Road Trip Part 2a

I'll post the "real" pictures from our trip down to L.A. very soon...but first I have to share a lesson I re-learned along the way.  Well, it's a lot of lessons rolled into one, really.  It's part "stop and smell the roses" and part "it's the journey, not the destination" and part "nutrition is irrelevant when traveling" and part "don't be an asshole" (those last 2 are mine...the asshole thing is my number one rule of my new career, that and its corollary, which goes something like "be nice whenever you can muster the energy").

We were a little early for our gig in Thousand Oaks (pix etc. to follow) and Julie and I found this bakery. We decided we'd "work" for an hour, until it was time to go over to the shop. Only you can't really work without sustenance, so we ordered us some coffee and pastries.

Now I've been observing Julie on the road and I've noticed that she never misses an opportunity to engage people about their lives, their jobs, the day they're having. I'm trying to learn from her, so I chatted with the woman behind the counter who suggested the most delicious pastry they made, a sweet bread made by a baker from a Mexican city whose name I've already forgotten. Then this lady introduced us to her granddaughter, Annabel, as well as Annabel's mama and the boy helping out. We talked and carried on for a while and when we finally left, we'd exchanged email addresses and they had given us a tray of goodies to take over to the bookstore with us.  Why?  Absolutely no good reason, that I could figure. Just because they're nice people who are proud of their delicious products and felt like sharing.

I have to add that at one point in our visit, a loud and angry woman came in and yelled for about ten minutes about how our new friends had screwed up this giant cake she ordered. When she was finally shown that the error was her own, she did back down, but what made an impression on me was the way the three generations of bakery ladies handled the whole thing...with good-humored detachment. There was a what're-ya-gonna-do quality to their polite interaction the problem customer, and they seemed to forget the whole thing after she left. No lingering caustic revenge fantasies, for instance, which is where I always go...

I'll tell you, that sure set the tone for the rest of the trip for me. I'll get back to the BSP tomorrow I guess, but today I'm still kind of feeling warm and fuzzy and zen-like.  It probably won't last, but it's been nice nonetheless.

Julie with bakery ladies

Annabel in a shy moment

Tiny Red Velvet cupcakes and brownies....yum!