summers at balboa

The rest of my weekend - and by weekend, I apparently mean Sunday and Monday! - was spent buying an apron at anthropologie, a copy of the 1922 edition of Emily Post's Etiquette, and satsuma-flavored body wash.  All of these deserve particular note.  

To begin with, simply: I love aprons, and this one is particularly delicious (photographic evidence to follow... eventually).  

As for Post, I was in a store, looking at the most recent edition (17th ed.) and lamenting that I am quite confident about how to type an email at work, and to not use "reply all," and so wanted one of the vintage copies of Etiquette.  As my gaze moved slightly down the row, a glimpse -- 20s font! -- and I pulled out what I now own: a reprint of the 1922 edition!   It's fantastic.  Chapter XVIII is: The Debutante.  This is preceded 

by Formal Dinners: Not For the Novice to Attempt.  I'm so excited.

Now: the body wash.  Important enough for an image.  It seems simple: Body Shop's Satsuma Body Wash.  It's orange-y.  

I opened it up in the store, and smelled it, and all I can remember is summers on Balboa Island as a kid.   Specifically, after long days at the beach or in the water or on our tiny inflatable boat (the Indefatigable), taking cool showers in this shade-filled bathroom, using satsuma and smelling oranges everywhere.

It was one of the many things I loved about Balboa.  The bricked porch, the built-in closets that seemed so old, kayaking, and the freedom to go everywhere we wanted on the island.  I loved the mornings, with the marine layer making everything foggy, and waking up, rollerblading down to the pastry shop, picking up cinnamon twists (delicious) and skating back to meet up with Kemps' Coffee Corner (namely, my Gramps and Mom eating the same cinnamon twists, reading the paper, and talking about current events).  

Not to mention Patrick's and my budding capitalistic ventures: buying shells and selling them (mostly to our parents) at inflated prices.  Yep.

95% of the reason I bought this body wash was because of how happy it makes me feel.  The other 5% is because it smells fantastic.