Until this summer, I never quite understood the hype that “weekends off” got. Days off during the school year are rare, and only happen when Cal Poly decides we need a holiday. So these days are filled with homework left over from the week, and the cleaning that needed to be done a month ago. And since the time I turned sixteen, weekends always meant work – work as a hostess to earn some spending money; work at the coffee shop to save for college; and work at the bike shop to pay the bills. [[I'd like to reminisce for a second here on how simple things were in high school, where money was earned to go out with friends, and a $50 balance in my checking account wasn't necessarily a bad thing.]] 

But this summer, AJ and I have discovered weekends. Those magical days that don’t really exist in real life, where the troubles and worries of work and school and life get shoved in a corner and told to stay there until Monday. Come next week, I’ll worry about the duties I forgot to do at the bike shop and the bills I forgot to pay. But until then, I’ll do absolutely nothing of worth to the outside world, but of immeasurable value to me.

Last weekend, while spending time with my family in the San Bernadino Mountains, my aunt gave me one of the best compliments I’ve received in a while. As I was kneading the dough to make AJ’s special cherry pie (like his grandmother used to make), Suzie says to me in her virginia twang, “Raquel, you’re just so domestic, it’s really great.” And while some women would feel that this undermines their sense of empowerment – the empowerment that tells them to go to work every day and climb the ladder of success and make something of themselves – I couldn’t have been more pleased. What makes me successful is not the money I bring home or the jobs I get to do. No, what makes me successful are the things I do to make my house feel like a home, to all who live and pass by here. It’s the things that I do that make me happy, and in turn put a smile on AJ’s face.

And this weekend, in the middle of my domestic chores, I thought and smiled about my aunt’s comment. For all my complaining and crying about people who are rude, difficult school days, and sandwiches made incorrectly, I sure find it easy to forget about when the weekends come around. Because for me, weekends like this one are all about the domesticity.

Scarf in the works!

New strawberry plants to last through the fall.

New broccoli and brussels sprouts plants.

Corn is doing well, with baby corn on the way!

A very poorly made chili ristra to save the abundance of peppers for when the weather gets cold.

Not pictured: bags full of farmer’s market veggies, new native plants for the front yard [[why would you plant tropical plants in a desert?]], two loaves of bread – one cinnamon raisin & the other seeded sourdough, and a clean kitchen.

And to complete my picture-perfect weekend of all things homely, I made this week’s menu. We’ve got tortilla soup planned tonight with a couple friends, BBQ’d potatoes (we have the best method, ever), a big salad inspired by Oh She Glows, and a couple simple nights of rice or leftovers.

This is my last week off before school starts back up again, and I plan to enjoy it. I’m also planning on taking weekends off this fall, and I’m hoping that will ease the stress of school a bit. All I know is that this was a summer to remember, and I look forward to next year already.

A lot of things have happened this summer – so many that they all seem to blur into one sometimes. I can hardly believe that it’s time to go back to the daily grind of college, but I feel somehow ready and prepared. It might be nice to have nothing to do but study for my Biochem exams and Physics experiments. At least it would seem right now, so far removed from the rigors of school life.

But back to the reminiscing. A trip to Downieville had us riding down one of the most popular downhill trails in California, praying to keep my feet on the pedals and the rubber side down. Our campsite was miles outside of any city, with a well that spewed water as clear and delicious as could be imagined. Then a jaunt up to Monterey had us watching some of the most exhilarating motorcycle races I’ve seen, with Moto GP bikes careening around corners over 200 miles an hour. Their bikes nearly lay flat, with the riders’ knees sticking out just enough to scrape the asphalt to keep the bike off the ground.

We headed back up to Tahoe for another weekend spent with AJ’s parents. I survived Northstar, but was left with a fairly large bruise on my right thigh. I guess that’s what I get. Next, a trip to Santa Barbara got me in a bit of trouble, with a new pair of Birkenstocks that I couldn’t really afford somehow strapped to my feet, and a bag worth every penny weighing down Elissa’s hand.

To celebrate Labor day, we drove through Los Angeles to spend the weekend with my parents in their beautiful cabin up in the mountains. There, we managed to take my little car on 10 miles of unkempt dirt road, navigated a couple creek crossings (to the utter surprise of a group of college kids in bikinis, who seemed to have no place on our remote road), hiked somewhere around 15 miles, and kayaked on the lake. We also spent some long-overdue time with my aunts and uncle, savored the time spent with my parents, and baked a special cherry pie for AJ’s birthday – one like his grandmother used to make.

I also managed to read the entire series of the Lord of the Rings. These seemingly sophomoric, yet intricately developed books really find a way to draw you in and smother you with their world. An adventure of Sam (who the book is really about, in my professional opinion) and Frodo becomes an adventure of your own, and every sadness is felt and every happiness shared. After completing the Lord of the Rings, I moved onto Three Cups of Tea, and have fallen in love with the Balti people of northern Pakistan. I am halfway through, and I both anticipate and dread the end.

Amid all this chaos, I still managed to get some work done. I studied long and hard for a certain test, and on August 28th I received my certification to be a Personal Trainer. And now that it’s in my hands, staring me in the face, I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Just wait it out and see, I guess.

My certification did give me a bit of motivation in the blog world, however. While I know that I can’t be as dedicated to this site as I’d like, I felt that my certification was a good excuse to turn this blog in a new direction. As much as I feel that being vegan is a healthier way to live, a lot of the food I’ve posted on here has been a very far cry from healthy. I feel that I can do better. I will do better. Both for you and for me. While I love butter-filled muffins and pies to the heavens, these are really not the things that I eat on a daily basis. If I am to be a personal trainer, I feel that I should be an example of a healthy lifestyle, both in reality and in the life I portray on this site. But there I go again, with a commitment and a plan, and no idea what to do with it. Just wait it out and see where it goes from here, I guess.

And now it’s time for this grandma to get to bed, since 5:30 wake-up times are becoming the norm around here. I get excited when I sleep in until 6. At least I’ll be prepared for 8 am classes once Cal Poly is back in session. Until then, I’ll be riding my bike in the chilly, dawn-breaking mornings that I am lucky enough to experience. That is, if the fog would only stay out of the way.