Be a trendsetter this Summer – Ready. Set. Plan.

Getting ready for a new season can seem like a school project that is due at the end of the year. We must do some research, we must gather the best results and directly apply them on to our lives.  We all have different agendas, hobbies, lifestyle etc. This article will discuss tips on how to prepare for the Summer. We will explore everything from making sure we are dressed to impress to best practices for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

1- Get active  

We should try to maintain a healthy body not just in the Summer, but throughout the year. In the Summer, it becomes more of a priority because there are more outdoor activities, opportunities to travel and trails to explore. If your winter has been filled with Netflix, and savory foods, I recommend starting small. Begin taking short walks to the park, riding bikes, doing home exercises, or even parking your vehicle a little further to explore parts of the MKT and Katy trails.

In Downtown CoMo, we have various options for fitness/exercises. Check out their website for more information:  

2- Take time for you and your mental

For some of us, this time of the year can be really busy because we are all so consumed with getting things done so we can finally rest. If you’re anything like me, we tend to push ourselves to the maximum level at work, school, home or with other projects that really take more of our time. In Downtown CoMo, we have plenty of places that can help you add some Zen in your life. Taking a mental break is crucial to having a great summer. So read a new book, get a new hobby, or do anything that takes your mind off your daily activities/duties. 

If you find yourself wondering where to start your mental break here are a few options:

3- Plan your next adventure

Having a great body along with a healthy mind, leads to a successful lifestyle. Planning is third on the list because Summer is short, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fill it with lots of entertainment. We all know that activities like festivals, carnivals, road trips, can require great amount of planning.  Check out these upcoming events happening right here in Downtown CoMo: 

4- Summer Trends

Downtown CoMo is a great place to seek out some of the trendy styles you crave. For any fashion lover, we just know every season comes with a new thing. It can be something so simple as the seasonal color of the year, the heel style we are currently obsessed with and so on. Ladies, I think we can all agree that neon green is everyone’s favorite color this Summer, and let’s just say, it’s here to stay. The color is gender neutral, perfect for day activities, pool parties and even night out on the town. We are also currently obsessing over purple, some pastel colors for high heels and lots of sparkles. Downtown CoMo has great places to shop around, here is a list of places we recommend you visit if/when looking for new trends:

I hope you find this article helpful! Enjoy your Summer. 

Gettin’ Ready for Summer: A Downtown CoMo Guide

By Joe Butler

Wherever you’re at in the calendar year, getting ready for summer is always on the minds of those who love the sunshine.

Fitness, relaxation and enjoying great food are pretty common ways to make ready for the dog days of summer. With such activities in mind, here are some CoMo locations worth hitting up to prepare for those magical three months:

Crunch Fitness

Crunch Fitness is downtown CoMo’s latest gym, located at 101 South Providence Road, in what used to be an Office Depot. Instead of pushing pencils though, visitors can now expect to push some serious iron.

It seems that Crunch Fitness’ affordable rates, ample amenities and overall novelty has caused the greatest exodus from the Mizzou Rec Center since COVID. From cardio machines to free weights, Crunch Fitness has all the amenities needed to get healthy, fit and ready for a swimsuit.

Crunch Fitness has several monthly rates to choose from. The Base rate of $9.99 gets you access to the fitness equipment, shower-equipped locker rooms, online nutrition program and sauna. Upgrade to their Peak package at a rate of 22.99 to gain additional access to online workouts, group classes, tanning, and Crunch’s trademark HydroMassage®. Splurge on their Peak Results package at a rate of $29.99 to get that tan sprayed, have your kids babysat while you work out and even bring a guest each time you visit.

Regardless of your membership, guided personal training is always an add-on. Plus, the free Wi-Fi and AC definitely makes this a preferable place to sweat during a hot Missouri summer.

Columbia Public Library

Conveniently located up the street from Crunch Fitness on 100 West Broadway, the Columbia Public Library is a great place for flexing those mental muscles after a hard workout, and hopefully a shower. 

In addition to being CoMo’s quintessential library, it’s also the headquarters of the Daniel Boone Regional Library system, which also serves the Boone and Callaway counties. The DBRL system is composed of four physical libraries and two bookmobiles, and has an admirable mission. DBRL’s mission is to strive to be at the heart of the community, a trusted resource and partner known for excellence, creativity and open, equitable access, connecting every person to opportunities for a lifetime of discovery, learning and joy.

The Columbia Public Library has three stories filled with books, magazines, study areas, computers, and multimedia formats such as DVD’s and audiobooks. In addition to physical resources, library cards can be used to rent and stream digital content like movies, tv shows, and music.

The Columbia Public Library puts on many great events for the community, offering educational classes, One Read programs, and an assortment of family-friendly entertainment such as magicians and storytellers. The kids can even get involved with summer reading programs and win some fun prizes!

Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream

For those who want to support small local businesses and enjoy a delicious treat right in the heart of Downtown CoMO, Sparky’s is the ideal establishment for that frozen cow juice.

Located at 21 South 9th Street, Sparky’s blurs the line between ice cream shop and amateur art museum. With an assortment of paintings and drawings on the wall, you get an aesthetic eye-full while waiting for a stomach-full of ice cream.

The ice cream itself is incredible! Along with standard flavors, they’ve got hybridized flavors that are rotated in and out. The menu is never the same twice…but it’s always tasty!

Let’s prep for summer in style, CoMo-ians! 

Three of The Best Coffee Shops in Downtown CoMo


Maybe you have never heard of the saying “Coffee makes the world go around,” but in Downtown CoMo, you are prone to find some of the most exquisite places to drink coffee and more. This article describes three out of the best/most visited coffee shops in Downtown Columbia MO, based on location, menu varieties and quality of service that is offered.
1- Lakota Coffee
Lakota Coffee stands as the number one coffee shop for numerous reasons. First, they offer two locations , including one in the heart of Downtown, offering visitors, locals and college students the perfect place to relax, have a meeting, complete school work and more. All this while being comfortable right in the heart of Downtown. Another great thing about Lakota’s coffee is that they provide customers with an international variety of coffee beans from countries like Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Kenya. As a result, customers get the authentic coffee experience from around the world through Lakota’s coffee in Columbia, Mo. Lastly, Lakota’s coffee is not like any other coffee shops you may have visited. Their coffee is roasted by hand to provide customers with the best taste possible. To hear more about Lakota’s coffee please visit their website: https://www.lakotacoffee.com/
DOWNTOWN LOCATION 24 S 9th St,
Columbia, MO 65201 (573) 874-2852 Mon-Sat: 6am-12am
Sun: 6:30am-12am
Closing at 11pm in the summer, on holidays, and during school breaks.
SOUTH LOCATION
3111 Green Meadows Way
Columbia, MO 65203 (573) 499-9901 Mon-Sun: 6am-12am
Closing at 11pm during school breaks.
HOSPITAL LOCATION Coffee Kiosk
University of Missouri Hospital 1 Hospital Drive
Columbia, MO 65201 (573) 884-4766 Mon-Fri: 6:30am-9pm
Sat-Sun: 6:30am-7pm

2- Cafe Berlin
Cafe Berlin comes second on this list because it offers the perfect ambience for friends and family, and is also in the heart of Downtown CoMo. A perfect blend of coffee and real food.. The shop is known for serving the best brunch in town, especially on Sundays. They also partner with local restaurants and other coffee shops to support local small businesses. A very unique thing about this place is that all their coffee production and their food sources are local, i.e grains, coffee, flours are organic and local as well. If you are in the area, don’t forget to stop by. Not only will you enjoy the coffee, but you will be supporting local businesses beyond Cafe Berlin. For more details, visit https://www.cafeberlincomo.com/restaurant-1
Location
200 N. 10th Street Columbia, MO
65201
Hours
8-2PM
CLOSED TUESDAYS
3- Fretboard coffee
Fretboard coffee is not your ordinary coffee shop. The shop has an amazing playlist as you walk in, no matter the time of the day, and the vibes inside are always very inviting. All their coffee is purely organic, without any chemicals involved. Located in Downtown CoMo, Fretboard Coffee are amongst very few coffee shops that serve coffee at the local farmers market, which is every Saturday, 8AM-12PM (Mid March- Mid November). As if this wasn’t enough community involvement, Fretboard coffee also offers open mics for free every third Friday of the month. For more details, please check out
https://www.fretboardcoffee.com/open-mic-night
Shop hours
monday – friday: 7.30 am – 6 pm saturday: 8 am – 6 pm
sunday: 8 am – 5 pm
Farmer’s market
saturdays: 8 am – 12 pm mid-march through mid-november http://www.columbiafarmersmarket.org

It’s Time We “Spoke” About Bike Shops: A Downtown CoMO Guide

By Joe Butler

Columbia is an amazing place for cyclists. A vast Columbia Trail System, ample bike racks, and the snail’s pace of Broadway traffic make for a very bicycle-friendly city.

In this guide, we’ll go over the top bike shops in downtown CoMO for bike enthusiasts of all kinds. From hardcore endurance cycling to casual bicycle commuting, these shops will cover every biking need.

Pedego Electric Bikes

The e-bike industry is booming, and Pedego Electric Bikes is proof! With over 200 shops worldwide, Pedego Columbia offers premium e-bikes for anyone looking for an electricity-assisted ride.

A quick definition–electric bicycles (or e-bikes) are motorized, battery-powered bikes that assist you in propulsion, meaning that your thighs won’t cramp quite as hard on monster hill climbs. This makes e-biking a viable option for the elderly, or anyone wanting a less strenuous bike ride.

Owned by 25-year-old Mizzou graduate Patrick O’Malley, Pedego Columbia has a variety of luxury e-bikes available for both purchase and rental, the latter being a great option for tourists looking to cruise CoMO in style.

The e-bikes Pedego Columbia offers are Class 2, meaning you can use the throttle to get up to 20 mph without even having to pedal (although pedaling will help extend the e-bike’s range and battery life). Pedego provides a 5-year battery/frame/anti-theft warranty on all purchased e-bikes, and will be upheld at any Pedego location.

Located at 19 South 4th Street Suite 115, this full-service shop will do repair work on a bike you already own as well. In addition, the shop sells bike accessories to compliment your sweet new ride. 

Star Trek fans will be delighted to find a cardboard cutout of Pedego spokesman William Shatner in the shop, giving your Pedego purchase the “Captain James T. Kirk” seal of approval.

Walt’s Bike Shop

Serving the CoMO community since 1967, Walt’s Bike Shop is dedicated to introducing people to the outdoor lifestyle.

Located at 1217 Rogers Street in what used to be a grocery store (circa 1994), Walt’s Bike Shop caters to all aspects of cycling.  Whether it’s road cycling, mountain biking, or bikepacking, Walt’s has the bike for you. The majority of the shop’s bikes are less than $1000, providing you premium rides without premium prices.

But fear not, spandex-clad super-cyclists–Walt’s also provides professional bikes and accessories for those who love putting in serious mileage at breakneck speeds. If you’re a rider with certain specifications, though, the team at Walt’s can help you assemble a custom bike of your very own. 

A full-service shop, Walt’s can work with the bike you already own as well. Tune-ups, part installations, repairs… no issue is too big or small to solve for Walt’s highly-qualified team of sales reps and service techs.

If you purchase a bike at Walt’s, it comes with the lifetime free labor policy. This means as long as you own your Walt’s bike, any labor done on the bike is free. Whether it’s inflating your tires, adjusting your fit, or putting in new parts, the grunt work put in on your bike will set you back a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents.

For those who also want to build muscle, or for those who simply want a form of cross-training, Walt’s offers strength training and cardio equipment as well. 

CycleX Bicycles

Founded in 1993 by Tom Brinker and located at 203 North Providence Road Suite 103, CycleX Bicycles is a high-quality choice for cyclists.

Currently owned by Brian Kukla and John Wilkinson, CycleX is a full-service bike shop that’ll provide your bike with repairs, tune-ups and even complete overhauls. If starting from scratch is what you’re looking for, CycleX also offers custom bike and wheel builds, and will take your every need and desire into account as they assemble your dream ride.

Another great service provided by CycleX is their professional bike fitting, which I can personally vouch for. Hoping to make my rides a bit more comfortable, I went in to get my own bike fitted, and walked out with a bike that felt engineered to fit my body. Long rides have felt like a dream ever since.

CycleX also sells cycling accessories and apparel and even provides riders with opportunities for group riding with other cyclists as part of the CycleX Gravel Gang. For fans of geocaching, a fun cache can be found inside the mouth of Cycle-Rex, the metal bike-riding dino found just outside the shop!

CoMO cyclists are truly lucky to have such amazing businesses to satisfy our biking needs. Let’s go forth and pedal!

We’re on your block!

Writers Block LLC is seeking freelance writers from the various communities to share what’s happening in their region. This is a space for writers who want to share unique experiences, events and issues while building their writing portfolio.

Make some cash while you write!

Located in Columbia, Mo, Downtown CoMo is the Home of the Mizzou Tigers. All throughout the downtown area, there are tons of shops, trails and festivals to enjoy. Over the course of the next few months be sure to check out what’s trending in this area as we gear up for the Spring and Summer seasons.

To learn about what’s happening in Downtown Como, visit downtowncomo.com. If you’re interested in submitting your articles to be featured in our segment please email us at wbllc@helpmewriting.com.

Greetings from your Spanish Tutor!

¡Hola a todos! My name is Maggie, and I am a Spanish tutor with Writers Block. I got my teaching certification in World Languages from the University of Missouri St. Louis in 2019 and have since been teaching Spanish in a public school.

I want to tell you a little bit about my relationship with Spanish. In high school I took Latin, the language from which Spanish comes. Then in college I majored in History and minored in Spanish. I studied in Costa Rica, and later taught in Galicia, Spain. All of these experiences have taught me about the power and importance of cross-cultural communications.

Together we can work on your writing fluency (the ability to continuously write and use the language that you have to communicate a variety of meanings), identify grammar concepts to study and practice in order to more accurately convey your desired message, and discuss document translations (resumes, cover letters, applications, etc.) to produce natural soundings language that stays true to the original meaning. We can work Spanish to English or English to Spanish.

I would love to help you strengthen your relationship with written Spanish/English! When you can write in another language, your message can reach so many more people, cross-cultural barriers are diminished, and the world is a little bit smaller. ¡Hasta pronto!

Hello!

Abby’s Tips for Writer’s Block.

Hello, fellow writers. I’m delighted to be here. My favorite trick for untangling complicated subject matters I’m asked to write about is to try to remember something, anything I learned by rote, song lyrics, poems I memorized as a child (I wowed the audience at the sixth-grade talent show with my rousing recitation of “Casey at the Bat”), insightful, inspirational, or fun quotations I’ve learned over the years.

As you might expect, this exercise does not always begin successfully. Very rarely can I recall all of the lines of “Casey at the Bat”. So, I will eventually look it up. But for reasons not wholly clear to me, I helps blow lots of dust and cobwebs away. Maybe it’s just focusing on a small chunk of data, as opposed to a lot of confusing data.

Then I go back to my task with renewed confidence and undertake my Gordian knot task with calm and patience.

Try it. Maybe it will work for you.

Happy holidays, and “God bless us, every one.”

Whip up some holiday motivation: Write about the things you enjoy

Groceries bought.

Chores done.

Playlist uploaded.

Tree decorated and lit.

For the party planners, the holiday season has to be the perfect amount of everything. The effort, coordination and focus that is needed to accomplish these tasks cannot be measured by the one’s physical strength.

For many apparent reasons, this holiday season is different from any other. Some of us will be visiting with family members virtually, and others have cancelled travel plans in effort to slow the spread of this global pandemic. These factors have contributed to a lack of motivation to do anything outside of mere survival.

I encourage you all to take a little time to write about the things you enjoy and look forward to doing once the time and circumstances permit.

Writing can be used to express yourself in an authentic way, as well as a healthy coping mechanism. In times like these, we can all use a safe outlet of expression.

Happy Holidays to all!

Research, Then Write…

The first thing that most people do when a project has been assigned is look for either a page requirement or criteria of things that are supposed to be included. The next thing that typically happens is that they read a line that says for any questions please contact Mr./Ms. Doe.

This is not a throw away line, and in my experience, people tend to decline the opportunity to ask those additional questions. I assure you this act alone is one way to save time and future headaches on any project.

The key to any successful project is demonstrating that you are well-informed about the topic. There are times when people stumble through presentations and papers, by talking in circles or having disjointed talking points. These situations can be avoided by taking a little time to do some research.

TIP: Research does not always have to be found in a traditional hardback book.

For example, informal conversations, YouTube videos, podcasts, journals, magazines and other online resources can be used as credible sources to guide the writer in the right direction.

I encourage anyone to take time to do a little digging before starting their next paper or project. Not only would it help the writer feel more confident in the final project, but it also another trick to overcome writer’s block.

Don’t let writer’s block get the best of you

We’ve all experienced those times when it’s hard to get words down on paper. It seems like you become distracted with a million thoughts that never mattered before you sat down to write. Just know you’re not alone, you’ve just entered a state of writer’s block. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, writer’s block is a psychological inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece.

Unfortunately, writer’s block doesn’t have a criteria of the kind of person, time or assignment; when it hits, it hits.

Top 5 most frustrating things about experiencing writer’s block:

  • It always seem to happen when we’re on a tight deadline,
  • Nothing you put down ever seems good enough to be in the final draft,
  • There seems to be no existing examples that relate to your topic,
  • “I can’t write” (Person enters a black hole of self doubt that doesn’t help them be inspired or complete task),
  • The only way to overcome writer’s block is to write!

You may be thinking, isn’t the name of this site Writers Block, why yes it is!

Writers Block LLC is here to support you through your trauma. Our virtual tutors understand that writing is not always an easy task and sometimes all you need is a little guidance and support. Writing is a form of expression that is used in all areas of life. This is where our experts come in.

Schedule your session with a tutor that will equip with you with the tools you need to complete the task assigned. For longer projects, we encourage you to subscribe at wbllc@helpmewriting.com for access to ongoing work sessions and online resources.