But that just changed.

Last month, Rubio’s launched two new fish tacos: Avocado Corn and Sesame Soy.

The Sesame Soy Fish Taco is a delicious blend of sweet and savory, while the Avocado Corn is a fresh take on old world flavor. Those were great additions to the Rubio’s menu, the only down side being that it would make my ordering a little more difficult. But I could forgive Ralph. I mean, he did give me more delicious choices, and I can’t really be mad at him for that.

But THIS?! I just don’t know what to do now!

Ralph and his amazing chefs have introduced two MORE delicious tacos! Seriously? How am I supposed to be in and out with my lunch with all these choices? My stomach can’t decide between the tangy new Salsa Verde Pan-Seared Shrimp or the new spicy selection, Smoky Red Chile Shrimp Taco.

Pesky WHO?

Here’s Ralph to tell you more while I decide which taco to enjoy today:

See what I mean? How can you pick just one? Wait. I know! I can have one of each!

Which one would you choose?

Sometimes, they fail miserably.

Other times, they succeed beyond anyone’s predictions, including the originator’s. By the time their story becomes bigger than their original idea, they’ve been working on their “thing” for a while. We might only see the end result as an “overnight success,” never knowing what it took to get there or how they kept going, no matter how hard it was to get up every day and do that thing after committing to it.

If you were there at the beginning, you might ask this person, “Why the heck are you doing this?” or “Is there money at the end?” or “Who’s going to watch?” And that person might just have given up.

Or they might have ignored you and done something crazy like this:

Noah Scalin at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

I have a few crazy ideas that I’ve been tossing around but I always go with what’s safe because those ideas seem to be more acceptable to people and, as wacky as I think I am, I’m really just a people pleaser. God, I hate that. I hate that with a passion. Most days, I have too much frustration about the world that I stay away from social channels just so I don’t piss anybody off. Other days, I wake up asking myself why I keep hitting the mute button when I only have another forty or fifty years on this earth, God willing.

You know what I think?

I think I need a good ass-kicking.

How about you?

What are you doing with your wacky ideas? Are you hitting the mute button, too?

So I ran to my computer and googled the words “state employee lunch nuggets” and found that my ears were not deceiving me.

This is sad, but apparently, true.

A state employee was rifling through a child’s lunch to make sure that it was up to USDA standards. According to the school, because the lunch packed at home was bereft of a veggie, they had to throw the child’s lunch out and replace it with something they deemed healthier:

Chicken Nuggets.

I’m not even kidding.

ARTICLE: Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced by Cafeteria “Nuggets”

When I posted this on Google+, someone comment included a reference to Jamie Oliver’s nugget making fiasco. A friend told me that at the end, after seeing how gross the nugget-making process was, kids were still willing to eat the nuggets. One child asked the question, “What if you’re really hungry?”

That’s the sad side of this story. There are kids that aren’t getting proper nutrition outside of a state school. Either their parents don’t have enough money and resort to cheap drive-thru meals to survive, or they just do it because it’s easier than preparing a healthy meal. I’m not going to judge. I’ve resorted to McDonald’s for the very same reasons, (most recently, this morning) to get a pancake breakfast because we were running too late to make breakfast at home. I did, however, pack them a healthy lunch similar to the lunch I packed yesterday for Valentine’s Day:

If that would’ve been tossed and replaced by nuggets from a school cafeteria, I would have lost my marbles!!

I’m not going to say you are an evil person for ever feeding your kids nuggets. I WILL say that a state employee inspecting a child’s lunch and deeming what that child had as insufficient, tossing it, then replacing it with a chicken nugget lunch is unbeleivable! As many of my friends pointed out,  this child could have had food allergies. Or what if the family is vegan or keeping kosher? Or as the mother pointed out, the child gets her vegetables at home. But I suppose a state employee couldn’t really be sure, so just toss the lunch and charge the mom.

Crazy!!

Taking away the fact that the replacement lunch was nuggets, the issue is really that kids lunches are even being inspected in the first place! Sure there are plenty of parents that send their kids to school with crappy lunches, but where does looking out for a few kids turn into monitoring the behaviors and diets of ALL kids?

On Thursday evening, I’ll be on a Twitter Chat about the childhood obesity ads in Georgia lead by my pal, Leah Segedie. That’s another extreme that I’m sure started out as a well-inentioned idea to keep kids healthy, but has backfired in a very ugly way. We’ll be talking about better ways to get kids and families to live healthier lifestyles. I’m definitely going to bring up the mixed message of a school thinking that nuggets are better than a healthy meal that a mom lovingly packed at home. I hope you’ll join us.

As a Facebook friend said, “… and so the pendulum swings again to the point of being ridiculous!”

What do you think?

Naturally, I had to chase it.

Grabbing my iPhone and making sure to take quiet steps, I followed it, hoping to snap a shot. Unfortunately, the rabbit was better at hopping than than I am at stepping quietly. Since I was already outside, I started walking around the flowers that have grown wild in the yard. From a distance, they just look like the daisies you see getting off the freeway, but I always marvel at how, up close, every single one of them is so unique.

Aren’t those pretty?

While I was walking and snapping daisies, a yellow butterfly flew by. I chased that butterfly a little further down the path and found an orange butterfly. I was about to take a picture of them, but they do what butterflies do and fluttered away. But I still had bees to see. They were in the yellow flowers, having breakfast, not even seeing me. When I got too warm from the sun, I walked back up the path towards the house.

Then I saw all the succulents that haven’t been watered this week.

And the deck and patio needed some sweeping.

And the windows were all fingerprinty.

Then a lizard came by…

so I chased it.

THIS is why I have an office.

I started with tomatoes because my mom always had issues with them and I just assumed it might be hereditary. I love tomatoes. I can stuff a whole basket of cherry toms in my mouth. I’d show you, but then you might never be able to eat that succulent fruit ever again, so I will refrain. You’re welcome.

Thankfully, it was not tomatoes.

The next thing I tried was pasta. I was eating pasta nearly every day. I started my pasta habit as a waitress at a restaurant that had one of the most popular pasta bars in the South Coast Plaza area. Our Chef, Geno made so many delicious combinations with all the varieties of pasta, the various sauces, and every kind of topping possible. I learned to make the BEST pasta dinners. Sadly, removing my favorite meal option from my diet seemed to make a big difference in my belly aches. Reluctantly, I stopped eating pasta. I occasionally have some at a party, but it’s not something I indulge in any more.

Taking pasta out helped, but not completely. I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew it had to be another grain item that I overindulged in. I have a thing for bread. I love bread. Like… LOVE!!!! I especially love a warm loaf of sourdough bread straight out of the oven. Mmmmmm… soooo good! Begrudgingly, I cut back on the bread, and guess what? My tummy trouble seemed to go away a little more. It was a bittersweet discovery.

Later, I took out pizza. That one hurt the most, but not as much as it hurt after eating a few slices. I love pizza, as much as I love tomatoes and bread, which are the two main ingredients in pizza, so not much of a shock there. After a few years of not eating it, I started to react to it the way a former smoker reacts to the smell of cigarettes. I got sick just thinking about ordering it.

For years, I plodded along, skipping over most of the menus whenever I’d go out for dinner with friends or family. Then a few years ago, everyone started serving gluten-free foods. I was like, “What the crackers is gluten-free?” That’s when I found out about celiac disease. Celiac disease is a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten. Although I’ve never been diagnosed, knowing that the removal of certain foods from my diet, I think I must have some kind of gluten intolerance. So rather than continue finding out about items that I can’t stomach by being doubled over in pain, I started looking into which foods contained gluten. I was surprised how long that list was!

Did you know that even cough syrup has gluten in it?

Last summer, my favorite cough and cold remedy company, Vicks came out with a new line called Nature Fusion. Not only are the cough and cold products made with real honey, they are non-alcoholic AND Gluten-Free!

With so much awareness about celiac disease in the last few years, it’s really easy to find a gluten-free version of my old favorite foods… including pizza!! My kitchen is now stocked with quinoa grain pasta, gluten-free bread mix, pizza crust made from rice, and Nature Fusion cough medicine. I still occasionally indulge in foods that are not gluten-free, which folks that suffer from celiac disease can not do. I don’t have a horrible reaction to those foods, and I think that’s because I have incorporated many gluten-free and whole foods into my family’s meals. I’m also glad that there are so many menu options now available when we eat out.

Even though I’ve never been officially diagnosed, I know that my health has benefited from going mostly gluten-free.

Hey, did you know that I’m a Vicks Blogger? Yep! That means I’ve been compensated to talk about something I probably would have talked about for free… but don’t tell them that!

The nurse was about to transfer me to the room number I had memorized. Only this time, the response wasn’t, “I’ll put you through.” With the voice of a teacher correcting a child, she said. “There’s no one in that room.” Knowing she was wrong, my shoulders stiffened as I began to correct her. We both stopped short when a nurse in the background chimed in to share the news.

The nurse on the line became apologetic and tripped over her words. Slowly, understanding flowed over me. As calmly and directly as I could, I asked the question.

“Is she gone?”

She was.

I thought I had been prepared for that moment. I had always known my grandmother was sick, but it wasn’t until I was older that I knew it was with Type II Diabetes. I watched her slowly die for most of my life.

Nana loved to eat. She loved her sweets. Even when she was laying sick in bed, a collection of prescription bottles on her night stand, she always tried to sneak a sweet. When we were kids, she’d call to us as we walked down the hallway. “Pssst! Mija… just a little piece, pleeeease!!” Every now and then, I’d give her a little chocolate square and she’d snap at me in gratitude: “Don’t tell your mom!”

Years later, when I was a young, single mom, my mother, grandmother and I lived together again for a few years. That was when Nana’s health took a turn for the worse. My mom and I became her caregivers, going back and forth to and from the kitchen to her bedside with prepared meals and prescriptions. I did some research before she started her dialysis. Dialysis, if you don’t know, is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is used primarily to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure. Renal failure is something that often happens at the end of a diabetics’ life, and it is not pretty. I knew about the possible fits and hallucinations after starting dialysis. My mom, never being a fan of research, didn’t realize that, so when Nana’s fits and screaming started, I had to calm them both down. My mom was so shaken. It was hard to see that. Harder than hearing the nasty words spewing from my grandmother or holding down her flailing arms — the same arms that had once held me closely and securely, that now wanted to hurt me.

Things got better as far as the fits were concerned, but not as far as my Nana’s health.

After several years, my grandmother moved to a home that was close to my aunt who was a stay-at-home-mom and had more flexibility to help take care of her. Sometimes when I called, my aunt would give me an update. More problems. More doctor visits. More pills. When she required round-the-clock care, we moved her into a nearby assisted-living home. I’d often visit with my older girls, sitting with Nana in front of the TV that she couldn’t really see, catching up on life. The nurses would try not to interrupt as they put pills in her mouth and patches all over her body. It was hard not to cry seeing all the things that were necessary to keep my Nana alive.

By the time my grandmother had her heart attack on the dialysis machine, her body had long been ravaged by Diabetes. Every time I saw her, she was weaker, blinder, and more helpless than the time before. Only a shadow of the robust woman I had run to for hugs. She was only 74 when she entered the hospital for the last time. She wasn’t able to talk to us because of the breathing tube sticking down her mouth. Her wrists had been tied to her bed rails, near enough to move, but not enough slack to grab the tube she kept trying to take out. The frustration came through as tears in her eyes. All I could do was stroke her hair back to comfort her, telling her I loved her and that it was okay to rest now.

I loved my grandmother more than my own parents. Everyone knew that. Even my mom. No one knows how much I still miss her, more than ten years after her death. I think of her almost every day. At first, those thoughts were angry. She had the ability to stay healthy and yet she chose to continue living and eating in a way that helped the effects of diabetes take her away from me. I wondered why she didn’t love me enough to stay healthy. I know that sounds selfish, but those were my thoughts. Eventually, I thought of all the things she never got to do and made it a point to try to live the little girl dreams that she had nurtured in me.

And eventually, I forgave her for not eating better and not taking better care of her body.

There’s a lot of talk about Paula Deen and her food show and not revealing her diagnosis of diabetes sooner. Paula Deen has always scared me. I like to enjoy a rich meal or pastry, but not every day and every meal. Her show seemed to glorify eating the fried butter way for every meal. I never could understand the frenzied fangirl love that some of my friends had for Ms. Deen.

Now, I know this is going to piss some of you off, but from my perspective, after watching my Nana die the slow painful death that can come with diabetes, Paula Deen not being honest about her disease while continuing to push the kind of foods that cause more people in America than ever before to be diagnosed with diabetes is equal to a porn star that has a life-threatening sexual disease and continues to promote unsafe sex. Personal gratification over the thought that others might get caught up in your lifestyle and, ultimately, your disease is so incredibly selfish and greedy! I don’t even know how anyone can defend this woman.

And now she’s going to shill for a pharmaceutical company?

Dear God, does this woman have no shame?

I hate that Paula Deen knew for so long and did nothing to change how she impacted the lifestyles of the people who were creating her wealth by following her recipes, watching her shows, buying her sponsors’ products, and on and on. It is the height of irresponsibility to continue publicizing behaviors that caused her diagnosis without giving any kind of warning that maybe eating like this every day is a really bad idea. She could have told people what happened to her way back and changed things up a bit in her show. Working with a dietician on some recipes would have been the least she could have done. But maybe she’d offend the Butter Council or something? So rather than piss off a sponsor and losing money, she’ll just keep feeding millions of fans her deadly diet?

Paula Deen had a responsibility to tell her fans what her food did to her health. Period. But she didn’t. She still hasn’t! She just drawls out a little, “Oh hey… I’m gonna stop drinking sweet tea and I’m gonna take these here pills.”

I feel like I’M taking pills – CRAZY PILLS!

Anthony Bourdain was right. She is the most dangerous woman on television. And I wonder, how many daughters and granddaughters will go to their grandmother or mother’s hospital room one day and find an empty bed because they didn’t stop eating the way Paula taught them to cook.

*Type II Diabetes is not a death sentence. There are many lifestyle changes that people can make to live a long and healthy life. Number one is diet. If you are overweight, you coud be at risk. Talk to your doctor. Meet with a nutritionist. Do what you need to do to stay healthy, if not for yourself, for the people in your life.

Click HERE for information on the blackout.

Is your grandfather: 5, 50, or 500?

After a quick second of confusion, my son blurted out:

“Mrs. Smith… my DAD’s 50!”

I’m still cleaning up the wine on the wall after I spit it out laughing.

No matter how gorgeous the design, as Little Orphan Annie once said, “You’re never fully dressed without a smile!”

Here are my picks for the best SMILES on the Red Carpet for the 2012 Golden Globes:

Jessica Alba always has that fresh faced smile on her face. She seems so happy and approachable, a nice break from all the severe glares that some stars favor on the runway.

Natalie Portman’s smile always makes me smile. Here she is in her taylor made gown, wearing her happy smile. She looks like she’s not only enjoying her time on the red carpet, but in life, as well.

I loved Claire Danes as a sulking teenager in her Golden Globe winning role on “My So Called Life.” Her Cheshire Cat grin turned to a broad, stunning smile when she won her second Golden Globe for her role as CIA Agent, Carrie Mathis on “Homeland.”

And although I hated her dress and hair, Reese Witherspoon always has the Girl-Next-Door smile that makes you forgive her for dressing up like Dolly Parton’s little sister.

There were so many gorgeous smiles at the Golden Globes this year, but there always has to be a winner.

My pick for Best Red Carpet Smile at the 2012 Golden Globes goes to:

Viola Davis!!!

Ms. Davis looked absolutely STUNNING on the red carpet! Not only did her dress flow on her so beautifully, making her look like a big screen goddess come to life, but her smile absolutely lights up her face creating the illusion that her eyes are really precious gems.

~~~

As we get older, our teeth shift forward, causing our youthful, broad smiles to become crowded and narrow. Besides the cosmetic affects, misaligned teeth can cause long term issues with teeth, gums, and jaw. If you want a stunning smile that lights up the red carpet… or maybe just the beige carpet at home… check out Invisalign aligners. They are the “barely there” braces that don’t detract from your natural smile while the straightening happens.

I’m a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board and have been compensated for my treatment.

I got a new theme! What do you think?

We were having SOOOO many issues with old themes and WP upgrades and bad plugins. Every other month, the blog looked like a three year old had gotten hold of the password and was playing with the code.

Thanks to my patient pal, Astacia at Expand Social Media, the new theme is up and it looks almost the same. See up there? The same header, just a wee bit less HUGE! And we put in a few additions. If you look down below the post on the main page, I added big buttons for my regular categories. I also have recent posts and other stuff to the right. If you click on each individual post, the page changes up a little.

Go on… go click something… you’ll see!

You like that? Me, too.

I’ve also added all my social buttons to the top of the page. People weren’t seeing them as little wrapped candy icons, so we changed them out and put them up higher. Now, they’re obnoxious and obvious. Like me!

If you’re a crunchy type, I hope you subscribe. I’ll be writing extensively here and on Aiming Low Teach about my adventures in gardening and eating farm-to-table. We moved to a house that has trees filled with citrus fruit, room to grow a substantial veggie garden, and a spot that is just BEGGING for a chicken coop. Right now, I’m working on some stinky composting and I’m at war with a little clan of gophers. I might get all Caddy Shack up in here pretty soon!

I’m also going to return to interviewing awesome peeps like I used to back when I had a BlogTalkRadio show, but we’ll be doing videos for more face time. The series will be called “Living the Sweet Life.” I’ll be featuring people that took the bold step of following their passions and, to get all Thoreau on you, live the life they had imagined. Interviewing people for jobs or for shows has always been so much fun for me. There are so many amazing people that have such great stories. I love to hear them and I hope you will, too.

Then of course, there’s always just the ocassional rant about some a-hole or other. Those are always fun.

Well, I hope you stick around… unless you’re a troll that loves to write me nasty emails. If that’s you, I hope you get some disgusting skin eating disease. The rest of you though, I can’t wait to chat with you more about life, unrefined.

Okay then… carry on!