The Flashbacks (Band & Bar review)

So my husband and I went on an impromptu adventure again. Friday night we didn't have any plans, but we wanted to go out and do something within budget. Of course this is always difficult to do. But it is apparently my job to figure out what is going on locally. So I hop online, we're driving around town, and I look up events in Portland, ME.  Behold I find a list on Visit Portland. The list literally has day by day of the events, you can choose what month or even down to the day. So I look up Friday and there's a couple things, but only one that's 15 minutes away. TGIF Maine Band Dance Series is hosted on Fridays in Zackery's Restaurant and Lounge which we would find out later is in the Fireside Inn and Suites hotel.

The website said there was a $5.00 cover charge, which my husband and I comprised on by eating at home first. Again to stay within budget. Because we were more than half an hour late since we went home to eat, my husband gave Zach's a call to see if it would be okay if we showed up late. They said sure the band would be performing until 11:00 that night and best news yet, no cover charge that night. Woo who! Free tunes.

Place: is was a little strange going in because we didn't know it was in a hotel. But the hotel atmosphere was really pretty and homie. I loved the fire place! Made of stones and looking warm and cozy. We Found a sign stating Zach's and a man at the asked for our ID's. We walked in to a dimly lit little bar and found a spot to sit. The layout was small but had enough seating and a great view of the band.

The Band: The Flashbacks were a lively group, that joked with the audience and filled up the room with their energy. I liked their interactions between each other. An awesome team and well played songs too. They played modern songs like Uptown Funk and older songs. The main singer the woman was a ball of energy, with the biggest smile. Later they joked that she was getting over a cold. Fooled me! My husband liked the men that say too. 

So off we went. 

Place: is was a little strange going in because we didn't know it was in a hotel. But the hotel atmosphere was really pretty and homie. I loved the fire place! Made of stones and looking warm and cozy. We Found a sign stating Zach's and a man at the asked for our ID's. We walked in to a dimly lit little bar and found a spot to sit. The layout was small but had enough seating and a great view of the band.

The Band: The Flashbacks were a lively group, that joked with the audience and filled up the room with their energy. I liked their interactions between each other. An awesome team and well played songs too. They played modern songs like Uptown Funk and older songs. The main singer the woman was a ball of energy, with the biggest smile. She danced all over the stage and stood next to the other band members bringing attention to them too. Later they joked that she was getting over a cold. Fooled me! My husband liked the men that say too. Their raspy deep tones got his bead bobbing to the beat. Glad they share their talents and share the stage. A true team of talent and fun.

Customer Service: The bartender was patient with my husband asking about all the prices and helped him choose a beer. One man had way too many to drink and she helped him get a cab and apologized to a couple he had been a little overly friendly with. Handling the situation very well. Around 11 pm we started to head out. The band was only taking a couple minute and planned to start right back up again, but my husband had to be up early the next morning. As we were leaving I noticed a sign that said Ballroom and wondered if someone could have a wedding there. We know couple getting married and it was a cute little place. I asked the front desk and they directed me to the bartender who is their events coordinator also. She was amazing. Providing us with packets, information, possible dates available, even showed us what the conference rooms looked like and let me take pictures. A+

Over all the night was great. Not too many people, but it was nice not to be crowded and fight for seating or not be able to see the band. A very relaxed atmosphere. Somewhere you bring a couple of friends listen to some tunes and chill.

Thanks for reading! 

Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday! 

Les Brown (Video Review)

So I am a pretty big fan of John Maxwell and while watching one of his Minute with Maxwell daily videos he had A guest speaker named Les Brown was on the video and John mentioned that Les had been doing motivational speaking just as long as John had. I got curious and wanted to see his style of speaking. I found this older video on youtube.com and loved it! 

This Les Brown video is 48.59 minutes long. The Title is "You Deserve" with an introduction at the beginning and a short biography of the speaker. One thing that shocked me in the quick facts mentioned about Led is that growing up he was diagnosed EMR or Educated Mentally Retarded. During Les' speech he explains that when was young a teacher asked him to write something on the board, and Les told him he wasn't able to. The teacher insisted and when he asked Les why he couldn't Les explained that he was EMR. The teacher said, "Don't ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to be your reality." Les has done great things in his life time that he couldn't have done had he not started to think about himself differently.

It is an older video but still amazing lessons to be learned and right from the beginning you can feel Les' energy. I loved his booming voice and his timely placed humor. One thing he said that made me giggle was your always going to have problems. Life is hard, it's not perfect. So you need to invest in yourself. Take time to work on yourself. Ask what things do you need to improve? If you don't you: "Will wake up one day and find that your behind on your dreams and you bills"

I found myself laughing a lot and soaking in so much information. Les' energy was all over the stage and in his hands. He has a different technique that I hadn't seen yet. One thing he did was make the audience repeat phrases throughout his speech. He would say something and make the ground repeat it word for word. From it I got, if you say it yourself about yourself it's possible because you believe it. But you need to start believing it. Start by saying your goals or writing them down somewhere you can read it everyday.   

Even though the video is a bit long I did learn a lot. And it kind of opened my eyes on a couple view points. For example: "Develop the habit of doing more than what you're paid for." if you go into work right on time and you pack up your stuff 15 minutes before it's time to leave you're not cheating the company that you work for. You're cheating yourself by limiting yourself and creating bad habits. Get a habit of being mediocre than that is what you will become. Need to set high standards for yourself and who are want to be for your next job. We talk ourselves out of greatness all the time. Stop holding yourself back."   

Les also through out many quotes that I hadn't heard of before. Here a couple more things that I go from the video.  

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have one and not be prepared.”

– Whitney Young, Jr., American Civil Rights Leader

It doesn't take much to be a loser. Actually it takes no effort at all. It's easy to do nothing. It's easy to complain about your life and how people around you are succeeding. 

Practice makes Improvements, it's doesn't make perfection. There is not such thing. But you can always make improvements. Practice, Practice, Practice. 

Overall an amazing video and seeing the different hair style in the audience were pretty entertaining too. If you have time I definitely suggest you watch it. And if you don't have time do what I did, listened to it while working and cleaning my house. Remember that you have to take the time to invest in yourself. 

Thanks for Reading 

Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday! 

Negative Ninees

You guesses it! This blog is about those Negative Ninees in your life.

They are everywhere. You can't get away from them. They're your friends, your coworkers and even your family members. If you read my blog Be Happy I mention an article that had a list of 39 things or habits happy people do daily. Check out the list. There's some good stuff on there. However, there is number 9, which says, "there best friends are happy people too." Now I'm expanding that thought from just friends but to people in general that are close to you. I've also read in other articles that people who are getting on a track of success need to get rid of those negative people in order to focus on their success and not let those no sayers drag them down. But sometimes these people are not so easy to get rid of and obviously if it's family you still want those people in your life.So this weeks positive thought is just some How To's that I learned the hard way and some I read about.

How to handle with Nay Sayers

1.) Stop telling them your dreams: if you have over the top dreams and you've mentioned it to a family member or friend and nothing good comes out of their mouth, you should probably stop trying to share your ambitions. In fact the people you should be talking to are people who are doing what you want to be doing, aka Networking. These people will help you by giving you advice or you may just watch and learn from the pros. Now some negative people may think that they are trying to help, they believe you are reaching to high. That's understandable, however, hearing over and over again that your dream is not realistic will end up turning into a reality because you too will start to believe it. So stop asking for advice or confiding in the wrong people, they will see your greatness soon enough.

2.) Spend more time away from them: again family and friends are hard to stay away from. But if you know you have to do a big project at work and that certain someone in your life is going to say, "well you don't have enough time," or "you don't have the resources." I read an article that was titled, How To Deal With Energy Vampires: 8 Simple Tips and found it not only a little humorous but helpful. Some people don't know how to be supportive. They are just naturally negative. Just remember that negative energy is contagious and you don't want to catch it.

3.) Ignore their criticisms: The link beside #3 is a pretty good article that might help you ignore negative people. The best way to be around people who are always saying negative things is to ignore them. Or you could try to be extremely positive and always have nice and kind things to say about everything and anything. Why? Just like negative energy, positive energy is also contagious. I do, however, know a few people who can not be happy. In fact they are not happy unless they are complaining. But I still try my hardest to be a ray of sunshine because you never know when you can be a positive influence on someone.

4.) Understand they may be jealous of your passion: a lot of negative people have things in their lives that are dragging them down. So when you come in as a ball of energy singing about a new job opportunity or about your new invention or your new dream to star on The Voice, they are not so supportive. They tend to break your dreams done with realistic logic. One thing to notice though is that these same people are where they are because of that same logic. It obviously pays to think logically when reaching for your dreams, coming up with plans of attack that will align you on the right path. However, you must also take risks and get out of your comfort zone in order to do great things. So again don't let them take your dreams from you because they are afraid to reach for theirs. Instead understand their limitations, but don't judge them.

So that's my thoughts for this week. Hope this helps you the next time you're super excited about your next adventure and you know a Negative Ninee isn't going to have faith in you, don't despair. Just ignore those dark comments and pointed jabs. Keep your distance mentally and if you can try to bring some light to those Debbie Downers, DO IT. Keep your dreams high, reach out to them daily, and be a shiny spot in someone's life.

Thanks for Reading!

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Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday 

The Great Lost Bear (review)

Food review in Portland, Maine! So I've mentioned before that my husband and I are new to Maine. Moved here several months ago and are still finding beat places. This St. Patrick's day my husband decided we would try something new. He looked up bars in Maine and saw The Great Lost Bear had a 3.9 star review. So we got dressed up and went out.

Parking: Off street parking woo who! My husband hates parking on the street and since we had never been there before was worried that since it's in Portland we would have to. Turns out they have a parking lot to the left of the building. It's a bit small but we found a spot and went inside.

Building & Decor: is a little worn and the inside wood, walls, and artwork are as well. Even though everything looks like it's been there a while, everything looks like it's supposed to. I don't know how to explain it but as soon as we stepped in we felt comfortable and chill. The overall atmosphere was bar you would bring family and friends too. The lights weren't to dark, the music wasn't to loud, and spacing wasn't to crowded. 

Service: Our waitress was pretty cool. All the servers were wearing green on account of the holiday I assume. They were pretty friendly and really patient answering our awkward questions. Having never been there before we had a lot of questions. My husband is really picky about his food and his beer. They explained sizes, sides, and their favorite foods and beers. Overall fairly friendly, but again just right, no fake smiles.

Menu: For such a small looking place they had a rather large menu! And my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach.  I just couldn't decide and neither could my husband. They had salads that sounded tasty, burgers that sounded mouth watering, chicken that sounded delicious. There was a lot to choose from. The menu itself was pretty entertaining also. Little drawings all over the place and funny phrases to describe the food. It took us forever to order, not just because we couldn't decide but because we were having so much fun commenting about the look of the menu.

Food: Was amazing. Brought out to us hot & melting. My husband and I finally decided on 2 Philly Cheesesteak bombs. Shaved steak, grilled with green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Melted on top was their seasoned cheese sauce. I didn't even add mayo to mine! The fries were great too. Not fancy, but definitely sliced and cooked, not from a bag. However, we did see some mean looking burger at the table next to us were a lil jealous. But that's for round 2!

Top it off: So I guess you figured it out. That my husband and I had a lot of fun and loved The Great Lost Bear. But there was something else that I couldn't keep my eyes off while there. Glass Etching Windows . . . as part of the walls separating the dining areas. If you've seen some of my other blogs particularly the Glass Etched Mason Jar one, you'll know I love etching glass. Now there's a reason these etching were so interesting to me. First they are on huge pieces of window panes and second none of of them were alike. Someone had designed them. And I'm dying to know how, who and how long did it take to do!?

So there you have it. If your in the Portland area and want great food and a relaxing place to chill and hang The Great Lost Bear has my vote. Hey! And let us know when you're in town. My husband and I always like good food and a good time!

Thanks for reading! 

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Have a Sweeter Day Than Yesterday!