Happy St. Patty's Day?

All of this sweet leprechaun apparel can be found on sale at Target for less than $5.00

I like to be sure to wake up early to be first in line for all the after St. Patty's Day sales. 

Eating Animals

It’s not often that I struggle for words, wrestle with them, search for them. Generally speaking, I have no issues with taking my thoughts and turning them into sentences, but what about when your thoughts are tangled? I recently read the non-fiction work Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and it left my mind in knots, numb, hurting, sad and hopeful. You see, the book is about just what it says it is, Eating Animals.

I made a personal decision 10 years ago to stop eating meat; I became a vegetarian.  At first, when people would ask me why, I would give impassioned speeches on animal rights which would be received with an eye roll or a dismissive “good for you!” I felt like I was getting nowhere on changing the world and at 14 that’s a tough blow. Over time my answers turned into, “it hurts my stomach,” or, “I don’t like how it tastes.” I would leave out the rest, “it hurts my stomach because I know how these animals were treated and it makes me physically sick,” or “I don’t like how it tastes because when I eat it all I can think about is that it’s the flesh of something that was once living and was treated terribly, I can’t eat it knowing the conditions in which it died.” People don’t like hearing that and I would save them, and myself from having to hear or say it, from the uncomfortable moments that followed. I was reminded when reading this about the power in advocacy. I can, and did make my personal choice but it’s not enough unless I share it with others.

Eating Animals began when Safran Foer and his wife were expecting their first child. He wanted to know what kinds of food were best for his son. The book isn’t long, about 265 pages of large font but it explores the world of factory farming thoroughly enough that a person can make an informed decision by the end on what they are comfortable eating.

The question is posed, “How much suffering will you tolerate for your food?” He invites you to take the morals with which you live everyday and apply them to the food you eat. Is it nourishing to your body? Not remotely. Meat is now stuffed with broth to give it any kind of flavor, it’s filled with antibiotics, which causes antibiotic resistance in humans, and it promotes obesity, causes global warming, and makes people sick.  Perhaps more importantly to some, is it nourishing to your soul and mind? That’s a question for each to answer on their own and it’s harder for some than others. It’s not wrong to love meat or even to eat it, but it’s not okay to not know what you’re eating and where it comes from, how it was treated in life and death, it’s irresponsible to be ignorant.  Safran Foer says that, “not responding is a response” and perhaps the easiest one to make is to just ignore it, to not care to know.

Don’t worry my meat eating friends, he’s not heavily pushing vegetarianism or veganism right from the start, this isn’t a manifesto, it’s not so much a book against eating meat as it is against factory farming, promoting responsible animal husbandry and being educated on what you are consuming.

I highly recommend reading this book and I wish I could give a copy to everyone I know. It’s the kind you can read in snippets here and there but still has a profound impact. It causes one to examine their beliefs and reassess, which is oh so important to continue to do throughout life. 

Wicked!

My mom is currently making Kraft mac n cheese for 3 of her 4 adult children at one in the morning because we are too lazy to do it. That, my friends, is a good mother. 

My mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law and I went and saw the musical Wicked tonight at the Orpheum in San Francisco. For those of you living under a rock it's loosely based on the Gregory Maguire novel of the same name which, by the way, is amazing. 

It's the story of how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West and of her friendship with Galinda, later known as Glinda the Good Witch. The lady who played Elphaba had the most amazing voice but the actress playing Glinda stole the show, especially while portraying Galinda. She was hilarious. Oh, and Fiyero was hot! 

Another interesting experience today was taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It is inexpensive access right into the city but if planning on taking the BART one should really pack a gas mask. That thing had some incredibly stale air where the smells of body odor and sweat linger. 

Most Mundane Day Ever.

So today some construction crew somewhere in town cut a fiber optic cable rendering all of my office equipment useless. I had no PoS, no computers, no credit card machines and I couldn't dial any long distance phone calls. Great. I was absolutely thrilled that I did my massive pile of filing *last* week, oops. So I spent the day reading. I'm almost finished with the book and hopefully I will be able to tell you all about it soon. I just want to know the final conclusion the author comes to before I say anything about it. 

Health Care Reform has Passed!!

The House voted on the health care reform bill tonight and it passed! This is something worth celebrating. It's not anything close to what I was hoping for but it's better than nothing. I am, however, extremely angry and disappointed about the decision to maintain the Hyde amendment. 

I like what NARAL Pro-Choice America's Nancy Keegan had to say:

"On a day when Americans are expected to see passage of legislation that will make health care more affordable for more than 30 million citizens, it is deeply disappointing that Bart Stupak and other anti-choice politicians would demand the restatement of the Hyde amendment, a discriminatory law that blocks low-income women from receiving full reproductive-health care. Today’s action is a stark reminder of why we must repeal this unfair and insulting policy. Achieving this goal means increasing the number of lawmakers in Congress who share our pro-choice values. Otherwise, we will continue to see women’s reproductive rights used as a bargaining chip."

Sarah & Andrew Fox.

Yesterday my best friend got married. It was a very sweet ceremony that really reflected the couple's personality. It's very true that brides look exceptionally beautiful on their wedding day. Congrats guys, love you! 

This is Mr. & Mrs. Fox shortly after their ceremony. This picture is amazing as just minutes earlier the photographer was teaching them how to dip. It was priceless and adorable. 

So this was our "pose" picture except we weren't all the way posed yet. haha, oh well. 

My best friend.

This is a photo of Sarah and I circa 2001 when I convinced her to let me dye her hair pink (mine had green with a super stylin' pink streak ><). Sarah has been my best friend since she moved here from Texas when we were in middle school. She was the one I snuck out of the house with, had my first alcoholic drinks with, shared broken heart ice cream with, had holiday shopping trips with and belted out Spice Girls songs with. She's getting married this weekend and I'm really excited for her. It kind of weirds me out because we're still so young but she is sure so that's good enough for me. It's crazy how much we've changed over the years but I still love her to death, she's always been an amazing friend. I can't wait to see my 2nd family give her away!  

"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,

Make it last forever, friendship never ends."

Damn, I really really really wanna zigazig ah now.  

ugh, I hate Mondays.

Do you know how I know that today is Monday? I locked myself out of the house. Well, first my bedroom, then the house. Then I climbed the tree in the front yard to get onto the roof to try and get back in and retrieve my keys. This wouldn't seem like that big of a deal except that my house isn't sitting on the ground. There is an above ground basement, then the first story of the house, and then the second. So I climb this huge tree to the roof only to find that all of the dormer windows are locked. I'm late to work mind you, so I'm doing this in heels and slacks, super fun. Then I have to climb back down the tree. It's much harder to get from the roof to the tree than from the tree to the roof. Then I have to find a ladder and carry it to another window, up stairs and through little areas. I finally get in the house but by this time I'm an hour late to work and completely covered in dust and bark. Happy Monday all!

Pi.

Happy Pi day my geeky friends! Time for pizza or pie, I'm going to have both!

Super adorable tote that I may purchase found here. 

Stunna.

Yesterday I posted this picture with a caption asking something like "do you guys like my new flower headband?" Then I promptly took it down because this is a horribly embarrassing photo to have floating around the interwebz but I received protests so here it is. Mock all you want, my mom and I went to the fabric store on my lunch break and they had this sweet daisy hat thing, I have no idea why. I could pick one up for anyone who thinks they can't live without it.

While at the fabric store we walked down the aisle with all the fake flowers, you know, the kind you leave on graves and what not and I ended up buying a few. So far I've made one headband. If you take the flower off the stem you have to sew all the petals together. I also sewed some felt on the bottom to thread the headband through. It was a fun little project that I did while running dungeons. Multitasking ftw!

Yes, I realize this is roughly the size of one half of my head. I love it! 

Noam Chomsky's AMA.

Reddit just posted their AMA (ask me anything) of Noam Chomsky. I'm 8 minutes in but I'm really tired since I haven't gone to bed yet as I was doing my linguistics homework. Crazy coincidence. Anyway, I'm going to have to finish it later. I hope it's awesome! 

blah.

Sometimes I just feel really tired and burned out on life. That's when I make things or scour the internet for things to cheer me up, or both. So tonight I'm going to make a card or two and listen to a new playlist. Yay for music! 

Purchase the art in this photo here. 

Regretsy.

Umm what the hell is this other than super creepy? Pretty sure these manillows make me want to vomit. 

Thanks to my friend Angela I just wasted an hour of my life at Regretsy. I did laugh a lot though, the author kind of reminds me of myself. We both possess the ranting gene. 

Etsy has some wonderfully talented artists and crafts people who make really cool stuff but there is a lot of crap on etsy too. I mean, really bad pieces of crap I would never spend any kind of money on whether it be real or monopoly. This site compiles and makes fun of all the crappy crafts on Etsy that people are actually trying to sell. I love it! 

Frida.

Last night I called my mom with news that I had gotten a new tattoo, "Mom, you're going to freak out. It's an anatomically correct heart with the word mom over the top of it but it has a zig zag line down the middle breaking it in half. It's intense." "*groan* Why did you do that?" This is when I started laughing and gave away that I didn't actually get a mom heart. I did however get a new tattoo of Frida Kahlo. I think she is amazing and I really admire her and the passion with which she confronted life. I have to go back to get it touched up but as always Steve did an amazing job!

I have several tattoos but this is my first that is visible to other people on a regular basis. All of the rest are hidden under clothes. For a long time I had a very strict "no visible tattoos" policy as I wanted to be a teacher and I didn't want tattoos hindering my chance of getting a job. I've thought about getting this particular tattoo in this location for over three years and in the end decided to do it because I knew I would love it and it would make me happy. I still have some reservations about how it will affect future job searches but it's not exactly so far down my arm that a nice little cardigan or suit jacket won't cover it. Also, it's tasteful unlike the cover up of a "Fuck Tibet" tattoo Kay was doing for a guy while I was there. Idiot. 

This picture was taken with my cell phone as I have yet again misplaced the cord that connects my camera to my computer. If and when I find it I may post better pictures. 

Tattoo work done by Steve Fuller at South Side Tattoo in Ashland, Oregon. 

Bookstore.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I really have no idea but I'm sure it involves words and books, maybe something a little creative as well. It absolutely has to be something I'm passionate about. Lately I've felt like I'm floundering, just kind of floating, not overly excited about anything that's going on in my life. Yesterday I made a list of what I want to do in life (I'm a big fan of the to do lists) and I found that I want to live in another country and own a bookstore, although not at the same time. I'm pretty convinced this bookstore idea is awesome. Now to just finish my degree and then talk to my sister about a business plan. Good thing I have a couple years. 

Bonus: I can wear cardigans at my bookstore. 

Oh, and what should I name my hypothetical bookstore?