Karma...

I'm a big believer in karma. I also believe there are a couple of different kinds of karma. Some people experience big karma, where all their dirty deeds add together and karma repays in a huge way. Then there's the other kind, the kind I experience. Instant karma, cause and effect seen within a short time span, where all the little things you do are instantly awarded with karma.

For example, I once stole a pen from a restaurant. I have a thing for good pens. I must have stuck it in my pocket upon stealing it and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward to laundry day. Upon removing almost my entire professional wardrobe from the dryer, I found blue ink on almost every item of clothing. Nothing would get that ink out and I had to go spend several hundred dollars to replace that wardrobe. I've never stolen a pen since.

Certain events in my own life have made me wonder about karma. I see people who appear to be continuously rewarded for bad behavior. Is the big karma going to get them? Is little karma already effecting them? Will I ever know? Is it for me to know? These are the thoughts running through my brain.

Infusions....

I never though I would be one to have a bartender, but I do.  Rob of La Capitale has a way of making his customers feel like they are his only customer.  He knows their names, greets them by name each and every time, and knows their favorite drinks (mine is the Hot and Cold Margarita).

As my husband said, Rob is like a mad scientist, mixing and concocting into perfection.  His specialty is infusing different kinds of alcohol with things like fruits, veggies and herbs.  That margarita I love so much?  Made from Citrus and Serrano infused Tequila. 

So I sent Rob a tweet several months ago, asking if he had considered doing an infusions class, that his loyal devoted followers would surely want to learn from his wisdom.  And, in September, I had the honor of being one of the lucky 20 to attend @robdrinkenstein's infusion class at La Capitale.

After mixing us drinks (no pre-made mixers here, only fresh ingredients), class began.  And for two and a half hours, I learned how to infuse.  I also drank and ate.  All around great evening spent with friends.


My first infusion was inspired by Rob's chocolate martini, made with vanilla rum.  I hunted down the vanilla bean, I sliced it open and added it and the scraped out beans along with the rum to my new infuser, one of the gifts from the class.  After letting it sit for 8 hours (and tasting after 4 and 6 hours), I added the required amount of sugar and was ready to make my chocolate martini.  Which turned out pretty darn good.  But not quite as good as Rob's!

Rob's going to continue to offer classes.  He's talked of doing a Holiday Cocktail class, where he teaches you how to make Christmas cocktails.  I would highly recommend it.  Rob's a fantastic teacher and a great guy!  I just might see you there!

The Dining Scene...

I have recently been called a "foodie."  According to Wikipedia, a Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink.  Wikipedia also claims it was coined in 1981.  I guess me hooting and hollering when we drove by Salem's new food pod (3905 Silverton Rd, 1/2 block west of Lancaster)  is proof enough that I am, indeed, a foodie.

A few years ago, I would have said it was very hard to be a foodie in Salem, home of the fast food joints and chain restaurants.  Recently, Salem has started to grow up and we've got a number of good and diverse local restaurants.  We've decided to not eat at non-local restaurants, that if we're going out to eat, we want our money to stay in our community (Confession: We make exceptions for our occasional fast food visit and I do frequent Starbucks on occasion).

As happy as all of the new development makes me, I wonder about something.  It seems like many of the new restaurants opening are more of the fine dining type, with dinners generally costing $15 and up.  Like most Americans today, we are saving more of our pennies, certainly being more careful with them. This limits the opportunity we have to visit these establishments.  For us, they become "special occasion" restaurants.  I do appreciate how a few of these restaurants like La Capitale, has a separate bar menu from their finer dining menu, offering a greater range in prices.

I wonder how many of these fine dining restaurants Salem can support.  I would love to see more local, modest priced restaurants that offer a variety of dining choices.  While Salem pretty much has the Mexican and Chinese restaurant scene covered, a good hometown deli that is open for dinner too or more bistro style restaurants, like Word of Mouth would be a great addition. And if they were opened in West Salem, I certainly would not complain.

So Salem, what kind of food do you want to see in Salem?

Salem Beer and Cider Festival...

While I am not a beer drinker, I do love cider and I love supporting local businesses.  This all lead to me attending the first ever Salem Beer and Cider Festival, which was created by Gilgamesh and Wandering Aengus Cider. The cherry cider from Wandering Aengus is delicious and I even found a beer that I didn't mind. 

Mission Mill is a fabulous location and it was nice to not worry about the weather, however it did get mighty warm on the 3rd floor on such an unseasonably warm day.

It wasn't too crowded, but I assumed this was due to it being the first ever Salem Beer and Cider Festival and maybe because both the Beavers and the Ducks playing.  And while I appreciated having live music, my suggestion would be to lower the sound.  When we arrive it was so unbearably loud, I couldn't hear the person who was yelling in my ear.  I enjoy background music at events like this, but it should be quiet enough that you can have a conversation with the person sitting next to you without yelling. 

It's great for Salem to have their own beer/cider festival and it would be great to see more wines included next year. I could definitely see this becoming one of our annual festivals.

Finding Inspiration...

Last night, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mrs. Emily Grosvenor of Desperately Seeking Salem fame.  I'm not really sure when I started following Emily's blog, it was shortly after she started it, but have thoroughly enjoyed her take on Salem as a newbie.

While attending Emily's blogging class at Clockworks last night, one of the things that stood out to me was the need to have a blogging direction.  My current blog direction has been more of the personal nature and will continue to include some of that.  And of course there will be cats - if I can't get away from them neither can you.  But, I've also tried to keep it local, with photos of our city.  This is the area I want to expand, including thoughts, opinions and reviews of what is going on in my city.  I've lived in Salem since I was four.  I'm not going to do the math, but that's 30 years.  Wait, I said no math.  Grr. Anyway, I've got a lot of thoughts on where we've been and where we are going.  Stay tuned...

Kids...

It's interesting how much something can effect you when someone tells you you can't.  We always knew we wanted kids, we were just never sure when.  We wanted our financial situation just right or our house just right or have enough time off from work.  Mostly, we just wanted to have time to be married before the kids set in.  We were so excited by the first pregnancy and so very bitterly disappointed by the miscarriage.  The second pregnancy may have been worse, because we heard a heartbeat and miscarried 4 days later.  And 2 years later, we've got nothing.  After months of Clomid and taking my temperature every morning at 6:00 am, the doctor thinks it's not going to happen.  There's a small possibility of getting pregnant if we spend a lot of money we don't have on a fertility expert.  At this point, we've talked about adoption and need to get enrolled in the adoption classes with DHS, but we're both feeling pretty helpless.

The worse thing for us both is how very hard it is being surrounded by all of our friends, family and neighbors who have children.  We aren't resentful of them, just resentful of not being a part of it.  It is so hard for us to do something as simple as going to the park and seeing all of the families with their kids.  We both get so frustrated when we see someone with a herd of kids they don't even seem to like, never mind enjoy.  Even our closest friends and family have no idea the deep seated pain in causes for both of us.

Frankly, we don't talk about it except for an occasional private cry in bed late at night.  People don't know how to respond to it, don't know what to say.  That's okay, we don't know what to say either. Just do me a favor... remember that you never really know what is going on in someone's life, behind their closed door.  Just love them and support them and honor them the best you can.

Twitter...

I swore I would never do it.  I couldn't imagine that I would have anything interesting to say to post status updates.  For pete's sake, I rarely do the Facebook status updates.  But, when I started hanging out with a great group of ladies once a week for Happy Hour, I took the plunge.  They were all on Twitter and they are such a fun, hilarious group of ladies, I felt like I was missing out.  So, I jumped in.  I am not a hardcore Tweep, mostly I Tweet funny things that have happened throughout my day and respond to other Tweep's Tweets. I'm pretty selective with who I follow and who follows me: I mostly follow local Salem Tweeps and local Salem businesses.  It keeps me connected with my community.   We've had a few Tweet-ups, which has been great fun, meeting new Salemites and hanging out.  Twitter has offered a great opportunity to get to know local people who really just want to support our city and our local businesses.  Thinking about twitter and are a local person? Look me up!  Join the fun.