The Conscious Meat Eater

OK. So I think this vegetarian experiment needs to end.

I gave it a fair shake. I found that I can pretty easily go without eating meat for long stretches. I can plan meat-free dinners, I can find alternatives when eating out, I do not need to eat meat or fish as much as I did. What I also found out during this last 2 months eating only vegetarian is that... sometimes I just want to eat meat. And it wasn't even the Thanksgiving spread that did it- I ate the vegetarian stuffing, left the turkey gravy off the mashed potatoes, and resisted the impulse to finish Evelyn's leftover ham. It was after this yummy dinner that I decided that probably going veg is not for me. The thing is that I WANTED SOME TURKEY. I WANTED GRAVY ON MY MASHED POTATOES. And when we got to our condo later that night, our friend who stayed before us left a salmon in the freezer. I WANT TO EAT THAT SALMON.

So, although I'd like to say that I will always and forever stand on principle and resists all notions and cravings to eat animals, the truth is that sometimes I just would like a tuna sandwich.

But also, I have to say that this process was a good one, a conscious-raising one. I learned that though I'm not so much opposed to sometimes eating animals, I'm more opposed to the grand scale on which they're processed. And the litany of hormones and antibiotics that go into our meat to keep it healthy in order to serve that grand scale. So for me, that probably means seeking out more expensive meat that been raised and processed on smaller farms and ranches outside of the industrial food complex. It also probably means eating a lot less of it than before.

I've always wanted to know if vegetarianism is for me. I gave it a fair shake, I thought that my taste would change. It hasn't. I can eat a lot of plants, but sometimes I just want a burger.

This Small World

Yesterday at the gym I was in my usual Thursday 9am class and the teacher had us partner up. So I turned to my right and wound up in an unlikely paring up with an older woman. After the beginning awkwardness, she mentioned that this class was worse than labor - she had 3 kids. "Me too," I said. I won't go through our entire conversation, but it mostly followed that course of "Me toos!" Here are the things that I found out I have in common with this unlikely Conditioning Class partner of mine:

We both have 3 kids,
spaced 2 years apart,
2 boys and 1 girl (who's spoiled by their daddies)
Her son (and my husband and I) were both stationed at Fort Bragg

We both went to graduate school at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Her husband and I both studied Psychology.

Her first date with her husband, and my engagement to Ric both happened at the Carolina Coffee Shop on Main St. in Chapel Hill.

So basically, this random woman next to me, 20 years my senior who I'd probably never strike up a conversation with normally, and I both fell in love in the same restaurant in the same small town in NC 20 years apart and 1600 miles from here.

The world is small.

Spontaneous Field Trip

What started out as just your ordinary day (gym, lunch, pick up kids, snack, check out Oprah)... turned into really GREAT when my extra-cool neighbor poked her head in after school and asked if we wanted to go see the Flight for Life helicopter at the hospital up the street. She had a connection who told her that the helicopter was grounded today so they'd be able to show it to her and her kids (and me and mine, as we tagged along).

It was so cool.

Paramedic DJ and Pilot Rick were there to answer all the kids' (and the adults') endless questions:

Can you fly over the ocean?

What if you're carrying someone really heavy, how long can it stay in the air?

How do you get someone in there? (it was pretty tight quarters)

What are all those buttons? (oxygen, blood pressure, heart rate, etc.)

Where does the patient's carbon dioxide go?

Do you carry transplants? (No.)

Is the pilot medically trained also? (No.)

Have you ever landed on I-70? (lots of times.)

Did you work that avalanche a couple years ago? (Yes, but we also have avalanche rescue and a snow dog.)

Needless to say, it was a really FUN afternoon and a really interesting discussion. The kids had GREAT questions and we learned a lot about the flight team!

Thanks to Heather and the Flight to Life guys!!

Lookout SpongeBob Draw-er Guy!

Ethan started a class after school on Cartooning. He missed the first class so yesterday was his first....

and he drew these pictures FREEHAND!

I'm thinking either Ethan's pretty good at drawing, or that guy is some kind of teacher!

I'd better get on the phone with Nickolodeon in case they need a substitute artist....

Or maybe Oprah; she's looking for the most talented kid...

I could become one of those beauty-pagent type moms who pimp their kid out to Hollywood in a lame attempt at vicariously re-living their youth. We'd move to LA, get an agent, make loads of money. I'd end up divorced, estranged from my other two kids due to my obvious love an adoration of the one. Ethan could get strung out on drugs and then after years of rehab and therapy he could have his own male-oriented talk show.

What? It worked for Danny Boneducci!

Or maybe I could just file these in my little Mom Folders of Kid Artwork and move on.

In Defense of Cookies

So I am totally engrossed by this book I'm reading, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," a non-fiction book of over 400 pages. I can't put it down. I'm supposed to be reading a book club book that I picked, and I haven't started it because I can't stop reading about farm subsidies, corn processing, grass-fed v. corn-fed beef, and the impact of the industrial-organic farm industry on our national food systems!

I'm telling you, this book is crazy good. I highly recommend it.

I feel so much more enlightened about the cycle of our food... from farm to harvest, to processor, to supermarket, to our table. Everything from USDA policy, to the blight of the family farm, to the giant hold processors like ADM have on our nutrition and therefore our health. I feel confident now that I should eat whole foods and feed them to my children. That I should eschew the packages of heavily processed cookies, crackers, granola bars. That I should put back those products that have hydrogenated oils, corn by-products, and sugar. That I should buy organic for our health, the health of our soils, for the small-time farmer, and for our environment.

And yet, here I am eating M&M cookies made from a giant tub of pre-made cookie dough. First ingredient sugar, third ingredient hydrogenated oils. And I made not 3 for me, but 24, so I could feed them to my kids and my neighbor's kids after school. Isn't that health-ful of me?

What is wrong with this picture? Why is it that I can totally get it on an intellectual level, but then when it's time to make the decision about whether or not I buy this junk, I think, "well, a little extra yellow dye #5 never hurt anyone."

Maybe if I read enough about how all this chemically-produced toxic shit that we eat is killing us, I might just join a food co-op, buy my own steer, raise my own darn free-range chickens and wear burkinstocks. But then I might also end up a single mother with only visitation rights.

But I have hope. I'm thinking little by little this will seep into not just my brain but my purchasing decisions. And they will ultimately change completely, not just partly. And I'm thinking that if I do it slowly enough, Ric won't notice when we've joined a commune, and I start wearing large flowing skirts, and I'm grinding my own wheat and I stop shaving my legs. Well, that last part might give him pause.

And Now for Our Guest Commentator from Tampa...

I thought I'd allow a little input from my better half on the election this year. He's so NOT apt to voice a public opinion, I thought I'd force him by secretly copying his recent email and pasting it into my blog...

"I'm as glad as you guys that this thing is over, but some observations from recent elections....

1. Young guy beats old guy (Obama v McCain, Clinton v Dole/Bush 41)
Lesson: if you're old and out of touch, don't run against slick, articulate young guy...you'll get your ass kicked.

2. Guy with military experience loses to guy without (McCain again, Kerry, Bush had a negative on military experience and still beat Gore who was neutral with none).
Lesson: if you have had an honorable military career, don't play it up...or you'll get your ass kicked. (Bush 41 was a hero but did not play it up when he beat Dukakis, if I remember correctly....it speaks for itself and everyone is aware)

3. Prediction for next election....Sarah Palin will run for the Republican nomination and get "Dan Quayled" out of contention."

Ric

Guess Who's Coming to the White House

Election 2008
NATION ELECTS FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT

This is my country.
This is my generation.
We have transcended.
I am so proud to witness this day.

And mostly, I am proud that my children do not even notice that this is a big deal. When they are older, they might remember that they were little when he was elected, and that he was the first. But they probably won't.

And that is the best part.

Obama-palooza

Obama's rally in Pueblo, Colorado on Saturday.

Can you see him??? The little black guy in the the blue oxford shirt in front of the Colorado flag. There ya go! There he is!!

I got one quick glimpse by standing on some kind strangers legs and a lift-up from the large man behind me...
No matter how small the glimpse, it is still my small witness of history.

This time and this election, it is monumental-- no matter who you choose to vote for.

Happy Halloween