Friday, May 25, 2012

Weird and Delightful Side Effect

I rarely write two days in a row, but the strangest thing happened yesterday, and I wanted to share it.
I have this rare and bizarre eye condition... it is stress-related... big surprise. But the more stressed I am the worst the vision in my right eye. It has something to do with the way my body reacts to the stress.
So the other day, I was eating and reading and my left eye got something in it, so I shut it and rubbed and suddenly couldn't see clearly with my right eye... with my glasses on.
So I took off my glasses to see if they were dirty, and realized I could see without them.
Of course I started playing around trying to figure out what was going on, and realized that my glasses just weren't working right, so I went to the eye doctor. She told me that my vision in my right eye was about 3 times better than a three months ago.
Knowing this was stress related stuff, I asked if a daily meditation practice might be what was doing it. She lit up.
She told me that yes it could affect my physiology and that I seemed calmer and more centered in general to her.
Ironically, I am slammed busy. Dealing with issues and not really stress free. But I am making a practice of meditation daily.
And I truly believe it is helping me.
My doctor agrees.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

My favorite Olympia "Holes in the Wall"

Olympia is cool.
We live in one of the coolest places in the country or so says many a popular magazine poll.
One of the things that makes us cool are our homegrown restaurants or what I like to refer to as "holes in the wall." To qualify for "hole in the wall" status, a restaurant must be locally owned, have good food and be fairly small and simple.
My favorites:
1. Ramirez Mexican Grocery: Fresh food, well seasoned, clean, delicious and inexpensive. You feel like you are in Mexico. By Ace Hardware in Tumwater on Capitol Blvd.


2. Sri's Corner: South Indian food, delicious, reasonably price. Great buffet for lunch $7.99. This place opened about a month ago and fills up for lunch most days. Right next to Ramirez in Tumwater on Capitol Blvd.



3. Gyro Spot: Downtown Olympia on 4th Avenue. Amazing Gyros, great prices, absolutely worthy of my repeated visits.
4. Le Voyeur: Downtown Olympia on 4th as well. Best Philly Cheese steak EVER. But they call them Oly cheese steaks for obvious reasons. Little scary to go in, but once your inside, it's dark but clean. Interesting and   a real taste of downtown Oly. Highly recommend.