Grocery Shopping, Nashville Style

I love to shop. This includes shopping for food. Yes, I enjoy grocery shopping! I'm a nerd like that. Being in Nashville has greatly enhanced my grocery experience. I have stocked up my fridge with some delicious finds and had some wonderful customer service along the way! So, I wanted to share in the hopes that you would share your finds with me too...

First of all, Nashville lucked out recently and got a Trader Joe's. Oh how I love Trader Joe's! Delicious, affordable, simple - it's great. Here is my latest favorite: the (99 cent) bag of raw pizza dough, sauce and fixings. You will have a delicious "home made" pizza for about $4 a pizza. Can't be that! Did I mention it's DELICIOUS? Don't have a moment to spare in the kitchen? Try their store brand Paneer Tikka Masala dish in the frozen section. It is SUPERB! It tastes like something I order at a restaurant! GO GET IT NOW, Indian food lovers! Trader Joe's carries a lot of prepared meals and I have to admit, I haven't liked all of them. So before you go on a tasting adventure, check this out for ratings. And bring your kids. They give them helium balloons (GREAT IDEA!)

The Grassland Market is the BEST place for some real treats. "Miss Daisy" is Nashville's version of Paula Dean and she has her own section of delectable goods in the locally owned Grassland Market on Hilsboro Road just south of Grassland Middle School. She makes the best chicken salad I have EVER tasted. Her pimento cheese is to die for and her desserts are sinful. Try the cheesecake or the mint brownies. UNBELIEVABLE. Usually Miss Daisy herself is there, pouring out the southern charm with a glass of her famous fruit punch. There's even a little table for dining which I assume requires reservations.

In Nashville you can buy REAL BAGELS! Brueggers Bagels is my personal favorite. Their kettle-boiled bagels are perfectly crusty and smooth on the outside, chewy on the inside. How I have missed a good bagel every now and then! And their cream cheeses are pretty darn tasty as well!

My absolute FAVORITE brand of coffee happens to be here in Nashville - Bongo Java Roasting Company - and their coffee is INCREDIBLE. It's all organic and Fair Trade and it's so, so good. And you don't have to travel far to pick up a bag. I know Whole Foods carries it and I'm pretty sure Publix does too.

And on that note - Publix. I have to admit, I was highly skeptical of Publix. Publix is very much an all American grocery store. It's almost like walking into a Costco. The aisles are HUGELY wide, there is so much food it seems wrong, and people smile so much it's uncomfortable. It's a tad overpriced, there is hotel lobby music as you push your gliding cart and it just seems... plastic? But LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING - Publix has awesome customer service. There is virtually an employee on every aisle, willing and able to help you find what you are looking for in the vast sea of food. I ordered my daughter's birthday cake at Publix. Yes, I did NOT bake it myself, so throw little sprinkles at me all you like, but I hate baking. I'm a cook. Bakers have to follow too many instructions. Cooks can be creative. I'm getting off topic. Anyway, I ordered the Cinderella cake from Publix. It ended up having a slight mistake on it. And I mean slight. There was a teeny, tiny piece of icing missing from around her name. It was so microscopic, you had to look for it. And guess what? I got it for nothing. Yes, they gave it to me FREE. They told me it was "sub-par" for Publix and they wanted me back. Crazy! Oh, and kids get balloons at Publix too.

Nashville is definitely a great (and fun) place to stock up your pantry. So, Nashvillians, what can you add to my list? Where do you shop? What do you get?

Back to Music City!

So, we moved! We moved from Memphis to Nashville. Well, Franklin really. We moved because Matt got a new job- which he loves - so we feel very blessed.

We do, however, miss a lot of things about Memphis. Obviously we miss our friends and family dearly, but there are a few other things we miss too... (in no particular order)

1. Bar-B-Q. There is no BBQ here worth ingesting. We will have to save our BBQ cravings for our visits back to Memphis. I could cry over being so far away from Central BBQ.

2. The Zoo! The zoo is awesome. I never got to see the new exhibit. But I still have a membership that's good until the spring, so I'll get to see it soon! :) There is a zoo here, but it pales in comparison.

3. Our church. I have given up on finding a replica of this. We love our church so much. If you live in Memphis, and have never been to All Saints, I encourage you to try it out.

4. Swanky's and Mosa. These were our two most frequented restaurants. Just about every night I alternately crave the Jiao Zhe Bowl from Mosa and the steak salad from Swanky's. Mmmm.... only in my dreams now!

5. Diversity. Just about everyone here is A.white and B.rich. That's fine but I miss the diversity. This includes my foreign friends. I need Europeans! I'm sure they are here... but where?

6. Brother Junipers. mmmmm.....

7. The Big Back Yard exhibit at the Botanic Gardens. What a fabulous addition! The interactive play areas engage the children, teach them about nature, and provide a fun filled atmosphere. What a fun place to meet up with friends! And Wednesday afternoons are free!

8. Cooper Young festival and other artsy fun things to do in Memphis like the trolley tour of South Main. So fun! (Yes, Memphis has an actual trolley as form of transportation) Trolley = cool.

9. The "culture". Memphis is gritty and real. And I miss that. I feel like I'm in "La-La Land". But La-La Land does have it's benefits...

10. Having our own house in a central historic area. But this shall come soon, minus the "central and historic area" part.

We do have a contract on a house! Yay! We (hopefully) close in a month. I am SO READY to have a home!! Right now we are living at my parent's house (thanks Mom and Dad!) until we move into our new home, which is just a half mile away! I will admit, it's nice to get a break from home-ownership. When it storms, I'm not worried about a leaky roof or tree limbs falling from over head! And I'm looking forward to not owning an 85 year old house. Everyone here acts like the house we have a contract on (30 years old) is WAY old. Ha! I just laugh in their face!

So, those are some of the things we miss. It's great being in Nashville(Franklin really). It's been a smooth transition, seeing that I grew up here. Matt and I met and fell in love here, so there's that history too. We actually have quite a few friends here and it's been fun to re-connect. And some of my best friends on the planet are here too, which of course is wonderful.

One of the things I'm adjusting to is opening the door and going outside to play. In Memphis, these gigantic boat-sized Cadillacs came barreling down our street at 45MPH so often that I was fearful to ever go in the front yard, lest my child would head into the street! Plus I was always a little worried about the foot traffic in our neighborhood. Here, my girl goes outside and the street is full of children. This neighborhood (where we have a contract on a house and are currently living) is SO kid-friendly. At first I was worried about things to do, but now I just have to open the front door and put shoes on to provide a fun environment for my child! It's different, but I like it.

I also like taking walks in the neighborhood ALONE and AT NIGHT. Yep, you can do that here. That would be a crazy concept in Memphis!

Of course, there are some things I don't like. What is the deal with people tailing me EVERY TIME I DRIVE? Is this a Nashville thing? Or a Franklin thing? I've thought about making a sign that I can hold up that reads "Get off my ass or I'll slam my breaks and cause you to wreck!!". It makes me SO MAD!

It's also a tad uncomfortable to drive through McMansion neighborhoods - one right after the other. Williamson County is a sea of mansions! Where did all this money come from?? And it's SOOOO expensive to live in Davidson County (Nashville proper) which is why we bought in Franklin. It's just downright wrong that the coolest parts of town are so overpriced!

But you know what Nashville has that Memphis doesn't? Meat-n-Threes! Yay! Why Memphis has a SEVERE lack of these is beyond me. Nashville also has local coffee shops that stay open past 7, better music (the type I like), better shopping, and more progressive medicine. I went to a doctor here (MD) who uses homeopathy, supplements, and herbs as opposed to traditional medicine. Can't find that in Memphis! And you can give birth at Vanderbilt Hospital using a nurse-midwife. (And NO, I'm not pregnant, so STOP ASKING!)

Well, anyway, here we are. There are things we miss and things we are glad to have. Wherever we live, it doesn't really matter. Because it's who you're with not "where you're at" (improper grammar and all). And I'm with my family - my man, my little girl. Be in Memphis or Nashville or Timbuktu, they are my best commodity.

Dont Forget about TODAY!!!

Today is the day of the big Joe P. Rally Run!!!! Even if you can't come out and run/walk in person, you can help to find a cure for the disease no child should have to suffer from. Help fight childhood cancer by clicking here!!!

Joe P's Rally Race 5K

Help fight childhood cancer and support me on October 31st! All proceeds benefit pediatric cancer research, specifically brain tumor research. The race is in memory of my precious nephew, Joseph, who died of a brain tumor the day after his fourth birthday.

click here to see my support page!

My other blog

My daughter took a big developmental step this month! And, as her mother, I'm proud as punch.

For details, visit her site:

winniekate.com

It's a private site, so if you want to see it, email me for permission!
:)

This and that

It's been a while since I blogged and I have a lot of random thoughts swimming in my head;


Twittering: I just don't get it. Maybe it's the latest thing for generation Y or whatever they are calling the '00 kids these days, but I'm a product of the seventies, a youth approaching middle age(?) and twittering is way too... senseless? If you don't know what Twitter is, I can't really explain it to you because I don't "tweet" myself, but what it appears to be is a never ending update of what you are doing throughout the day. I'm sorry, but I just can't go that far. I'm already knee deep in narcissism with a Facebook account and a blog. At any rate, Twitter for me is OVER THE TOP. I don't care what you are doing all day. If I did, I would call you. Or even more old fashioned, MEET YOU IN PERSON for a face to face chat. How's that for old fashioned?

Selling a house in times like these: Amazingly, we have done just this. Here is how you do it: Get a good Realtor (Katie Hill with Hobson Realtors is my suggestion if you live in Memphis) and PRICE IT COMPETITIVELY. Also, prayer. Of course. We sold our house in about 4 weeks. Amazing.

Finding a new house: Here is where I stop bragging because WE CAN'T FIND ANYTHING! Our home sold MUCH faster than we had imagined it would and now we are left HOMELESS. After being out of my house on and off for the past two years, returning to the nomadic ways of living is utterly detestable. I know we are in a good position, but for goodness sake, I can't take the life of a nomad any more. And I refuse to settle on a house just to have a place to live. It's not like buying a new pair of shoes. Panic is ensuing. Quite literally.

Indoor Plants: I don't like them. And it's not just because I'm irresponsible about watering them. Yes, I have killed quite a few house plants in my life. But it's the appearance of indoor greenery that really turns me off. I'm finding this as I scope out pictures of houses on realtor.com. Those flowing ivy plants climbing down the sides of kitchen cabinets truly give me the creeps. Equally as frightening as indoor plants is clutter. I hate clutter. I would rather have few possessions than many cluttered ones. Ever seen that TLC show on hoarders? Those shows make me itch like I have seed ticks crawling all over me. Clutter is THAT GROSS.

Ikea: I'm liking Ikea more and more. I'll be heading to Atlanta soon, when my niece is born (which by the way is going to be so unbelievably exciting) and I'm fighting the urge to take a semi-truck with me to fill with Ikea products to bring home. Ikea isn't just a store. It's a habit, a way of life, AN ADDICTION. It's clutter-less, minimalistic, smooth and cheap. *Darn I love that place.

Crocs: I don't "get" these shoes. Even though everyone wears them everywhere, they still look like funny gnome shoes to me. Especially the brightly colored ones. On kids they look fine, but on adult feet - ?? And I'm talking about the huge, full of holes, clog-shaped kind. I have tried them on and while extremely comfortable, I feel like Ronald McDonald as they only add BIGNESS to my already huge boat-feet. Is it just me?

Fashion trends: Something else I don't "get". Take the whole 'jeans tucked into boots' fad from this past winter. Am I the only one who thinks this looks completely ridiculous? Maybe it's just because it's yet another fad that makes my boat feet stand out, but I tried it in the mirror and I looked like a first World War soldier. Who starts these silly trends? I'll tell you who - weird plastic Hollywood people like Paris Hilton. That's who. If she started wearing a bulbous red clown's nose and Bozo shoes, would we all follow? Deciding not to follow fads is a matter of principle for me (and trying not to look ridiculous). Equally as appalling are designer clothes with hefty price tags. People in the 'rest of the world' cannot afford shoes for their aching bare feet. And we're obsessed with spending thousands on ridiculous trendy items that lose their flare after 9 months. Can we all say GROSS? Sorry people, I just don't get it. Maybe I'm a snob. I won't totally deny it.



*edited for the sake of that one particular person who reads my blog, MOM.

The Willies and how Freckles can be a Curse

Ever had "the creepy crawlies"? "The willies"? "The hebegebees"? Maybe you get them when someone runs a fingernail down a chalkboard. Perhaps you feel them when you watch a horror film or see a live surgery on TV when flipping the channel.

I got the willies yesterday in an "ants in my pants" kind of way. Only it was quite literal.

After looking at homes (our house is on the market) we found ourselves with a little free time as our daughter was still at her Nana's house napping. So we decided to go on a little "nature walk" with our dogs since the weather is so unusually pleasant here in Memphis this week.

Although Memphis boasts the largest urban park in the country (Shelby Farms), full of trails, natural forests and wetlands, Matt and I chose to walk the trails of another park system located in the 'burbs of Germantown. These trails, which are actually part of some state park system, are conspicuously located off a main suburban road and surrounded by McMansion housing developments. Basically, it doesn't look like somewhere one would really go on a nature hike. Unlike the manicured trails of REAL parks, these trails were very narrow and overgrown with tall grasses and weeds. Of course, we chose to go somewhere "off the beaten path" because we had our overly enthusiastic dogs with us. Neither of us felt like having our arms ripped out of the sockets by the leashes attached to the choking, drooling idiot-dogs we have who are overly eager to greet every baby, squirrel, man and dog they encounter with their wildl animal eyes (they were rescues. Apparently starved for love/chase)

So, leash free they could roam and sniff. And there were no babies to knock over or dog's butts to chase and sniff. They could squirrel hunt in private.

The trees weren't very thick. It was "new growth". The type of "woods" you find in someone's back yard who has built a huge house in some undeveloped area. My bare legs continuously brushed tall leafy plants and we had to step over many a fallen tree or briar of brambles to make our way down the path. We walked for quite some time and actually found several ridges that we hiked up and down. It was like finding a secret place of hills in this flat barren land of Memphis. We walked until we came to the banks of the Wolf River - a huge river I might add. This is where we turned around and decided to jog back to the entrance of the trail.

It must have been in that jogging that the "incident" occurred. Of course with the type of incident we encountered, it's hard to say when it actually occurred as the very nature of the incident is silent, small and sneaky. It was in the several minutes after we stopped jogging that I noticed the slight itching sensation on the backs of my knees.

I had been paranoid we would get Poison Ivy or Poison Sumac or some kind of POISON during the entire walk. I kept imagining ourselves covered in pink Caladryl lotion, laying on top of the bedsheets, unable to sleep from the bright red itching. Just thinking of the possibility made my legs itch with each brush of random overgrowth we passed.

The backs of my knees itched again and I told myself that this was clearly a real itch, not part of the horrible vision I kept having of rashes and moaning. So I scratched the back of my leg and continued panting after the run (it had been a while since last I ran). Immediately the backs of my knees itched again and I was scratching. Great. Now I would be covered in mosquito bites. Then my forehead began to itch, just at the hairline. And then my fingers. Now I stopped walking and glanced at my hand.

In a wave of heart-stopping horror, I realized my hand was covered in teeny-tiny bugs moving about ardently. They had an odd sway about their movement, a purposeful, blood seeking determination that guided their little bug-legs in a smooth yet swarming manner. They didnt' have the awkward back and forth movement of ants and they were far to clingy to be anything else but.... Ticks? Could these actually be.... I looked closer and harder in a patch of sunlight splaying through the thin suburban forrest trees... Ticks? TICKS! These were ticks! Blood sucking horrible head burying TICKS! The search engine in my mind landed me on "Seed Ticks", something I had heard about in the past. Some kid I babysat back in high school had gotten into some... "Thousands" I remember being told. It was a nest he had stepped in. Also I remembered something about him having to strip and get in a body of water. Oh boy. This is when my heart leapt into my throat and that tiny girl scream started to come out of my mouth as I called out to Matt to rescue me from this creepy crawling nightmare.

But wait... they had only landed on my hand. I flipped my hand to the palm where they were also milling about. Matt asked me what I had just touched... It was a tree, just back there. I laid my hand on it after the run. A small feeling of relief filled me as I attempted to shake the critters off my hand (they did not come off). This would be a small seed tick attack. Just my hand. No nest had I stepped in. Only a mere brush with death that would soon end. Then I remembered the backs of my knees that my hand had scratched. Slowly I glanced down to see little brown specks covering the backs of my knees. As I swatted and picked them off, they clung to my fingers, hid in my finger nails and STAYED ON MY BODY.

This is when I began to lose it.

The hebegebees took over and I was flailing and trying not to scream like a Crazy. I had one thought; GET THEM OFF. But they weren't easy to get off. And remember how my forehead was itchy? Well, they were EVERYWHERE. Just as I began my frenzy of picking them off and discovering more, I heard Matt call off... seemingly from another planet... that he too was covered in tiny ticks.

We did what anyone does who has ants in their pants. We did little dances. We swatted, we swaggered. We debated taking off all of our clothes (we were now next to the car in the middle of SUBURBIA, just feet away from a four lane road. We opted for private nakedness and got in the car, ticks and all, drove as fast as we could to Matt's Dad's house (he wasn't there), and proceeded to strip on the back deck while at the same time, frantically Googling "seed tick removal" on the laptop. It was bright and sunny outside so I could hardly read the black screen of the computer. With squinted, frantic eyes, I scanned the scant articles that returned from my Google search and found a brilliant piece of advice - use packing tape to pull them off. Packing tape! In a flash we were pressing clear packing tape strips to our bodies, and pulling the ticks off as they stuck to the tape. The ticks met their fate as we then folded the strips of tape, suffocating their blood seeking lives.

Let me explain how small these ticks were. THEY WERE SO FREAKING TINY YOU WEREN'T SURE YOU WERE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT ONE OR NOT. In fact, on my body, which is covered in pin-prick sized brown freckles, you really couldn't see the ticks at all. And I don't have those big kind of freckles. My freckles are the size of specks of dirt. And I'm COVERED in them. How fortunate for an army of freckle-sized seed ticks! To locate them, I would put a piece of tape over my arm, press and pull, and the invisible little guys would be stuck on the tape in different places. And since the ticks were fully camouflaged in the forest of freckles (they were also the exact same color as the freckles), I had to rely on the tape and the sensation of "the willies" to locate the horrible pests. On more than one occasion I scratched at freckles until they bled. Freckle? Tick? Who knew.

At some point we realized we were about to run out of tape. This is also about the same point that I realized that the ticks were now in the nether regions. My underwear was still intact but it presented no barrier to the ticks-disguised-as-freckles. They were making their way north on my body. Never mind the ones that had already landed on my face, neck and head. I had only seen them swarmed on the backs of my knees because that's one of the FEW places I don't have freckles! Oh horrible freckles! You disguise my foe!

Does this sound like a horror film to you? I assure you, IT WAS.

We realized we needed to shower. Having stayed outdoors as long as possible to prevent indoor tick invasion, we took turns viciously scrubbing each other's backs in the shower. I was willing to shed a layer of skin in order to rid myself of this nightmare invasion. I had never scrubbed my body in such fervor, such lather of soap, such haste.

As I dried off, another wave of "the willies" hit my upper thigh. Sure enough one of the critters was still clinging to me, crawling upward to the nether regions.

Thankfully this was the only tick I found still on my body after the shower, though I assure you that over 24 hours later, I am still scratching all over like a flea-ridden stray dog. And what about the dogs, you say? Well, they have Frontline. And last time I checked, humans can't take Frontline. The dogs have it easy.

The worst part, worse than seeing the army of tiny ticks progress along my body - worse than having to be THOROUGHLY examined by my husband in a way I wouldn't have anyone examine me - is the thought that at least one of those buggers has got to be somewhere on me, head burried in the skin, sucking away. THAT is the worst part. That and the constant itching and scratching that is all mental now. I feel like a mental patient with pretend bugs all over my body.

Being that it's mid-July I already had a few bug bites on me before this. Now every time one itches, I'm ferociously scratching it, drawing blood, leaving horrible red scratch marks and splotches.

I couldn't sleep last night. I kept... feeling them....

I feel them now. But I look down and only see freckles. But of course, that's all I could really see before anyway. The "moving freckles" are gone, but the impression they left lingers. I'm sure this will add a whole new level to my already overly complex and frightening re-occurring nightmares which include (but are not limited to) rat infestations, break outs of giant porous zits on my forehead, and falling into a vat of worms. All, very hebegebee-inspiring. Only I think the seed tick invasion would top all of those bad dreams BECAUSE IT REALLY HAPPENED. And I have the scratch marks to prove it.

So, if you ever go on a "nature walk", WEAR POWERFUL BUGSPRAY that is tick specific. And if you happen to step in a nest of seed ticks - keep some packing tape handy.

In the meantime, if you see me scratching all over, don't think me odd.

And if you haven't scratched yourself once while reading this, I commend you.