Janice Marie Foote's Musings

Mellifluous spring sweetly became summer that beautifully transformed into autumn which was just a hop, a skip and a short jump from winter that became a new year... and ... Wow!!! We finally rolled on into 2015!!! Then soon, spring came back anew! Ahhhhhh the wondrous cycle of the earth's seasons are always turning, turning and turning.

As usual, here's some music, new and old that I love, and that I think you should check out and listen to, in no particular order -> Sharon Van Etten : Brianna Lea Pruett : Eliza Rickman : Agnes Obel : Pieta Brown : Broken Twin : Sylvan Esso : Olivia Chaney : Marissa Nadler : Anomie Belle : Marketa Irglova : Mariee Sioux : Imogen Heap : Eliza Carthy : Mia Doi Todd : Nick Drake and his lovely musicin' mother Molly Drake : Lindsay Clark : Sera Cahoone : Tom Brosseau : Marika Hackman. Some of these may be repeats, but recheck them anyhoos.

Yup, I'm still getting my yoga on at Yoga Seed Collective! I love this place so much. They are such a warm and inviting yoga space to do my yoga at. When I'm there, I can tell the other yogis and yoginis feel the same way. It has such a great vibe going on! Along with their regularly scheduled classes, I also enjoy their special yoga workshops, every now and again.

As I got closer to my 2nd year living near Downtown Sac, I wrote some new lyrics -> Put Away My Past -> #16 down. They're about my misgivings about my wtf landing back in Sacramento!

End of May I saw William Fitzsimmons at Harlow's in Downtown Sac. I absolutely love his music, and his voice is just beautiful. Thankfully there was a really good turnout!

For sure Trader Joe's is still my ongoing main food shopping store. I love them like I've never loved a store before! I have to say their Diner Mac 'n' Cheese is hands down the best darn frozen/packaged mac 'n' cheese ever. During the winter holidays, I always get their Triple Ginger Brew, it's so gingery kickety-kick perfect. And in Sac it's hard to find good pain au chocolat, but I was turned on to their frozen Chocolate Croissants, which come out oven baked deliciously perfect. They're also my go to emergency everyday go to chocolate fix, 'cause it's good quality and good price! Plus, they seem to always be coming out with new foods/snacks/desserts/chocolates/snacks to try.

In early June I went on a most beauteous group meet-up hike at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. We descended by trail to Arch Rock on the beach below. Such a beautiful place to go and hike around at.

Mid-June I finally made it into The California Museum to see the exhibits inside. Had quite a bit of fun! Oh how I do truly love my birth state of California.

On July 4th I went and saw the usual fireworks at the Tower Bridge. Pretty cool looking over the river!

Crocker Art Museum pretty much has been my only art viewing outlet lately. Though in July I saw a Micah Crandall Bear exhibit again at Elliott Fouts Gallery. I just love Micah's art...go check it!!!

Goodness gracious, in early July I discovered Puur Chocolat goodness made right here in Sacramento, aka Ramon & Nicole Perez. I discovered them at one of my favorite gourmet grocers around the corner from me, Taylor's Market. If you love gourmet chocolate and confections, go check them out online, you won't be disappointed! If you live in/near Sacramento, you can go to their place of business to purchase/pick-up your goods.

In mid-July I performed at an Open Mic at Fox & Goose Pub in Downtown Sac. I really like this place. At the begin of August I performed at a 2nd Open Mic at The Torch Club in Downtown Sac. I really like this place too. All in all, I only performed at two Open Mics in 2014; that being said, they were both good ones. Though in 2015 I will start doing Open Mics again, and continue on for sure with performing my music out live!

Early mid-August I saw the lovely voiced Anne-Marie Sanderson live at The Coffee Garden in Sac. So glad I did! Her music is just wonderful.

At the end of August, I finally figured out by using three different speeds in succession. So now I can make perfectly smooth healthalish smoothies in our old glass blender. Yippee yay...'cause I just love makin' my own homemadey delish dessert and healthalish fruit smoothies!

Come the begin of September, I started my 2nd year of teaching Hatha Yoga at URC at Davis. This is a real accomplishment in my yoga teaching part of life. So much movement in my teaching has been had through this gig. Speaking of yoga teaching, I put some more of my pennies to good use to continue on being an Insured Yoga Teacher.

Inbetween this and that, autumn slipped in through the cracks of summer's veneer. Ahhhhh beauteous autumn, my 2nd favorite season, only after spring. I absolutely love the changing of the leaves fall colors.

Finally at the begin of autumn, we finally got some very much needed rain. Thank goodness, 'cause droughts are no fun at all! Also don't you just love the city lights reflecting off of the rain's ground swells, so pretty.

By mid-November our tree was lemoning again. So of course I picked them for smoothies and freshly squeezed meyer lemonade.

One thing about living in Sac in the midst of autumn, is it's still warm enough for long urban bike rides. Which I did a few of.

During the Winter Holidays, Cal Expo held a most wondrous looking Global Winter Wonderland. I didn't make it this year, but next year it is a must see and do, if I'm still in Sac.

On new Year's Eve I saw Into the Woods at Tower Theatre, and then met up with a couple of friends to watch the fireworks over the Tower Bridge. It was a fun and mellow way to ring in the new year. And of course, I ate my 12 Grapes at Midnight!

I finally got myself some zip-up double bicycle Avenir Metro Panniers. They are definitely going to make my bicycle errands/shopping much easier on me and my pedal power, that it was without them. They're really quality!

In mid-January, I came to a definite conclusion that I'm either carrageenan intolerant or have a carrageenan allergy. Even after one week of eliminating all foods/drinnks/snacks/desserts containing carrageenan my digestive tract was definitely on a better digestion track. So now of course, carrageenan is permanently banned from all my dietary intake!

Again in the begin of February, we got some more much needed rain. Thank goodness, 'cause as I stated above, droughts are no fun at all! Also, don't you just love how the city lights reflect at night in the ground swells of rain.

Early mid-February I saw William Fitzsimmons live again at Harlow's in Downtown Sac. He puts on a wonderful live show, and thankfully again there was a really good turn out.

Oy vey! At the end of February, by dad almost got scammed out of nearly $400 by thee ongoing commonly known as Windows Service Center Scam, that's been running since at least 2012. They deceive you out of your contact info eg phone and email. Contact you via email and ask you to click on their webpage wherein they ask you to pay for anti-virus/anti-hacking program(s) via PayPal. Their main goal is to hack your computer so they can get your personal/private information to try and clean you out of even more money. I have to add to this that they dropped a virus into my dad's computer that almost fried it, it did fry it enough that he had to take it in for repairs! Thank goodness he did get his money back 'cause his bank recognized it as a scam plus the payment didn't go through yet. So please be aware of this ongoing malicious malware scam and advise others of it!  NOTE: PayPal is not involved in their scam, I just wanted to let you know how they mainly get payment out of those who they scam!

I saw some more new movies throughout the rest of 2014 in theatres -> Magic in the Moonlight : The Skeleton Twins : Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) : Wild : Into the Woods : -> and I saw more new old movies on DirecTV -> Silver Linings Playbook : The Great Gatsby : August Osage County. In 2015 a new movie I saw in the theatre -> A Most Violent Year : -> and a new old movie I saw on DirecTV -> Maleficent.

Oh my oh my...spring has finally sprung beautifully once again. Oh dearest spring, my most favoritest season of the year. The season that releases us all from the coldest embrace of winter's arms.

Here's a laundry list of more book's that I've read -> The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche : Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert : Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs : Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden : Memories of My Melancholy Whores novella by Gabriel García Márquez : Under a Glass Bell short stories by Anais Nin : Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes : Nightwood by Djuna Barnes : A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux: The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller : Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortázar : Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia, Revised: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings by Rob Brezsny : Piece by Piece by/about Tori Amos : Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation by by Lama Surya Das : Hopscotch, Blow Up + Other Stories by Julio Cortázar : Sing for Me by Karen Halvorsen Schreck : The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima : The Progress of Love short stories by Alice Munro : Fatale by Jean Patrick Manchette. Speaking of reading books, I finally picked up myself a Sacramento Library Card. Which means I'm getting the majority of my books that I read from the local library eg the nearby to me Ella K. McClatchy Library. Go Public Libraries of the world!

Delectably my sweet love for Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates continues and deepens. In fact I even now have a Pinterest Page dedicated solely to their absolute deliciousness! I absolutely love their macarons...so scrumptious they are. Oh their hot chocolates are sweetly perfect for the colder weather. I also enjoy that they started making occasional differently flavored Bouchees. Speaking of Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates, if you love them as much as I do (or even remotely close), go vote them the Best Chocolate in Sacramento on KCRA City Voter, I already did!

Oh most capricious summer, here we come to play on your shores...

~ Live, Love, Laugh - Janice Marie Foote ~