After a few punishing weekends, I was thrilled when I finally headed home on Friday with no plans to be back in the office first thing Saturday morning. Leisurely breakfasts and long afternoons of writing danced in my head–and they're exactly what I got!
John picked me up a little later than usual on Friday evening and we headed back to our neighborhood for Indian food. When we spotted an opening parking spot and John's first San Francisco friend behind the bar at
South though, we made a stop in Hayes Valley for tequila cocktails and caught up with friends who happened to drop in, too! Of course, no Friday night is complete with curry, so we grabbed takeout and headed home to finally spend an evening together.
We woke up early on Saturday morning and, knowing John would be working for much of the day, made a simple breakfast of soft-scrambled eggs and toast. We cleaned house before I drove John to work, and then I headed home for a quiet day alone at home–a true luxury after the last few weeks. I did some holiday shopping, cleaned out my inbox and then curled up with my highlighters for a productive afternoon. I grabbed John for work as the sun was just beginning to set, and after his run, he insisted that we go out on a proper date. We both tugged on our fall finest and grabbed a table for two at our favorite little pizza joint. Two glasses of wine and a spicy sausage and honey pizza later, we were grinning goofily at each other and wondering why we didn't do this more often! We dashed into our local grocery store for coconut gelato and curled up on the couch with dessert in frosted sour glasses usually reserved for cocktails.
John pulled me out of bed early on Sunday, and I finally baked the spiced pumpkin loaf whose ingredients I'd set out the afternoon before. Cinnamon and nutmeg filled the kitchen while we cooked up our favorite weekend breakfast–avocado toast topped with poached eggs and roasted fingerling potatoes. Over coffee and tea we planned our day, and then got to work checking projects off the list! Eventually I realized that I needed one last book from the public library, so we drove downtown to fetch it and grabbed some sushi on the way back. All that activity had exhausted John, so while he took an afternoon nap, I dug into my latest project, my keyboard clicking and the page count rising. Later I treated myself to a little stretching and sweating (a great antidote to sitting and writing), and then John and I teamed up to make a rich fall supper–saffron risotto with slow-roasted butternut squash. One juice glass of rosé was all it took the two of us to feel ready for bed, and we fell asleep smiling about what a wonderful weekend it had (finally!) been.
Tell me, what were you up to this weekend? Carving pumpkins, putting last-minute touches on your Halloween costume, or doing some fall baking, perhaps?
