Tuesday - Los Mariachi's.

In Wauseon, you really only have a choice of five sit down restaurants, that aren't owned by multi national corporations. You have Tiffany's Cafe, John Webbers, Smith's Restaurant, The Grasshopper, and Los Mariachi's. Three of these five restaurants are home style cooking, the other two are Mexican restaurants. Tonight I visited the superior Mexican restaurant, Los Mariachi's.

Coincidentally, when I was performing my normal research for this blog I discovered this review on yelp.com:

"Okay, I admit that when I went I was a little hung over. And I admit that I love Mexican food and there's no shortage of that in Phoenix. And I admit that I love Hispanics and there's no shortage of hot ones here in Phoenix. So, all these factors played in on my experience at Los Mariachis. I went there with my mom, and she has been there several times before. I ordered the chicken quesadillas with a side of beans and rice. Very good!! And I'm quite positive that the beans are made from scratch (i.e., not out of a can). What I couldn't eat there was just as good the next day." -Bacon Boy

What was actually weird about this review is that it was written by my cousin who lives in Phoenix, and even he can say that Los Mariachi's is awesome..my cousin also seems to be attracted to Hispanics...learn something new everyday.

The evening was good, I went on the journey with my heterosexual lifemate Jake Richards, who is now newly engaged (shout out!).

I got the Jim Nachos, which is just chicken, rice, and queso. Jake on the other hand consumed a mountain of fajitas that looked like this by the end:

Allow me to quote Ms. Jackie Utzler in regards to this photo: "What ever that Los Mariachi's is, it makes me want to throw up".

Now Ms. Utzler has never eaten Los Mariachi's so I can forgive her for the comment. However, several of you are not Los Mariachi fans because of "the bad service", "the illegal labor", "the lack of english spoken", all are valid complaints, but I dare you to find a place that has Jim Nachos for under $5. I dare you.

So the next time your in Wauseon, stop by Los Mariachi's on Shoop Avenue, bring a English to Spanish Dictionary, and bring your appetite because Los Mariachi's will conquer your stomach for sure.

Tuesday - Frickers.

If there is one thing that Wauseon doesn't have, it's a good place to eat chicken wings. It is for this reason that several times a month, a journey must be made to find chicken wings. The destination of this journey is a little place called Frickers.

Frickers is a sports bar that serves some of the best wings in the area (unless they're burnt...then they're the worst). Not only do they cook up some of the best wings, but on Tuesday nights they are also the cheapest, costing 35 cents per wing. The overall cost of this spectacular meal of 10 chicken wings is only $3.50, assuming you don't splurge for the $2.39 soft drink, and don't include a semi-generous tip for the hard working, yet, scantly clad waitresses. Frickers is a fun break in the week, and every Tuesday becomes a blessing instead of a burden.

This week, Me, Brett, Neuy, Landon, and Montana made this journey to the east to enjoy the wings of Frickers.


We were fortunate that the people of Toledo were not in a self loathing mood to eat chicken wings, so the wait for a table was a minimal 20 minutes. Several of us have waited over an hour for the succulent wings in the past. We got our table, stuffed ourselves, and topped of the evening with Cold Stone. Which is a combination I dare you to top.

If you ever visit Wauseon, I advise you to make the long Journey to Frickers. If their wings don't hook you, the charm of the wood paneled walls certainly will.

Monday - Wal Mart

Today was the beginning of my stay here in Wauseon. I arrived Saturday afternoon, where I spent time with my buddy Neuy and Montana, and Sunday was busy participating with Church stuff. However, I digress to what you all want to hear about; my daily taste of Wauseon culture.

Tonight my good friend Brett joined me in my weekly adventure to the glowing white light in the city of Wauseon; Our very own Wal Mart.

To provide proper context, the vast majority of the citizens of Wauseon are okay with Wal Mart. You won't see protesters outside, you don't see very many "Shop at Wal Mart, China Needs Money" bumper stickers or "Wal*Ocaust" images. Before the city of Wauseon had a Wal Mart, they had a K-Mart. So the arrival of a Wal Mart was exciting for the city because it was like getting a K-Mart 6.0. People like Wal Mart, and Wal Mart likes them back. So it was unanimous that me my loyal companion, Brett Wyse, visit this wonderful place.

The visit to the Wal Mart was glorious needless to say. Aisles and aisles of products as far as the eye can see. We proceeded to the electronics section to discover a $20 blu-ray two pack of "Roadhouse" and "Point Break". At that moment, the Wal Mart tempted me immensely to purchase the double disc of Swayze goodness, despite the fact that I do not own a blu-ray player. The Wal Mart knew my thoughts, but I resisted.

My companion and I then proceeded to the Food section of the Wal Mart. We entered the cookies/snack section, when the tempting of the Wal Mart resumed. This time, I was tempted by none other than Double Stuf Oreos. I tried to fight the pull of Wal Mart, but I gave in. My spirit was willing, but my stomach was weak. And obviously once I had succumbed to buying Oreos, I then had to purchase milk to dip the Oreos. My companion also fell victim to the power of Wal Mart upon the sight of an industrial sized container of JIF, and $5 Indian War DVD. We went to the self check out, where I had to teach Brett how to use the new mystical device, and we departed.

We went back to my house, where I ate an entire sleeve of double stuf Oreos, from which intense self loathing ensued. We then proceeded to watch the Indian War documentary. What a night.


Me, and My Traveling Companion Brett


yes...the whole sleeve.

Lesson of the Week - Welcome Home

Today my grades were posted from this quarter of school, I passed my classes, and am officially graduating college in the next few days. I have not been consistently writing in this blog because of the demands of work and school, but now that I am done with school, I am hoping to a make this at least a weekly to bi-weekly blog. However as you may see from the banner, I am starting a new blog concept.

The "Lesson of the Week" writings were there to offer structure to my blogging, but mostly the were there to show progress in my life at college and in Columbus Ohio. However, I am now moving back to my hometown of Wauseon for a new chapter of my life.

Thus, I want to start writing about being a newly graduated college student living in a small town, looking for a job, and enjoying the local entertainment that I remember fondly as a kid. That is what "Travis Writes" will be writing on next. They will be writings of excitement, boredom, sarcasm, loneliness, fun, all of the emotions that come with a life change.

I am looking foreword to see what is skimmed from my brain and plastered into this blog. It will be a journey, I hope you'll join me.

-Travis

Lesson of the Week - My Pipe.

I recently purchased a tobacco pipe. It's a classic brown and black pipe that smokes pretty good for the comparatively modest price of $30 that I paid. I've found since buying this pipe, that I really enjoy smoking the occasional pipe/cigar/hookah, however the keyword there is “occasional”.

American culture teaches us to not be satisfied with anything. Were told to eat more, to drink more, to buy more, basically were told that the goal of life is to live hoarding as many things as possible in order to die with as many things as possible. I don't buy into this factory sealed logic at all. I believe that there is an art to living, a balance, an order to be obtained. I think the key to living is living a lifestyle of moderation. Everything can be bad in excess, anything can be bad in limitation, but by seeking balance, we can find the art of living.

I believe this idea of limiting ourselves, to better ourselves, is a lost art. Modern advertisers and companies have succeeded at completely strip mining the American consumers of all their needs and are now given no choice but to continue to sell the idea of never being satisfied to keep us coming back to the mall, to the buffet, to the bar, and to the television. I reject this state of our culture. I am pretty young, but I still remember people growing their own fruit, canning it, and storing it in the basement. Those people who remember the simplicity of life and what things are truly necessities.

Basically, when we drink too much we become dependent slobs who throw up on furniture. When we eat too much, we get fat and develop serious health problems. When we watch too much TV, we grow disconnected with the rest of the world.

Back to my tobacco pipe. I bought the pipe and I was super excited to smoke it. I smoked it after leaving “Pipes and Pleasures”, I smoked it while driving, I smoked it before dinner, after dinner, and twice later at a party. Sure enough, the next day my mouth not only tasted like crap, but it felt like crap. I successfully burnt my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and my lower lip, which made eating an aggravating chore. Did I enjoy my pipe in moderation? No. Was it in excess? Yes. Were there consequences? Yes. Will I probably make the same mistake again? Probably. But you get my point.

Lesson Of The Last 4 Months / The Rivalry

Recently two of my peers, named Brian Carr and Adam Schuch, started their own blog called produmption. The concept behind their blog is that each time they drop a log, they drop a blog too. To me, the concept is brilliant. However, they chose not to include me so I'm afraid I'm going to have to get back in the blogging game in order to compete with the men of "Produmption"

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Lesson of the last 4 months.

A lot has happened it 4 months. Plans made and plans broken, relationships grown and relationships destroyed. Time moves fast, but life moves faster.

As humans, I believe we are predisposed to failure. Let's be honest, how often do our plans actually come to fruition? How often are we exactly where we want to be? How often are we content? We shouldn't be surprised or disheartened when our plans fail, rather, we should be surprised when our plans don't fail.

In grade school I was programmed to believe that life goes in this exact order:

(A) --> Graduate High School-->(B) Go to, and graduate, college -->(C) Get a job right away to make that starting salary of $60,000-->(D) Married--->(E)--> Kids-->(F) Death.

We feel our lives are meant to be a linear ascendancy of progress. A goes to B and to C and so on. However, if you've passed step "A" or "B", you've probably realized that life does not work this way. The problem with this equation is that there is no room to factor in for the variable "X". Think of X as the real life variable, reality if you will.

Graduate High School--> Graduate College --> (C)Get A Job--->(X) Get laid off.
(B)Graduate College --> (X) Never get a job
(D)Get Married --> (X) Get Divorced
(E)Kids --> (X) Miscarriage

There are too many variables and outside circumstances to believe that its possible to live a linear life.

I prefer to think of life as walking through a dense forest. There are some trails that you can follow, but you can be mislead down a bad path, you can get lost, you can walk in circle, or you can get mauled by a bear. That's what life is like, were walking and we don't always know where were going, but were all trying to get out of the woods, its just a matter of what paths we choose take to get there.

Am I on the right trail in my life? Am I going to have to do some back tracking? Am I going to get mauled by a bear? I don't know, but I do know that when we find our own way through the forest, we will be stronger, smarter, wiser, and ready to guide others through the dense forest.

The Rivalry / Less of the Last 4 Months

Recently two of my peers, named Brian Carr and Adam Schuch, started their own blog called produmption. The concept behind their blog is that each time they drop a log, they drop a blog too. To me, the concept is brilliant. However, they chose not to include me so I'm afraid I'm going to have to get back in the blogging game in order to compete with the men of "Produmption"

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Lesson of the last 4 months.

A lot has happened it 4 months. Plans made and plans broken, relationships grown and relationships destroyed. Time moves fast, but life moves faster.

As humans, I believe we are predisposed to failure. Let's be honest, how often do our plans actually come to fruition? How often are we exactly where we want to be? How often are we content? We shouldn't be surprised or disheartened when our plans fail, rather, we should be surprised when our plans don't fail.

In grade school I was programmed to believe that life goes in this exact order:

(A) --> Graduate High School-->(B) Go to, and graduate, college -->(C) Get a job right away to make that starting salary of $60,000-->(D) Married--->(E)--> Kids-->(F) Death.

We feel our lives are meant to be a linear ascendancy of progress. A goes to B and to C and so on. However, if you've passed step "A" or "B", you've probably realized that life does not work this way. The problem with this equation is that there is no room to factor in for the variable "X". Think of X as the real life variable, reality if you will.

Graduate High School--> Graduate College --> (C)Get A Job--->(X) Get laid off.
(B)Graduate College --> (X) Never get a job
(D)Get Married --> (X) Get Divorced
(E)Kids --> (X) Miscarriage

There are too many variables and outside circumstances to believe that its possible to live a linear life.

I prefer to think of life as walking through a dense forest. There are some trails that you can follow, but you can be mislead down a bad path, you can get lost, you can walk in circle, or you can get mauled by a bear. That's what life is like, were walking and we don't always know where were going, but were all trying to get out of the woods, its just a matter of what paths we choose take to get there.

Am I on the right trail in my life? Am I going to have to do some back tracking? Am I going to get mauled by a bear? I don't know, but I do know that when we find our own way through the forest, we will be stronger, smarter, wiser, and ready to guide others through the dense forest.