Happiness Runs...

There is big sky here. Full of possibility. I used to miss Utah's mountains. When we first moved to Davis, I was missing Utah, and family, and familiarity, and mountains. One downer of a night, Jon invited me on a date/walk. He had the "perfect" plan. We walked onto UCDavis campus from our one-bedroom bungalow on First Street and headed towards the Law School. I was a bit skeptical about the plan, wondering when it was going to turn into anything anticipation-worthy. And then he did it: he went to the basement of the Law School Bldg, purchased an "It's It" (graham cracker/ice-cream sandwich dipped in chocolate----native specialty of California) in the humming, refrigerating vending machine and walked me back outside. He called me up this tiny little dimple in the grass===made for mere landscape architectural interest, gave me a bite of the "It's It," a hug, and said, "Here we are on Davis' highest mountain." I haven't forgotten this little moment. I don't think I will.

Back to mountains and sky and today. I was driving back from the Oakland Temple (thanks Chantel, Cheryl, and Christine for the experience), and as I passed over the flooded rice fields of the Yolo Causeway, I was amazed at the blue, cloud-filled sky--so breathtaking, so monumental--and realized [once again] that I love big sky. I think back to Jon's literal making a "mountain out of a mole-hill" for me back on the law school lawn, and I realize how a sense of physical place and belonging is so important to me. But the strange thing is that my loyalties have totally shifted. Sky signals my home now more than mountains, and I love it--the possibilities of big sky are endless. I don't mean to overly-romanticize it, but all I can think of is a line from Room With a View (complete with Mr. Emerson's British accent, of course): "Yours is glorious countryside, Honeychurch" and I now believe that my place is the most glorious countryside--physical and spiritual--and that is the happiest place to be.

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This has nothing to do with sky or mountains, but everything to do with Jon and cheese. (Two words which are synonymous--as any jon-lover will know). Tonite we decided to go for a treat. But we've frequented Rick's Dessert Diner (where we take every single out-of-towner to be stunned by 15" high cakes and sinful Chocolate O.D.) too many times, and I didn't want ice cream, and there weren't any bakeries open at 7:30 on a Saturday night. Until I thought of Whole Foods. YUM. So we went to Whole Foods with sleeper-clad girls and perused the "baked good" section to our hearts' content. I settled on two cookies: peanut butter chocolate and mint chocolate chip. Jon opted for Chocolate Lava and then headed for the cheese aisle. He selected three: "laguiole grand aubrac jeune montagne," "sheep ossau iraty," and "chaumes." And this is the part I love: After he had gobbled the entirety of all three cheese "samples," he asked me if I had an extra notebook laying (lying? Dang, I'm an English teacher and I don't even know....the youth of today!) around. I didn't know what for and kind of ignored him because I was engrossed in "product development" and catching up on blogs....and then I saw it: a little wax paper bakery wrapper (from one of the cookies?) with the stickers pulled off from the cheeses, and Jon's little scrawly writing on each individual label:

*Laguiole grand.....: "Very good. Almondy texture/soft texture, too. A little bit of strong taste (butt) that turns out very mild.

*Sheep....: "So good. Mild with a kick. Has almondy, yet soft texture. Excellent."

*Chaumes....:"Cross between havarti and muenster. Very mild. good--not exotic."

This discovery was one of those moments when I realized how much I love my husband--his silly cheese "log" and all. And I love the "almondy texture" assessment, almost as much as I love big sky. Maybe more.