After the Party..

I can't believe I am still recuperating from my busy but fun weekend! It was actually a fantastic weekend, apart from missing Billy, who was backpacking in Manistee.

First, I won a ticket from Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe to the No Beast Feast, a fundraiser for the Friends of the Dearborn Animal Shelter. Chrissy went with me, and we had a fabulous time. We ate hearty, comforting vegan food (bet you never thought that could happen!) such as Mushroom Barley Soup, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and an apple chocolate spice cake that I could have eaten two pieces of! We learned about the vegan way of eating, saw the cutest Maine Coon cat named Smitty, who is available for adoption by the way, and even won again. I won a door prize of three cookbooks, that I can't wait to dive into. Thanks S. for giving me the opportunity to check out this great fundraiser, I can't wait for next year.

Saturday brought PAWS in the Park, the fundraiser for my own animal rescue group, PAWS of Michigan. PAWS in the Park is a party for dog lovers, with a dog walk, raffle, adoption area, pet psychic, dog games, among other things. I attended this event as a volunteer, and still had a great time. I went to the pet psychic, who gave me insight into the craziness of Penny, and I won again!! This time I won a loaf of bread a month for a year from Panera, and a $50 gift certificate to Blackfinn. I hope they have something I can eat! Sunday I went to my adorable cousin's first birthday party, what a day! She could have a future as a rocker, she really demolished her Mickey ears and was smearing cake on her parents lol! Wild child!

I also attended book club number 2 this week- we talked about One Thousand Splendid Suns. And I have to say, I have to talk about something that has just been stuck in my mind since then. We were talking about Mariam, and her love for Aziza, Laila's daughter. I mentioned that although she lost many babies herself, she was fulfilled later by caring for and loving Aziza. Another person at book club, who is my friend, said that this is not the same as having her own child, since Aziza wasn't actually hers. As someone who is adopting, I took this comment somewhat offensively. This is probably the hardest part of adopting, the thoughtless insensitivity of other people, because I am sure if J. would have thought about what he was saying, he wouldn't have said it in that manner. I also had someone ask me this weekend that if I adopted a child who was Muslim, if I would have to raise the baby Muslim. For one thing, that is none of their concern, and so what anyway? I just told her that once we adopt, the baby is ours, like our real own child, that we can raise however we want. We are not borrowing the baby, it is not temporary nor do we have to share- the child will be ours alone. And we are going to love our child and care for our future adopted child just as anyone else does their birth children.

***I would like to add that I have since spoken with J. and he deeply regrets saying anything that would hurt my feelings. It is not how he meant his comment, and he does believe that a family that became a family through adoption is able to have the same love as a family with birth children.

Going South

Hi all! I am back in the bitterly cold mitten state after spending a few days in the comfortably mild weather of St. Augustine, Florida. I never realized what a fantastic city St. Augustine is. You never really hear much about it, so I didn't know quite what to expect. But I fell in love with this town!

For one thing, it seemed like everyone had a dog; everywhere I looked, I saw people of all ages walking dogs of all sizes. The restaurants and bars all seemed to have vegetarian options, and not just the standard veggie burger and fries, or some sort of pasta dish- nope, these dining establishments offered a multitude of vegetarian dishes, from the avocado-provolone cheese sandwich I had for lunch at a bar (they also had three tofu meals on the menu!), to the Mozzacado Sandwich at Cafe Eleven I wished I could have tried (I ran out of days!) We also ate at the amazing restaurant, The Columbia, and they had three different vegetarian dishes. So, just these two things alone are enough to make me want to pick up house and move on down. But besides this, the people are so laid back, mellow, and friendly- it seemed like just the type of community I want to be part of.

The above picture was taken at the Mi Casa Cafe on St. George Street, where dad and I had lunch. I enjoyed a glass of Pinot Grigio while singing along to the folk tunes sung by Mike Sweet, who had great shoes! I love his peace sign Converse!!

The real purpose this trip, or adventure weekend as dad and I referred to it, was to attend a writing workshop led by our favorite author Connie May Fowler! The workshop focused on writing a novel- how to begin, different trouble spots to watch out for, and what to do when you finish your novel. Dad and I spent Saturday in the Treehouse on the beach, in a living room with 18 other people, and Connie May! We were excited to just be in the same room as Connie May, much less to be learning from her.

The day was informative, inspiring, motivating, everything I hoped it would be! Connie May Fowler is the sweetest woman, just as you would imagine from reading her novels. And if you haven't read them, I insist that you do. My personal favorite is Remembering Blue. (If you do read her, I would love to hear what you think!)

Our fellow writers all lived in Florida, most of them from the very area the workshop was being held. Dad and I definitely came the furthest. It was interesting to just hear the stories of the people in the room with us, not the ones that they are writing, but to hear about their own experience, or lack of (such as with dad and I). Everyone was so gracious, and I enjoyed meeting everyone in the room. The group was so diverse, I couldn't help but think that the day could be a setting for a novel itself. There was a journalist, a writer in residence, the woman almost finished with her novel who had an upcoming deadline, the nature/hiker non-fiction writer there was the retired couple who live on the beach who had an interest in Florida history and children's books, the editor/publisher, the mother/gardener, the poet, the doctorate-therapist, the physical therapist, the memoir lady with the sweet voice,the romance writer, and us- dad and I, myself being the photographer/writer, and my father the principal with ADD. A great cast of characters to spend a rainy day on the beach with. It was a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget.

Looking for good, honest food

I have been a vegetarian for more years than I remember. I have always had an off and on flirtation with vegetarianism my whole life- when I was kid, I hated red meat, and would not eat hamburgers or steak too often. I would eat chicken, and bacon, but that was almost the extent of my meat consumption. When I got older, a freshman in high school, I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and that caused me to become a vegetarian, for a short while anyway. It was hard to do on my own at that age, since I was dependent on my parent's choices most of the time, and being a vegetarian at that point in time was not as wide spread as it is now becoming. I danced around it again in college, but then finally made the leap for good when I moved out of my house and into my own place. Billy is not a vegetarian; but he does not eat meat at home very often, as I will not purchase it or make it. If he chooses to make it for himself, that is one thing, but when I make dinner it is meatless.

I knew this would be a tough decision- you get comments on it from everyone all the time- the same comments about "Well, I can't live without meat", and "Humans are supposed to eat meat," and so on. Most of the time it is from people who have very unhealthy eating habits, and won't even look at a vegetable or a piece of fruit at all, much less eat one. Which I don't understand either. But I feel good about my choice, although everyone feels they can comment on it all the time for some reason. I am not usually a preachy vegetarian either; I try to respect other people's choices, and wish they would do the same.

Eating today is not the same as eating 25 years ago; food is a major industry, and is not the image of pastoral wholesomeness as people may believe. I just watched the movie Food Inc, and while I would like to do more reading on the issues, most of the facts presented I have read before, in various places. Some of the things I learned were entirely new - such as the Monsanto Machine, that owns the patent on soybean seeds. That blew my mind - and left me feeling like there is nothing out there that I can eat anymore! Monsanto owning the patent on their genetically modified soybeans means that farmers can't save seeds from harvest to harvest; if one farmer does not use the Monsanto bean, but the neighboring farm does, and a breeze blows the Monsanto seed onto the first farmers land, he can be held responsible and prosecuted for using their seed without permission, essentially breaking their patent. 85% of the soybeans used in the US are these Monsanto beans, which are Round Up ready, meaning that they can be doused in Round Up, and they won't die. Which is disgusting as well. I had stopped drinking dairy because of the way cows are treated; now I feel I can't even drink soymilk, or consume soy products. I have been using Stonyfield Organic yogurt, which is an organic option, from grass fed cows, not corn fed. So at least I can continue eating this, which I eat every day! It astounds me that even the food we eat has become big business. I of course knew about all the growth hormones given to cows, about livestock being fed corn, when their digestive systems are not made to digest corn, forcing the farmers to give the animals chemicals to allow them to digest the corn, the inhumane treatment of all animals, the strange chickens that grow twice as large in half the time a normal chicken does- all reasons I stopped eating meat. But to learn that about soybeans has motivated me to go the extra step that I have been playing at, to commit to eating locally, seasonally, and organically.

The movie made a good point- they said that every time we shop for food, we are casting a vote. I want my vote to show that I want food grown naturally, without being chemically treated, or genetically modified. I want food I can trust. I felt sorry for the farmer, who seemed all but forced to comply with these big companies, or lose money or worse, their reputations.

I am going to seriously commit to shopping our farmers market, and making sure that I am buying locally grown food that is in season. I am going to start canning and storing food that I have canned- I want to know where my food comes from, and that it is natural, healthy, good for me, and not a science project.

You can read about the issues at http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-issues.php. To be fair, here is the link to Monsanto's rebuttal to the movie- http://www.monsanto.com/pdf/foodinc_media_notes.pdf. Do some research of your own too, don't just take these sites word for it; I am going to do some more reading, but I am sure that what I will learn will support my new commitment to wholesome, natural food, grown and marketed honestly.

Baby Steps to a Greener Life

I am a little behind on the greening of my life. It is something I passionately care about, yet I find laziness gets in my way sometimes. I use my own cloth bags at stores about 50% of the time, I try to use eco friendly products, I am a vegetarian, which I believe is good for my health, the environment (it helps prevent pollution and waste of natural resources), and simply because I can't eat something that was once living, thinking, and feeling. But recycling has always been my achilles heel.

Last summer I decided that was going to be my summer project- Billy and I were going to start recycling. I bought bins to put the stuff in, and figured it would be easy, since the pound is right across the parking lot from the recycling center. I am there at least twice a week anyway, how hard could it be to make a drop off? Plenty hard for me, apparently. I started putting the stuff in the bins, and then let it sit there, full. Thank goodness the totes had lids! I didn't even start out recycling everything - just glass and plastic, thinking this would make it easier. It didn't.

So, this summer I made up my mind that I was absolutely going to do this - plus I still had all those empty wine bottles in my basement, and it was making me feel a bit like a closet alcholic to look at them. My mom even asked me once how much I drank, after she saw them. I told her they were collected over months, which they were. Nevertheless, I still felt my liver shrivel everytime I saw the box of bottles. They needed to go.

So I made four trips to my car - three with boxes of wine bottles, and one with plastic stuff. I was really hoping that my neighbors weren't watching! I felt so proud throwing my leftover garbage into the big recycling dumpsters, like I was really doing my part in helping to save the planet. I also could not get over all the bottles, magazines, mugs, plastic, and newspapers inside the dumpsters! I kept sticking my head into them all and exclaiming to Billy to look at all of it! I was absolutely fascinated by the piles. I am definitely going to start recycling more often.

Hopefully, though, I will make my second trip a little sooner than next summer.