Goalkeeper

I should probably blog about the vegan lasagna I made last night or my new apron that I wore while baking lasagna (both events being a first for me), but my mood today just isn't up for it. Maybe it was all that Wilco and Elliot Smith I used to get me through the first day back from vacation that put me in such a 'tut tut' mood.

To put it pretty simply, I feel deflated. Not in any bad way. I'm just kind of slow and lackluster today. A lot has to do with being on the other side of Paradise as it were. Since about January I had been anticipating this trip back home and down to the Caribbean. I was exercising for it, eating right for it, working hard on my dissertation for it, and generally building it up as this giant end goal. Now it is over I am kind of just feeling over as well.

I think I also have some homesickness in the mix as well. In the four years I have been out here, I've never really 'felt' the distance. But now I'm completely aware of my three-hours behind, five-hour flight away status. When I eat breakfast, my mom is eating lunch. When I eat dinner, the majority of my friends and family are already asleep. And while I'm sleeping they are already many hours into their day. Fastmiso has been out here for almost ten years and I'm beginning to marvel at how he does it. Not that I'm going back to the ATL anytime soon, but just being in the same time zone as the people I care about is sounding pretty good.

Yesterday morning I woke up in such a state of post-vacation bewilderment that I convinced fastmiso to take me to the Santa Cruz boardwalk so I could ride a roller coaster. The idea of unpacking and answering emails and grocery shopping seemed so incredibly beyond my mental capacity at 9 on a Sunday morning that I needed an immediate insta-vacation. So we drove down, rode the fantastic wooden coaster they have on the Boardwalk, and played some skeeball to win cheap toys for the cats to play with.

But now I can move on to new goals...like mastering a vegan cookie or keeping the bed made.

it isn't easy being green

Remember how a couple weeks ago I was all ‘being vegan is so easy’? Yeah...I’ll just go ahead and take that back. Being home was tough. Well, to be more specific, going to the mall with my mom who wanted to buy me super cute stuff that was all made out of leather was tough.

Sigh.

Does it count that I personally did not pay for my adorable leather clutch? That it’s green and cows aren’t naturally green so it makes it easier to think that it’s synthetic? Is there anyway I can talk myself out of this?

I think I can give myself a get out of jail free card. Most people who start off being vegan focus on the food for a long time and work up to the clothes part. And I’ve been pretty darn good about the food. I survived in Puerto Rico and airports and the south being as vegan as I could be. I’m sure a lot of my food was cooked in butter and that blueberry bagel I had one day for lunch had some milk or egg somewhere in it. But otherwise I made it work without too much effort. The key to my success: ziplock bags. Never leave home without bags of cereal, nuts, raisins, and Newman's Os. Vegans must be both a toddler and the neurotic mother who takes care of them.

you don't know how lucky you are

I'm back in the ATL and there's ever so much to blog about. I spent most of the four and a half hour flight composing flame posts about the parents behind me and in front of me who decided that letting their toddlers wander up and down the aisles unattended was the BEST IDEA EVER. It got so bad that the flight attendants withheld drink service, stating in their announcement 'since people have decided to ignore the 'fasten seat belt' sign and refuse to sit down despite our requests, we will not be able to have our second drink service for this flight'. A guilty hush fell over the whole plane which was quickly followed by the free-range toddlers throwing fits (which, of course, included kicking my seat) as their parents tried to hold them in their laps so they could get a half-cup of coca-cola.

But enough about air travel. What's so interesting about crappy flying experiences? Far more interesting are my attempts to stay vegan in the dirty dirty. The day started off promising - my mom and I went to the local Kroger which had an entire health food section. A section! This middle of East Cobb grocery store had a better selection of veg food than my local Whole Foods; there was fake cream cheese, tahini, Newman's O's, and the largest variety of health bars I have ever seen ever. And I'm from the Bay Area.

Dining out was definitely a larger challenge. We went to the local classy-version of Applebees and I got a vegetable couscous plate. I even went so far as to be 'that girl' asking for no butter to be put on the food. What do I get? Broccoli covered in parmesan, beets with goat cheese, and couscous slipping in butter. Yum yum indeed. I decided to compensate for basically having bread for Easter dinner with a generous glass of Pinot Grigio, which resulted in being slightly drunk on Easter and taunting my older brother's iPod Touch with my iPhone. 'Oh, a Touch? How charming, how quaint. Did you pay extra just to access your mail on a free wireless network? Oh wait, I seem to have missed call - let me just check my visual voicemail'. I'm such a mean hungry vegan drunk.

In T-minus twelve hours I'm on a plane to Puerto Rico where my daily fruit intake will come from the pineapple wedge on my daiquiri. Good thing I packed vitamins. Hopefully there will be some Edge coverage (or free wifi, crossed fingers) so I can update with pics and musings on how to survive off Luna bars for four days. In the words of the Governator, hasta la vista.

what i like about

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/32-veganvegetarianism

If you haven't happened upon this site yet, you really should. But it can be painfully accurate (like hating major corporations while still revering Ikea and Apple).

I do feel a bit better, though, every time I see the glaring typo in the first paragraph. I guess some white people also like proofreading.

derelict(e)

When I was walking to catch the bus this morning I passed a kid squatting in front of American Apparel. Based on his clothes and haircut I couldn't tell if he was homeless or waiting for the store to be unlocked so he could start work.

Piled Higher and Deeper

I have my first chapter draft due in on Friday. I'm realizing that writing a dissertation chapter is just like writing any seminar paper (wait until too late, make it too long, make all those around me miserable) only there are lots more footnotes. LOTS. Fastmiso still has me beat - his bibliography just topped out at 500 works. And I figure if 500 classicists were actually able to get a book published the odds might just be in my favor to get my own work on the shelves and ultimately buried in a footnote. I've got dreams, yes I do.

she fell in love with a drummer

A couple weeks ago fastmiso and I went to see Ira Glass and David Rakoff. While they were just delightful, the woman that CalPerf got from Cal to interview them was absolutely horrid. I spent most of the night just squirming in my seat as she interrupted the dialogue and generally disrupted what should have been an enjoyable evening.

Apparently the rest of the sold-out audience had the same experience and we got an email from CalPerf apologizing for the 'format' of the event and we got two free tickets to see the SFJazz Collective. If only the rest of the world worked that way. Can you imagine getting a general apology from the Internet on being lame along with a subscription to the New Yorker?

Not only did we get to see some great jazz performers last night for free (including the drummer Eric Harland, who I wanted to take home and just keep in my living room), but we also got to eat at this absolutely amazing vegan Japanese restaurant that we found through yelp. The place had all of six tables so I was glad we got hungry at 5PM. I had the pleasure/guilt of ordering dessert while a group of shifty Berkeley vegans stood outside the door watching any movement I made towards my wallet. Suckers.

It was one of those nights that made me wish I lived in Berkeley instead of el Palo Alto. Good vegan food, good jazz, and even the half-price bookstore was still open at 10:30 so I could get some paperbacks for the beach. The only late-night action (=9:00PM) in the PA happens at the Apple Store and the gelato place, and soccer moms are vegan because Skinny Bitch is on the bestsellers list. Not that I'm so bitter -- I also realize that living in Berkeley with all the hipsters would be pretty exhausting. I'd have to get a fixie and tighter jeans and actually give up honey.

america's next top murderer

Or so read the posts on the veg websites in response to this week's ANTM. For those of you that are high and mighty enough not to watch the TENTH cycle of america's next top model (even though we are trapped in a gossip girl drought that seems never ending), let me fill you in on the details: this week Tyra had a photo shoot where the models posed in the meat-packing district, surrounded by slabs of meat, and wearing (yes, wearing) meat. There were meat bras, panties, halters. If meat stilettos were possible, they would have probably worn those, too.


As one poster rightly pointed out, last season Tyra went on the whole 'make ANTM green' kick and had an eco-friendly house and a hybrid van carrying the bony girls across LA. Now in NYC they have a stretch SUV and pose wearing meat. Maybe next week they can pose while throwing kittens off the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here's one of my more favorite threads:
'Apparently it's supposed to be "a metaphor for the modeling industry"...'
Whew. 'cause otherwise it would just be weird...

But really now, what model isn't concerned with the metaphorical implications of the outfit s/he wears?

Here's hoping 30 Rock and GG get back on the air with new episodes real soon.

the system is down, the system is down

I was supposed to teach last night but at 5:00 they took the server offline and the online high school tech support (=a dude named Todd) couldn't get the whole thing back online in time for my class. So I cancelled class. Because a server was down.

With my new early evening free time I decided to hit up the local Whole Paycheck to get some ingredients for 'muscle muffins'. I bought blackstrap molasses and soy protein. When I came back to the parking lot an old diesel mercedes run on vegetable oil (or so the sticker claimed) was parked next to my mercedes.

In other words, I left my job teaching privileged students in a virtual high school because the server at Stanford was having 'issues' to go make vegan muffins. I am so Bay Area, it's not even funny.

(and I was going to post pics of the muffins but they look just like last ones. unfortunately, they don't taste as good. but the name should have been a dead giveaway about that one)

trying so hard to be inconvenienced

The tomato cream sauce was quite the success last night. I was going to post pictures but all I got shots of were empty plates. The recipe introduced me to tofutti cream cheese, which has now replaced nayonaise as my new vegan happy food. I'm just amazed at how the vegan thing has actually put flavors back into my diet. You can check out the exact recipe here:

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/08/cappellini-in-fresh-tomato-cream-sauce/

Today I went down to the outlets to get some beach wear for the impending puerto rico trip and I was all set for a tough day of animal-free consumerism. Once again, I have nothing to blog out. The thesis statement of this blog could be: 'going vegan in the bay area is really boring'. All the clothes I ended up liking and buying were cotton or polyester. I even found out that Rainbow now has a hemp version of the sandals I need to replace.

I just want to briefly add as an aside how much I hate even typing the word hemp. I think it should be next on the list of environmental stuff from the 90s that needs to become cooler for the 2.0 crowd. Let's get hemp out of the hands of dowdy middle-aged women in tevas! (actually, some cool stuff has been done with hemp but it's all out of my price range: http://store.hempest.com/catalog/product_info.php?pid=745. Also out my price range, Natalie Portman's new line of veg shoes. 150 bucks for ballet flats? Seriously, Natalie?)

Maybe things will get more interesting come winter...

muffin

Last night I made up a batch of carrot-spice muffins. They came out incredibly well, if I do say so myself. The recipe was delightfully easy and actually pretty healthy - only a 1/4 cup of sugar. Apparently applesauce is the magic vegan ingredient I was unaware of. I also used soy yogurt and some agave nectar. They came out moist AND I got to use my food processor to transform my carrot chunks into miniscule orange shreds. Seriously, what more could you ask of a muffin?

And can I just add, briefly, how much I like the word muffin? Muffin. I don't know, it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy and loved. muffin.

Tonight I tried to duplicate my magical dinner from the weekend of beans, leek, and chard for fastmiso and it was woefully disasterous. Perhaps it suffered from performance anxiety. Fastmiso is a champ, though, and muscled through his bowl of flavorless mush while avoiding any direct 'good lord, this is crap' comments.

I have a new blog crush on veganyumyum.com. The pictures of the food she makes are always stunning, her recipes seem doable (I'm trying out the tomato cream sauce tomorrow, so we'll see), and her writing style has this amazing mix of self deprecation and optimism. And she has a super cute haircut. Right now she ranks right up there with muffins.

For your consideration (and mine)

I just got my Christmas present from my brother (and, yes, it is MARCH) which is an iTunes gift card. Any music/movie/tv recommendations? I could use something a little upbeat to get me out of the election results doldrums.

Here's my current playlist in great need of updating:
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War (pick up the last album too if you haven't already)
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous (did you hear Winona Ryder is dating the frontman -- of Salute Your Shorts fame?)
The National - Boxer
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Kinks - Well-Respected Kinks
Wagner - Das Rheingold (see below)

I've also become a big podcast subscriber for my walk to campus and for runs. In case any of you need more NPR in your life, here's what I've been enjoying:
Day to Day (it's the more light-hearted version of All Things Considered)
WNYC's Radiolab (they do some really great programs - I just listened to the one on Wagner's Ring Cycle and feel like some kind of Wagnerian expert. The War of the Worlds one is also really good)
PRI: To the Best of Our Knowledge (sometimes hit or miss depending on the topic)
Podrunner Intervals (thirty-minute interval sets - it makes a little noise to tell you when to switch from walking to jogging)
94.9 Wild Workout at Noon (a local station that makes some pretty decent hour-long mixes that keep running entertaining)

I'm open to book recommendations, too. The new Pynchon has been staring me in the face since I bought it for Christmas break and I just can't bring myself to pick it back up again - it's more the sheer weight of it than the quality. I'm also pretty sure Pynchon won't make for good beach reading. And the Oprah book isn't so bad -- I would recommend having another like-minded friend read it with you so you can have a rational conversation about destroying your ego.

And a final recommendation...I bought my purse from etsy.com (I opted for the grey one) and it was a positively delightful experience. The bag showed up within in a couple days with a handwritten note filled with gratitude. So go check out 'cutfinger productions' on etsy - they make some super cute stuff and send you really happy emails.

so so soygurt

For those of you who have been banging your heads against the wall saying, 'why, why is there not a soy yogurt that doesn't taste like sludge and has less than 20 g of sugar?' I have the answer for you: wildwood plain soy yogurt. Believe me, when I first switched over to soy yogurt I almost immediately gave up this whole vegan endeavor. I love yogurt. LOVE. Nothing makes me happier than an excellent plain yogurt with some honey, blueberries, and some kind of cereal. So that first day as I scraped some grey goo onto my Kashi I shuddered and did my best to eat without tasting.

And then I realized that not only am I putting grey goo into my body, but the majority of that grey goo is sugar. So I went on a hunt for a decent tasting soy yogurt with low sugar content, and I came upon a recommendation for Wildwood. I think it's California local so you east coast kids might not get it. It actually looks like yogurt (as in white and not grey) and it only has 4 g of sugar. When I put it on my grape nuts this morning with some blueberries and agave nectar (more on that later) it was just like my favorite breakfast always was.

And, yes, these are my new daily missions and accomplishments.

triumph of the chard

For reasons I cannot quite explain, I made the most fantastic dinner tonight. It was the result of my new favorite cooking tool: google. I simply type into google all the food in my fridge that is about to go bad, add recipe and vegan, and wait for the magic.

Tonight I typed in 'leeks, cannelini beans, swiss chard' and, presto, I got this link: http://bodytales.blogspot.com/2006/03/recipe-time-cannellini-beans-with.html. I modified pretty much all the ingredient amounts since it was just for me and I only had about 1/4 of a can of beans left (and no 'bean juice'. ew, right?). Somehow the whole thing just came out beautifully. I pass it along in case you, too, have some wilty chard and leeks stinking up your fridge. Just a note - those are croutons on top and not some kind of crazy fake meat. Have no fear!

I would recommend NOT reading the actual blog entries from 'bodytales'. The creator, who up until a couple hours ago was the genius vegan chef behind this meal, is apparently an initiated Dianic priestess. So much for trying to pull veganism out of the land of the weirdos. Sigh.