My First MoFo Blog....a day late...

Yeah, it didn't happen yesterday. So sue me.

This first post will be about my veg story. Back in high school, my sister, who was 3 grades ahead of me, took a Food Prep class where she got interested in food and somehow (i never actually asked...) got interested in vegetarianism. She stopped eating red meat, which was a big deal in our family full of deer hunters. Me and sister didn't exactly get along until after she left for college, but she's always influenced me. I don't remember her telling me about why i shouldn't eat red meat, but it got in my brain. One day during summer school when i was on break at McDonald's having my usual cheeseburger (plain, as always) and i was eating it in the way i had since i was young. I eat about half of it and then i pull the bun off and just eat the meat and cheese. When i pulling the bread off i saw one of those weird slimy, brown "slugs" that gets on hamburgers and just got totally grossed out and vowed not to eat red meat anymore. This was big for me, it cut out a lot of favorite meals: Poor Man's Steak, Arby's roast beef sandwiches, deli roast beef sandwiches, this one casserole my mom makes.....and, of course, cheeseburgers. I believe i even started calling myself a vegetarian at this point, which now makes me wince and laugh at myself.

i continued to eat any other kind of meat for the next few years. My sister eventually became a pescatarian (vegetarian that eats fish), which she still is to this day. I worked Chick-Fil-A as a senior in high school and definitely got my fill of their chicken nuggets, which were my favorite growing up. I was never grossed out by white meat, which is why i continued eating it. i'm still not grossed out by white meat, cooked anyways.

I was in Germany for a year from Aug 2002-Aug 2003 and decided to be pescatarian (but mainly veg) while there so as to not worry about the meat situation, they eat some weird meat over there. I worked kitchens while there and i once had to cut up some bloodwurst, which was disgusting! Also, i prepped bread for the old people at a nursing home i worked at and one person, just one, wanted schmerwurst (known in america as braunschweiger, it's smearable meat), which made me gag every time.

I ate chicken once during that year, when i was out dining with an american friend of mine. when i came back home, i ate chicken once and decided to give it up altogether. well, except seafood, which i clung to. i'm one of those people that consider seafood differently than land animals. Some people don't get this, and i understand that.

I was living in Sarasota with my parents for over a year and working at a small health food store. I wanted to go vegan then but at the time i had access to free, recently-out-of-date yogurt and eggs. soon after moving here to Portland, i stopped eating seafood. i moved in with a vegan friend and that's when i became the vegan i am today. i'm not 100%, there are times where i will eat dairy and, honestly, i don't feel like explaining the various situations that i do.
oh, and i'll eat honey. i would kill a bee and you can't torture them, like cutting off their tails, debeaking them, etc. that's how i see it anyways....