MOVED DOMAINS

HEY so I moved my blog! It can now be found at

www.theoutlet-unplugged.com

please follow this one friends!

Much love
-maddi

Happy Father's Day ! Ethiopian Style

Since it's Father's Day, I'd like to take a moment to introduce my dad, good ol' Howard :)

St. Mark's Square, Venice 2011

In this picture we are literally being mobbed by birds after little sister's great idea to go feed them, and while me and her are going for 'duck-and-cover' (I'm in the blue, sister in purple), my dad's yelling at my mom with the camera and posing to capture the moment. It pretty much sums up his personality: exuberant, 'hang loose', happy-go-lucky kind of person. :)

So my family likes to try new things I get that, but today we went wayyy out of our normal zone for Father's Day.  Instead of the usual asian restaurant (and no I don't mean P.F. Changs or Panda Express), someone decided we should try Ethiopian.  So we did

I've tried lots of different kinds of foods, but this was something you definitely don't come across very often.

It's located in a tucked away spot in Anaheim, really easy to miss...definitely could be classified a hole-in-the-wall.  From what I understood, it seemed a person would not just casually go in unless they were familiar with authentic Ethiopian food.  I'm not saying that to stop anyone from going! Just describing the very 'at home' feel--when I walked in I thought I was hanging out in someones' kitchen.

So here comes a group of 20 asians sauntering in lol. A sweet lady, who I assumed was the owner, kindly showed us the works of her homemade buffet.

doesn't look too appealing right? But we gave it a go

How it works: you're not suppose to use utensils at all, although she supplied us with some at request.

you take those 'bread' rolls ^^ and place the various dishes on top, so that the bread kind of scoops it up. like this

and although it looks like a bunch of baby food, I'll admit the brown one kind of looks like ****..but ridding of that..it was actually really good! It was kind of a cross between Indian curry and Indonesian curry. If you don't know those types of food either, well, just got to keep an open mind. 

The one thing that was strange was the bread: a spongy texture and slightly sour taste, not something you would eat by itself.  But put together with the curry the flavors complimented themselves.

This was a great experience, but I don't know if I would come back for a meal...rather stick with my noodles haha.  But if you ever have a twitch to try something wayyyy different, and have a tolerance for all different tpes of food check it out sometime!

That's all for now

Much love

-Maddi

First Foodie Review: Growl Juice Pub

Happy Friday the 13th! *ooooo*

It's an absoluuutely perfect day in socal, so I hope you're not recluse-ing (I'm pretty sure that's not a word) in fear of those superstitions!

Today I'm giving my very first food/restaurant/eatery review ever. I had to ask my mom if it was okay to talk about a restaurant or someone's store without their consent lol then she pointed out the fact that people do every day on Yelp!

...I'm still a newbie here. (btw, is there any way to use emoji ?) 

good gosh.

Anyways

This morning me and my friend Cam made our way to Growl Juice Pub in Orange for breakfast.

These juice bar/acai bowl places have become suuuper popular in socal lately...all these California people going for the healthy alternative to ice cream and frozen yogurt.  I'm an avid juice drinker so I love finding these "health nut" places.  I'd say Growl is one of my favorite juice places, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact their juices are served to you in little glass bottles. :)

There definitely that "all natural" vibe in the place: decor-ed with planetariums on the walls, wooden bar and bar stools, fresh fruit and veggies in display.  Customer service is kind of hit-or-miss: sometimes I come and the cashier is friendly, and others they seem a little cold and uncaring of the customer.  Either way, it really doesn't matter because there are always people in there.  Their products are top notch! They even homemake their own almond and cashew milk in the store (If you ever go, there are boxes at the bottom of the glass refrigerator..ding ding ding!)

I've never tried one of their their acai/pitaya bowls before.  From Nektar and those other places I kind of assumed they're all the same in a sense...except the ones from Growl are HUGE...like HUGE. And to no surprise, it wasn't the expected same.  It was just really good--there's no other way to put it.

I got "The Green Room", which had pitaya(or acai), kale, spinach, pineapple, banana and topped with granola, banana (I opted out), strawberries, coconut shredding, and agave nectar.  Championed the entire bowl, which I don't know if I should be proud or extremely embarrassed of the fact that I can finish a bowl about the size of my head.

NOM coconut

it was a jumble of fresh, crunchy, and smoothie sweet goodness :) You can tell how fresh all the ingredients are, although by the end, I felt as full as I would on like a Thanksgiving dinner..but again that's my uncontrollable love for food speaking.

haha well if you're around Orange you should check it out. AND the Circle..cutest place around! I'll probably mention that sometime around :)

Much love

-Maddi

I'm on Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12408239/?claim=q8rfpx7j94j">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Third post today...oops...but TFIOS

Okay so. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

I really did not want to be one of the million other girls that fawn over this story every single day--not because i hate the story--I actually have never read the book--but because its all over social media. all. the. time.

I wanted to hate the movie, to not feel anything...but I came out in tears. John Green is truly a talent.  Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, along with all the other actors really made you believe, and feel for the characters. While I don't want to spoil anything, although you can probably twiddle on twitter and find everything about it within a couple of posts.

anddd it got me thinking...

what makes a movie good? Is it the effects, the actors, the screen play
While I believe it is a combination of a number of things including the ones listed, I think what really makes a movie good and massively popular is how it makes you feeeel.

I didn't want to connect to Hansel Grace or Augustus Waters, but more than I could count I found myself smiling or smirking, laughing at the little things these characters did. They made me feel for them, and soak in their characters like they were old friends. I empathized

I knew this story wasn't real life, it was made up, and that I shouldn't hope in these cliché fairytales. Yet, when the tears began to fall I realized why people are so engrossed in movies, of any kind.  They make you feel things, its like a rush. I think emotions drive people whether we like it or not we cannot deny them; they're innately made.  Movies make us experience all those complex emotions without the baggage per say.  The fear of the jump without the fall, the tears of sadness without experiencing any grief, the hostile anger towards the antagonist without having to actually confront or hurt anyone.

we love the movies because we love the story, the characters and we love the characters because we tie ourselves to them, and their emotions

we feel for them and we, as humans, are built to feel

okay so that is my last thought for the night...sorry for the spam
I mean there is no one to apologize to anywho since I'm the only one who reads this now *laughing and crying face*
sleeptight

Much Love

-Maddi

It's me again.

The realization I've come to is that:
1. HATE being alone
2. my overly crazed nature to have to do something all the time.

I like being busy, it gives me a sense of well being, a sense of worth.  Sitting here as a homebody I feel like a gray-usless, and boring lump.  I'm not bashing on people who like spending more time alone, or in the comfort of their home; I'm just pointing out some of my own character traits I guess I did not recognize before.

Yes, I put a lot, if not the whole weight of my self-worth based on the things I do rather than the person I am...and maybe this is a problem.  I mean, being a busy-bee and doing things makes me happy; it's the kind of person I am.  We--as society--do it all the time.  When we introduce each other the first thing we do is first, say our name obviously, and then what we do: "Hi I'm George, I'm a lawyer" or soccer player, or math tutor.  Almost immediately we innately judge and categorize a person into sects and personal schemes based on those facts.  I mean people make blogs to blog about what they do right? And theres no problem in that; its how we relate and connect with other people.

But what if we were just little gray lumps who did nothing? If we did not do anything at all, but were just personalities.  Would our relationships be different? How would there be a balance between people? What about values would we hold? Since we wouldn't be able to base people of their jobs or hobbies, just themselves.

Re-reading that make me think maybe i took too many congestive pills..and its all getting to my brain
Anyways hope you enjoyed this mindless ramble you one person out there.hahhaa

I'm not crazy<3 okay

Much love -Maddi

Discovering "down time"

So where am I at this moment? On my couch, in my living room, where I have been more-or-less forcibly sitting for the past.  three.  days.  If anyone knows me, they probably be surprised that I haven't gone complete bonkers yet, or even just at the mere fact I've been able to to do NOTHING for so long.  I have to keep busy: hanging out with friends mostly, running, shopping, going to the beach, going to concerts, movie nights, staying up late yada yada.

So why am I sitting here? I'm unfortunately sick, and while I feel like I'm wasting away precious summer days-ugh-my mom seemed quite amused at my sniffles.  When I told her I have a fever she laughed and had nothing else to say but, "I wonder why". Its true, once school got out I barely spent any time at home, went to 4 concerts in a span of 8 days, a 2-night sleepover, and got maybe about 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  No regrets right?, "You'll remember the nights you spent out, not in" , and all those other cliché sayings that make us believe that as a teen, staying home on a weekend night may be worse than getting grounded, at which then you have a solid reason why you have to stay home.  Being sick is not just a viable reason because really, if you have a fever and can't breathe...there is not much more you could possibly do but sit and rest.

My mom says me getting sick is some weird sort of karma: to teach me a lesson to take some "down time" for myself sometimes. She even suggested I write about it on here to gain some insight...well, here I am and yet still...nothing. I mean I understand how she thinks I should sit back and recompose, but the more I think about me sitting here, the more frustrated I get. >:/


If anything more inspiring comes my way I'll be sure to let you know
sorry to be such a downer on the second day! When I get better I'll have more lightly things to say :)

Much Love -Maddi