i'm a little nervous.

just a little. and only because i'm new to activism. and i'm sorta shy. and have anxiety problems. and am anti-social. and people generally hate me.



the 'confronting cruelty' conference is starting tomorrow and i'll have a table there for Salt Lake Vegan Society. don't get me wrong, i'm excited as hell! just a tiny bit nervous!

it's so funny, i keep trying to think of the worst possible scenerio, and the only things i could come up with end with me saying "fuck off." so, that's not so bad.

ow.

i think i sprained my toe. the only shoes i could find to take the dogs out were heels, and as i was walking through the lawn i just fell. yesterday i pinched a nerve when i was doing my hair. i wonder what is in store for tomorrow?

so.

so i've stayed home today, courtesy of a pinched nerve. it feels like a lame move on my part, but whatever. i've been trying to add friends to the slvs myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/compassionateinslc . and i'm watching 'the grundge 2' right now. that little kid is so cute. AND he meows. that's the kind of kid i could go for.



this is NOT a good movie, on any terms. but it seems pretty spot on today.

i've decided that i need to read more about animal liberation. i've started with, 'an introduction to animal rights: your child or the dog' by gary l. francione. it's far better than i thought. you know i dislike books without pictures or conversations!

the first slurpee & other musings

this weekend has been down right lovely. i had the first slurpee of the year (suicide! banana/cherry/orange), the weather has been beautiful and i've just been hanging out with dave & the animals.

i also found some pretty good shoes at the mall today. i've been trying to consume a lot less these past weeks, but damn. i like shoes. but you should have seen all the things i DIDN'T even buy! :)

my final trip to petco was earlier this morning. i have purchased one more bag of avoderm brand dog food so that i can slowly adjust the dogs to their new diet, therefore avoiding... well, strange poop. i hate going to petsmart or petco. of course all the poor ratties and other animals are depressing as hell, but the people there walking around with their $800.00 puppies make me sick. for the most part, i see people these with purebred puppies more than any other sort of dog. i would wager that they dragged the puppy to petsmart before they took the poor thing home. when i see these people i make sure to give them an especially dirty look & ignore the puppy so hard. today the puppy people were all obese. it was very strange. anyway! i never ever have to go to those awful places again! i'm so relieved!!! and now, i only have to deal with the occasional whole foods & target visits. don't even get me started on those places. or those LADIES. i hate them in their dumb outfits with poorly named children. omg. and the cashiers. we always get the most vapid ones. but for some reason, the bagger is always pretty cool. i wonder if it's because we bring our own bags?

in ANY case! happy spring everyone!!

where did my lazy go?

it's not like i ever even felt bad about being so lazy. i just accepted it. but suddenly, there are always Things To Do. which, quite honestly, is much better for my crazy.

i was messing around in the kitchen, trying to make lunch for tomorrow, and i had the strange realization that in the past year and a half, i've developed a whole new taste for food. for dinner, i had a dirty martini and a bowl of asparagus. now, i have always liked these things, but it's like i enjoy simple foods so much more now. before i was vegan, i preferred cream sauces, bready stuff and cheese. so, i thought that was an interesting personal development. i've also decided that my favorite athletic shoes are my black keds. see how they walk?

troubles.

so. i finally get off my ass and start thinking about the things i want to do. number one is to start a vegan society for salt lake. i think it would fun, it seems like something i could be good at. i'm fairly organized and somewhat personable. i would focus my energy on showing people how easy it is to be vegan and STAY vegan and of course, WHY they need to be vegan.

at the end of this month there is going to be an animal rights conference. i offered a little money to help out and they gave me my own table! i'm probably the only person in the world to get so excited about one little table.

this morning i was poking around on the organizers website and noticed that their campaigns are focused on fur and foie gras.

so, i'm troubled! i haven't been vegan nearly as long as some of the other activists. i'm new at activism. i don't want to become involved with this group because i don't agree with their approach - i think it's confusing to people. i can almost hear them in my head, "why should i stop eating foie gras and wearing fur if it's okay to eat meat?" people in my head are always jackasses. AND i'm concerned that people coming up to the table will attack me with questions i don't quite know how to answer.

but you know what? fuck it. i'm going to have a nice little table. i'm going to show people why they need to be vegan and stay vegan.

meh.

i just watched 'pulp fiction' for the honestly, maybe like the 30th time. omg. 'ghost rider' is next. i totally have a thing for nick cage. always have. even when he kinda sucks. my favorite, of course, is as sailor from 'wild at heart.' i'll attach my favorite part to make up for the scary bollywood thriller i put you through yesterday. i also like the fact that he married elvis's daughter just because she was. i'm surprised he didn't try to get a baby.



anyhoo. today has been completely absurd. i did have some nice curry and made a few on-line purchases of the intimate sort. i also got a chance to see my niece dog.
i can't believe you've read this far. i applaud your tenacity. or boredom.

this makes my cold, dead heart happy

well. and this.





but NOT THIS.



you guys have no idea.

i'm dumb.

well. not THAT dumb. but, still. i had myself entirely convinced that i couldn't access my email or this blog. i thought this for months. i had given up. i imagined my dear readers stumbling around, lost and lonely without me and my inspirational veganess.

so, long story short. my good friend, woz, politely urged me to blog something! anything! and then after looking through her blog, http://artellacafe.com/blogs/awake_and_dreaming/default.aspx
i was inspired! with inspiration! :)

one day i'm going to make this into a real blog, with all sorts of links, and stuff.

but for now. you will settle for this. and a random kitty.



you so missed me.

eh. i kinda suck at this.

but i'm LAZY, remember? and am i still vegan? very much so.

so. i think i'm going to turn this into a food blog, mainly because i find myself eating food everyday and i got a neato camera for an unbirthday present.

yes. dear reader. you have much to look forward to.

New Years Revolutions, or 'Pour Some Turbinado Sugar on Me'

So, I'm sitting here at work breaking about half of my New Years resolutions. It's 10:30 am on January 2. Some of the resolutions are really worth keeping, however. This year, my second year of veganism, I resolve to become a BETTER VEGAN.

I eat refined sugar.




I lazily cut and pasted from Vegan Outreach's website. After they explain to you how disgusting bone-char sugar they suggest that you go ahead and eat it to make veganism look easy to other people. This philosophy sounded good to me last year, but as the days pass I become so much more concerned with how I live my life. And quite honestly, it's not going to be hard to abstain from sugar, and I think it makes vegans appear healthier and cooler. :)

Refined sugars do not contain any animal products, and so by an ingredients-based definition of vegan, refined sugar is vegan. However, some refined sugar is processed with animal bone char. The charcoal is used to remove color, impurities, and minerals from sugar. The charcoal is not 'in' the sugar, but is used in the process as as a filter. Thus by a process-based definition of vegan, refined sugar may not be considered vegan. For those who would prefer not to use refined sugar, there are several alternatives: raw, turbinado, beet sugar, succanat, date sugar, fructose, barley malt, rice syrup, corn syrup, molasses, and maple syrup.

So, it's not going to be hard to keep that resolution. I'm not even sure why I'm writing about it - other than it's a little step closer to becoming a Level 5 Vegan.

:)

Tiger Business

I'm sure you've heard the news about Tatiana, a tiger imprisoned in San Fransico zoo who escaped and killed a man and injured two others. She was killed.

Hopefully, this incident will cause people to pause and think about how strange is it to take (or breed) a wild animal to make money. Not only is it a really strange and horribly unethical thing to do - it's FUCKING DANGEROUS!

Easy.

A fine holiday! I'm sitting here by fire, munching on vanilla almonds and Barefoot
brand merlot. Last night we had my parents and uncle over for dinner. Now, keep in mind that both my dad and my uncle are real "meat" people. We served onion rings for an appetizer along with tortilla chips, salsa and bean dip. For dinner we had spaghetti with Tofurkey sausage, corn fritters and garlic sourdough bread. All in all it was an EASY dinner. My mom tends to hover in the kitchen so I wanted something I could do quickly!! An easy menu, but I'm still impressed by how well everything turned out.

As for today, Christmas Day, my entire family went to my in-laws house where I was greeted with vegan stuffing, yummy baked carrots and pasta with mushroom sauce. My mother-in-law gave me Veganomicon AND The Joy of Vegan Baking. I was thrilled!!

I can't believe how much easier it's getting to be vegan! My worst issue was with mine and my husband's parents, I used to always feel like I was getting in the way of all their holiday traditions. So, I'm a very happy and full vegan this Christmas evening.

P.S. Of course I watched 'A Christmas Story' too. Of course.

THE vegan.

It's recently come to my attention that I am the ONLY vegan some people know. While this puts a huge weight on my shoulder, the vegan community should be assured that I am quite polite and generally a lovely person to know.

The shock of picking up what I thought was my veggie sandwich and seeing what appeared to be a fleshy pile smothered in bright white mayo physically startled me. My lunch date laughed her ass off and said I looked like there were fingers or something in my sandwich. There may as well have been. But I smiled, and informed the waiter of his mistake. See, fucking lovely.

Ten Minute Dinner

organic mixed greens. organic packaged beets. organic salad dressing.

organic soy tempeh. seasoned with salt, pepper and braggs

organic lentils. some boxed kind. (to be fair, these took a bit longer to simmer...)

and as always! Yellow Tail Merlot

(if you look closely you can see Darby!)

Damn! This Shit is Easy!

I was explaining to my mom that I wasn't going to buy a new Christmas tree this year because I already have a nice little silver one and a new one was probably made in China anyway. As I braced myself for her rebuttal, she said, "Oh, I can see that." I know you would need to know my mom for this to make sense, but trust me.... it's substantial.

OMG.

It's going to be so much easier to be a conscientious consumer than it is to be vegan. And it's REALLY easy to be vegan.

12-09-2007

this is what happened today! oh, add some banana pancakes to this - i couldn't find a good picture but it was a MAJOR component to today. :)

humans is animals.

And on that note, I'm back. I've been doing a lot of internal blogging lately. And I may or may not have developed an addiction to raw almonds. And lemonade. But that isn't important.

What IS important, is that I've been thinking! I've had a million things going through my head the past month or so, and now I'm ready to see them take the form of words and sentences. And some cute pictures, maybe. The most pressing thing that has been on my mind is the corelation of animal rights and human rights. Mind you, I haven't read a million books on the subject and I'm not going to lecture you. You can find much better blogs for that purpose! But, I've merely been looking at MY life and how I can make a difference in this area. I've mentioned before that I'm troubled by buying items made in sweat shops. I can't justify it anymore. It comes down to the fact that my "needs" or "wants" do not outweigh the suffering that was caused by the item. So, it will be interesting to see how this affects my life AND the upcoming holiday.

I feel like a veil has been lifted and I can't look at a toy made in china or Food Network the same way. Last week I was walking through the mall, and was horrified. There was fur in store windows, the smell of leather and the fucking food court. That wasn't even the worst part; it was all the people walking around oblivious to the pain and torture that they're supporting.

Instead of this making me sad and want to curl up in my bed with a nice bottle of shiraz and Hellraiser (I'm in a Pinhead kinda mood lately) it just FUCKING PISSES ME OFF. I'm tired of being all sad and emo about this shit and want to do something other than just whine.

I'm working hard on starting a Vegan Society for Salt Lake, and although I want to use food based activism, I feel it would be irresponsible to not mention the human rights side of things. And maybe, THAT would lead more people to veganism? Makes sense to me.

Faces of Free Range Farming

(I still hate Thanksgiving)

Show this to your friends and family that think they are shopping compassionately when they purchase a free range turkey. Share your favorite vegan holilday recipes with them, or bring an extra Tofurkey to dinner this year and insist everyone try it! As much as I hate this holiday, maybe we can make something good come out of it!

I Fucking Hate Thanksgiving Day

I hate it. I really do. I'm already dreading it.

Of course, I know enough to bring yummy vegan side dishes, and my mom is sweet enough to prepare a Tofurky for me and the hubby, but DAMN! I just can't relax when there is a bird corpse right in front of me. Imagine if that was a dog! Everyone would be puking! To make matters worse, we have to go to BOTH families dinners.

This year, I'm going to fucking overwhelm both families with AWESOME vegan options. Oh yes. I am a very sneaky vegan.... in a few years they won't even miss eating the stinky dead bird.....