The Mayor, The Queen, and Jason Segel

Our Last Dinner at The Ojai Noodle House

I watched Zoey work her unicorn magic on our friend Betsy last night as we sat with her and her partner John in the front yard for the last time. When Zoey decides to connect with someone, she does not hold back. Unlike Sookie, who will maul you with her love, Zoey will pull you in gently with soft kisses and then melt into your energy field, making her impossible to escape, and why would you want to at this point?

It’s just like living in Meiners Oaks. How have fifteen years gone by? We keep asking each other, Jon and I. We’ve tried to leave, more than once, the first time back in 2012. Heck, in 2007 we contemplated moving here and rejected it as too far from the beach (I was very attached to living near the Pacific). Our arrival here two years after that was a huge surprise and born out of a financial need and receiving multiple messages, from human and otherworldly sources, that Ojai was the place for us. It was one of the only affordable places left in Southern California then, and “affordable” in California is a relative term.

Every time we set out to see what might lie ahead for us beyond the beauty of this valley our circumstances would adjust perfectly to keep us here, from work to social groups to adventures to meeting Charlie and Lola, who lived three blocks away, who gave us the gift of becoming dog parents for the first time. I now realize that once Zoey arrived we stopped contemplating leaving for many years as our pack grew. We once visited a friend who had six dogs living with him in his trailer and on his property and the magic of being invited into their dog den, surrounded by their warmth and love, clearly made an impression on us. We may not have six, but three is definitely a pack.

We dined last night with Betsy (the Mayor) and John at The Ojai Noodle House, a new favorite spot in town, one I crowed about loudly on social media the first weekend they were open due to the deliciousness of their food coupled with the excellent service. Last Friday we went in for some Vegan Pho and Bahn Xao. Marco, the owner, slapped a menu on the table and said, “Order more! It’s all on me tonight!” So we did, order more, and left filled with love and goodness as we did again last night after being treated by our friends while sitting next to an older woman I’d never seen before wearing a big ornate pink hat.

“Look, it’s The Queen,” Jon whispered while we were sitting on the patio with the actual mayor of Ojai, giving new meaning to the phrase, “The Pink Moment”.

While slurping up our noodles Betsy put in for a second round of vegan egg rolls because they are just that good and she is just that kind of person, generous and loving to everyone around her, even those who want to tear her down.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jason Segel enter the restaurant. I’d been wondering if I would run into him again before leaving. He’s been a local now for several years and every time I have interacted with him he’s been available and down to Earth as some celebrities can be. We also have the other version of Hollywood in Ojai, the ones who want nothing to do with us commoners, and it’s shifting more in this direction as of late.

“Nobody cares who you are and everyone is somebody here,” Jenny Dohrn-Newell, owner of Bonnie Lu’s Diner, told me shortly after we moved here. This used to feel very true. Ojai is now becoming a place to be seen, where one needs to have wealth or serve the wealthy to live here.

I am going to have to stop for now as my dining room table is about to be sold out from underneath my fingertips. I’ll be typing my Monday morning piece on my across-the-street neighbor Patricia Fry’s card table, a prolific and gifted writer and published author who has been an inspiration to me for as long as we’ve lived here. I’m not sure what I’ll be sitting on.

See you Monday.

P.S. I spoke too soon. The buyer for our table bailed at the last minute as did our housecleaner yesterday. Ugh! People! If you’re going to blow me off, at least give me notice. I already have issues depending on others. This did enable us to have smoothies from Farmer and the Cook at this table one last time.

P.P.S. Ha! Mercury’s Shadow is laughing. The buyer for our table sent an envoy with cash to hold it and my next-door neighbor (one with a Hollywood past) hooked me up with her housecleaner who has now been hired.

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