MIA…So Here’s a Wild Harvest Giveaway!

Like that rhyming title? You know you do.

I felt well again yesterday but today am back to feeling blah. So frustrating and I am beginning to think this is more than a stomach virus! I don’t think it’s typical for virus to flare down then back up so frequently. That makes me worried because I do not want to be dealing with something more chronic – I always think of poor Tina and her colitis and get freaked out! And the stress is certainly not good for my stomach so I’m trying to Leaf Negativity Behind and smile. After all my symptoms are not nearly as bad as what Tina went through and I am thankful that I was able to get into another doctor’s appointment this afternoon. My employer is nice enough to let me leave early without hesitation.

But leaving work early means I’m slammed (I’ve been slammed all week) and have little time to blog. Therefore no Fashion Friday 🙁 didn’t want to leave you hanging though so I do have a quick giveaway for you all from Wild Harvest, the top sponsor of the Healthy Living Summit in Boston this past summer!

Before HLS ’12 I received a box of Wild Harvest goodies to sample, and they are offering one lucky Cait Plus Ate winner the same box! It includes:

  • Animal Crackers
  • Peach Mango Salsa – This stuff was away awesome! It went so well on seafood.
  • Applesauce
  • Black Beans – OMG you know I was all over these.
  • Raisins
  • Creamy Peanut Butter
  • Cherry Vanilla Granola
  • Ginger – Now that’s something I could use a lot of right now!
  • Cayenne Pepper – Kick those recipes up a notch 😉
  • Coupon for eggs – One of my favorite forms of protein!

This giveaway will end Sunday evening at 11:59PM EST. One winner will be selected – continental US only please. Here’s how to enter (leave a separate comment for each please or multiple entries won’t count):

  1. Comment here and tell me how you’d use one item from the box (mandatory).
  2. Follow @CaitPlusAte on Twitter and comment saying you did.
  3. Follow @Wild_Harvest on Twitter and comment saying you did.
  4. Tweet “I entered to win a box of @Wild_Harvest products from @CaitPlusAte! http://wp.me/p1SfTW-1xY” and comment here with the link to the tweet.

That’s four easy ways to enter – good luck to all who do so!

General Giveaway Rules: No Purchase Necessary. The email addresses that are collected for this giveaway will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner and will never be given out to anyone nor sold. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted via email. The winner will have 72 hours to respond. Only one winner per household. Please make sure you check your junk mail folder.

Macy’s Rwanda Path to Peace

In case you missed it, my recap of the Mohegan Sun BrewFest was published yesterday! A new restaurant review too!

Good day, folks. Or at least I’m trying to make it one. I have been having on-and-off lingering tummy issues since Wednesday and it’s really gotten old. (Actually, hearing about it has probably gotten old for you all too, but I digress.)

I fluctuate between feelings of nausea and feeling pretty-OK-but-something-is-still-off. Obviously I am grateful that I felt well enough to go to the BrewFest on Saturday night and have a good workout Sunday morning, and even a pleasant Sunday doing errands, blog work, and homework. But I woke up yesterday (Monday) ill again and I’m getting sick of being afraid to eat my favorite things like salad beasts, cottage cheese, and peanut butter! Today has just been more straight-up nausea.

I missssss you salad 🙁

I know that there are many folks out there who have GI issues ALL the time. So I feel bad complaining. And also feel much more aware of how lucky I am to have the healthy body I have! 99% of the time I am a healthy and happy camper. I didn’t even get a cold last fall/winter (and I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but it doesn’t matter because I’ve already said this a few times this year). The body is an amazing thing and when I am feeling ill, no matter how so, I am more driven than ever to take care of my body.

Heated mashed banana mixed with plain Chobani. Completely safe and oddly comforting.

At least I didn’t have too many plans this past weekend with the exception of dinner out with my mom on Friday night and the BrewFest Saturday night. Plenty of time to rest during the day. I just am hoping my body will decide whether or not it wants to get better soon because I’m not a fan of the flip-flopping. And I also hope my body flips to the get-better side and stays there. Right now it seems to be staying nauseous. Wrong way, body!

Nope that’s not coffee – it’s a ginger herbal tea called Evening Comfort Tea! Mom brought it home for me from Daybreak. I miss my coffee but have had an off-and-on appetite for it.

On Sunday afternoon while I was at home being productive, I took some photographs of  a beautiful bowl I received from Macy’s via the Everywhere Network. The bowl was sent to me to review as part of an effort to spread the word about the Path to Peace Collection.

It reminds me of the sun!

Macy’s first started selling these handmade baskets, exported from Rwanda, in 2005. Since then, they have contributed to Rwanda’s exports a great deal. The program is part of a mission to help the country via “trade instead of aid”. The idea is the support of Rwanda via increased awareness among US citizens of the beautiful products that can come from that country and its people, so that they can remain self-sufficient. You can check the collection out here – some of the bowls are breathtaking.

I do enjoy when a product is sent to me with a handwritten note!

Macy’s purchases the baskets from the weavers, who not only gain a source of income, but also pride.

Each basket comes with this tag of authenticity.

Anyone who purchases a Rwanda Path to Peace basket can be confident that he or she is directly promoting the well-being of that basket’s weaver. This practice reminds me of Fair Trade products – making sure that someone producing a product is getting a fair amount of income from it, and a place to sell that product too.

I don’t usually do these kinds of posts, but I wanted to take the time to do so because it’s a great cause and if I am able to write a blog post about this and spread the word, why not? Even if only one person ends up buying a basket because he or she sees a retweet from another tweet from a Facebook status from this post, at least I will have somehow helped that basket’s weaver – I don’t even need to know that I did.

My favorite photo, saved it for last 🙂

The detail in these baskets is pretty incredible and I love how malleable they are. Completely easy to store when not in use, and easy to transport too if needed. Check out the entire collection – you might like what you see!

I received a basket from the Everywhere Network to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Have you ever used your blog to support a charitable cause?

Did you see any baskets on the website that you liked?

Have you ever had an illness that seemed to linger? How did you handle it?

Mohegan Sun BrewFest

Mohegan Sun is at it again! On Saturday night I attended their first annual Mohegan Sun BrewFest. I was excited to attend not only because I love foodie/tasting events, but also because I love the Mohegan Sun casino! I’ve visited Foxwoods and MGM Grand in CT (the latter is pretty good, the former not so much), but I always seem to come back to Mohegan. I’ve written about them a lot on the blog:

I was nervous because I’d been having off-and-on stomach issues since Wednesday, and they’d returned the morning of the event. However I took it easy all day long (it was kind of nice to sit around in my PJs watching TV…something I hadn’t done in awhile) and as a result felt well enough to get ready and head out in the early evening! Of course I attended the event with my foodie friend Jeff! Are you really that surprised? Funny enough, a couple of folks we ran into at BrewFest said they recognized him from my blog! What a celeb.

Ready to go with our media passes and tasting glasses!

The crowds at this event amazed me. The line for tickets at the box office completely blocked walking traffic, and so many patrons had already entered the tasting area in the Uncas Ballroom at the time of our arrival that a huge line had formed for those that already had tickets and were waiting to get in. Only a few people could be let in at a time – I’m guessing the Ballroom was already at capacity.

We decided to concentrate on beers we hadn’t tried before, especially since lines had already formed at each tasting booth and were only getting longer! Our tasting session started at 6PM and by 7PM, almost every booth (except Twisted Tea…ha) had a huge line and many tables were so close together that it was more like a cluster of people standing around, not sure what table they were waiting to taste from. I’m not surprised that the event was so packed since the event was extremely affordable ($20/session), but in the future I would recommend that Mohegan Sun either sell less tickets (by limiting them or raising prices…not an advocate of the latter) or change the layout of the tasting room. Altogether the tables probably took up a little less than half of the room and were arranged so closely! It was easy for lines to merge and become clusters.

Posin’ with my brew glass!

That’s where my recommendations for improvement end. It was still a great event, perfect for a beer newbie like myself! I can’t say that I can now see myself going to a restaurant and ordering a glass of beer, but that’s because I just love wine and cocktails so much more. But a beer tasting is perfect for an adventurarian like myself who just wants to sample as many different unique tastes as possible.

A toast with Sammy Adams!

Some hop-lights (haaaa)…

My two favorites of BrewFest!

Props to Hooker Brewery of Bloomfield, CT for bringing two beers on tap that ended up being my favorites of the night. Their Chocolate Truffle Stout is made with Munson’s cocoa powder/nibs and was truly incredible. It rivals the Southern Tier Choklat that I’ve always said was my favorite chocolate beer (always as in, since this past Easter). The Saison is a Belgian-style farmhouse ale and reminded me of a barleywine. Excellent subtle caramel flavor that impressed me with its complexity!

Henry Weinhard’s, a brand I’d never heard of.

Jeff and I sampled Henry Weinhard’s Redwood Flats Amber Ale and Private Reserve American Pale Lager. The brewery is located in the Pacific Northwest, which may explain why I had zero awareness, but Henry is on my radar now! I really enjoyed the Amber Ale.

City Steam Brewery’s Naughty Nurse, Innocence IPA, and Blonde on Blonde on tap.

I adore City Steam’s vintage label and poster designs!

City Steam Brewery is a Hartford mainstay. The establishment is not only a brewery, but a successful restaurant and comedy club as well. I’ve only visited the restaurant once, but enjoyed my experience. Sampling the beer has certainly made me want to get back there for dinner – maybe even a comedy show! My favorite of the three still remains Naughty Nurse (sampled at Taste of Wethersfield), but the Innocence IPA was so light and refreshing; I know my mom would adore it.

Fun name!

Jeff made a beeline for the Olde Burnside Brewing table when we saw it! I’m surprised I liked the above Hop’t Scot Ale as much as I did, because I generally avoid hoppier beers and it’s an English IPA…gone Scottish! However it totally impressed me with its light, smooth, unique flavor. Definitely never tasted a beer like this before and that’s what made me gravitate toward it. The sign stated this beer was “balanced” and it didn’t lie!

Fitfluential media guests!

I spotted Jennifer of Savoring the Thyme right before I left the event – good timing! Must be that Fitfluential ESP! I feel like Jennifer and I came full-circle since the first time we did a meet-up, which was also at Mohegan.  But it won’t be the last meet-up! It was fun catching up with her and finally meeting her man. They’d just come from an anniversary dinner at Bar Americain that sounded like a dream! I also ran into a co-worker, Greg and Wendy of Connecticut Bloggers, Sarah of Adventures With My Boys, and the parents of one of my sister’s best friends.

Siena Sling (Grey Goose, lemon, basil) for me and Sicilian Julep for Jeff!

BrewFest was fun, but you know me. I’m a cocktail snob. And a cocktail snob needs a cocktail when she’s at the casino! Jeff and I decided to have dinner and a drink at Mohegan’s newest restaurant, Ballo. We love dining at the bar (as opposed to a table) and there were exactly two seats open – perfect. Our bartender, Stephanie, was great! She made us excellent drinks (see caption above); mine was strong yet smooth, thanks to the Goose 😛 so simple, so me. Jeff enjoyed his beverage as well – he’d had it once before (he’s been to Ballo for just drinks) so it was good enough to order a second time!

Boooo, even Instagram couldn’t make this pic work without a flash.

I was torn between salmon and swordfish (seafood, obviously!), but Stephanie helped me make the right call and recommended the Swordfish Livornaise with escarole and black olives. Umm, and the menu didn’t even mention that the dish also included CHICKPEAS. Heaven! I finished every last bite and had to scoop up the final drops of sauce with bread. Duh.

Flash was required in this place! Check out the hearty size of that swordfish!

Jeff was going to go the practical money-saving route and get a flatbread (a more affordable menu option for those who wish to try this place but are worried it’ll be too expensive), but then Stephanie told us about the evening’s special. She uttered the words “braised short rib with pumpkin polenta” and Jeff’s mouth dropped open. He was speechless. I stepped in and said, “He’ll take it.”

Check out that crusty bread! Not very crispy, but certainly delightful. The butter particularly impressed – it was sitting in a pool of herbs and olive oil!

I tried a bite and man oh man, that special was worth its $29 price tag. Though the speed at which it came out made Jeff wonder how long ago it had been cooked!

We ended our evening at the casino with a trip to the craps table. I love playing craps, but the way I play pisses off my friends. I will only bet the minimum bet on the pass line (the most basic way to play), and walk away as soon as I lose one round. I play $20 and if I lose it all, I just stop there. Yes, it’s a practical way to gamble. And no, it doesn’t bore me! I’m still playing and watching the action at the table, and thanks to my conservative strategy, I almost always walk away a winner. For example, last night I won $40. And Jeff joined in on my strategy for once, and he walked away with winnings too! He was certainly glad that he won back dinner.

What a fun evening. So glad I’ve crossed another restaurant off my (mental)  list of Mohegan restaurants to try, experienced some cool brews, and got to hang out with so many friends. I felt so in my element and at peace throughout the evening and whenever I started feeling any anxiety about the food and drinks, I focused on the company I was keeping and the fact that my hard work on my blog had led to Mohegan Sun inviting me to come to BrewFest. Then I felt proud and grateful! Too blessed to be stressed indeed.

Thank you Mohegan Sun for having me at the BrewFest! I received complimentary passes to attend, but all opinions are my own.

Have you ever heard of any of the beers I sampled? Which do you think you’d enjoy?

Is there a casino near you? Have you ever been to one?

Fashion Friday: Celebrate Your Style!

I’m hosting a giveaway on the Cait Plus Ate Facebook page – open until today (Friday 10/5) at 3PM EST! New England (excluding Fairfield County, CT) and Albany, NY readers can enter to win one free small cup of Newman’s Own Organics coffee from McDonald’s every week for almost a YEAR! I am not a customer of McDonald’s for their food but I will take a free cup of black coffee any day…hoping some of you will too!

Thank you all for your many congratulations yesterday on my post announcing my appearance in the North Atlantic region holiday issue of Whole Foods Magazine! I’m still pretty blown away and it’s not even because I’m hoping to gain new readership from this. That actually didn’t occur to me until some point yesterday! What I’ve really been focused on is taking this as a sign of recognition that this blog is enjoyable to others, and that’s really my top priority – along with making sure it’s still enjoyable to me!

Still would tweak my description a bit but still beyond grateful!

Another priority is getting self-hosted! I want to be able to get the stats I need from Google Analytics to put together a kick-ass media kit. I’ve been putting off making one because I don’t want to send out something incomplete to brands I want to work with or magazines I’d like to freelance for. I want to show what I am really capable of with a complete media kit. After BlogHer I resolved that I’d get self-hosted within a couple of months and while I unfortunately haven’t met that goal, I have hired someone to help me out and I have a development site up and running on a new host! The next step is getting the layout all set – I’m going to get a new look (I’m even springing for a paid theme *gasp*) and I can’t wait for you all to see what the blog will look like!

In honor of Becki‘s Leaf Your Negativity Behind October challenge, I am going to make today’s Fashion Friday a particularly positive one. I feel like when I see other bloggers’ fashion posts or Instagrams, sometimes I find myself wishing I had the clothes they’re wearing or wondering if I could “pull off” that look. Yes I know there are more important things in this world, but comparison traps are everywhere and even lurk among all those #ootd’s.

That’s why I want to make today’s Fashion Friday about celebrating your style. So this post is not going to tell you where each outfit is from, like it usually does. Instead it’s going to tell you why I chose to share that look and what it says about MY sense of style, and no one else’s. I’m encouraging everyone else to do the same today, whether in a post, tweet, FB post, whatever! “Leaf” negativity and comparison traps behind. Celebrate your own sense of style and your look!

Before the HLS ’12 Chobani dinner!

To me this outfit goes back to my days as a little girl who LOVED wearing dresses. I still love wearing dresses but living in New England, most of the year I’m too cold to do so. But my favorite thing to wear will always be a dress like this – floral, flowy, something I just want to spin in circles in!

I feel like my sense of style revolves around a “theme” each day. I think I sometimes confuse my co-workers because I’ll go totally casual one day, then the next day show up in a fancy dress. I try to tie everything together with accessories so my shoes make sense with my shirt, my bracelets make sense with a dress, etc. The above outfit is very tropical-vacation! Makes me think of what I might wear when I go visit my grandparents in FL this December 😀 #grandma

The above outfit is SO me. I adore bright, delicate florals. I almost always “cuff” my jeans or jeggings when I wear them. And I love bright, fun flats! Oh, and a messy bun is ALWAYS easier than…anything.

Oops, here I am wearing jeggings with no cuffs 😛 but there’s the bright, fun flats – my beloved fruit flats! I definitely think they say a lot about my sense of style – I like to pop in little “quirks”. I wouldn’t exactly wear a dress covered in a fruit print (though I did express desire for a watermelon skirt in last week’s Fashion Friday…) but shoes covered in fruit? They’re like the cherry on top – or in this case, on the bottom, and fruit other than cherries. I also wear a lot of lace, and I like how the bright neon of this top is again very me! I shy away from neutral colors because they “bore” me. I want to excite myself and those around me with what I’m wearing! It makes me feel good and that is what fashion is all about.

So don’t be afraid to celebrate you today. Celebrate your style – it is YOURS and no one else’s. Don’t compare your clothes, your accessories – your ANYTHING – to anyone else. There are more important things in life than fashion, yes, but if you are able to truly celebrate anything about yourself, even just how you rock a new top, then that’s an amazing thing! It takes a lot of hard work to truly celebrate yourself! So “leaf” negativity behind and accept that you are amazing 🙂

Tell me what your favorite part of YOUR style is in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram! Use the hashtags #AmazingMe, #FashionFriday, and/or #LeafNegativityBehind!

A Whole New Accomplishment!

Thank you to those who entered my Mohegan Sun BrewFest giveaway! I’m pleased to announce the winner…

Leah of A Lil of This…A Lil of That! Thank you for entering and I will be contacting you about getting your passes to the BrewFest session of your choice!

Remember everyone, tickets to this weekend’s event are still just $20/session and you can attend Saturday 12-4pm or 6-10pm (I’m going to that one), or Sunday 12-4pm. So many choices, so many beers…you have to be there!

I have such exciting news to share! I have been aware of this announcement since Monday but was waiting until I had photos to include in this post before doing a “reveal post”. It was hard…believe me. But now I’m here writing this, and I can SHOW you all my big news, and I’m so glad I waited.

Whole Foods Market puts out a magazine in its stores for customers to have for FREE, and the holiday edition just started arriving in the 28 North Atlantic region stores yesterday (yes I know, holidays already). Before you decide to hold off on picking up your copy until after we actually get to Halloween, you’ll want to know that this issue is all about the FOODIE, a category I definitely would place many of my readers and myself in. And apparently, Whole Foods agrees.

I spy with my little eye…

The early pages of this holiday issue contain a section called In the Market, with a feature titled “On the Web: Fresh Voices” about “food-loving bloggers right here in New England”. And the last (but not least, don’t worry! :-P) blogger on that list just happens to be AMAZING ME!!!!!

And major props to fellow Fitfluential Ambassador Elizabeth of On Tap for Today for being featured too!

I was so shocked and honored when Whole Foods contacted me to let me know that I’d be in the magazine. The Connecticut stores recommended me to the North Atlantic region’s PR department! As if they haven’t been kind enough to me already. And the PR department was kind enough to send me several copies of the magazine for myself…obviously I need way more than one.

However I didn’t think the department would get me my copies in the mail so quickly, so last night I hit up my closest Whole Foods. The helpful customer service staff gave me a few copies of the magazine from the back despite the fact that it’s not sitting out in stores just yet. Another local store hadn’t even received it yet. But hopefully by next week the magazines (all 200,000 copies!) will be sitting out in North Atlantic region stores if anyone wants to pick one up 😉

Last night, this big news played a huge role in my participation in Becki‘s Leaf Your Negativity Behind October challenge. Yesterday was not the best of days. My stomach wasn’t behaving and feeling crappy physically does not lend itself to fighting if I’m feeling crappy mentally. But before bed I did my meditation on positive truths about myself. And this Whole Foods accomplishment was just what I needed to focus on and allow myself to be proud of all I have done with my blog in only a year. Who cares if I had a glass of wine with dinner last night? I’m in a WHOLE FOODS MAGAZINE. I deserve it!

Encouraging note my sister left me in our bathroom once after I’d had a stressful night…it now has a permanent home in my room above my bed!

While I do wish that I’d had some input in the magazine’s description of my blog (I feel like “healthful diet” does not really describe what I am trying to attain…more like a happy, health physical and mental life), I am again taking Becki’s advice and leaving the negativity behind. My blog is in print! The people of Whole Foods think it’s worthy of their magazine! And the bloggers I’m featured with are so incredibly talented. Being in their company is truly an honor!

This big news just makes me want to dive into my blog in an even bigger way and get to an ideal balance of posts about foodie events, restaurant reviews, my mental struggles, fitness, daily life, giveaways…I feel like my fall semester workload and increasingly busy full-time job have been getting in the way of that! Part of me is worried that a few months from now, Whole Foods will be wondering why they put me in their magazine. But wait…that’s negativity. That does NOT have a place in the celebration of such accomplishment. Nope, not allowed.

So thank you all for supporting me over this past year (and longer to you “real life” readers 😛 ) and thank you Whole Foods for recognizing my blog! And GO ME!

What’s your biggest “blog accomplishment” so far? Everyone has one, even someone who just started. I declare this post’s comments to be a BRAG BONANZA!

Do you have a Whole Foods near you? I know some of my readers are Whole Foods “deprived”!

Here Comes a Fighter

Have you entered my Mohegan Sun BrewFest giveaway yet? Don’t forget – you could win two passes to this weekend’s beer bonanza! Giveaway closes tomorrow (Wednesday 10/3) at 12PM EST.

Geez, so far fall has been extremely busy in terms of my full-time job!By the time I got home last night from my post-work gym session all I wanted to do was sit on the couch with my mom and watch the season premiere of Grey’s on the DVR with dinner. And wine. So that’s what I did – no blog post.

My setup at Art With a Twist in New Haven, CT!

But now I’m ready to blog about this past Saturday. As I mentioned in Sunday’s brief giveaway post, I have a lot to say! The day started out in typical Caitlin fashion – spin class and #plankaday, a few hours of much-needed study time at Daybreak. Then I hit the road for New Haven to have a date with Maria of Pappa Don’t Preach! We’ve never been able to do a good one-on-one hangout before, but we are two peas in a pod and I’m so grateful to have met her through blogging. She drove all the way from Stamford to meet me at Art With a Twist for a BYOB painting class! We used a Groupon🙂 of course.

Maria listening to our instructor, the fabulous Bella Zadore.

Maria did a great job sharing more photos of Art With a Twist’s lovely location, and info about the business itself, in her recap! We decided to go sweet on the booze and shared Riesling and champagne. Thanks Maria for introducing me to Asti! It was delicious.

Everyone painted the same illustration, but then everyone’s came out looking different. My water turned out a bit sickly looking, and Maria pointed out that I was just trying to paint the Long Island Sound. Truth.

Pondering the sounds of the Sound…champagne in hand.

I also must’ve still had BlogHer on the brain because my palm trees looked like Lorax mustaches.

Lorax #1

Lorax #2. He’s unimpressed. Source

I was doing a little too much hating on my painting, so Bella sprinkled me with confetti as “punishment”. Okay okay, I complained on purpose so that I could get showered in confetti. Who doesn’t love that?!

There’s a 30% chance it’s already raining.

I had a great time chatting with Maria about our gym sessions that morning (of course) and also taught her how to take silly photos. She deemed me a silly photo queen. I am honored!

Help me take silly photos, Caitlin!

Don’t mind if I do!

How amazing are the “men/women” signs for the bathrooms?! Bella is so creative! She decorated everything in Art With a Twist herself.

Blogger in action.

Despite the fact that my painting did not look like Bella’s, I’m gonna refrain from saying that it wasn’t as good as Bella’s. After all, she wasn’t painting the Long Island Sound!

It’s beauuuuutiful!

Stealing this from Maria’s post…BYO-Blend!

You are what you…paint?

After class we hit up 116 Crown for a pre-dinner cocktail. Because when you’ve been drinking since 2:30PM, why stop?

I ordered the Negroni!

Unfortunately before I could even get to the point of ordering, I had to wait outside with Maria for 15 minutes because we arrived at 4:45PM and they weren’t open yet. It’s fine, another opportunity to practice her silly photo taking!

Let me at the cocktails!

Why am I not drinking a cocktail right now?!

Once we were seated and with drinks in hand, our kind bartender (and very patient I might add, we had SO many drink ingredient questions) took some awesome above-view photos of us 😀

I love the modern “pod” seating!

It was my second time at 116 Crown in September (and ever). I’ll definitely be back! It’d take me eons to work through that drink menu.

Falafel, hummus, cucumber yogurt sauce, pita.

By the time we got to the ultimate dinner destination, Red Lentil, I was staaarving! I’ve been pumped to try the place because it offers unique vegan/vegetarian dishes and had gotten a rave review from Heather. Maria and I started with the appetizer special, the above falafel platter. Be still my heart! It was excellent. I also had the beet-sweet potato-apple latkes. The picture looks totally ugly but they tasted the opposite of ugly.

They may or may not have been equated to “bad weed” in an Instagram comment.

After dinner, I hit the road…but I didn’t head back home like I thought I’d be doing when I woke up that morning. Instead, I responded to a spontaneous text I received during the paint class, inviting me to the Full Moon Onyx Moonshine Party at Taqueria Tavern in West Hartford.

Onyx is an awesome local CT company. I love local, I love booze, and I love unique marketing. Onyx Moonshine has all three of those on its side! You may remember that I worked with them at the Farm to Shaker Bartender Challenge as a cocktail competition judge!

The party included many delicious Onyx drink specials (I had a cinnamon infused Onyx on the rocks that was to die for) and a super-spicy wing eating contest. The photo above includes the two Onyx founders Pete and Adam, and between them is the winner of the wing-eating contest, Judson!

Judson and his winnings!

Judson is a champ. He decided to enter the contest THAT day! He also happens to be the boyfriend of my friend Jennifer! They’re an adorable couple.

Jennifer and I!

I took a bite of one of the wings (DUMB) and my mouth was on fire for almost an hour afterward! I don’t know how these champs did it! JD of Ripe Bar Juice (also from the Cocktail Competition at the Coventry Farmer’s Market) ordered me up a Kahlua drink made with Onyx, and it certainly coated my mouth with some cooling dairy and helped stop the burn.

JD is fearing the wing!

I’m realizing right now that this post is really long and I am only just now getting to the part of it that I have been wanting to write for the last couple of days. This was a long day. I was drinking from 2:30PM to about 10:30PM. I definitely did some chip nomming at the Mexican restaurant. That Kahlua drink most definitely had whole milk in it. I didn’t get home until 11:30PM. The day may have started out Caitlin-style, but it didn’t end that way.

And as fate would have it, the beautiful Becki has started an October challenge that I decided today to join, because it fits with what I want to say today and what I want to DO for myself for the rest of the month and beyond. You can read the details here, but it entails 10 minutes a day of meditating on why you are AMAZING.

I woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday after having gone to that party in a panic. I was about to go get my mother out of bed and pour out my heart. I felt worthless. I felt guilty. I felt like I didn’t deserve to have the fun Saturday I’d just had.

But instead of going to get my mom, I took a deep breath. I lay in my bed in corpse pose and tried a calming tactic that has worked for me before. I breathed in and out, and after each breath I said out loud something from my #AmazingMe list. In, out. “I worked out yesterday.” In, out. “I had a wonderful time.” In, out. “I did something I knew would put me out of my comfort zone.” In, out, until I fell back asleep.

After all, only #AmazingMe could have made this painting!

I woke up on Sunday morning still feeling, to put it bluntly, like a piece of shit. I was proud of myself for having worked through my mid-night anxiety on my own, but was still being bombarded by the most hateful, mean thoughts. I went to the gym – yes, partially because I felt like I wanted to get in a workout to “make up” for the previous night. But also because I wanted to be powerful, feel strong, and do something that I enjoyed. I even putzed around the house for a bit before hitting the gym instead of dashing there like I usually do on weekend mornings, because I just wanted to wait it out and go to the Sunday morning spin class, which always leaves me feeling refreshed and has the BEST music. I did a lot of singing-and-spinning that morning.

I took a little social media vacation. I went on Instagram for a second, and realized the last thing I wanted to see was peoples’ food and workouts. Sometimes I’m okay with that stuff, but sometimes it triggers me like crazy. I tweeted that I was going to spend the day doing nothing except what makes me feel good. Then I stayed away from Twitter for most of the day.

After the gym, I took a long, slow, hot shower. I had a date to study with Jenny at J. Rene Coffee Roasters in West Hartford, and was still going because seeing Jenny and drinking coffee in a unique cafe does NOTHING but make me feel good, but I decided to take it slow. I decided not to be go-go-go to the next appointment on my “agenda”. I closed my eyes and sang in the shower, because that felt great. And while I was getting ready to go, Avril Lavigne “With You” came on my playlist and I suddenly got the urge to just dance around my room like a half ballerina, half hip-hop queen. I felt like it’d make me feel good. So, that’s what I did.

Even right now as I write this I am overwhelmed with pride over how much self love I practiced this past Sunday. Almost every activity I did, every action I took, I stopped and asked myself, “Is this what I want to do?” If it wasn’t, I didn’t do it. I still felt the hateful thoughts coming at me from every direction. But I was on a mission to medicate and heal their damage with something other than restricting, than over-exercising. I didn’t want to lose another battle.

At the end of Sunday evening as I lay in bed listening to an inspiring NPR interview recommended to me by Jenny, coloring with my Sharpies, inhaling my Pumpkin Buttercream Yankee Candle, I felt at peace. Again, I still had mean thoughts popping up in my head. I still felt a bit miserable. But getting past this is going to come in increments, and any little peace I can give myself means the world to me and makes me feel proud.

An evening of serenity.

What this all comes down to (I felt a bit word vomit-y as I wrote this but I just kinda let it flow), is the following: Yes, I was beating myself up all Sunday for having a spontaneous Saturday night. BUT I did not curl up in a ball and hide. I did not obsess over how I’d “make up” for what I had “done wrong”. I did not try to punish myself by letting my mind just sit back and take the negative thoughts. Instead I tried to HEAL myself from their damage by practicing self love and doing things that soothed me and taking it easy. I took it easy on myself, and as a result, felt like a fighter. I still feel like one! I didn’t feel that way a couple weekends ago in Tennessee, but this time I feel like I have come out successful in this battle. You lose some, you win some. And hopefully this is the start of continuing to win some!

Have you ever been to a unique BYOB activity or partaken in a crazy food contest?

What do you think about Becki’s Leaf Your Negativity Behind challenge? Who’s with me?!

Tell me a way you recently practiced self love!