• PCC: I cannot walk out of the store without spending at least $20.  Sticker shock every time I stop in to buy something.  I actually boycotted the store for a few weeks b/c I was so mortified by the costs. I don't know how anyone can shop there  exclusively. Certainly no one can be poor and  eat organic.  Your entire income would go to PCC.  Who knew $80 worth of groceries could fit in just one brown paper bag?  Mind boggling.
• Red Apple:  Always good for bargain items, including a $1 aisle.  Generic brands of  non-organic items abound. Excellent stock of canned goods.  WIC approved!

• PCC:  Yes, I bought a $2.00 organic nectarine once.  I nearly pissed my pants when I saw the cost. I walked out of the store thinking, this better be the best piece of fruit I've ever tasted or I'm gonna be flippin' mad.  I wasn't going to tell Roger that I actually paid $2.00 for a piece of fruit until I ate it.  Oh my.  BEST NECTARINE EVER.  Perfectly sweet. Not crisp, not soggy.  Juicy as can be. Just heavenly.  It was so good I sucked on the seed for a while until every little morsel was consumed.  As I wolfed it down I admitted to Roger that I did, in fact, pay 2 bucks for the thing.  Worth every bite.  I also *accidentally* paid $4.00 for a cantaloupe at the PCC. It too was fabulous and delicious...but there is just something wrong with spending that much on a small melon. Lesson learned, weigh your produce when you buy at PCC!
• Red Apple: You can always depend on rotting fruit at the Red Apple.  Monday,  I needed one small roma tomato.  I walked up to the tomatoes and disturbed an entire colony of fruit flies.  EWWWW!!  Every single one was disgusting. I picked the best one and brought it home. Roger promptly turned his nose up at it.  What can I say? The selection was gross.  The veggies and fruit always look a bit old and sub par at the Red Apple. Sometimes you can find good deals on limes, lemons, potatoes, etc, but generally I don't buy produce there if I can help it.

• PCC: Ground Lamb can be found for a decent price.  Free Range, Hormone Free, Organic...you name it, you can find it at PCC...but probably at about 3x's the price you want to pay.  Do you see a recurring theme? After we moved to Seward Park, Lamburgers became a popular item in our household.  We never once ate anything like that at the Cherry St. house.
• Red Apple:  Slightly brown meat abounds in the meat aisle...but you can also find things like Chorizo, Ox Tails (not that I buy it), preseasoned chicken thighs and parts, etc.  The meat selection definitely caters to the local demographic. 

• PCC: Microbrew, microbrews, microbrews! Yum! Best part of the PCC is the beer selection.  I think I actually saw Roger salivate the very first time we walked into the PCC and he peeped the beer selection.  Also a nice wine selection. Not a Budweiser to be found.
• Red Apple:  Your place to find Steel Reserve, Old E, Mickey's, Bud, etc.  Actually now that the alcohol impact area has come into effect, the selection of rotgut is much more limited.

• PCC:  Ice Cream treats like "Tofutti Cuties"... I will admit I made fun when Tina came home with them one night (all I could think of was David Cross and the tofutti skit from Mr. Show)...but they are actually pretty tasty!
• Red Apple:  This is the joint for yummy bad-for-you novelty ice creams. Mmm,mmm...Nuf said.

• PCC:  Bulk aisle with  items like granola, grains, etc.
• Red Apple:  Mexican Aisle!  My favorite part of the Red Apple. You can find everything you need to make tamales. They have a selection of Jariscos soda, the weird Gamesa cookies my grandma used to eat when I was a kid, bulk dried chilies, etc. They really have the Mexican aisle stocked well. This is the part I miss most about the Red Apple. On Monday, I bought a can of autentico pinto beans and made some of the best refried beans I have ever made. I just sung gleefully in the kitchen the entire time I was making them.  I even made up a little refried bean song. Amazing what some good home cooking can do for your mood. Especially when you have been craving homemade refried beans for weeks.

• PCC: The older lady who tries to sell you used/gently loved stuffed animals, plastic roses, or whatever crafty thing she has laid her hands upon. She is very nice and does not get in your face. Just smiles with no teeth and offers you her wares silently.
• Red Apple:  Do I even need to go here? Hoodies. Hoodies. Hoodies.  People up in your face giving you sob stories for cash so they can walk around the block and buy some crack. I'm not joking.

• PCC: Yuppie, yuppie, yuppie. Super Clean. Very Friendly. Surprisingly, still diverse.  Lots of moms.
• Red Apple:  nothing beats shopping for your groceries while listening to classic soul and funk jams.   I love how people dance down the aisles or sing along.  If they played music at the PCC it would be Cat Stevens or Yanni  or some other crap like that.

It has been a week since my car accident.  My back and neck still feel achy and tight, but certainly better than it did last weekend. I’m not having throbbing headaches anymore, just a constant dull ache at the base of my skull and forehead area. I went to class Wednesday and although my neck and shoulders are a little sore, it felt good to stretch and move my body.   All of the insurance related paperwork and claims have been filed. The estimate on my vehicle has been done and I take my truck in on Monday morning to get it repaired.   It ends up being that more than the bumper was messed up. Some of the chassis got bent, and the truck bed itself is slightly crooked. There are paint chips where the truck bed collided with the main body of the truck.  Therefore, I will be without my truck all of next week.  I’ll be getting a not-so-sporty standard rental car to tide me over.  Next I will pursue massage, acupuncture and PT for the residual back pain.  Hope to be feeling more like myself after this weekend.

 

This is a belated shout out to all those Terrans who brought their A game to Dave and Lauren's wedding.  Damn! It was so good to see everyone.  I still feel all warm and fuzzy after seeing all of our Stanford friends.  Thanks again to Dave and Lauren for throwing an awesome wedding celebration!  I haven't had that much fun at a wedding in a long time.   I had a blast hanging out with the local crew and the Terra crew.  It is pretty shocking to think that I've known most of these folks for 10+ years.  It is even more amazing to think that even after all these years, you put us all in a room together and it is like "click"... GAME ON. Chloe said to me the other day "you Terrans sure know how to party!"  Damn straight.  My response to Chloe "Yeah, we rock it old school when we get together...we hit the bottle pretty hard...actually we hit everything pretty hard when we get together".  It is tough not to.    I take for granted that we have a large Terra contingency already in the Seattle area.  All we need to do is convince BK, Eugebear, and Sashie to move to Seattle and I don't think I could ever want for anything more in life :)  Then again, I might become an alcoholic if we all lived in close proximity together...so maybe it is for the best.  I will say that Rog and I need to plan long weekend trips to D.C., S.F, and San Antonio within the next year.  I've decided after this weekend that my happiness levels require a recommended annual allowance of quality time with our peeps. It is like Dave and Lauren's parents expressed to me multiple times over the course of the evening, we are VERY lucky to have such good friends.  Up next... which Terran will take on the revival of the Terra 70's party?!?  Any takers?

• Ukemi-The art of falling and receiving techniques
• Tactical Defense Against Weapons
• Pananandata Rope Fighting
• Edged Weapons--Attack & Defense
• Doing Less:  Effortless Effort
• Aki Jujitsu-the internal energetic aspect of joint locks
• The Organization of Awareness:  Mind in Movement
• and of course...I have to take one of the poekoelan forms!!!

I’ve learned over the past month, that my truck does not have a ‘low fuel’ gauge.  You know, that little yellow light, usually shaped like a gas pump that goes on when your fuel tank is low?  Well, my Toyota Tacoma does not have one of those.  I found this out earlier this month.   I got out of a day’s worth of interviews in downtown Tacoma and needed to drive to my office in the North End.   I start the truck and discover that I am woefully low on gas.  Come to find out there are no gas stations in downtown Tacoma. (Remember this for future reference. No gas in DT Tacoma…or DT Seattle for that matter).  My thought process—I had to get to the office for a conference call, so I figured I’d just drive in the general direction of the office and hopefully find a gas station.  Wrong choice.  The direct route between downtown and our Tacoma office is through residential neighborhoods.  I was 2 blocks from my office when the truck starts shaking vigorously and then died. It wouldn’t restart.   I was panicking, of course, but thankfully I was driving on a hill and was able to coast down the hill to an available parallel parking spot.  I assumed I had enough gas to get me to the nearest gas station because the light had not gone off.    I was shocked to discover that no such gas light existed in the truck.

Admittedly, I felt quite stupid that I let the truck run out of gas.  I’ve never had that happen before. Ever.  I’ve been a passenger when someone has let the gas run out, but I have never been dumb enough to do it myself.  I ended up calling AAA to bring me some gas (Hey, that is why I pay an annual fee). I still felt like a total airhead.  I had to explain to my boss why I would be late to the conference call, and then I had to wait for a mechanic to bring me gas. LAME.  It ended fine. At least I was close to the office and was able to check email and stuff before the mechanic arrived.  The mechanic was some old dude who looked me up and down and kind of dismissed me as a stupid broad.  After that incident I vowed that I would never let the fuel tank dip below a ¼ tank.  Until yesterday.   I was, of course, running late to a meeting.  I had “worked from home” and lost track of time.  Therefore, I was driving from home to the Issaquah office.  On the drive I had been blasting my tunes, talking on the phone to my friend Amy, and just kind of operating under autopilot.  I get off of the freeway and all of a sudden the truck starts to shake vigorously again.  I thought, “oh crap…what now!” until I noticed that there was zero fuel in my tank. WTF!!!  Again, the surge of emotions that range from anger at myself for letting it happen again (in less than a month’s time), fear that the truck is going to die before I reach the nearest gas station, and nervousness about being late to the meeting, simply because I  can’t seem to remember to check gauges.  The good news—I pulled into the Arco station right as the truck died.  I was able to fill up the tank and make it to my meeting just in time.   I'm having some major truck karma this month.  I better not push the envelope anymore.  I also realized how dependent I am on that particular gauge.  I know when the light goes on that I need to make my way to the gas station, but that I have a few miles remaining.  I am sorry to admit that I used to depend on the gauge all the time in my Cavalier and also in the FeBreeze.  No can do now.

I suppose there is really no benefit to blogging about these incidents other than to demonstrate my stupidity…but also to forewarn my friends that you really can’t bank of the fuel gauge.  Learn from my mistakes and don’t be a dumbass.