I just got back from one of my favorite luncheon spots, Marie Catrib's restaurant & bakery . This ecclectic diner had a very unassuming entry into the crowded Grand Rapids, Michigan restaurant market approximately two years ago.  I didn't hear about the restaurant on the radio or evening news.  It wasn't featured in a magazine article nor did I receive coupons inviting me to "check out" the newest local sandwhich shop.  The way Marie Catrib's emerged onto my radar was through a conversation with a fellow broker.  Somehow our musings touched upon food ; it was close to lunchtime.  She asked me if I had ever gone to Marie Catrib's.  I had never heard of this place with such a strangely delightful name.  I bookmarked a notation in my mind to investigate further.

A couple of months later, curiosity got the better of me & I persuaded my husband to head downtown for lunch at Marie Catrib's.   As we neared the turning lane of the intersection, I spotted some interesting lettering on the half wall that surrounded a corner of the restuarant.  It read "East Hills Center of the Universe".  I felt it in my gut that this was going to be a uniqe experience...after all the signage on the brick wall had just informed me that I was in for an "out of the world" experience.

Marie Catrib herself delivered!  She literally welcomed us as we walked in the backdoor.  Marie Catrib, a native of Lebanon, and her son  Faoud decided to open her little restaurant with food that celebrated her Middle Eastern heritage...this in Grand Rapids, Michigan...Dutch Country USA!  According to Marie, her food is "care-free-food".  She makes everything from scratch.  Talking to her on one of my visits, she described her daily schedule which starts by coming into the restaurant in the early hours of the morning to bake for the day...her only day off is Sunday to...in her words "Do laundry, go to church and that kind of stuff".  Her presence literally beams and radiates joy...Marie comes to life here...you can feel her vibrancy as you walk in the door!

Marie Catrib believes in supporting her community.  Imaginative vegan dishes and salads are inspired by locally grown produce.  Her newly famous rich baked, scrumptuous chocolate pudding is made from duck eggs supplied by local farmers.  The on-site bakery carries fresh baked goods...I'm a baker, so I know when you try to pass off something that's freshly baked and it really isn't.  The salads and sandwhiches are hearty and filling. No, you won't find regular hamburgers here, but you will find menu intems you'll find it hard to get elsewhere in Grand Rapids like Kibbe, Tabbouleh Salad, Marie's inspired soup & sandwich creations, hearty goodness rolled out in her homemade granola and  delectable dessert selections. 

While I don't go to Marie Catrib's everyday, it's one of the few restaurants that I've ever felt inspired to write about.  No, No, No....Marie does not pay me to do this!  I do it because, it's such a treat to find something that is for real. That's the reason why my broker friend urged me to give this restaurant a try; she insisted that I would not be dissapointed.  It is also the reason why this relatively new restaurant was just featured in the prestigious Grand Rapids Magazine and awarded by the people of Grand Rapids Michigan, the Causal Dining Award of Excellence!

Authenticity matters!  Marie Catrib's succeeds because they deliver what they promise.  Real Food..not manufactured versions disguised to mimic it, great service, plentiful selections and consistent service.  On a recent weekend morning during a snowstorm, Marie indicated that people came for breakfast and waited over an hour to find seats! I know why they came and will continue to come. In a world of abundance, differentiation is priceless.  Grand Rapids is a city with seemingly more restaurants than people!  People wait in line for tables in this crowded eatery, not because they can't go to any of of hundreds of restaurants that serve soups, sandwiches, salads and desserts but because they know that when they visit Marie's, they are in for an authentic experience.

That's how I see Blogging, particularly real estate blogging.  The consumer can go ANYWHERE to find out the latest mortgage rates, home prices, tips to create curb appeal, real estate advice, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.  A search on Google for Grand Rapids Real Estate Brokerages logs up 1+ Million Hits!  It's instructive that the number of blogs which turn up are far fewer...for now.  However, my point is this...it is clear..or it should be that the world is begging, yelling, screaming, pleading for authenticity. Why are we choosing not to heed them?

  The value of the authentic will continue to increase...because unfortunately it is becoming scarcer and rarer.  That's why I remain unconcerned about Bloggers for Hire.  It's an industry that definitely has a place and an appropriate audience. (In case you were wondering a search on Google for "Bloggers for Hire turns up 23,000 hits already) But then again, I'm not interested in being a McDonalds...I prefer to plate up an "uncommon experience".  When you visit my Blog, you can be assured that Lola will be dishing it up...just the way she sees it and creates it from the core of who she is.  She hopes you enjoy the fare! 

Marie Catrib's restaurant is located on 1001 Lake Drive, SE. Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Phone: (616)454-4020

© 2007 Audu Real Estate  All rights reserved

One of Grand Rapids, Michigan's Best Kept Secrets

Macy's Marketplace Eatery...fromerly known as Marshall Fields

Located in the Upper Level of Macy's in the Rivertown Mall

RIVERTOWN PKWY SW, 3850, GRANDVILLE

If you're shopping in the mall and want something different from the "ordinary fare", make your way up to Macy's on the upper level, it's worth the trip.  This delightful little eatery, tucked away at the back of the store behind the housewares department serves up a variety of hearty home cooked entrees and then creatively mixes it up with nouveau cusine.  I have enjoyed plank salmon spiced with a ginger marinade and meatloaf with spinach and pinenuts and also sesame roasted chicken to name a few imaginative entrees...not at all what you expect when dining "at the mall".  A fresh salad bar tosses it up fresh every time...I mean literally, your salad is made to order when you create it!  Add the yogurt bar with umpteen different toppings, freshly baked breads and desserts and an adequate selection of drinks and specialiaty beverages, well I think this is one the best Value Meals available!  One last note of caution...directly behind the Macy's eatery is one of the largest selections of gourmet candy you can find....Need I say more.  A good meal can be had for under $10

Lola's Recommendation Grade:  B+

*Awarded a Best Value Star Rating!

Recommendations based on food selection, atmosphere & general ambiance, menu creativity & design, cleanliness and service.  In addition to her real estate career, Lola has a double major in Dietetics & Food Service Management from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  ( 1987)

Living Outside the box!  Part 2

Read Part 1 of Living Outside the Box

I entered the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market just before the markets began its remarkable upswing.  In 1995, faxes and e-mail scans were not the primary means of delivering an offer.  Face to face negotiations required patience, persistance, and a thick skin.  If it was NOT a particularly attractive offer...well, let's put it this way, the dining room table in the home of a disgruntled seller could easily become hostile territory.

I tried to heed the advice of my trainer who urged us "Rookies" not to take things personally.  The challenge for me was this:  How do you NOT take it personally when you are embarrased and/or humiliated during an offer presentation?  How do you NOT take it personally when another Realtor's rudeness or incompetence turns an otherwise uncomplicated transaction into a nightmare?   How do you NOT take it personally when the appraiser walks up the steps of the house you have listed to conduct an impartial appraisal and BEFORE even entering it announces that he has decided he does NOT like this house and won't pass it? (Yes, this actually happened to me.)

Overtime, as I have been involved in more transactions, I have dealt with  a number of challenging and unfair situations.  I realized that if I allowed bitterness and resentment to color the lens through which I viewed my transactions, I would soon find myself living in a very small box. It is not uncommon during conversations to hear others refer to an agent with whom they had a difficult transaction in disparaging terms. This grudge bearing is not limited to agents...buyers and sellers sometimes offer to regale me with tales aboutf horrible transactions.  At first I listened, but eventually came to understand that I can just as easily become the subject of their next story. I soon learned that the best response was to say " I appreciate your concerns, but we must know focus our attention on the task at hand."

 Initially, I misunderstood how to implement my trainers advice.  "Don't take it personally."  I thought that if I didn't think about these incidents, the pain of perceived slights and insults would simply fade away.  They didn't.  Overtime, I noticed that I began to recoil at the thought of calling to show certain homes or meeting certain people as I harbored disspointment and resentment.  These choices simply relegated my distress to a deeper level of my subconscious. This was definitely short on positive results; my mental, emotional and physical well-being all being adversely affected.

A more mature understanding of the prinicples emobdied in the Greek Definition of the Word for Love, reveals its immense practical relevance.  Agape love is powerful when directed towards a friend, but it goes into stratospheric levels when focused on those by whom you have been mistreated.  For starters, they can no longer place you in a box!  Whenever, I make the decision to release someone who has wounded me, my healing starts...I am no longer on their timetable. 

I am learning to engage and practise a Few Simple Transformational  Business Principles. Here some suggestions I am using to  Keep My Heart's Love Account Balanced.  Perhaps they can be of assistance to you as well.

Keep Short Accounts

• It is a form of Irrational Emotional Accounting to alienate professional & personal relationships because of a perceived slight or insult. Remember that someone else, somewhere on this planet,  is probably seeking therapeutic assistance for some of your misdeeds to them!.   Sometimes, I wish we were able to get a look at the ledger which revealed how much we had forfeited because we refused to release another's debt of offense. We would see that there are transactions which we missed because we did not have the creative energy reserves for them, opportunites which we were blind to, all because we carried excessively long accounts. So let it go, no one is perfect.

Keep focused on the task at hand.

• Will this really matter in 1 year? I honestly cannot remember what irritated me a year ago, can you?  If what is being done is unethical or unjust...yes, it will matter in a year.  In a year, the individuals impacted will have suffered needlessly. If the answer is YES, then no commission is worth the compromise.  If the answer is NO, then let it go.  The price of losing focus is a luxury we cannot afford.  Remember that another's well-being is ultimately somehow inter-related to your own.  We are all connected!

Keep It Polite...Mind Your Manners.

• Practice being polite before you find yourself in a difficult situation.  Practise saying thank you for the little things, particularly with members of your family.  Practise simple acts of respectful kindness like holding the door open for someone else.  Practise honoring people by calling them "Sir" & M'am...it has a way of getting you into the habit of acknowledging and reinforcing in your subconscious mind the importance of others. 

Keep Your Love Channel Clear...This Really is What You Need!

This is not easy, but living in a rapidly clustraphobic box because you choose to nurse a hurt is infinitely more difficult.  Sometimes we ignore the indicators which signal a blockage in our love channel. When you find yourself wincing at the mention of someone's name...there is an interruption of the flow of love.  When you avoid showing a certain person's listing...there is an interruption of the flow of love.  When you wince at the prospect of meeting someone...there is an interruption in the flow of love.  Learn to honor this message.  You can't always change the other person or the situation...but we can all make a choice to move forward with our lives rather than stagnate on life's stage because we choose to hold on to that which we must release.

Click to Read Part 1 of "Living Outside the Box"

© 2007 Audu Real Estate  All rights reserved

Living Outside the Box!

Approximately two years after I was born, in June of 1967, the Beatles released their famous song, "All You Need is Love".  This was the context; racial tensions were super heating in the United State and the Vietnam War was  creating a quagmire with fading hopes for  a peaceful resolution.  A nasty tussle over oil and land engulfed Africa's most strategically important and populous county, Nigeria on the West coast  of Africa in the Biafrian war in which millions lost their lives and Israel launched the 6 day War under threat from its neighbors.   Against this backdrop, the message of the song seemed incongruous and naive.  Was all we really needed love?

In these early years of my childhood, I was too young to understand what was going on.  By 1970, the war in Nigeria had ended, and left millions starving.  My mother had started working for the Sudan Interior Mission and became involved with a relief operation to take food, and clothing to war ravaged area in Eastern Nigeria.  I remember staying with family friends while my Mom would fly on missions to drop off these clothes and food supplies. 

I had little awareness of how dangerous and heroic my Mother's efforts were.  As we grew older, she would tell us stories of how she had to take her own chair into military aircraft;  they would then fly and land on airstrips where they met people who were so devastated by destruction and starvation that her heart wept.  (If you are interested in some more information about this, this article entitled Thunder Road is an extraordinary collection of stories from this period...be forewarned it is a long and big file.) Why does a young woman with small children leave her family and go into dangerous territory to deliver relief supplies?  Perhaps, it's because instinctively she knows that what her corner of the world, brutalized  by the despair of war needs most is Love

The need for love remains just as urgent today.  I have found it increasingly relevant in my real estate career in Grand Rapid, Michigan. It is not just a requirement for resolution of global and international conflicts, it also impacts and is needed in our daily lives. The Beatles turned out to be modern day prophets.  There are certain phrases in the song  "All You Need is Love" that seem amazingly optimistic:

 There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

Nothin' you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothin' you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy...

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need (x2)

But it's true!  Nothing is impossible that can't be done through love. Yes, it is something that must be learned but I wouldn't say it's easy.  Love is much bigger and much more powerful than our common everyday usage suggests.  The ancient Greeks understood the profound depth of this word and had 3 different words to describe love, Eros, Phileo & Agape.  The implications and power of each of each of these words differs immensely. In the biblical literature of the New Testament, one of the Greek words Agape is illustrated by self-sacrificing, giving love to all--both friend and enemy. This is NOT easy...but we must pause to ask ourselves...what is more difficult...the horror and devastation of war, strife and hatred, or choosing to learn to embrace the principles embodied in Love?

Read Part 2: 

© 2007 Audu Real Estate  All rights reserved

Have you ever received a backhanded compliment and wondered how to respond?  You're not sure whether to say thank you or bug off.  Well, in the Blogosphere, Hijacking a Blog Post is rapidly becoming an issue that every Blogger must be aware of.  When search engine results for Grand Rapids, Michigan Real Estate Agents  began to consistently rank my Blog on the first page, some of my Blog Posts were hijacked!  In it's most benign form, hijacking can be construed to be the on-line version of a back handed compliment.  In it's malignant form, it is just plain THEFT. 

As a very new Blogger,  I was not anticipating this type of problem.  But as more of my posts became indexed on search engines, I began to notice links to sites that I did not recognize. Initially these links re-directed the search to my original post but more recently, I have noticed a more deceptive, malicious form of redirection.  Taking my title and even the initial first few phrases of my Blog Post, these thieves would then create a link which would re-direct my Blog Post to their own website or whatever they were trying to sell.  In my case...flip-this-house-.com and  oogleclick.com are using my on-line resume and teaching course schedule to re-direct searches to their websites.

I find this very disturbing.  There is no means of contacting a live person by telephone and the e-mail path is so convoluted  that I wonder if anyone would ever respond to my "cease & desist" order.  Fortunately, I am a member of Active Rain.  It occurred to me that this may have happened to someone else, so I did a search and literally put in the words: "hijacked blog".  To my utter amazement , an excellent post by the Harper Team popped up entitled "Help, Stop Your Posts From Being Hijacked". 

As a result of reading the Harper Team post, I now understand that there are at least 2 types of re-directs that can happen to a blog post on-line.  Both are SPAM by nature; one is a form of a back handed compliment and the other is outright THEFT of your idea, name, article, copyright, and legitimate search engine postion.  The former may or may not be worth the time to pursue, as the re-direct is still coming back to you as the original author. But when someone actually steals your content and puports it to be their own, it must be reported. 

To View an Example of  On-Line Out-right Theft vs. a  Simple Redirect on a Spam Blog, you can Click on this link to a Google Search for Blogs with my name Lola Audu.  The 4th entry with the Sticky About Lola is actually a Stolen Blog Post by flip-this-house-.com and also the 5th entry by oogle.com.  According to Oogle, my on-line resume will help you to figure out "What your real Value is" ....perhaps they can take a bit of their own advice by starting with the word  REAL and removing FALSE links.   It is important to check from time to time to see if this is being done with material you are posting.  It has been said that "evil thrives when good men do nothing".

Google does take this seriously. The Harper Team post has a link to the Google Spam Report to report offenders.  This type of activity pollutes the integrity of search engine results for everyone.

According to Google: " We work hard to return the most relevant results for every search we conduct. To that end, we encourage site managers to make their content straightforward and easily understood by users and search engines alike. Unfortunately, not all websites have users' best interests at heart. Trying to deceive (spam) our web crawler by means of hidden text, deceptive cloaking or doorway pages compromises the quality of our results and degrades the search experience for everyone." 

When you experience this scenario, take heart...it probably means you're good enough to warrant some attention.  After, you've calmed down, take the appropriate measures to correct the situation. This is an area in which we must all take personal responsibility. If you can find a number or e-mail, inform the Spammer that they need to cease and desisit from the inappriate use of you name and material.  Next, contact Google or your search engine administrator to report the problem.

I was heartened to see that Laurie Manny's Post on the Active Rain Network that was originally mentioned in the Harper Team Blog has been deactivated. This works!

Here are links to some Excellent Posts that can assist you in dealing with these issues:

• Help, Stop Your Posts From Being Hijacked...by the Harper Team
• Excellent article by David Kyle, The Skinny on Blogging in Relation to SEO which gives BACKGROUND about why some of this type of activity is occuring.
• Stopping Spam...by Jacqulyn Richey
• Grand Theft Blog...by Maureen McCabe.  Also, the post following is highlighted in one of her comments.
• Help, I've Been Hijacked...interesting blog post by Kevin Boer of 3 Oceans Real Estate...he describes a situation in which during a transfer of domain names, someone was able to hijack his blog address.
• Top Ranking in Google GUARANTEED, Jay & Francy Thompson shed light on Scammers who use deceptive and sometimes costly techniques to do a lot of damage.

These excellent resources are worth more than their weight in gold....Education like this is hard to find.  Thank you Active Rain Community.  Membership has truly Rained In many Benefits!