spicesign

spicesign

Friday, February 13, 2015

I Wanna Be a Hippie...

To the tune of I Wanna Be A Kennedy, by Kill Hannah, I have been singing "I wanna be a hippie... I wanna be a real tree hugger..."  While I mean that slightly tongue-in-cheek, there's some truth in it as well... I kind of DO wanna be a hippie!  Alas, I don't have the internal moral compass to guide me in proper hippieism.  Or perhaps I do, but am frequently too lazy to head True North.

In a classic example of why it's "Nice that we found each other...", Hubby is also a wanna-be hippie.  Although in his case, I think it's perhaps less actually wanting to be a hippie, and more that he just wants to spend all his time hanging out with hippies.  Why the talk about hippies?  Because we visited what we lovingly refer to as the "Hippie Store", the Clintonville Community Market.


Hubby and I both love this little shop, though we don't shop there a lot.  We don't end up that far down into Clintonville very often.  Today we had lunch at Aladdin's, which is only a few blocks away from the Community Market, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to pop in.  The first things I found I didn't know I was looking for.


I've had a lot of sore muscles and tendons recently, and I'm hoping these will allow me to treat them more naturally.  I'm a big fan of using natural treatments whenever possible.  Probably because I'm already on a potent chemical cocktail to deal with my bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder and diabetes.  I prefer to avoid adding more chemicals to the mix whenever possible, and these seemed like a worthwhile investment, with my sudden streak of aches and pains.

After that we found what may be a legit reason to drive down there -- the selection of fresh herbs.  A recipe we are planning on making tomorrow calls for fresh tarragon, and we had been unable to find it in our normal grocery haunts.  The Community Market had a surprisingly extensive selection of fresh herbs, including fresh tarragon.  Now our meal will not have to be sullied with dried tarragon instead of fresh.

Lastly, we needed drinks.  The Community Market carries Butterscotch Beer, kept in the refrigerated case, so it is cold and ready to drink.  I think Hubby would be willing to drive down there every day, just for a bottle of Butterscotch Beer.  (Which, incidentally, is non-alcoholic, and "beer" in the way that root beer is "beer".)  Because of my diabetes, I rarely let myself have a drink sweetened with real sugar.  I figure if I'm going to have sugar, I want to eat it and not drink it.  Therefore my choices in a natural foods place are pretty limited.  They did have Zevia, which is a non-calorie soda sweetened with Stevia.  I got a can of cherry cola, and I gotta say, it was pretty tasty!

The best part of the Clintonville Community Market, however, is not the selection of items they sell.  The best part is the people that work there.  Every employee we have ever encountered has been unfailingly friendly, and free with offers of help.  I'm not a fan of places like department stores, where people are being forced to offer help and seem to buzz around you like flies.  The Community Market has a totally different feel.  It seems the people are GENUINELY friendly and helpful.  There just isn't enough of that in the world.

Since we were in Clintonville, and had no real plans for the evening, we decided to stop by Global Gallery .


I love looking at the things in the little store section of the shop.  It's all handmade, fair trade merchandise.  There is always a good selection of unique items and interesting things to browse.  Though I was seriously eyeballing a couple of handmade scarves, we didn't end up buying anything.
The plan when leaving Global Gallery had been to go home, but then I recalled a couple of places in the mall at The Shops At Worthington Place I wanted to check out.  I had seen them when walking in the mall with my Sunday buddy.  We browsed a couple of stores before the inevitable item I couldn't live without.  I nearly always find one of those!



It's a beautiful handcrafted coffee mug, made by artist Cathy Tietz Boring.  It's an absurdly difficult task to find a sizable coffee mug that is in any way interesting.  I kind of have a coffee addiction, and had been on the lookout for a mug that spoke to me.  I wanted something handmade locally, and despite looking at a number of craft fairs and in several boutiques, I hadn't found anything that tickled my fancy and wouldn't bleed my wallet dry.  These photos really don't do it justice, it's much lovelier in person... and also, dishwasher and microwave safe.  

After that we were both hungry and broke, so we headed for home.  I had planned to make a crustless quiche for dinner, with turkey ham and toast on the side.  Unfortunately we stayed out longer than I had planned, and just wanted something fast and easy. I'm almost ashamed to admit what we ended up eating... Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with chopped up turkey ham in it.  And what's worse... we quite enjoyed it!  Hopefully tomorrow's dinner will redeem us from such processed crap.

And now, I hear my book calling.  Good evening, friends!

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