So far I like all my classes, though I can spot out a few that may be tough and challenging. It’s only been two days, and I’m already running around like a harassed chicken, trying to adjust to the weight of work piling up exponentially. Today, I have my first quiz, and tonight, I have to attend a film screening and then turn a review in to the Daily Trojan the following morning. Tomorrow, I have to take my second quiz and then grab myself an “authentic Chinese” student to interview. The next day, I have to start working on my next column, and finish up some shopping.

Truth be told, I’m not exactly looking forward to tackling that workload. I said I’m glad to be back, but that doesn’t mean I’m glad to deal with work after work again. But hey, that’s what the present is about—living in the present. Whatever the present is, I need to simply do my best, and enjoy it.

I had my moment’s pleasure yesterday afternoon with my ol’ buddy ol’ pal, Mimi:
There’s my little red-headed blogger-turned-close-friend! She finally got her own little camera, too, so with our blogger-weapons in arm, we took a metro ride down to Downtown LA for a lunch date.

We visited the place we’ve been promising each other to visit ever since we first met—Mendocino Farms:
Mendocino Farms is an environmentally-friendly “fast food” sandwich cafe that uses primarily local and seasonal ingredients. But that wasn’t what attracted us to this place. It was the sandwich menuCu they showcased: the most fascinating, drool-worthy selection of gourmet sandwiches—ever.
To accommodate their hip and modern twists on classic sandwich interpretations, they went the whole urban feel on their interior design. As in, they left their ceilings half-finished, probably to exude an “urban-loft” feel…Ooh look at us, we’re too cool to have ceilings. Yeah, not getting it.
However, I did love that they put big bright-colored ceramic pots out in full view, kept warm over the stove. It kind of gave an unpretentious, homey ambience.

Mimi and I had already studied the menu like a manuscript, and knew exactly what we wanted. We decided to split our sandwich into half so that we could try both sandwiches. The first one we got was the Curry Chicken Salad:
Roasted chicken breast with green apples and dried cherries in a light yogurt mango curry dressing, cucumber, organic farmer’s market greens, cranberry chutney, red pepper compote on Curcama Hazelnut bread.
Is that not the most amazing combination ever? But wait, check out the other one, the Highway 128:
Roasted chicken, Herbes de Provence marinated Cypress Grove’s goat cheese, ancho chili cranberry chutney, organic farmer’s market greens, and green apple on Buckwheat bread.
Oh. My. Gawd. The first thing I noticed was the cheese. Do you see that layer of thick, creamy, white goodness in there? No anorexic teaspoon of sparsely crumbled cheese here!
Mendocino Farms really knows how to build the perfect sandwich. It offers the most imaginative creations. It doesn’t skimp on the good ingredients. It expertly blends the sweet and savory. It features fresh, flavorful produce. It uses honest-to-goodness real, fantastic artisan bread. Our curry chicken salad sandwich’s Curcama Hazelnut bread actually had whole hazelnuts in there.
Not a hazelnut. HazelnutS! In my half sandwich alone, I crunched on about 5 whole hazelnuts, wonderfully toasted and seasoned. The only downfall of the sandwich was that the chicken wasn’t as juicy and tender as I would have liked, but at least it wasn’t dry and rubbery like this sandwich.

I couldn’t really decide on which sandwich I liked better. I loved the curry chicken one for its bold, zesty flavors, but the Highway 128 had that awesome fat layer of goat cheese. If I could just transfer that cheese layer into the curry chicken salad sandwich, then we have a winner.
If you’re into fancy sodas, Mendocino Farms also has a fountain beverage selection of pure cane sugar sodas—no preservatives or artificial coloring.
Mimi particularly liked their diet Root Beer. I wonder what kind of artificial sweeteners they use on that, though. But I thought it was cool that they weren’t just limited to diet coke. They also had diet black cherry, though sadly, no orange soda. I guess they would have had a tough time making it look orange without the artificial coloring.

Needless to say, it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. We had a lot of catching up to do, though I believe there will be more catching up done in the future.

But that’s the future. And as awesome as it was, that was the past. Now, the present? Getting some work done, as soon as I hit “publish”. And I promise you, I’ll try to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed those delightful sandwiches.

Question of the Day: What are you enjoying in your Present right now?

P.S. I’ve finally finished all my unpacking and furnishing. Will show you my new home soon!