Farm Girl

The other night, when we arrived at our friends' house for dinner, their four-year-old daughter came up to me and whispered, "I like presents."  I whispered back, "I do, too."  So I started to think about gifts and how some of the best ones are unexpected.  It's not your birthday, it's not your anniversary.  It's just a day when someone you adore and vice versa decides to do something special for no reason at all.  I got just such a gift yesterday.  Pardon me while I over-emote:  There I was at the gym, awaiting the wonderful Connie Ray, star of so many things (credits available upon request).  Picture the SJG on the elliptical machine, warming up, when in walked the glamorous Ms. Ray, a tall drink of mountain spring water, the original Farm Girl, with two large cucumbers and a bag of cherry tomatoes, orange, red and yellow.  My first thought was, "Is she going to make a salad right here?"  My second thought was, "Oh, no, was I supposed to bring dip?"  I admit, those giant cucumbers threw me off, momentarily.  The cucumbers looked out of place among the treadmills and other muscle-building equipment for ladies who strive to look buff.  It's quite possible, although I don't have any concrete proof, that Connie may be the only woman at the all-gal gym to ever enter the workout area clutching two cucumbers and a bag of very pretty tomatoes.  As I pondered what Connie planned to do with those veggies -- swack someone on a cell phone, perhaps? -- she handed them to me.  "These are from my garden, they're for you."  Well, I was so excited, so touched -- it's not every day someone who's appeared on Broadway hands you a homegrown cuke! -- that I nearly fell off my elliptical and sustained bodily injury.  It's hard enough balancing on that thing, without juggling two cucumbers and a bag of tomatoes.  "Thank you," I said.  "I can't wait to put these in my salad tonight."  And guess what?  That's exactly what I did.  I chopped up one of the cucumbers, I decorated the lettuce with pops of cherry tomato goodness, and my family went cray-cray over said veggies!  Connie got some of the best reviews ever.  "Delicious!"  "Tell Connie we love her cucumbers!"  "These are the greatest tomatoes ever!"  I have one cucumber left.  It's just for me.  I plan to devour it later, unless someone gets to it first.  And by someone, I mean a certain dog.  But I'm fairly certain Dusty would reject the cucumber as a chew toy. I'll keep an eye on him, just in case.