Septembers

Oh, the smell of fall. So many memories are triggered by scents. I just yanked open my refrigerator door and the fresh garlic cloves that are in there lit up my kitchen with their scent...bought those for last night's dinner, a practice round of my mushroom lasagna for the cook off we're hosting at my place in October - me, Kim and Michael Chan. Autumn is one of my favorites. It's just too fleeting, however. These temperatures, the mild, yet cool breezes, the leaves in the breeze. I love New York City in the fall. So yes, Kim and Michael Chan and I are going to do a head to head to head combat with our respective mushroom lasagna recipes. It'll take place on a Sunday, lots of friends are invited - we'll see what the turnout winds up at, but it will be a nice fall Sunday with food and friends and booze and maybe some football on the tv as white noise, who knows.*I write coming down (or lasting on the plain) of a tremendous high from an indescribable weekend. Friday, didn't do much...drank a lot of wine with the roommate and his friends who were in town. Sent stupid texts. That's this day and age...it's no longer a drunk dial, it's a dumb text probably laden with misspellings and horribly awkward content. Anyway, I tried (and succeeded) in turning in early, because then Saturday morning I was to meet up with Kimchi Tran and her parents at Penn Station to travel out to Long Island for an all day autumn-esque adventure, inclusive of apple picking and wine tasting and homemade Vietnamese noodles prepared by Kim and her parents. I walked to Penn and Kim texted me to grab a ticket to Ronkonkoma. As I began punching the station name into the kiosk, Kim walked up and gave me a big hug, and right behind her were Mama and Daddy Tran...I hugged them both quickly as we were super tight on time, boarded our train, and then I got to actually speak with the Trans and get to know them. Oh, gosh. I don't know what to say other than heaven dropped the most amazing family into my life. I sent texts to Phi as we traveled eastbound, Guess who I'm with! They're amazing! etc.! And I could tell from his replies he was a little bit envious that we were all together (though I'm sure Cali has him more than preoccupied.) Mama and Daddy Tran are these saints, they're adorable, warm, embracing...so lovable with nothing but fantastic love emanating from them! We arrived in Ronkonkoma in no time, it felt like, because the conversations were so fun and smart, and Kim was texting with her friend Tara about our arrival. Tara and her husband Franco have a home in Medford (I think) where they are raising their son JD, and I'll get to him shortly. Tara picked us up and of course, she's this gorgeous Asian girl with stunning skin and features and personality. We arrive at her house, and Franco and JD had been sleeping...we enter in through the garage, and I swear, I went through about an hour's worth of deja vu. In the garage there were kids toys, my favorite? A little plastic Vespa, an actual Vespa! haha...and once inside, from around the corner appeared this pretty tall 2.5 year old cutie with thick dark hair and excited eyes. JD! Just emerging from a much needed slumber! And then Franco, right behind JD, this super cute Italian Long Island guy, Tara's husband. So, here I am standing in a Long Island kitchen with perhaps the most amazing humans ever created, Kim, her parents, Tara, Franco, JD. Needless to say, I felt overwhelmed. And blessed. And alive, and happy, and my heart overflowing with pride for having overcome something so sour and able to reach this bliss. Sorry for the tense transitioning back and forth - it's a habit I'd like to break sometime, haha!*We all loaded into 2 cars to travel further east. We stopped for sandwiches, then kept traveling eastbound to Hank's Farmstand where we bought bags to pick apples - lots of kinds of apples, all neatly lined in a row. Kim kept plucking apples to eat, we called them "community apples" as we passed them around for tasting, and JD had a magnificent time running from tree to tree to tree to yank apples off the limbs. After filling our bags to their limits, we wandered over to the pumpkin patch area and leisurely enjoyed that. The above posted photo are what I'm terming "ghost pumpkins" because they are white, and weird. We hung out in the beautiful weather for another hour or so, before crossing the street to a vineyard, where Kimchi, Tara and I shared a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and the Trans shared a Rose and Franco abstained, as he is a beer guy, not into wine as much. JD played with his little matchbox cars, the weather remained impeccable and we were all just relaxed. Such a wonderful day. After some wine, we headed back to Tara and Franco's, where we indulged in the Trans' homemade Vietnamese, drank more wine, and I played for an hour with JD, who is one of the most handsome and amazing children, ever. He and I both broke into sweats and Franco even commented on it, how active JD and I were for an hour - it was so much fun. Franco commented to Kim that she might be being replaced as JD's affections go, haha! No way, JD adores Kim the most, but he and I had a blast. Upon JD's bedtime, the adults sat down for a raucous several hours of Bai Chung, a Vietnamese card game that was possibly one of the most addicting card games I've ever played. Kim and I drank an entire bottle of Franco's father's homemade Italian wine, while Kim's daddy drank Miller Lite with Franco. Tara and Franco met in high school. They've been together a hundred million years. They are so positively, absolutely, with their JD, the cutest progressive nuclear family I've seen. Happy together. Franco only has eyes for Tara (and JD, of course!) I can now see precisely why Kim spent so much of her summer out there. So much positive influence and energy!*After cards, Kimmy and I watched Pieces of April. I didn't make it all the way through, but she did, which I applauded her for the next day. In the morning, we woke up (Kim and I slept on the L-shaped couch in the living room so that her parents could sleep in "her" room upstairs, Kimmy has a room at Tara and Franco's, aww!) and I emerged from the bathroom having put my contacts in and JD was downstairs, looked at me, and exclaimed, "Well hi!" Haaaa! So sweet and adorable! Who says, "Well hi!"?? It was a quick goodbye because we wanted to get the Trans back to NYC early, to rest, maybe hit up Chinatown before their Monday a.m. flight, but the ride back into Penn Station was just as nice, and when I parted ways with the Trans at Penn Station, mama actually hugged me hard and said into my ear, We'll miss you! Talk about taking a girl's heart out of her chest and crushing it. I love that family so dearly, and we're only in the early stages of getting to know each other. Again, and again, thank you, Universe, for this.*There's a lot more to come, but I feel this post is dragging on. I got to spend a majority of Sunday with Jake in Central Park. I want to recap that, also, here. Jake is...really quite of deserving of his own post. I'm still in awe of it. I'm in awe of everything, right now. The people I'm meeting are changing my life. More to follow on JK and our million mile adventure in the Park, photography, captioning the boaters, the roller skating rink near the Literary Mall. This week: John Legend at Terminal 5 with Kimchi. Denver is booked, a long November weekend...Uyen has already sent links to us...Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks, Spa Day in the mountains for the girls, a "real vodka bar" according to Joel, haha...so much stuff, so much unfolding happiness for this girl. I'm falling back into love with life. Finally.*