my friend Jewel tends to some business here. We came up yesterday after meeting up in SLO for coffee and Rummy. She invited me to come along after I told her I'd been laid off. She figured I had the time, and besides we'd have fun. She said I need to have a little fun now. She understands. She's been there, as have many of my readers, who have e-mailed me with encouraging words and cyber hugs. It's been nice, it really has.

And, now, on to San Juan Capistrano Vacation Part Two: The Tea.

The Tea is getting its own entry because it was so incredibly fantastic! Jewel and I had our Tea at the Tea House on Del Rio, in the historic part of San Juan Capistrano. It is a lovely old house surrounded by beautiful flowers and had this fabulous "shower" fountain.

The Tea House had a variety of teas we could enjoy, but in the end we went with the Victorian Tea, which not only had the usual scones and cucumber sandwiches, but also salad and soup, and a glass of champagne to start with. We each had a glass of Wycliff Brut Extra Dry, which was fantastic! It was slightly sweet, and filled with gentle bubbles, unlike the harsh, burning alcohol and violent fizziness most champagnes have. It is by far the best I've ever had. Better than Veuve Clicquot, better than Dom Perignon, better than Perrier-Jouet. (We loved it so much we recommended it to a pair of women who came in later, but unfortunately they were snooty little bitches, and were unimpressed. They went on to be catty and bitchy and generally amusing to us the rest of the afternoon.)

10:20 a.m. Here we go. It's official: we have a new Pope - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been named Pope Benedict XVI. There he is now. On the balcony. Smiling and waving to the crowd. He looks like a nice man. I pray he's a good man; a good leader for the Catholic Church.

Okay, back to the Tea. After the champagne, we got our tea. I went with the usual Earl Grey, which is my all-time favourite, and Jewel chose the Queen Katherine's, which she deemed wonderful. We enjoyed our first cup of perfectly seeped tea with delicious, straight-from-the-oven currant scones with berry jam and cream. Mmm. They were melt-in-your-mouth good!

Next came the soup - cream of tomato. Carefully and wonderfully homemade, and our delightful waitress (who's name escapes me), made a brave attempt at creating a heart out of cream on top. Bless her heart! (No pun intended. Seriously, she was a delightful woman!) This was by far the best soup I've ever had! Beats Campbell's by a long, long shot!

After the soup was the salad. It was made with pesticide-free, garden-fresh lettuce and vegetables, and was garnished with a lovely flower also from their pesticide-free garden. Our waitress told us the name of the flower - as well as all the flowers that garnished our dishes, but I didn't write them down, and have now forgotten what they were.

Finally came the sandwiches: cucumber and cream cheese, smoked ham, and egg salad, along with fresh fruit, banana bread and cute (and yummy) little tort thingies. Yeah, I forgot what they were, too. It's been too long and too much has happened. My mind is just . . . gah. Anyway, the sandwiches and fruit and everything was delicious!

For our dessert, Jewel and I chose a Lemon Tart, which was sweet and tart and simply delightful . . .

. . . and our waitress stopped by to give us the story of the Tea House, which was interesting and nice. Seems that the owners of all the businesses along the historic stretch of town have to also live there, so the owners of the Tea House on Los Rios moved their Victorian-style home to a lot just behind the Tea House. How often do you get a history lesson with your afternoon tea?

After our delightful, delicious, and relaxing tea, Jewel and I boarded the train back to Santa Ana. It was a wonderful day - San Juan Capistrano is a lovely little town, and I hope to return to go on the walking tour, visit some of the other little shops in the old part of town, and tour the other historical buildings. It's not too far away, so I imagine I'll be making a return trip soon.

Cheers!

April 14, 2005
Well, shit

So much for that. So much for feeling secure, for feeling set for life. So much for thinking I've got it made, that I have everything I could ever want. So much for my plans for the future. It's all over now. All gone.

I just lost my damn job.

Shit.

April 11, 2005
My SoCal Vacation, Part One

So, where to begin writing about my fantastic weekend in SoCal? Jewel and I crammed a lot into a few short days; I can easily see this becoming a 3-part saga.

The latter half of Thursday was all travel - Jewel picked me up at the SLO train station, and together we drove down south. In order to avoid rush hour traffic, we got off the freeway, and took a tour through her Alma Mader, UCLA. It's a beautiful campus with big brick buildings in a park-like setting. It's also huge, especially compared to CWU, where I went! I don't know why I didn't take any pictures. I probably would've gotten some great shots!

After the University Tour, we stopped at Century City to shop at Aveda and Sephora. I scored some Air Control hair spray, Rosemary Mint shaving cream, Volumizing Tonic, and a bar of Rosemary Mint soap (and a free travel size of Rosemary Mint hand and body lotion because I'd bought two Rosemary Mint products!) at Aveda, and picked up a Stila convertible eye shadow/liner in Ivy at Sephora.

Once we finished our shopping, we had dinner at the Moustache Cafe, er, I mean, Chocolat. Apparently Moustache Cafe was bought out, but the menu and the atmosphere were the same, so we took a chance and stayed. It was delicious! Just as good as it ever was! I had the chicken crepes with Béarnaise sauce (my fave!), and afterwards, Jewel and I split a chocolate soufflé for dessert. OMG!! It was scrumptious!! We sat out on the enclosed patio, and it was very comfortable, relaxing and pleasant.

When we finally reached Jewel's house, we settled in and tried to watch Sideways, but only made it through about half of it, as we were both falling asleep. It's really a very, very good movie (despite the constant profanity, graphic sex scenes and male full-frontal nudity), and I think it (and actor Paul Giamatti) might've gotten robbed at the recent Oscars. That's just my opinion, though. Anyway ...

Friday morning we drove over to Santa Ana, and hopped the train to San Juan Capistrano. The ride by rail is a pleasant thirty minutes long, and we grabbed some breakfast to enjoy en-route. In SJC, we toured the Mission, browsed some of the quaint little shops, and had a wonderful afternoon tea at The Tea House on Los Rios. I wish we'd had more time to spend in town, as there's a whole historical district and walking tours that I would've liked to have seen and done. Oh, well, maybe next time.

The Mission is simply stunning. It's much bigger than the one here in SLO; around every corner there was more and more to see. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with green lawns, statuary, fountains, colourful flowers and native plants. Many of the rooms are set up to appear as they did hundreds of years ago, and historical timelines, murals and artifacts are displayed throughout. You can really get a sense of what life at the Mission was like in the late 1700s. The Serra Chapel is breathtakingly beautiful and ornate. Jewel and I were quite awed by it. The smaller chapel off to the side was filled with well over a hundred burning candles, and it was thick and suffocating as a sauna! Still, we lit candles, too, even though neither of us is Catholic. Later, we almost bought Rosaries, despite our non-Catholic status. The gift shop had two fabulous rosaries - a lapis one I had my eye on, and a very cool black onyx one Jewel fancied - but in the end we chose not to buy them. Probably a good thing, since the lapis one I wanted was, like, two hundred dollars!

The Mission was having some sort of artist's day when we were there. We never did figure out quite what it was, but dozens of artists had easels set up around the grounds, and were drawing and painting pictures of the mission. It was fun to walk behind some of the artists and watch them sketch out their painting! There were some really lovely pieces being created! After wandering around the Mission, seeing pretty much everything there was to see, Jewel and I sat on one of the wooden benches and just soaked in the beautiful day and peaceful setting. If I lived in SJC, I could see myself visiting the Mission quite often, just sitting in the park-like gardens and enjoying the peace and quiet.

It would've been perfect but for the ungodly children who were running around screaming like banshees, and not being at all controlled by their guardian/teacher/whatever-the-heck she was. Gah!

I got a ton of gorgeous photos at the Mission, which I've organized into an easy-to-navigate gallery here. In fact, I took so many pictures I filled up my memory card, and had to dispose of some of the not-so-good shots to make room for pictures of our Afternoon Tea. Here I was worried about the battery running dead, so I packed the extra battery and charger, but completely and totally neglected to pack my extra memory card. I went the whole weekend on one battery, and didn't even bother charging it! Gah!

for what it's worth,
lmj (alias hez)