So I have this school project where I have to work with a small group to promote a local business that is doing good for the community. My group picked a restaurant in Rochester called Mind, Body & Spirits. They have vegan food, vegetarian, some raw foods selections, organic beer and wine, and yeah, meat too. Something for everyone! I was a big fan of their tempeh reuben. It was soooo good. They have an on-site greenhouse for growing organic herbs, etc. The place is so cool. It was renovated using green practices and is run with a sustainable business model. They reclaim their water, use solar power, etc. It's expected that in just a few years they will be completely off the grid.
I'm always happy to find a vegetarian restaurant in Oakland / Macomb County, so this place had won my heart from the jump. And Michigan has a distinct lack of raw foods restaurants, so a place that offers some raw selections wins points for sure. And while they're not a vegetarian restaurant per se, they certainly cater to veggie lovers of all kinds. Upstairs they have a bar with a great rooftop patio (you know, for when it's not freezing in Michigan). The place is awesome. Good food, cool decor, ecologically friendly... can't really miss. Plus, they have a promotion right now where kids eat free on Tuesday nights and they offer have off bottles of organic win on Fridays. Everyone likes a good deal, right?
Check out the little page we set up and then pay them a visit...
11.04.2009
9.16.2009
Summer, I hardly knew you...
Summer's come and gone and I feel like I hardly experienced it... Was it even summer? At all? The weather was so mild, it hardly felt it... This summer, though, in some ways, has been ridiculously exciting... Like at the end of June, when Autumn and Kamil (and all of their friends and family) welcomed little Evan Grey into the world...
and then, at the end of August, when little Lukas Jameson made his arrival (weeks early... guess he was excited to meet his mom and dad)...
But, besides those 2 highlights, the summer was extremely low-key for me... at times, I was so broke I couldn't drive my car and took to walking to the nearby coffeeshop to drink free iced coffee (hurrah for THAT promotion). I had classes all summer, so that kept me busy some, but not so busy that it justifies the utter lack of excitement. I wanted to go to Put In Bay with Robert. We didn't go. The Ann Arbor Art Fair? Nope, missed that too... Art and Apples in Rochester Park? Hmm, that slipped by us too. Cedar Point? Nope...
oh, wait! Autumn e-mailed today and said that a thoughtful family member was springing for tickets for her family to hit up Cedar Point and would anyone like to come along... umm, YES! I went last year with Autumn... twice, because it was THAT fun (and, between you and me, pregnant women are NOT supposed to ride all those rides, but Autumn totally did... until she took a pregnancy test RIGHT BEFORE we went to Cedar Point the 2nd time, confirmed she was preggers with her doctor's office (IN THE CAR ON THE WAY TO CEDAR POINT and couldn't ride any stupid rides. Lame. Evan had already been on ALL of those rides by then.
Anyway, the idea of going to cedar point again is so freaking exciting to me, I'm not sure I can properly express it. I'm so excited for my favorite ride (MaxAir) that I was youtubing videos of it... it might not look that great, but believe me... it IS that fun. It's not scary terrifying like all the other rides that I ride even though they make me want to cry, this one is actually fun... check it out:
And this weekend Lucero is playing a free show in Ferndale, so that should be fun... and next month Chuck Ragan is coming back to town... so I guess Fall is lining up to be pretty good, even if the summer was relatively low-key... I guess summer was the rest-up period for the fun that will be Fall 09. Yeeeehaw!
and then, at the end of August, when little Lukas Jameson made his arrival (weeks early... guess he was excited to meet his mom and dad)...
But, besides those 2 highlights, the summer was extremely low-key for me... at times, I was so broke I couldn't drive my car and took to walking to the nearby coffeeshop to drink free iced coffee (hurrah for THAT promotion). I had classes all summer, so that kept me busy some, but not so busy that it justifies the utter lack of excitement. I wanted to go to Put In Bay with Robert. We didn't go. The Ann Arbor Art Fair? Nope, missed that too... Art and Apples in Rochester Park? Hmm, that slipped by us too. Cedar Point? Nope...
oh, wait! Autumn e-mailed today and said that a thoughtful family member was springing for tickets for her family to hit up Cedar Point and would anyone like to come along... umm, YES! I went last year with Autumn... twice, because it was THAT fun (and, between you and me, pregnant women are NOT supposed to ride all those rides, but Autumn totally did... until she took a pregnancy test RIGHT BEFORE we went to Cedar Point the 2nd time, confirmed she was preggers with her doctor's office (IN THE CAR ON THE WAY TO CEDAR POINT and couldn't ride any stupid rides. Lame. Evan had already been on ALL of those rides by then.
Anyway, the idea of going to cedar point again is so freaking exciting to me, I'm not sure I can properly express it. I'm so excited for my favorite ride (MaxAir) that I was youtubing videos of it... it might not look that great, but believe me... it IS that fun. It's not scary terrifying like all the other rides that I ride even though they make me want to cry, this one is actually fun... check it out:
And this weekend Lucero is playing a free show in Ferndale, so that should be fun... and next month Chuck Ragan is coming back to town... so I guess Fall is lining up to be pretty good, even if the summer was relatively low-key... I guess summer was the rest-up period for the fun that will be Fall 09. Yeeeehaw!
8.13.2009
update
it's been a while since i've blogged. Autumn mentioned it tonight and I've been meaning to blog for a while, even though I'm pretty sure no one bothers to stop by with the lack of updates... oh well, here goes...
It's been a weird time lately. I've made what feels like really good progress in certain aspects of my life, taken steps back in other aspects, and am left feeling somewhat lost...
First and foremost is the anxiety. I mentioned it briefly before... but I never struggled with anxiety the way I do now. It's all encompassing and, at times, totally debilitating. Panic attacks will leave me gasping for breath and praying, somehow, that I will eventually manage to get breath back into my lungs again. Whatever triggers the panic is replaced by the feeling of a thousand pound weight on my chest, preventing my lungs from expanding, my heart racing. Robert is good at helping me through the attacks as much as he can, but he's not always with me. I do minor things to try to cope with the hair-trigger anxiety like take a hot bath, drink some hot tea, try to "square breathe". it all works to varying degrees. nothing prevents the anxiety, and nothing resolves it entirely, but i'm doing my best to cope.
Secondary to the anxiety, and, almost surely, an ingredient of it, is the insomnia. I battled insomnia hardcore many years ago. Not working and thus not having a real schedule has fucked up my internal clock something fierce. It's to the point where I might be wide awake through the night until 7 am. I have an alarm set to go off every morning. weekday or weekend. I'm trying to force myself to stay on a schedule somewhat, but it's not helping. 2 hours of sleep or 6 hours of broken sleep, it doesn't matter. there's no feeling rested and renewed. and, of course, when you're struggling to sleep at 5...6...7 am, it's anxiety provoking, which just starts a cycle that i'm best off not getting caught up in. The irony of the insomnia is that i'm exhausted. i feel like i should be able to sleep at the drop of a hat, but i'm not. When I'm at roberts i do seem to be able to sleep half decent, and that's weird because most of the time he doesn't go to bed when i do. we'll both set out to watch a movie, i'll get sleepy as we watch and head to bed. he'll stay up to finish the movie and whatever other things he feels like doing before bed and will join me hours later. but i'll sleep solid, soundly, for those hours. and then usually a good few hours more once he's come to bed.
i know part of the exhaustion i'm feeling is from anemia. despite taking iron everyday, im sure i'm still anemic. i'm just too run down feeling... add to it the ice cold hands and feet, that constantly fall asleep, the pale/yellow-y complexion, and the chest pain at the most minor excursion and i'm sure my iron's got to still be low.
in a week and a half i lose my health insurance, so tomorrow i've scheduled a doctors appointment where i will hopefully get a better solution to my anemia than "take more iron pills" which would seriously send me into a full blown meltdown, and will also get a plan in place to get back on (and stay on) my psych meds.
all this said, i do feel like i've been functioning relatively well despite the anxiety/exhaustion/insomnia. my class is nearly done (2 more classes) and i will hopefully pull off a passing grade, and robert and i have moved mountains in getting my condo back in shape. it's not yet a zen temple of peace for me, but it's getting there...
and now, i'm going to end this. i'm not going to read it back to see if it makes sense, or flows correctly or whatever. i'm going to post it, and try to sleep.
It's been a weird time lately. I've made what feels like really good progress in certain aspects of my life, taken steps back in other aspects, and am left feeling somewhat lost...
First and foremost is the anxiety. I mentioned it briefly before... but I never struggled with anxiety the way I do now. It's all encompassing and, at times, totally debilitating. Panic attacks will leave me gasping for breath and praying, somehow, that I will eventually manage to get breath back into my lungs again. Whatever triggers the panic is replaced by the feeling of a thousand pound weight on my chest, preventing my lungs from expanding, my heart racing. Robert is good at helping me through the attacks as much as he can, but he's not always with me. I do minor things to try to cope with the hair-trigger anxiety like take a hot bath, drink some hot tea, try to "square breathe". it all works to varying degrees. nothing prevents the anxiety, and nothing resolves it entirely, but i'm doing my best to cope.
Secondary to the anxiety, and, almost surely, an ingredient of it, is the insomnia. I battled insomnia hardcore many years ago. Not working and thus not having a real schedule has fucked up my internal clock something fierce. It's to the point where I might be wide awake through the night until 7 am. I have an alarm set to go off every morning. weekday or weekend. I'm trying to force myself to stay on a schedule somewhat, but it's not helping. 2 hours of sleep or 6 hours of broken sleep, it doesn't matter. there's no feeling rested and renewed. and, of course, when you're struggling to sleep at 5...6...7 am, it's anxiety provoking, which just starts a cycle that i'm best off not getting caught up in. The irony of the insomnia is that i'm exhausted. i feel like i should be able to sleep at the drop of a hat, but i'm not. When I'm at roberts i do seem to be able to sleep half decent, and that's weird because most of the time he doesn't go to bed when i do. we'll both set out to watch a movie, i'll get sleepy as we watch and head to bed. he'll stay up to finish the movie and whatever other things he feels like doing before bed and will join me hours later. but i'll sleep solid, soundly, for those hours. and then usually a good few hours more once he's come to bed.
i know part of the exhaustion i'm feeling is from anemia. despite taking iron everyday, im sure i'm still anemic. i'm just too run down feeling... add to it the ice cold hands and feet, that constantly fall asleep, the pale/yellow-y complexion, and the chest pain at the most minor excursion and i'm sure my iron's got to still be low.
in a week and a half i lose my health insurance, so tomorrow i've scheduled a doctors appointment where i will hopefully get a better solution to my anemia than "take more iron pills" which would seriously send me into a full blown meltdown, and will also get a plan in place to get back on (and stay on) my psych meds.
all this said, i do feel like i've been functioning relatively well despite the anxiety/exhaustion/insomnia. my class is nearly done (2 more classes) and i will hopefully pull off a passing grade, and robert and i have moved mountains in getting my condo back in shape. it's not yet a zen temple of peace for me, but it's getting there...
and now, i'm going to end this. i'm not going to read it back to see if it makes sense, or flows correctly or whatever. i'm going to post it, and try to sleep.
6.24.2009
statistically speaking...
my stats class final exam is tonight. i'm not too nervous, but i want to do well, because the class stands to raise my GPA a bit, and that sure would be nice for getting into grad school (which, as you know by now, i hope to do). it will be a relief to be done with this class, but i wish i could have the same professor teach each and every one of my last remaining classes. she was great...
6.08.2009
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