Abigail M. Schilling

When I was in high school, my commute was about 35 minutes. Not because my school was that far away but because I had to factor in the breakfast stop on the way there and the lunch stop on the way back. Twice a day I ate at Panera Bread, a bakery and cafe in the Midwest as common as Starbucks. Breakfast usually involved a blended cappuccino chip mocha (long before the Starbucks frap ever gained popularity) or a blueberry muffie (muffie: a muffin top) and lunch was chicken or vegetable soup in a sourdough bread bowl.

Then I moved to California. Land of Fruits, Nuts, and NO EFFING PANERA. There were a lot of great things about California: college, great people, good weather, Disneyland, but NO PANERA.

I had to make serious lifestyle changes all the while complaining. Everyone here was always doubting the existence and/or the wonderfulness that is Panera and any time I would meet someone who knew of Panera I would embrace them like a long-lost relative.

And then one day last fall, I was reading the town paper (The "La Mirada City Insider" which I only read to make fun of) and I read that a Panera WAS COMING TO LA MIRADA.

As time passed we saw construction begin down the street from our house. Slowly but surely a new building began to take shape. Months passed and much like the passing of time in movies, except a little different because we don't have seasons here, the leaves fell and Christmas came and went and the rains of California springs, we waited and watched a miracle develop.

I did some research and found another Panera about 30 minutes away. I took my friends on a pilgrimage and introduced them to the wonderment. Their reactions were totally appropriate: awe, amazement, stunned silence. And then joined me in the wait.

Yesterday, June 15, 2006, it finally opened. We ate there three times yesterday and it wasn't enough.

(When I said it opened yesterday, I meant that it officially opened yesterday. We received an invite for a free preview day on Wednesday. We showed up and they gave us each a fake $20 bill and we could get WHATEVER WE WANTED. We got EVERYTHING.)

(Note: Roommate Cate is in the above picture.)