Two Meals

Today I had two very different meal experiences. I am sure they would not have been all that different if not for me being a vegetarian. Special, but not all that different. I say it's about time I had some thoroughly unique days through all of this. And they have come to me not a day too soon, since there is less than one week left to this. These two interesting meals were total opposites as well, so it is beautiful in a literary sense that they would meet in the same day.

For lunch today my housemate Kyle, who is an avid cuisine explorer, invited me to to get some Thai food at a small local Thai place. I remember a few weeks ago somebody told me I should check out Thai places while vegetarian because thay have lots of good stuff for me. I thought at the time that they were just lying to plug their favorite ethnic cuisine, but I have been corrected. I was nervous heading into the restaurant, expecting mostly chicken dishes, but the menu blew me away. Really, the whole thing was vegetarian if you wanted it to be. They had special vegetarian section on the back, but it was so unnecessary because every item on the menu was broken down into five sub-categories: chicken, beef, pork, tofu and vegetable. That's right, any menu item could have contained tofu if I had wanted. And the egg-drop soup had tofu in it without me even having to ask. Amazing. I felt like I was being catered to with my special needs, but it was just how the place always is apparently. So I got some vegetable fried rice. Good stuff.

Between lunch and dinner I had a small adventure involving a tattoo parlor, genital piercings and some organic, vegan body wash. But that story is really not all that interesting.

For dinner some friends invited Tabitha and me over to make us dinner. I forgot that they might need to be reminded/told for the first time that I don't eat meat. Oops. The girl buying the food and planning the meal is an exceptionally thoughtful person and one of her thoughts today was "Hmmm, two boys will be eating this meal, I should get EXTRA meat, even though I normally don't make meaty things." Very thoughtful indeed, but even more ironic. So while I watched them wrap enormous chicken breasts in slices of ham and fry up bacon to chop into a vegetable dish, I looked forward to some improvised burritos and squash. My meal was great in the end, but it was pretty hard to watch three, count'em THREE, delicious meats be woven into a meal in front of me and not even have a taste. I made sure to clarify I was not ungrateful for the meal they prepared for me, because I felt pretty bad.

Ooo, one last story. My friend Tyler told me he was in an even more difficult situation (not for him because he is not a vegetarian, but for me if I had been in his place). He was doing yard work for an old couple. Like, really old. And they called him in for lunch. Very sweet of them. So as he sat down at the small table in the strange new house with two total strangers, the old woman wobbled over to the table and handed him a plate of ham sandwiches and asked if he would prefer chicken or beef soup. Oh man. If I had been there, I may have had to secretly eat some meat just to avoid being a pain in their butts. Especially since I am told she was hard of hearing and would probably have needed me to yell my rejection of her hospotality across the table quite loudly. I guess I just won't rake any old ladies' yards this next week.