Today was wonderful Christina Wood’s birthday.  Felipe planned a surprise birthday party for her where we were to gather in San Diego and be waiting to surprise her at a screening of “Where The Wild Things Are” and then all have lunch together.  The whole event was really very sweet and it was really soothing in a way to see friends and even just be in San Diego.  I’m not even sure why because the city of San Diego itself doesn’t have any sort of strong gravitational pull for me but once in a while I really love visiting.

I’m sentimental, there’s no doubting that and driving down there today made me all nostalgic and warm and happy.  There’s this amazing stretch of beach about 10 miles north of Oceanside that I can never believe when I’ve driving on the freeway, like these sort of views should be impossible while driving. It’s surprising each time.  And it’s especially great in the mornings.

While I was passing that bit of ocean I thought about the last time I had seen Prayer and Albert.  It was a few days before I was moving to Los Angeles, Prayer to Bangkok, and Albert back to Barcelona and we were drinking a bottle of red wine at a a wine bar in downtown and it felt like we were mimicking the feeling of an end without really processing the end.  I knew I wouldn’t see them for a while but for some reason I couldn’t really access the real feeling of that.  I just knew we had to say our goodbyes.  And now more than a year and a half later I am feeling it, and sort of really lamenting the days of San Diego and Wilson Ave and the “dance floor” in the room that Joseph and I shared, and seal beach, and Salk Institute, and Nancy on the futon, and making summery tomato basil pasta with Thomas.

I think I want to go back more often, if nothing else just to visit the lovely friends that live there.  I thought about it today, and there’s nothing even mildly objectionable about Felipe or Christina, which is kind of amazing.  How are people so well adjusted?!  And how do they find each other and become a super couple of super adjustedness?

Oh and the cake?  It’s a marbled chocolate orange cake.  I emailed Felipe listing several very specific cake options for Christina and he responded that she was a “fruit or chocolate girl” which struck me as vague and funny.  So I decided to fulfill both sides of Christina and use fruit and chocolate in the same cake.  And also, as Thomas pointed out, it seemed like appropriately lighter “lunch cake.”

Chocolate Orange Cake (recipe adapted from Joy The Baker)

3 1/2 cups of cake flour

2 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I think I’d up this to 5 for next time)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

zest of one orange

4 large eggs

2 sticks of butter

2 cups of sour cream

1. preheat oven to 350

2. grease a bundt pan

3. sift together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt–set aside

4. cream the butter and sugar together

5. add the eggs one at a time

5. add the vanilla

6. add the sour cream

7. fold in the flour mixture in three separate additions

8. divide the batter in half

9. in one half of the batter, add the orange extract and zest

10. in the other half add the cocoa and chocolate chips

11. drop alternate spoonfuls of batter in the bundt pan and every once in a while swirl gently with a butter knife

12. tap the cake pan on a hard surface to get rid of air bubbles

13. bake for 5o minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly and the cake springs back