Cincinnati Impressions, Motion Sickness, Po-po

Lots and lots of changes have come into our lives these last few weeks. It is rather overwhelming, and at the same time interesting, for Daniel and I to pack up our things and move to Cincinnati. I’d never heard much about Cincy (okay really fast, why the “y”? It only makes it really confusing to everyone. However, only the people in the “know” (the locals) use the “y.” There is your how-to-fake-your-residency-in-Cincinnati fact). I remember a childhood movie, Babes in Toyland (1986), where the bad guy (Barnaby) was trying to gas his prisoners but they were immune because they were from Cincinnati. What a great movie feel free to watch and laugh at the 80’s here http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1898513177/. But, otherwise, Cincinnati was way foreign to me. Here are some of my very first impressions:

1. HILLY!!! Yay for hills. These aren’t baby hills either. Thank God, I need to get away from the flat land.
2. Home Depot. Made me think of Colorado and how much I miss it. I always wanted a Home Depot apron.
3. Biggs Hyperstore - a cross between Whole Foods and Kroger (King Soopers). Awesome.

We spent a lot of time around various part of Cincy. We took 3 different walking tours of downtown. It was so nice. Thought rainy, we saw most of downtown. I can’t wait to spend a lot of time down there getting to know it. I love culture and city people. Also, we have been to King’s Island twice. Woot! It rocks my socks off. And I have been testing out some advice on motion sickness, here is what I’ve experienced.

Test #1 – I took nothing. I had a pretty empty stomach, and was rather thirsty. I was so stinking sick by the third ride. I had a headache after the first, and almost puked on some roller coaster while being launched upwards (would gravity have punished me or the person behind?).

Test # 2 – Took Dramamine, 2 pills about an hour before we went. I was completely knocked out about 10 minutes after we started driving. After I stopped at a gas station and got some coffee, I was good to go. I ate a little popcorn that I brought just before going inside. Also, I started chewing some mint gum and made Daniel carry some crystallized ginger into the park with him (along with some headache meds… I was really prepared). Between all those things, I had a blast. I didn’t feel sick at all! I kept myself hydrated, my tummy wasn’t hungry, and I took all the meds. So Rach, in Guatamela… Dramamine, ginger, gum, water, and food. Remember J

This summer I’m really changing the focus on what I blog about. We are making a larger effort to being frugal and healthy. Those usually can’t be in the same sentence because healthy food is SO expensive. But, I’ll let you know the deals I’ve got, some tips I’ve discovered, and other people who are in the same boat. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be stretching your dollar to the max.

Daniel has been making some fun at me, but I’ve been really pushing the light and summery foods. Foods that don’t bog you down and foods that keep you energized. We both want to be healthier than we have this past year, and though we may not be able to be more active due to time constraints, we certainly have plenty of room to grow in the healthy area. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you what we do to be healthy and how we balance that with spending.

I know that at least one person like my laugh section, so here it is:

Laugh: I got pulled over by police on the drive to Cincy. I surprised myself. I knew exactly where my registration, insurance, and license were, and I didn’t freak out and start crying. Now, let’s talk about why I got pulled over. Daniel. With the bikes on top of his car and our frugality in mind, he wanted to stay at a speed that was getting great mileage. So being the awesome and submissive wife that I am, I followed him. So we pass the po-po, and I’m like, “Oh look, at least we aren’t speeding!” Soon enough both of them are next to us, one pulls behind me and the lights go on. Shoot. Watch Daniel keep going and the other officer pulls behind Daniel, the lights go on. Double shoot. He walks up and asks for all my information. He then asks if I was with the guy in the red car. I told him I was and that we were married in fact. He asked me why I was going so slowly and following so close, and I told him it was because my husband insisted on going slow to get good mileage. Then he told me that usually why people drive so slow is because they are either drunk, drugged and dealing drugs, or old. Thanks Daniel (p.s. I love you and don’t kill me for telling the story my way). It was at that point that I looked at him eyeing my strawberry, cilantro, and jalapeno plants in my front seat (they were my co-pilots). “Ummm yeah, those are strawberry plants.” He chuckled and said he was a farm boy and just didn’t recognize the cilantro. Phew. He asked if we were moving or on vacation and I told him Daniel had an internship in Cincy but that we’ve been in Terre Haute for Rose Hulman (which he was like, “oh wow, you have a smart one”) but we were originally from Colorado. He told me that my tags were expired (which they are in route… common people, mail sucks these days) and that he’ll just give me a warning. He said I should probably speed up and not follow so closely. After he went back to his car I was slightly upset that only time I got pulled over was because my husband was going TOO SLOW! It wasn’t for something thrilling and exciting, but that he thought I was drunk, old, and/or drugged. When the officer came back he said that he was talking to his buddy up with Daniel and that he said he was ways smarted out because this kid went to Rose, was interning for GE, and really tall. Laugh-out-loud. At least we didn’t have dull start to our summer. It’s always an adventure with my lanky, smart boy.