It's weird how I always come up with
snippets to write in my blog when I am driving- and then when I actually sit down to spill my mind, I can't think of anything I wanted to share. Most of it, if not all of it, was meaningless. Just random stuff that I thought of to pass the driving time. That happens sometimes, meaningless thoughts.
I do recall thinking about my few hours spent in North Portland today, Mississippi St. area. I thought about how much I love Portland. Only in Portland can you enjoy an awesome Vanilla Latte (with my own coffee cozy, saving a tree- one coffee cozy at a time), listen to a man ask for a cab and double check that it is okay that he has a cat, get stopped by the corner dude promoting Greenpeace and letting me know that buying Timberland shoes is now okay. Only in Portland can I stop into some odd/vintage gift shops, find a great deal at the Rebuilding Center (well, it's for my sister's birthday present, so I can't say on what), watch a hippie with dreads drive by with her ice cram cart and see an Arabic man deliver the U.S mail to the near by houses. Ah, yes, Portland. I finished my day with a ride across the Freemont bridge, which of course provides one of the best views of the great city and topped off the night with a visit to Bridgeport Brewery for a birthday party. I love my city. And even though it may seem like I live closer to Hillsboro, or even Beaverton- my address still reads NW Portland and my heart will be always be with her.
I ate at this little restaurant called "Gravy" today. I asked around to find the best place for a sandwich- I love sandwiches. (BLT's, Chicken Salad on Croissants, Fancy Grilled Cheeses, Clubs, Chicken-Bacon-Avocado, sandwiches with grilled Portobello mushrooms and of course my favorite- Monte Cristos). Someone told me to check out "Gravy's."
(...EXTREME Side Note. I always look to see if restaurants have Monte Cristos, they really are one of my favorite sandwiches. But, for the life of me I could not think of the name of that sandwich while writing this blog... so, of course, I googled it. During my search for the French sandwich I came across "Fluffernutter" sandwiches. I almost died laughing. I worked at a lovely camp during college (Camp Birch Hill in New Hampshire), in fact that is how I ended up moving to Portland, anyway at this lovely camp the kids were crazy about Fluffernutter sandwiches. It literally was two pieces of bread with marshmallow fluff and peanut butter stuff between the two slices! Can we all say- GROSS? I am not sure if I ever ate the infamous fluffernutter- but the memory was a fun walk down memory lane.)
Anyway, my whole spiel on Gravy's... After I finished half of my HUGE club sandwich and fries I drove home. This is when I had all the random thoughts that I couldn't think of, but now that I am typing away some of the bizarre ideas are re-entering my brain. I was full. I had the other half of the HUGE sandwich and the rest of the fries in a to-go box. So I started to think... Here in America, we have three main issues at hand (okay, we have A LOT more than three, but I am sure you can relate to the three I will mention). One- the economy. Two- the environment. Three- obesity. So, I was thinking... Why do restaurants charge 11 bucks for a HUGE lunch, fill me up with an obviously over-sized portion, pack the rest of it up in a to-go box only so I can just add to the trash piling up in our landfills? If restaurants would create smaller portions- we wouldn't feel the need to eat so much (and if you were raised to FINISH your plate, you wouldn't feel guilty either), they could charge less, we would spend less- saving a buck or two and we wouldn't have to carry our huge lunch home in a to-go box. I mean, seriously- do you know how many to-go boxes I give away every day at Olive Garden? And the boxes are Styrofoam! We serve up ENDLESS soup or salad and bread sticks and then give ginormous portions of pasta and just about every guest at the table asks for a Styrofoam to-go box. Ironic, don't ya think?
...Gravy's did not use Styrofoam boxes. Their boxes were recycled and will be recycled again. Plus their food was local... but still... you get my point.
I want a bumper sticker. I don't want anything Political though- just something fun. I've always wanted "Hoosier at Heart" to be my bumper sticker... maybe I'll order one. Can you just order your own bumper stickers? Is their an APP for that? LOL!
Do you think the urge to go shopping when you don't have money is some sort of rebellious inner-mind game? I only have urges to shop when we are penny pinching. When I am rolling in cash (okay, I am never Rolling in it...) I don't have the urge to shop at all. Weird. I am trying to contain myself... I'll just go the Library and Goodwill or something- that should shake the shopping case.
Chad's sermon really helped my "ebbing" recently. I had a pretty bad spout- in fact I think I am still recovering from all the negative thoughts and doubt I placed in my head. God's Perfect Patience. It's quite amazing. His patience is the extreme opposite from my patience- which is practically non-existent. I've been thinking about it this week, I'll have to go over my notes and listen to the sermon again.
How about that hot weather? hahaha. I really need to edit a lot of photos, I have a list starring me in the face.
Peace out.
Links to things I mentioned...
http://www.rebuildingcenter.org/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/gravy-portland
http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=7
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/fluffernutter.html