The Birthday that's supposed to last forever...

the passage into my 29th year was a beautiful one--a relaxed morning punctuated by a big egg scramble with tomatoes, basil & goat cheese. Followed by a few hours soaking up the sun on Ocean Beach with my love, made complete with a simple picnic. It was so hot I could actually wear my bathing suit without a sweater and it felt so good to wade into the water.

I wanted to go the beach to completely relax, to remember that I'm just a tiny part of something bigger, something that moves and breathes no matter the political tides or social order, that there are things I can admire for their beauty and unknowedness. Standing on that part of the beach that becomes ocean for just a moment when the waves crash at your ankles and then recedes leaving a completely different, changed landscape. That's what I wanted to be reminded of as my day of birth passed through me.

But the day was not yet complete--it finished with a sunset walk along Crissy fields and my first meal at Greens, a vegetarian restaurant made famous by my heroine Deborah Madison. It was exquisite--the view, the menu from which I could choose anything without a second thought to broths laden with chicken or produce laden with pesticides shipped from other continents, no it was all local and meat-free....

Pinot Noir + Poblano chili and corn fritters + figs grilled on rosemary skewers stuffed with goat cheese over a bed of watercress. Then filo with goat cheese and savoy spinach cherry tomatoes and fresh chanterelles on the side + parpadelle with summer squash and cheese. Black berry gallette with lavender ice cream, rasberry sauce and one candle. Absolutely, ridiculously decadent.

What's more is that this weekend was so full with the happening that was Slow Food Nation--I'm still processing it all, so there will be more blog posts to come...

29...I don't feel anything for it yet, I'm not scared of 30, I don't have preconceptions of who I should be or how I should be at 29 or at 59. All I know is I'm going to get more wrinkled and I hope I love my wrinkles. And more hairs will turn grey by the day, I hope that I love that grey. I do hope that this year I continue to challenge to grow to learn to be in the moment to keep promises to myself to define more clearly my path to be more open to play more. Here's to a year that has yet to take shape.