About to be launched over the pond...

A Berkeley kind of day: first,  manning the desk at the Berkeley Food Pantry, praying that  a sweet overweight man who had a heart attack three weeks ago didn't have one on the premises hauling his food out the door.  Then battling a client on the phone who insisted she was allowed to come for food 2-3 times a month, not just once. People snapped up small bottles of donated dry shampoo. The only child visitor was a one-year old with a pacifier who eyed me warily and wore what looked like a camouflage onesie but was really all-over giraffes.   A young woman with multiple piercings came in as a new client, pregnant, living in a shelter with her daughter. 

A bracing contrast to this:  For dinner Jerry and I went to Chez Panisse upstairs and had a sublime, understated but utterly delicious dinner for my birthday.  The people to the right of us talked languidly about their last trip to rural France.  They were replaced by two youngish men who ordered an expensive bottle of wine and a big plate of oysters.  One had been in Milan last week for a three-day business meeting.  Jerry and I didn't talk much because I was too busy listening and eating: gem lettuce with creme fraiche, halibut, and rhubarb crisp with a ball of very rich vanilla ice cream.  It did not pass me by how fortunate I am to be able to have a celebratory dinner like this. No, it did not.

Thirty Dozen Eggs

That's what I bought today for the Berkeley Food Pantry.  I make an occasional donation of eggs, because the Pantry rarely has them to distribute, and they're such a basic, wholesome food.  At the Grocery Outlet five dozen eggs cost about $6.  So everyone who saves egg cartons for me: thank you! On Monday at the Pantry, we'll saw the egg cartons in half with a serrated knife and fill them from the cardboard trays of eggs I bought today.  Each household will get six eggs.

Grocery Outlet is cheap and  also full of unhealthy food:  junky sugar treats; odd manufactured food, like poptarts-gone- mad for breakfast;  weird, seasonal ice cream flavors  (still selling pumpkin); and dairy food close to the sell-by date.  The Berkeley store is  crowded and and a bit seedy, the kind of place people endure to save money,  but you can't beat the price of eggs, unless you want the hassle of going to Costco.

Re Suzanne's house:  The brokers' tour on Thursday built  buzz.  Four showings scheduled by that evening.  Tonight Suzanne has to vacate so someone can see what the house looks like in the evening.  She's coming over here so we can have a  Real Estate Gossip.

The Work of Travel

That's what I've been up to. Reading guidebooks and websites, poring over maps of Italy, and plotting what I absolutely have to see. And then shaking free of the whole business, doing some deep breathing, and telling myself that I don't have to plan every minute of our upcoming trip to Italy. I think.

We're taking a cruise because it seemed like an easier way to travel, but now I'm beginning to wonder. Yes, you unpack only once, and someone else does the cooking, but there's still the matter of researching where you're going, noting museum hours, buying tickets ahead if you don't want to stand in line. You need to know what time your ship pulls into port and where the port is in relation to what you want to see (which has already taken some research). And can you possibly imagine yourself on a giant tour bus with shipmates, visiting romantic-sounding places with a mob, at least two of whom will ask a lot of irritating questions? Too curmudgeonly for that. And most important, you're not in control of the end of your travel day if you're on a cruise. The ship leaves when it leaves, and you literally miss the boat.

On another note: My friend Suzanne's house went on the market yesterday, and you can view it on line at http://www.48hill.com/ The incomparable Ann Plant, realtor extraordinaire, has tarted it up but good. Suzanne is now pretty much confined to her bedroom with take-out food when she isn't at work.