Mental Health Days Are Necessary!

And I took one today! Every once in a while you just have to do some things you enjoy, and get away from the day to day stresses and worries. You all know my dad's health situation and frequent visits to the ER and hospital have kept me stressed out lately. So I took today and had some fun.


First up, a visit to my aunt's home about 20-25 minutes from here. Now, my aunt is in Connecticut for a few weeks, and I thought they might want to have some pics of their garden here to see how things are going. They really love their garden, and for good reason - it's beautiful! The front is manicured and full of cottage-y type flowers, and the back is a little more casual, but still beautiful. I took a bunch of pictures, and still need to e-mail them, but I thought I would share some with you. You'll be seeing them throughout this post.



Then I left their home and went to my parents, about 10 minutes or so from them. My mom had some veggies she wanted me to have from her garden, so we visited a few minutes and off I went, meandering through some of the pretty country roads in the area. My destination was a new shopping center about 15 minutes or so from our home. It's called "The Avenue" and has all kinds of neat stores - almost all of them way beyond my budget, but that's where the theater was, but more about that later!

It was lunchtime by now, and I looked around for somewhere to eat. There was an Italian place, and while I LOVE Italian, I just didn't want it today, so I kept on looking. And I found something new, and interesting! It's called Tin Drum Asia Cafe and they have a blend of Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Curry foods. It's kind of a 'high end' fast food, and the food is cooked fresh, or at least what I got was. You order at the counter, self-serve your drinks, and they bring the food to your table. I had a veggie spring roll and veggie tempura, and both were delicious! The spring roll was light and freshly cooked and really good, while the tempura was great! The batter was light and crispy, and the veggies (broccoli, onions, carrots and green beans) were perfectly cooked. The sauce was a kind of sweet and sour type, but it had pepper flakes in it and was just a bit spicy. Not hot, just nicely warm. Add a soft drink and my lunch was about $7, so not bad at all!

And then I just walked across the street to the theater, a new one, and very nice! Stadium seating with very comfy red velvet seats. I'm not a huge movie person, and tend to get very upset with a lot of films they are making these days, so I don't go often. In fact, this was the first movie I've seen in a theater in probably 2-3 years, maybe more. The last movie we went to see was so upsetting that we got up and walked out before it was 1/3 over! Grandchildren threatening to kill grandfathers and parents making out on the dinner table during a family dinner just aren't entertaining to me. I've seen my nephew threatening my father, his grandfather, and it wasn't funny!!! Sorry I got off track there, but I really feel strongly about this topic.

So what did I see for my first movie in several years??? Why Julie and Julia, of course! And it was wonderful! Funny, thoughtful, and Meryl Streep was hilarious as Julia Child! I also loved Stanley Tucci as her husband, Paul. The language was mild (only 2-3 'bad' words) and there was no nudity or violence - unless you count a 30 year old having a meltdown, but even that was kind of funny!

After the movie I headed home, stopping only for a snow cone at the Hawaiian Shaved Ice place in town. Black cherry this time, and it was very good. All in all, I had a wonderful 'mental health day'. I need to schedule them more often!

Have a great weekend, friends! Becky