dear harriet walter: brownies and freedom are delicious

Dear Harriet Walter,

Well!

Midterms went all right, and we are now on spring break. Friend/fellow student Gabby and I stayed at Friend Jim's house in Long Beach with him and his family for the first four days, and now Gabby and I are with her family in the desert.

Jim's house was nice and bright and open and clean, full of art and nice photos and nice decorations, in a nice neighborhood, with a beautiful secluded little backyard and a little shed thing which was garage on one side of the wall and Jim's bedroom on the other side. Gabby and I stayed in the guest bedroom and all of us were happy every day. Now that we're away from noisy Jim things are much quieter and I've gotten some good reading done. Today Gabby and her sister Cameron and I went out on rollerblades and then when we got home Gabby and I made brownies and they're baaaaking right now and I can smell them.

Anyway, rather than a chronological account of the things I've been up to, here are some lists.

Things I have eaten while I've been on break:

Delicious stew
Delicious noodles
Proper cereal
Delicious canned pears
Delicious lasagna
Fresh apples
Delicious pancakes made from scratch
Delicious chopped strawberries eaten with delicious French vanilla ice cream
Delicious fast food made delicious by the fact that it was eaten on break
Delicious mozzarella cheese that Jim was grating for the lasagna
Delicious chocolate chip cookies that Gabby and I made
Delicious steak and mashed potatoes and asparagus for Sunday dinner
Delicious sushi
Delicious homemade enchiladas

Things I have petted with two fingers lately:

Jellyfish
Baby sharks
Several kinds of anemone
Stingrays
Those large crab things that don't look like crabs, I forget their name
More baby sharks

(We went to Long Beach Aquarium one day because Jim used to work there.)

Things I have petted with more than two fingers lately:

Jim's dog Cosette
cat Beethoven
cat Grayboy
cat Chloe
cat Tippy
Jim's nameless bearded dragons
Gabby's dog Kaya
Gabby's cat Snickers

Movies I have watched so far:

Roman Holiday
The Wizard of Oz
Jurassic Park
Fiddler on the Roof (we started at 10pm and it is a very long movie, by the end it was after 1 and I was half-asleep and Jim had to carry sleeping Gabby to bed because she was so totally out)
The Sword in the Stone (one of my favorites)
Ever After (Gabby's favorite)

Number of beaches I have been to: Two or three, depending on how you argue the one next to the aquarium. There was no sand involved, but there was a park with a hill with a lighthouse on top of it and we sat on a bench next to the lighthouse and ate burgers and watched ships in the pier.

Other experiences, ones more difficult to categorize, include Jim and Gabby and me walking to Trader Joe's several times for things like milk and ice cream, Gabby helping Jim feed his bearded dragon antibiotics every day, stargazing, the actual creation of the delicious cookies, Jim and Gabby having cartwheel and handstand competitions at the park next to the aquarium and at the beach, going to Jim's church, random Starbucks runs, visiting a reptile shop, Gabby skating around on Jim's dinky old skateboard, watching TV until we were glassy-eyed whenever we'd finish a movie, playing cards with Gabby and her family, watching cooking shows with Gabby, and the fact that Gabby and I are sleeping in a trailer in the backyard.