This is a long one, but pluots are so tasty!

Today is the farmer's market. Technically, there's a farmer's market everyday, but for some reason I really like today's the best. It's close to my work, but that's not why I like it. I like the park, I like that it's round and I can walk in a circle and see all of the fresh produce and breads. It reminds me of being Italy last summer with Greg. Not that we went to a bunch of farmer's markets when we were there, but it feels fresh and healthy. Even if I were to buy a giant pastry from the bread people, it would still feel healthy. However, I have to say, I have not been impressed by the bread people at the farmer's markets ... it looks sweaty, like the bread is screaming on the inside to be let out, there are little sweat beads on the inside of the bag.

My new favorite things for the day are pluots! I've never really been much of a plum fan or an apricot fan, but put them together, and they are one tasty fruit!

When Lucas and I were kids we had a plum tree in the backyard. We would swim all summer and pick the plums by the pool. Lucas would throw them into the pool and then we'd go diving for them. Those were the days when I didn't hate swimming. We'd spend the entire summer with our friends hanging out in the backyard and playing. I miss those days ... when summer was actually summer. It wasn't just going to work on days when it's hotter outside. Summers meant something ... school was out and it was fun. We'd go to summer camps and have BBQ's and sleep over at our friend's houses on weeknights. Our biggest worry was which movie were going to rent at the video store.

I remember when I was around 12 years old and my best friend and I really wanted to see the movie "Casual Sex" with Leah Thompson and Andrew Dice Clay. (Not sure why). My mom was very hesitant to let us rent it, completely understandable. So, we went up to the video store on the corner, Flash Video, and Katie and I were begging her. I remember she carried the movie around with her and then from the back of the store she yelled all the way up to the front, "What do you think about casual sex for 11 and 12 year-old girls?"

The guy at the front was probably around 16 or 17, or at least in my mind he was, and he turned bright red. My mom then realized what she asked and sort of scrambled to clarify her words "I mean, the movie! Not actual sex for young girls!" (or something like that). I think I was embarrassed because my mom mentioned my age, I'm sure I didn't realize what she actually asked. When your 12 years old, I think everything your parents do or did in front of a boy was embarrassing. We got to rent the movie and probably didn't understand anything that happened. We felt grown-up and adult. The movie was PG-13 and it was summer and everything was fun and perfect.

Looking back, I hope I'm able to laugh and spend time with BHR the way my mom did with me and Lucas and our friends. We have so many stories of laughing together and being together. Recently Ed found a school assignment that I made in grade school ... one of the one's where you say "what's your favorite color" or "what's your favorite animal." This one asked "if you could be any type of car, what would you be?" I wrote, a "Plymouth Voyager" and drew a picture of my mom's mini-van with the wood-paneling. We called that car the "power machine". I have so many fond memories of being in that van ... even when the door was falling off and we were trapped with dog barf and diarhea in the backseats, that car seemed magical because I feel like we were always laughing. I remember my mom singing Whitney Houston and wishing I could one day sing as well as her; leaning forward to make the car go faster; traveling to school field trips. These are things that I hope I'm able to do with BHR. Not necessarily getting stuck with dog barf in the backseat of a minivan, but creating fun and interesting memories with my family.

Summers in Sacramento are hot, but I've lived here almost my whole life and when I think back, it's not the heat that I remember.