i wish i knew

people, experiences, memories

19 Jul 2010

For the past couple years, Lisa and I have planned a girls’ weekend. And for the past couple years it’s been just the two of us that participate because it’s so hard to get people together. When you graduate high school and go to college it’s all about making friends, hanging out in groups and having a good time. You would rearrange all kinds of plans if something else looked more fun. Then real life kicks in, you graduate, find a job and slowly transform into someone you don’t exactly recognize.

Responsibilities start piling up and before you know it you’ve lost touch with people that used to consume your life. You weed out people you don’t need to talk to and squeeze in minimal amounts of time with others. Those goofy pictures you saw of adults juggling all these balls and looking frustrated and miserable? It’s for real, it really does feel like that.

Simply put, this sucks.

(Yes, I’m a college graduate who still uses: For real, this sucks, no way, that’s cool, bummer and many other phrases that would have both my English and journalism professors cringing. If I close my eyes I can see Lessenberry’s chicken scratch all over this post.)

I’m a firm believer that life doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it. I think the first step is to stop being so complacent, letting life’s current just take you. I’m extremely guilty of this. It’s much easier than to actually make decisions, especially hard ones.

The past year seemed like a game of monopoly. Buying properties because it was feasible and it’s a “good time to buy”. I’m grateful for it all but it just adds a lot more pressure. More bills to pay, more things to clean, more plans to make and less time to chill. Yes, I’m 28 and sometimes I would really just like to be 18 again (let’s be honest, I only act my age 75% of the time). 18 was a very good year, the first 6 months anyways.

This is getting ridiculously off track.

Lisa and I have added one more participant to the 3rd annual girl’s weekend. Sad it’s only one but I’ll take it. All relationships take time and effort, including friendships. If you haven’t seen your friends in awhile maybe you need to take a step back, re-evaluate and simplify. Things don’t make us happy; it’s people, experiences and memories.

*jumping down from my soapbox*

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Tags: on my soapbox

Wheelhouse Detroit

In: perfectly maria

14 Jul 2010

Detroit gets a lot of bad press. You know it, I know it. A lot of it is true but there is a lot about Detroit that goes unnoticed. I went to college in Detroit for 5 years. I have some really good memories in the city.

Truth be told, sometimes I miss working in Detroit. Driving into the city and seeing all the tall buildings and urban neighborhoods. Of course, I don’t really miss the screaming homeless lady or having to make sure everything in my car was out of sight before I left it in the parking structure every morning.

This past weekend Jenni, Mallory and I took a 3 hour bike tour of Southwest Detroit through the Wheelhouse Detroit. It was a Groupon we purchased a couple months ago. It was really interesting to ride bikes through the city with the marketing director for Southwest Detroit. She knew about the history, the culture and of course, all the authentic restaurants to eat at.

We rode by Grand Central Station, which serves as the gateway between Corktown and Mexicantown; Motz’s for Sliders and through Historic Fort Wayne.

This is the part where I won’t mention that I had to abandon my bike at one point because I lack coordination skills. I was putting the map back in the basket and all of a sudden lost control of my moving bike. I jumped off in time before I would have toppled over but it did stop the whole group…this is a time where I wonder how I ever got my blackbelt.

A city that has such a bad reputation still has hidden gems. I promise you, if you just open your eyes to see past the corruption, the abandoned buildings and people who are less fortunate than yourself, you can find some really interesting and awesome things.

[View with PicLens]

*Pictures taken by Jenni & Maria - Don't steal, it's not nice.

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Tags: detroit, detroit wheelhouse

fruits, veggies & my birthday

In: health| perfectly maria

17 Jun 2010

I’m still really excited for my Door to Door Organics and I got my second delivery yesterday…

Green leaf lettuce

Celery

Broccoli

Cucumber

Mango

2 Oranges

2 Avocado

4 Plouts (Plum/Apricot)

5 Roma Tomatoes

4 Nectarines

Pint of Blueberries (not pictured)

For dinner last night we had an awesome salad with Boca Chick’n and fries. I’m even excited for lunch because of all the fruit I have.

Go ahead, make jokes…you know you’re getting old when you are excited about fruit and vegetables. Speaking of getting old…

I had a wonderful birthday that actually started on June 10 and led right up to the actual day.

Fondue with friends at the Melting Pot (hilarious times!), Chillin with Lisa, making a cake, birthday wine glass, BBQ , shopping, Sex in the City 2 (which I pretty much hated), lunch at Slows, sushi, cupcakes and Chuck cooked me dinner.

I think 28 is going to be an awesome year!

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Tags: birthday, door to door organics

door to door organics delivery!

In: health| perfectly maria

3 Jun 2010

Last week I mentioned that I was signing up for Door to Door Organics. I’m not going to lie, I was really excited to get the box yesterday. Chuck was a little skeptical of the whole thing but he couldn’t really complain because if it didn’t work out how we’d like you can cancel at any time.

He called me as soon as he got home to tell me that our fruits and veggies had arrived. Even I was overwhelmed with all the produce when I saw it.

2 heads green leaf lettuce
bunch of carrots
2 pears
2 peaches
canteloupe (freakin’ delicious!)
2 cucumbers
3 green peppers
cherry tomatoes
strawberries

This is the bitty box too. Last night we got into the canteloupe, cucumbers and green peppers. They were delicious. I made Boca Chick’n patty sandwhiches on whole wheat buns with tater tots and cucumbers and green peppers. I was stuffed!

The whole experience was easy and truly painless. I’m ecstatic to have fresh stuff around the house!

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Tags: door to door organics

door to door organics

In: health| perfectly maria

28 May 2010

I have a confession. I actually like eating fresh veggies and fruit, but I am clueless on how to pick a ripe avocado or mango. Bananas are easy. Green? Yellow? Bruised? Unbruised? Apples are simple too. So those are the fruits we end up eating week after week.

This past week I bought some cucumbers and a green pepper. I cut them up and ate them for an after work snack. I had forgotten how good fresh veggies taste. When my good friend Jenni told me about Door to Door Organics, based in Livonia, I was eager to check it out.

Door to Door Organics delivers organic and locally grown fruits and/or veggies to your door. Yes! To your front door once a week. My first thought was, “this is going to be expensive” but really it’s not more than buying them at a store. For the Bitty fruits and veggies box it’s only $23. It’s really flexible, I am getting deliveries every other week and if I’m going on vacation or need to skip a week it’s totally possible. It’s also commitment free so you won’t be locked into a contract.

Fruits & veggies locally grown and delivered to my door? Yes! Please!

I’m really excited about this. I get to eat healthy and I don’t have to pick up my own produce. I’ll keep you posted on how the delivery goes next Wednesday.

*Note: I was not asked to write about this company in any way, I just think it’s an awesome service.

(1) Comment
Tags: door to door organics, fruits & veggies, healthy eating, organic food

making progress

In: cottage

26 May 2010

In the weeks I haven’t written, Chuck and I have been spending our weekends painting and replacing flooring in the cottage. All the hard work makes even a sofa bed feel like heaven. We both agree it can’t possibly be that comfortable, but when we use it, we sleep better than we do at home.

This past weekend Lisa came up to help. Along with keeping up with Chuck at beer drinking she motivated and helped us finish painting and putting most of the CHEAP (read ugly) vinyl tile in. With only one more bedroom to finish we can focus on relaxing a little while we are up there next (Memorial Weekend, Hello Summer!!!!).

Of course there are still many things to do, but nothing that would keep people from coming to visit, well except for the fact we don’t have any furniture yet. So bring a sleeping bag and an air mattress

More photos from the past weekends and from future visits will be added in the cottage gallery.

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Tags: oscoda

purple sunset

In: perfectly maria| random thoughts

3 May 2010

We spent 8 hours painting ceilings this past weekend. 8 hours. The more work we do the more excited we get and it’s really starting to sink in that we have a place of our own to get away for the weekend. The dogs are slowly getting used to the cottage, though you can tell they are much more comfortable when they get home. I think once we get the walls painted (next weekend), get the flooring in (few weeks from now) and move some furniture in they will feel more settled.

We took the barely 5 minute walk to Lake Huron yesterday. It was balmy and dreamlike with the steam coming up off the pavement.

Really, how can you go wrong with a view like this?

sunset: view from the front yard

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Tags: cottage, oscoda

our announcement

In: perfectly maria

25 Apr 2010

A couple of weeks ago…Easter weekend to be exact, Chuck and I were in Oscoda. We made the trip partially to get away and partially to begin a search for a cottage. We have been talking and casually searching through Oscoda listings for over a year now. We thought about including East Tawas and Tawas City in our search but in the end decided those places just weren’t where we wanted to be.

Oscoda has everything we are looking for. Lake Huron, inland lakes and the AuSable River. Our price range was tiny so there wasn’t a lot for us to look at and it was really hard to find a realtor to work with us. I did found a few online before we left and on Easter Sunday we drove around to the addresses I had with the help from my little friend Droid and the female voice that navigates, I call Oksana. (Seriously, that phone makes traveling and looking for addresses so easy! It’s an awesome phone)

Nothing was what we wanted. There was either way too much work to be done or it was too close to neighbors. Monday morning Chuck decided we’d just drive around a little before we headed home. We had no map or idea of where to look, he just turned off of US 23 and chose random side streets. We both were on the lookout for For Sale signs and after turning down 3-4 side streets we saw this cute little house. We pulled in to check it out and we got excited, kind of like when we found our house. I thought no way would this cute place with a garage and screened in porch be something we could afford. Just for fun C called the number on the For Sale sign.

It was something we could negotiate to fit our price range and the realtor said he would meet us there in 10 minutes. When we first walked in it wasn’t like when we found our house, but as we started walking around we saw the potential. We told the realtor we would think about it and let him know. By the time we got back on the road we knew we had found our place. We waited until we got home and unpacked to call the realtor and offer what we had. If the owners accepted we would do our inspection a week later.

Well the rest is history. We closed on our little home away from home yesterday. We cleaned and now we can focus on the paint and flooring and it will be, as our realtor said, a cute dollhouse. The dogs are almost excited as us. We are a block from Lake Huron and 5 miles from and inland lake to put our boat in.

We can’t wait for summer!

after the day cleaning and disinfecting

xoxo

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april update

In: perfectly maria| random thoughts

15 Apr 2010

I’m slowly making my way through my 30 Before 30. As Michelle pointed out there is a lot of travel involved. Because of the path my life seems to be taking, I don’t see much travel in our future for the next couple years (not babies!). Most likely a lot of the travel plans I’d like to experience will be put into the list of things I want to do before I’m 40. I’m getting ahead of myself though and that is way too far in advance to think about. Please check out the minimal things I’ve accomplished so far though! After this summer a I will be able to check a couple more off, for sure.

For all of you that laugh and joke about how I can’t cook, I would like to stick my tongue out at you. I’m a closet cooker. There are days that I actually cook dinner and bake dessert just like a good 1950’s housewife. True, they are few and far between and if you actually referred to me as that I’d have to round kick you to the head to knock some common sense into you.

Most recently I’ve made homemade granola bars, chocolate chip walnut cookies, artichoke and mushroom alfredo pasta bake (I adapted the recipe from my friend Sarah. And yes I said I adapted it!), black bean tacos and macadamia nut and tropical fruit pancakes.

In other news, I’ve been missing photography like crazy lately. I haven’t owned a nice camera since my 35mm SLR was popular. Sure I carry around my handy Canon Powershot but there are more and more days I’d like to capture the world with something more professional and powerful. I’ve looked into the Canon XSI Rebel but as stated, money is a little bit tight.

Trying to supplement my income has been a bit of a challenge too. I had a freelance job but it’s on the back burner because getting me content is an issue. I’m a little disappointed, but hopefully something else will come along.

I’ll have some exciting news to announce in a week or so!

Enjoy all this lovely sunshine we are getting in April!!

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NKFM and Noodles & Company

In: perfectly maria

25 Mar 2010

Today, March 25th, Noodles & Company is partnering with the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan. From 11am-9pm 25% of all meals purchased at Michigan stores will benefit the NKFM. Present this flyer