What I've Learned

30 life lessons on the occasion of my 30th birthday. . . 

1. I'm happy to have been born into my family, in my country, at this time in history. But I think I would have made a great flapper.

2. If you really hate running after 15 years of trying to like it, you're never going to like running. Maybe try yoga.

3. Ask for what you want. Even if you think it's something crazy, people are generally so surprised that you've had the gumption to ask that they will give it to you.

4. Learn how to be alone. Not just with regard to romantic relationships, but at the movies, in a restaurant, in a yoga class. Watch the people around you and eavesdrop on their conversations. People are fascinating.

5. An intense personality can scare the shit out of people. That's their problem.

6. Adapt.

7. Keeping my Catholicism close to my chest and not wearing it like a shield is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I don't want to be defined by my membership in the organized religion that I chose. That said, my faith is the most personal thing about me and it's difficult to express how important it is to who I am.

8. I have terrible taste in music. Somebody had to support N'Sync and the Saint Lunatics for all those years.

9. Drink your damn water.

10. Don't go to the tanning bed.

11. Be a good friend. Call, text, email. Write actual letters on paper. Do this even though you feel like you're the one carrying the friendship. Isn't spending too much effort cultivating friendships a good problem to have?

12. I worry that I'm on the wrong side of the gay marriage debate, and that when I die, Jesus will tell me so. But then I think- how can allowing people to legally love each other be wrong?

13. I was with my mother and grandmother when my grandmother died. I was 20. Those experiences are gifts.
 

14. If you aren't in love, don't waste your time, unless your intent is to waste your time. But be honest about it.

15. I can't control my facial expressions. You're going to know what I think about what you said the minute it comes out of your mouth.

16. Even though you might think you're totally incognito while wearing glasses and a baseball cap, you're not. People will recognize you, so keep your trap shut and put on some freaking lip gloss.

17. If you're going to go into debt, do it for a good reason. Go to school, buy a car, gallivant around Europe with your BFF. Yes, you'll be paying it off for years. Worth it.

18. Eat as many vegetables as you can.

19. When you're in a funk, don't retreat. Curling up into a ball at home isn't going to help. Go hang out with your friends, carry on with your normal life, and it will eventually lessen.

20. Have friends with totally different political beliefs. Don't talk politics with them. You're never going to change their mind and they're never going to change yours.

21. Learn how to apologize. Be sincere. If you're going to say something, be prepared to take responsibility for it (or, as I put it, "it's nothing I wouldn't say to their face.")

22. If you're waiting until you have a perfect body before you wear a bikini, I have news- it's never going to happen. If you want to wear one, do it. I do it all the time.

23. As much as you might try, you can't control what people are going to say or do. You do, however, have complete control over how you react.

24. Cooking isn't that hard.

25. You don't need to read "The Secret," make a vision board, or take advice from Oprah. Just be positive. Be as prepared as you can be. Don't worry about things that you can't control. If you just know that things are going to work out and that you're going to be successful, you're right.

26. Bumper stickers are a mistake.

27. Flirting will get you everywhere.

28. Everyone is a nerd about something.

29. Capri pants are a hard look to pull off. Maybe rethink your hemline.

30. La vie est belle.

Edmund's Update

Last Saturday I went to breakfast at Edmund's again. I presented my companion with two choices- Edmund's or the Soup Spoon, and I warned him that Edmund's had tiny annoying coffee cups and I would complain incessantly about it. He decided that we should go to the Soup Spoon. It was, however, completely packed, so we looped back down Michigan Avenue and went to Edmund's. Truth be told, I was looking forward to pancakes covered in crumbled Oreos and peanut butter. I love a good diabetic coma.

Imagine my elation when the server brought me coffee in a different cup. It's not a massive vat of coffee like I generally prefer, but they're on the right track. I was into it. The pancakes were still good and I could go for some of them right now. Bar prep requires a lot of fuel.

Habeas Dessert- Golden Harvest

After my last post, I realized that I never posted this article from my law school newspaper. It's from August, 2011. 

If you ever find yourself in Lansing early in the morning, hungry and looking for breakfast (and have

some time to kill), I’ve got the spot for you. Golden Harvest is a Lansing institution, nestled in the Old Town area on the north side of the city. Sandwiched into a residential neighborhood, the place is tiny, with seating for 35 people. The regulars are willing to wait outside in line for an hour before they even sit down.

That’s when the fun begins.

The walls of Golden Harvest are covered with, for lack of a better word, stuff. From old license plates to signs proclaiming “North Lansing Against the World” to their signature skull and cross fork-and knife, the place looks like a flea market exploded, in the best, most pleasantly kitsch-y kind of way.

If you’re lucky, you get to sit at a table. If you’re really lucky, you get to sit at the counter and watch your food being prepared. On my latest visit, I couldn’t resist the waffle with strawberries and Nutella. One of my dining companions had one of the breakfast specials- a sandwich of cheddar, bacon, egg, and avocado on a croissant. We split our dishes with each other and could barely squeeze in a few bites of our oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, pecans, and grilled banana.

Don’t judge me. I went for a run later that day.

My other companion decided on the Half a Hungry Man. You’d better be a starving man, and a full-grown one at that, if you’re going to eat this meal. It was monstrous. The meal came with two eggs, a choice of meat, potatoes, toast, and one pancake. The pancake was, approximately, the weight of a Constitutional Law textbook. The heavy blue one--the one Schindler and Munroe use.

We had coffee, which I noticed was Lansing-roasted Paramount Coffee. Our dining soundtrack included songs from James Brown, M.I.A, and Prodigy, and our fellow diners included everyone from local attorneys to factory workers. The food was fresh, hot, and cooked to order right in front of us. For the money, the atmosphere, and the delicious food, you can’t beat Golden Harvest.

You can find them at 1625 N. Turner Street in Lansing. Golden Harvest is open from Monday to

Friday, 7am to 2:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 2:30pm. Get there early, and bring your cash, because otherwise you’ll be washing dishes.

Golden Harvest

On Friday mornings when I don't have to study, go to class, or do something else that exercises my mind and makes me a more successful person, I like to go to an early yoga class. If I could go to a yoga class every morning at 6, I would be a happy person. Assuming, of course, that I went to bed at 6pm. I don't play around with sleep.

A few weeks ago on one of my yoga Friday mornings, Mom wanted to go out to breakfast. She mentioned the magic words- Golden Harvest- and I knew that I wasn't going to make it into a downward dog. Golden Harvest is a Lansing institution, one of those places that everybody loves and drools over and where you don't want to take your out-of-town friends unless you're sure that they can handle it. More on that at a later date.

Our wait at GH was only about 20 minutes that day, which is nothing. Mommy Dearest got some special waffle with strawberries and vanilla bean, and I got the Elvis Waffle. Or it might be called the King. Something like that. You'll know it when you see it, because it's smothered in bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate.

I think of this waffle every morning as I stare into my bowl of Kashi, oatmeal, or nonfat plain Greek yogurt. I eagerly await the day that I waltz back into Golden Harvest, plop myself down, and start stuffing my face, Elvis-style.  

Paula Deen called. She wants her diabeetus back. It's delicious.

Soup Spoon Brain Food

A few weeks ago I wrapped up my three year law school career and am starting to study for this July's bar exam. I am prepared to spend 10+ hours per day re-learning everything about the law and I'm strangely and sickly kind of looking forward to it.

Aside from passing the bar, most states require that you also pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. Basically, ethics for lawyers. Save the jokes, because I've heard them all.

Anyway, each state sets their own score that you must get on the exam. Michigan requires an 85. The MPRE is a 60-question multiple choice test, and let me just set the stage by saying that I'm not so good at multiple choice. By "not so good" I mean that I took this test three times.

I sat for the MPRE most recently on the morning of March 17. Yes, while all my idiot 30-year-old friends were drinking green beer and looking like predators, I was on MSU's campus taking an exam. I actually got up really early that morning to review a little bit more and eat breakfast. I decided that since I was suffering, I was going to treat myself to breakfast at the Soup Spoon.

I didn't get the Smoked Salmon Benedict like I always do. But maybe I should have, because Tina's Bacon Bonanza sandwich wasn't very great. Granted, I'm not the world's biggest bacon fan (it's ok, I just don't want it in my chocolate and on my doughnuts and I don't want to belong to a Bacon Of the Month club, thanksforasking) so it wasn't a strong choice. I'm sure some of my more sweaty friends would love it.

Maybe the sandwich was sprinkled with Al Einstein's brain cells (is that gross?), because I finally passed the MPRE. And I got a 98, suckers.

Hopefully I can carry that mojo over to the bar exam.

Cops and Doughnuts Precinct

I love Cops and Doughnuts. After I wrote about them here I started following them on Twitter and was pleasantly surprised that whoever maintains that account is really quite active.

Dad went up to Harrison mid-week last week to mow the lawn, turn on the water, and do other gross stuff that needs to be done before the cottage is opened for the summer. I'm sure he didn't eat anything good, because the diners in Harrison are seriously lacking. I have frequently bemoaned the fact that there's nothing worth eating in Harrison unless I cook it myself, but I think that we might just be turning a corner.

A few days ago I read on C&D's Twitter account that they are opening a Harrison location and MAN am I excited. I have high hopes that this will encourage other Up Northites to put the heat on Harrison business owners to bring good food to Northern Clare County.

Edmund's, the remix

Last Sunday there was a marathon in downtown Lansing. I didn't participate because I would literally rather swim 100 miles, but my parentroommates and I decided to head downtown to eat breakfast and "watch the Kenyans cross the finish line." Although my distaste for Edmund's has been documented, I had heard good reports on their pancakes and thought it might be worth giving the place another shot.

I went in to get a table while Mom stood in front of the Capitol and Dad wandered around downtown, probably asking cops how it was going and if they needed any help. My experience didn't get off to a great start- I sat with my NY Times for a good 15 minutes before someone took my drink order. After I asked for coffee and water she disappeared for another 10 minutes before finally coming back with my coffee in a tall, skinny Irish coffee cup. I hate these cups. They don't hold enough coffee and need to be refilled constantly. However, since I know that Edmund's likes to keep things quirky with their Mason jars as drinking glasses,  I can overlook this.

In this place the menus double as place mats, but there's also a supplemental pancake menu stuck into one of those wire holder things on the tabletop. I knew I was going to get pancakes and I tried to talk Mom into ordering the oatmeal cakes while I ordered a sweet variety and we could share. She refused. She never does anything for me.

Although I have a real thing for oatmeal and was really tempted to order those (of course I can't remember anything about the description now nor find it online), I switched it up at the last minute and ordered two of these babies covered with peanut butter, crumbled Oreos and whipped cream.

I didn't run a marathon, but I carb-loaded like I did.

These were really good. Mom had something that might have been banana nut pancakes and Dad had corned beef hash, because he's an animal. We were all pleased with our meals. I will go back- but only for breakfast.