Back In The Saddle Again (California Style)

Well, I have traded my Texas horse for the plane ride back to California. Returned last night after being back in Texas for the past 10 days. It was absolutely wonderful to come back to 80 degree weather instead of the 100 degrees in Dallas. Because of the marvelous weather here, I am able to look the other way when I am in 6 lanes of slow traffic, or driving 45 min just to get to the WallMart, or go to the grocery store, assuming that I will just walk down the baking isle to pick up a bar of German Chocolate, only to find that they don’t carry it and I have no choice but to buy a Betty Crocker German Chocolate cake mix to make for Randy’s birthday….ok, now that I mention it, maybe the weather here isn’t so grand…….maybe I can put up with the hot dry Texas weather. I can always cool off in the Wallmart that was 10 min from my house and had German Chocolate always on the shelf and any flavor of Duncan Hines cake mixes I could ever want.
Californians, I have decided, are at their health and fitness clubs, which I might add are on every corner, because they don’t know what really great foods are out there. Because they just can’t go to the frozen food section and grab a bag of breaded fried okra, or scoot on over to the frozen bread isle and toss in pans of Sister Schubert rolls or drive to the nearest Babes for the worlds best chicken fried steak, or purchase any flavor at all of Blue Bell ice cream, why not spend their time working out? There is really nothing to keep them in the kitchen. When I feel my hostility going away at the lack of southern foods available and catch myself going to the other side (yes, I even joined my husband the other night in ordering sushi, although all mine were cooked, not raw)of eatting more organic, healthy foods, it is time to head back to Texas for another visit, where I feast on Luby’s turkey and dressing, and days on end of Tex Mex and chicken fried steak. On the plane ride back to California, I resolve to come back with a more positive attitude, telling myself that I don’t need all those awful foods that I have just gorged on while visiting my family. Then Randy picks me up at the airport and we begin to talk about all the great things I did while I was there and it alwas centererd around Southern foods…..now heading to the grocery store to pick up a few things to cook the next couple of days reminds me of where I am, and even though I wasn’t able to buy okra, or SS rolls, or Blue Bell ice cream, it is good to be home and to look forward to having a great salad with my sweet hubby tonight. Then I think we will walk to the corner fitness center. It would be nice to work off the Southern foods that I did bring with me.