The Trouble Is…

Summers here and I forgot what I wanted to do with it.

This is a big deal, as all semester, I longed for summer. Ached for it. Got excited about the things I was going to do. 

Maybe I should make a list here instead.

1. Go camping with Wade, possibly some friends.
2. Have a party. Housewarming style.
3. Go to Bonnaroo.
4. Take at least two day trips/overnight trips.
5. Quit smoking.
6. Start exercising again.
7. See the movie "Eragon."
8. Read the book "Eldest".
9. Find more awesome Fantasy books to read.
10. Learn something new.
11. Paint a painting.
12. Play more guitar.

Thats all for now, folks.

Today I created a blog for my friend Damon, co-writer of LovetheMusic. 

Here's the link, stay tuned for updates.

http://damon.lovethemusicreviews.com

 

 

 

Yesterday I was in the parking lot of Walmart. Wade and I had met up with a friend (after shopping), and we smoked a ciggie together, caught up, hugged, and parted ways. 

When we were about 4 feet away from the car, a voice stopped us and said "Hey, guys, can I ask you a question?"

We turn around. There's a woman about 3 inches shorter than me, a bit heavy, with brown hair, sunglasses on her head, khaki pants, regular sneakers, a denim jacket, and some nondescript shirt talking to us. With an earnest look on her face.

Wade looks at me, and I look at him, and then I look at the woman in the face, and say, "Yeah?"

"Has anyone ever told you that God loves you?" 

Me and Wade both look at each other with grins on our face.

"Because he does."

So I turn to her, and say, "Yeah."

Woman: "Really?" (Yes, you nut, don't sound so surprised.) She continues, "And when you guys die do you know that you're going to Heaven?"

Alright, so we're done with this conversation.

I roll my eyes and tell her, "Yeah,", and then she goes, 'Oh, yeah, how?"

At this I start walking away, and Wade goes, "Faith. We gotta go."

 We hop in the car, and she ambles across the parking lot. I see her stop a person from getting out of their car by standing next to his open door. Way to go. I hope he hits you in the stomach. 

 

So, this little scenario annoyed for me a couple of reasons.

First, you're sneaky. If you're going to be walking around spreading the world of God or whatever, wear something not normal. Because what you're doing is not normal. As soon as she mentioned God, I was surprised because she wasn't dressed in a manner that showed what she was doing. No suit, bible in hand, Watchtower in hand, nothing. Not even a cross around the neck. Cut it out. 

Secondly, don't accost me in the Walmart parking lot. Especially the one on Fletcher. When I'm there, I walk straight to my car, and I don't dilly-dally. That's rude and dumb. If I'm getting ready to go home, stopping me to ask me about my beliefs is not going to get me to stay and chat with you. I wanna go the fuck home. I'm at Walmart. Use your head.

Third, when the second sentence out of your mouth has the word 'death' in it, reconsider what you're doing. Don't talk to me about when I die. Fuck you. When I die, its none of your business.

Fourth, your tactics SUCK. I have a Jeep with a sticker on the back that says "I love trees". No, I'm not a hippie, but observation skills and stereotyping should lead you to think that I'm probably pretty liberal and not a believer. Maybe that makes me more of a target. I'm in a parking lot. I have a knife in my pocket. Leave me alone.

Wade and I both thought she was going to ask us for money. Nope. Maybe we should have told her that we don't think that Jesus is our personal saviour and etcetera. But, why bother. More conversation I don't want. 

I suppose that some people may think that people who stand on street corners with big signs about the second coming and Bibles that you beat, literally, are a good way to communicate. I disagree. I will not look at you and think, "My, they really are dedicated to be doing that." No, I think that there are better ways of trying to do your thing without making you look like a crazie. I suppose thats my point. I've never thought that my beliefs would be changed  by any of these methods, but at the same time, they must work, because they're still done.

So, who the fuck are you? Who listens to people who address you this way? I'm curious. 

There's a guy who used to visit the USF campus every week and stand in the courtyard by Cooper Hall and beat his bible. Literally. I was standing with Josh, who has a big mouth, who egged the guy on until he called most of the women in the courtyard sluts and whores, and said we were all sinners for having premarital sex. I get why extreme measures may seem like a good way to convert us sinning students, but considering how sinful our age group really is, you'd have to hit us with something better than that. Really. Calling me a slut for showing my knees makes me think that you're sexist, not a Christian. 

When this guy would speak, I'd usually walk by with a smile on my face, because students with a sense of humor, ie, Josh, would argue with the guy about sex and masturbating. I'd also look around and see that the students were walking by, walking by rolling their eyes, standing and listening while rolling their eyes, or listening with a 'Hmm' look on their face. Now I wonder if that 'Hmm' look was them thinking that the guy was right, or thinking that the guy screaming at them was not something they agreed with.

Does it work for you? 

 

 

May Day passed without warning.
By warning, I mean, I forgot about May Day.
I don't celebrate it, really, but usually I remember it. For two reasons.

1. When I was in high school, I hung out with some witches for a while, a couple of which I am still friends with. I learned more about May Day and the relevance through them and my stint of reading Cunningham books.
2. When I was young(er), and in British school, we would celebrate it every year. Quite ironic, actually. Every Wednesday all the classes would convene (1 class per year, very small school in a very small village) and we would sit on the floor in the Hall and pray for assembly. The good ol' "Hallowed Be Thy Name". I don't remember it. Word for word. Anyways, the point is, that every year, the whole village would celebrate May Day, or Beltane. Which is a pagan holiday. The girls, us, would dress in special skirts and dance around the May Pole, and braid it. There would be long lengths of colored material stapled to the top, courtesy of our groundskeepers, Mr. and Mrs. Reeves, and we would dance in a pattern that would weave a braid around the pole. Then, when we got done, we would dance counterclockwise, or widdershins, to unbraid it.

If you're unfamiliar with the meaning of May Day, it is the celebration of sex and birth in the natural world. Rebirth, vitality, etc. The May Pole itself represents the masculine plunging into the earth, the feminine. I always thought it was funny that we would pray in a Christian school, and then every Spring dress up and dance around a phallic symbol. After all this, I'm quite sure, that we would throw a fete. The first e in fete has a thingy on the top, by the way. An accent. Pronounced "fate". And we would build floats, decorate them, and dress up, and be driven around the village. I was actually photographed on a float for the local newspaper, and yes, I do have a copy.
Most people think that the Summer Solstice is the ultimate celebration of sex. Not really, I don't think. The Summer Solstice celebration, Litha, is more about celebrating living.
There you go. "The More You Know".

Cinco De Mayo is tomorrow. From what I've heard, all of us will be in the weeds. All day. All night. There will be dead enchiladas going out to tables, with hopefully no drunken complaint. It doesn't stop. This is what I've heard. Like rite of passage. My first Cinco. Joe gave a speech earlier that was a little misleading. "You guys are going to have a blast." And then one sentence later "it's going to be insane chaos."
Good or bad? Make up your mind.
So, saying that, I'm going to go bed, and mentally prepare myself for the hell that tomorrow will be.
HAPPY CINCO, Y'ALL! (Source : The beige tshirts we get to wear.)

If you know me decently well, then you know I'm vegan. I get SOO many questions about me being vegan. All the time. The same ones. Sometimes people don't even ask me questions, they just assume that they are better than everyone else and know all, so this if for you, too, snobs. So I decided to write a vegan FAQ. This isn't to convince you to become vegan, as most people flatout tell me "….Oh my God, I could NEVER do that…" Yeah, you're right. You probably couldn't, especially with a start like that. So this is for your information. Some people are outright curious about it, some people ask me to try and start some political/ethical debate about animals and peta and shit. Well, this should answer some of your questions. And if doesn't, feel free to ask me again, and I will answer. 

 

What's vegan?  You like, don't eat meat?

Veganism is the practice of not consuming any animal products. This means you don't eat or consume meat, dairy, eggs, animal fats, animal derivatives, and usually stuff like leather, wool, honey, etc.

Do you do all that?

Yes and no. I don't eat any animal products, but I haven't thrown out all my shoes because they're leather, for the purpose of practicality. When I need to buy another pair of sneakers, if I can find a pair that isn't made from leather, which is unlikely, and they are affordable, I might buy them. I simply can't afford to be picky about these things because a selection of vegan clothing isn't readily and economically available around here. I have to pay my rent, too. 

But I saw you eat this the other day….

Yup. Wade's actually a lot better at being vegan than I am. I am weak, and when I crave chocolate, I must have it. I could be strict and not eat it, which 99 percent of the time is the case, but I'm a horrible person and I ate nonfat dried milk in a choco bar. That and I eat it like once a month. This doesn't bother me too much, because it takes a lot of vegans months, sometime years to strictly be vegan. Some still eat whey in their food and etc, Wade and I did it overnight, strictly, and we're getting better and better at it everyday. I met a lady at work one day who told me that she was vegan, except for cheese. I just shrugged. Whatever floats your boat, dawg.

What DO you eat?

I always have a hard time answering this question, because I don't really think about it. First things first, it is possble to vegan and still eat like a fastfood fatass. French fries are vegan. Oreos are vegan. Vegetable oil, i.e., FAT, is vegan. If I deep fried everything I ate in vegetable oil, its vegan. Just horrible for you. I make chocolate cake the vegan way, with chocolate icing to get my choco fix, and its horrible for you.

Second, since becoming vegan, I eat less. Not by choice, just by my appetite. Apparently whatever it was I was eating when I was an omnivore didn't keep me very full, because being vegan has dramatically reduced what I eat. For example, this morning I had an everything bagel with Tofutti (soy cream cheese) on it. And a glass of cranberry juice. Sometimes I'll drink coffee, usually decaf, because caffeine makes me feel like crap. Last night, I was hungry and Wade wasn't, so I baked some Publix brand steak fries and heated up some french green beans. Simple and easy, not real flavorful. Later on he got hungry so he made himself a burrito, which consists of a tortilla, rice, beans, guacamole, vegan sour cream, salsa, and lettuce. Later on tonight when I make dinner I might make spaghetti, which will be whole wheat pasta and red sauce from a jar, just no meat. Or I can use Seitan or Tempeh and use that as a protein meat substitute.  

Today I'll probably just eat that bagel and then dinner later on, and I'll be done for the day. Most of which will be pretty healthy. Thats what I eat. Some staples of my kitchen:

• tomatoes
• loaf of wheat bread
• soymilk
• bagels
• cereal
• pasta
• rice
• beans
• lots of frozen vegs
• lots of canned vegs
• oatmeal
• lettuce
• vegenaise (vegan mayonaise, delish)
• tofutti sour cream and cream cheese (these aren't that good for you, they have a little bit of hydrogenated fat)
• fruit juice
• sugar free tropicana orangeade
• beer
• lots of spices
• tortilla chips
• tofu
• tempeh
• seitan
• Wade's vegan hot dogs, burgers, and chikn patties
• frozen fruit
• veggie burger crumbles

Thats pretty much most of it. You get creative. Sometimes we take a couple of chikn patties and make a chikn salad out of it, and make sandwiches. Etc.

One of the main things to understand is, well, the MAIN. Your main dish at a meal is probably the meat. For me its the veggies or grain. Being vegan isn't that hard. You should be eating vegetables anyways, and not a whole shitload of meat and cheese (look it up, its true) so in this case, I'm just eating more veggies and with less frequency than you eat. Creativity definitely helps. I've discovered recently that not only do I like to cook, but I'm a damn good cook. Its all about practice.

Isn't being vegan more expensive?

Not really. As an omnivore, you may go to the store and buy everything I buy, PLUS cheese, sour cream, ricotta, bacon, pork, chicken breasts, pizza rolls, bagel bites, hot pockets, shrimp, frozen pizza, ice cream, breakfast sandwiches,….the list goes on. I don't buy any of that. And all of that is bloody expensive. I don't even replace all that with vegan alternatives. When I go grocery shopping, it usually costs about 90 bucks, and thats stocking up my kitchen. The most expensive thing we buy is beer. And, yes, beer, most of it, is vegan. And coffee. I love coffee and trying new kinds, so I splurge there, too. Also, we don't buy expensive vegetables and fruits, either. I wanted navel oranges the other day, but I didn't get them, because we live in Florida and they were asking too freakin' much. Or grapes. I love grapes, but, they're expensive, pretty fatty, and I can eat a whole bag in one sitting. What can I say, I love fruit. If I have a party and ask to bring food, bring fruit salad. I will love it. 

Do you like being vegan?

I love it. Absolutely love it. Don't get me wrong, it gets tough. I've changed the way I've been eating my whole life radically, so walking by some old favorites is really hard sometimes. Smells gives you your strongest memories, too. Family food is hard, too. Both of my parents are excellent cooks, and in a lot of cultures, food is an expression of love. Not eating my mums parsley potatoes (shes uses butter), my dads hot wings, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, etc, can be hard, and a bit of a smack in the face to your parents. But I do love being vegan. I complain sometimes, but I love the challenge. I love walking by people stuffing their face with food that is horrible for them, and realizing I have more self control than that. I love having more energy, having a cleaner feeling body (seriously) and I love knowing that everything I eat comes out of the ground. I love hearing people make fun of me for being vegan, watching them eat something laden with cheese, and watching them imperceptibly slow down about 20 minutes later. Don't worry, I'm not this mean all the time.  

Also, when you’re focusing on eating more vegetables, your variety at the grocery store opens up. When the average person may only buy green beans and corn, I buy all kinds of veggies. I make Indian good, Asian food, British, American. Theres a lot of things you can do with fruits veggies and grains, you just may not realize it because you’ve never had reason to try before. Wade and I appreciate food a lot more now, and we eat something different all the time. We don’t do pork on Thursday nights and spaghetti on Saturday. We do everything all the time.

The BIG question:  WHY did you decide to become vegan?

One night I was at work and Wade came up to see me. He sat at the bar and I asked him what he wanted to eat….a steak fajita? No, says Wade. He had watched a show on public access (our TV channel of choice) about how animals serve humans. He caught the last two segments, how animals serve us as pets and how they serve as food. He had seen this kind of thing before, but that night for some reason it really stuck out. It happens. He was so put off it, he didn't want to eat meat. So I got him a veggie fajita, which is delicious. And if you haven’t seen that kind of stuff before, you should. No, not to make you vegan. Just so you know where your food is coming from. You want to know what the politicians are doing with your tax money, right?

The next day, he still didn't have an appetite for eggs for breakfast or milk, or anything. He just kept thinking about where it came from, and he never really thought about it before. Later on he sat me down and told he wanted me to find out more about veganism. So I did. He didn't eat that day or the next, until I had scoured the internet for all the info I could find. When he told me wanted to go vegan, I just shrugged, and was like "ok". I never thought about me not being vegan with him, if this was something he wanted to do, I was going to make it easier on him and do it, too, and why the hell not? The research I found helped convince me, too. I'm not stupid; a lifestyle change is not something to take lightly. 

I think Wade hadn't really eaten in like two days when we went grocery shopping for vegan food, armed with information. It was hard. I was pretty grumpy and sad. No cheese? Pizza? OMFG I love pizza…..crap.

Now, for the record, Wade seriously is the last person you'd think to initiate a vegan diet. Seriously. This boy loved his big sloppy burgers, mac and cheese, gallon of milk a day, big juicy, bloody steak, rack of ribs. My parents didn't believe us. At all. They knew Wade's appetite and what he liked, they had been feeding the kid for two years. He was the guy that ate all the leftovers in the fridge to clear it out for my mum, the one that my dad would make a special steak for, and made fun of his excessive milk consumption.  

 Now they still make fun of him anyway. A recent email from my dad: "Thanks Jen.  Tell Wade I will make him a big Brussels Sprout sandwich! " 

Part 2 of the BIG Question

You may wonder why this is called the big question. Well, it just is. Consider that we had been eating one way all of our lives, the mainstream way of eating in America, and then we changed it overnight. Its sort of like asking someone why they believe in God.

My reasons for going vegan:

• Despite what you may think, it is healthier. People try to tell me its not, but I've yet to meet a person that tells me that AND has done the research to prove it. I've done the research. Some of the most respected institutions in the U.S. and worldwide agree that a plant-based diet is excellent for you. If you tell me you don't believe in what the 'studies' say, you're wrong. You think that drinking milk is good for you, right? Well, guess who said that. The 'studies'.
• It is cholesterol free. Yup, cholesterol only comes from animal products and in very minute amounts from some nuts. Sweet, no heart disease for me!
• It is completely unnecessary to eat animal products. Really. Why make a living thing suffer when you don't have to? Think about it. Would you eat your dog? Probably not. "Well, thats not the same, Jen." Sure it is. They don't eat cows in India, but Americans do. You don't eat dogs in America, but other countries and cultures throw dogs in the back of garbage trucks because they're like pests, or rats. Whats the difference? We cherish cats and dogs as pets, and in other places, cats and dogs SUCK. Despite what you might think, America is not right in everything we do. No country is. There are different ways of doing things all over the world. I respect this, possibly because I study anthropology, but theres no reason why you shouldn't either. If you have a brain and think with it. 
• Its better for the environment. Yup, for real.

Some trivia:

• Vegans and some vegetarians will live 6 to 8 years longer than meat-eaters.
• Raising animals is up there with global warming in serious harm to the earth. For real. 70 percent of our grains go feeding animals to just keep them alive, not make them grow. Think of all the other things we could do with all that…..Africa? America's homeless and poor?
• Nearly half the water consumed in America is used for livestock.
• Raising animals is horrible for the soil, air, and sewage. 20 tons of SHIT is caused by one household per year. Where does it go? Hmm…
• Inefficiency. Raising animals doesn't really make sense. "Crops that could be used to feed the hungry are instead being used to fatten animals raised for food. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh." If we used all the nutritious soy we feed to animals and fed it to the 840 million starving in the world….world hunger would be a thing of the past.
• Working conditions supporting the animals industry are horrible. You know the cliche about immigrants working the crap jobs that white Americans won't? Its true in this case, too. "The farmed-animal industry often lures immigrants far away from their homes with false promises of good jobs—one meat company even bussed workers from the Mexican border to a homeless shelter in Minnesota!⁶ In some slaughterhouses, two-thirds of the workers are immigrants who cannot speak English, and according to the former safety director for ConAgra, “[I]n some plants, maybe a third of the people cannot read or write in any language.”⁷ Factory farms and slaughterhouses set up shop in the poorest regions of the United States because they know that they can use poor and uneducated people in these areas to do their dirty work for low wages. The farmed-animal industry has also been condemned for exploiting children—kids in their early teens have even died while working in animal-processing plants, and Multinational Monitor magazine called Tyson Foods one of the world’s “Ten Worst Corporations” because it hires people in the U.S. who are too young to work legally."
• Another quote: "Amid the commotion and the struggle to keep up with the speed of the line, workers’ knives inevitably slip, and people are injured or even killed. A former slaughterhouse nurse says, “I could always tell the line speed by the number of people with lacerations coming into my office.”²⁰ A poultry plant worker from Arkansas told Human Rights Watch, “Everybody is on top of each other, so a lot of people get cut, especially their hands. Blood and flesh fall into the meat. The birds just keep going.”²¹ Another worker says, “The line is so fast, there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when it really starts to hurt, and that’s when you cut yourself.”²² Despite the fact that workers are getting hurt because they’re struggling to keep up, the farmed-animal industry continues to put profits over people by continuing to demand faster line speeds."
• Would you want to work like that? Me either.
• It's bad for the area in which is happens. "Factory farms pollute the air and the water for many miles in every direction, often spreading contamination and illness to the people who live and work nearby. A synopsis of a Senate Agricultural Committee report on farm pollution issued this warning about animal waste: “[I]t’s untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and diseased organisms. … It goes onto the soil and into the water that many people will, ultimately, bathe in and wash their clothes with and drink. It is poisoning rivers and killing fish and making people sick. … Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness, and death are occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated."

Ok, so enough trivia. Theres tons and tons and tons more information like that out there, and I've read a lot of it. Why do I believe it? Why not? Sounds pretty plausible to me. Makes sense that feces contaminates the area in which it occurs. Makes sense that immigrants and poor are stuck with the jobs that you wouldn't want. Make sense that all the effort that goes into you having a chicken breast is bad for all of the above.

If you find yourself being convinced, that was not my intention. My intention is to give you the information that you've been asking me about forEVER.  

Are you a crazy PETA person?

Nope. Not at all. I have respect for PETA and what they try to do, but I don't always agree with their practices. At the same time, when you really look into what they investigate and what they see, I might be a little bit more gungho about animal rights, too. If your job was being a social worker and you got to see beaten kids all the time, you might care a little bit more ABOUT beaten kids.

Are you an animal freak?

You could say that. I love animals. I always have. I also love the outdoors. I've always loved animals but never was vegan before. You don't have to be an animal freak to be vegan. Most people assume that I'm a bleeding heart animal activist. Not the case. I don't even have any pets right now. Sure, me being vegan is in part for animals. If you love the outdoors, wouldn't it make sense to help protect it? Most people love animals though, so I’m not any more of an animal freak than anyone else.

I thought only hippies were vegan.

Well, you’d be wrong. When I think of hippie, I think of the 60’s, tie-dye, and too much drugs. I don’t do drugs. I wear flip flops and am pretty liberal. I have hippyish tendencies, I guess, but I wouldn’t say that I am, unless I’m joking. I’m me. Being vegan is part of me. Me wishing I could live outside is part of me. There isn’t a hippie checklist that I fit. If we stereotype, Wade looks like a redneck sometimes and I look like a regular jean wearing person. And no, I don’t wish I was like you.

 How do you get your protein?

Its pretty easy. A lot of what we eat is protein fortified. Beans have protein. When you eat rice and beans together, enzymes in your stomach help create more protein. I'm pretty sure we're not deficient in anything because we both feel fine and have no health problems thus far. I take multivitamins everyday. One multi, iron, B12, and calcium. No, I don't HAVE to take these because I'm vegan. You should be taking multivitamins, too.  You'd be surprised at how much protein is everything else besides animal products.

Are you always going to be vegan?

Yup, I'm pretty sure. The only way I'd not be vegan is if I got pregnant and it endangered the health of my baby. But thats an off chance. Humans have been omnivores for a long time, so breaking the habit of what our body now needs can be hard. But yeah, lots of vegans get pregnant, have kids, raise them vegan, and they're fine. If you do it right. And I see no reason to go back to eating meat. I feel better now. That and if I did, I'd gain weight.

Did you lose weight?

Yup, about ten pounds. I had already lost weight earlier last year anyway.  

I think you're wrong and I'm right.

Ok. I don't care. Usually when people tell me this they're talking out of their ass anyway. That, and they don't ASK me about being vegan. And they have nothing to back themselves up. If you have that little respect for someone else then you probably shouldn't be talking to me anyway.

How long have you been vegan?

At the time of writing this….about 5 months. 

Jen, how come you're so awesome?

It runs in the family.