Monday, November 5, 2007

Going With The Grain

I want to start by making amends to my good friend Alex, and I think that this is the best forum. While it may not have been the place to bring up our differences (next time, call me?), I can reconcile some of them. I would like to commend his postings, because I thoroughly enjoy them (if you do too, post a comment. Heck if you don't like them, post a comment. If you don't like my posts, consider reevaluating your position or reading it again, because as Alex said, they are always good). And just to prove that his are equal or better than mine (an odd transition from my previous statement, but it is true his are often better), I am going to proceed to write a boring post because its 3 in the morning and I have a test and paper due tomorrow (hence why its 3 in the morning) (I am committed to the blog).

So there has been all this talk between Alex and me about how we've got this thing down. We can stick it out. Alex is toying with the idea of continuing this beyond Thanksgiving. I quite often feel like I will continue this, or at least my meat consumption will drastically be cut come Nov 23rd. However, let me raise a few concerns that I still need to overcome to feel ready to commit for life to this "alternative lifestyle." (If you don't eat meat, you're un-American, and you are relegated to status of alternative lifestyle. I looked it up). One of the things holding me back is still the smell. I think I smell meat in some form on a daily basis, which shows you how prevalent it is in our society. I can't go an afternoon without smelling meat somewhere. I know on one hand I am more tuned into those smells since they are "forbidden" and "dangerous" and "intoxicating"... but still, it's ridiculous. I choose to not eat meat. I shouldn't have to smell it all the time. I don't need constant reminders of what I am missing. Secondly, even if I don't smell it, I see it. In the student union today I saw three or four people in a row walk by with fried rice and orange chicken on their plates, fresh from Panda Express. That just so happened to be my favorite dish to get at the union. I would never notice those three or four individuals either if it weren't for this restriction.

I think the reason why I am still tempted so much by meat is the fact that, well, we stopped Cold Turkey (pun intended, just like the first time. I always mean my puns), but also that we are so strict about it. I'll give you an example. I don't particularly like (ab)using caffeine. I am not a fan of coffee, I don't drink pop (Boston translation = soda.. phew, I almost lost some readership with my regional dialect. Gee whiz, you betcha that woulda been sad), so the only source of caffeine I even enjoy is tea. Now, I occasionally drink tea, but could go weeks or months without it and not even notice. But if all of a sudden I said, no tea, no caffeine, ever again, I think I would miss it so much more, now that there was such a strict re-strict-ion (can you even say strict restriction... sounds redundant. Comment on my post and let me know! Yes that's a cheap plea for comments but I am not above it. I also dance for comments.) placed on my caffeine consumption. What does this mean. This means come Turkey Day, I will probably eat turkey. I may eat Tur-duck. I will stay away from the Turducken though, thank you John Madden. But, after that day, I think, yeah, I'll try to avoid meat as much as possible. I think I'll have a certain stigma towards it. I may even be a bit snobbish when I see others ordering meat without thinking about it. But when the time comes when I have that craving, that desire to let go and indulge, I probably will.

But who am I kidding. It's still only a week into this thing and I am trying to predict how I'll feel when its over. A month is a lot different than a week (if confused about this concept, check out my other blog, simpleconceptsexplained.blogspot.com).

Until then, I will rely on my poor cooking skills and eat some frozen vegetarian meals, cook the occasional rice and veggie dish, and otherwise do what I did tonight and eat lots and lots of spaghetti. Maybe for now I will just Go With The Grain (ahhhhh, there it is, you knew there was a reason! There always is...)

4 comments:

Alex Blanski said...

Hey buddy, sorry this comment is only being posted by me, but you were excited to see that little green number 1 down there weren't you?

Devin said...

haha you know it. i was very excited to see the number 1. well if no one else will comment on our posts then i will. devin - good points brought up in your post. stick with it, i'm rooting for you!

Alex Blanski said...

Devin, I also appreciated the exuberance you displayed at finally revealing the purpose for your post title. It is an art to choose a fitting title, and having the last words be the title was sheer genius. Genius I say! Worth the long 'aaaah' sound you made.

Unknown said...

Devin! Ashley here, I'm reading your blog and leaving a comment!!! I know you like it. I wish I'd known you'd had a blog sooner haha, I could offer some advice!

Right, advice; You might wanna go easy on the turky on turkey-day this year. Heres why... So I'm going on 13 years of no red meat/pork and stopped eating poultry last september...Wellllll I thought last November that it would be fine if I had a little turkey at my mom's request and I GOT SO SICK. It was not good. I don't know how you could ever go back to eating meat after not eating it for so long...Actually it still smells good for me sometimes, so I usually cook vegetables so they smell like meat and trick myself. Liike fried sweet potato = fried chicken, oor grilled portabello = steak.

Anyways, good luck on your vegetarianism and let me know if you need to borrow a cookbook haha.