Bliss-Following: Barb Mazur, Pastry Queen and so much more...

Barb Mazur: Pastry Queen and Photographer

[what is bliss-following?]

My first memories of Barb Mazur are mostly just a blur of red hair [- her gorgeous red hair makes mine look annoyingly brown.]  We met in college, living in the same all-girls house at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.  She was both motivated and busy!  She had two jobs, I think?  And she took her studies WAY more seriously than I took mine :)  I remember being in our house's dining room eating lunch - and seeing Barb across the room: simultaneously scarfing her lunch and reading a textbook, then running out the door - to work or class, one of the two.  I remember thinking, "This girl is getting things done!"  Haha.

Honesty

I believe in honesty - I do.  But lately, I've been noticing that sometimes honesty inflicts more harm on the recipient / creates more problems and drama than a simple lie would have.  That's annoying, right?  I mean - I'm willing to suck it up and tell the truth even when it's hard for me, but I guess I thought the point of doing that is that that you're making the world a better place, you're being more fair to others, etc.  And I guess maybe in the long run I am - but in the short run, I've had a few situations lately where I wished I'd just have lied.    

I don't like that  :/

But I'll keep telling the truth, because, well, it defines me.  Even if it's hard for others to understand.  Even if it's inconvenient.  My truths are me, and I have to stand up for me.

San Fran / Seattle 2012

Not tons to say about my recent trip to the West Coast, because most of it was about visiting certain people, rather than be touristy - plus I've been to both San Francisco and Seattle before.  

But let me just say that Chicago, we could really step it up.

Okay, I get it - we're a flat terrain.  We can't just all of the sudden have awesome mountains in the horizon. But what about everything else??  And mostly here, I guess I'm talking environmentalism.  Why don't we have carpool lanes on our expressways?  Why don't we push recycling more - and why aren't we doing more with compost?  In both San Francisco and Seattle, they COMPOST as a CITY!  I mentioned composting to a local Chicagoan recently, and they had no idea what it was.  Like, had never heard of it.  

We are a big city with a lot of resources, and a lot of open-minded thinking people.  We may not be able to have the weather of California, or the coffee of Seattle - but we sure could improve some things.

Just a travel-rant, I guess :)