the dream life

My plate

“You think you got problems?” My mom said to me. I don’t think I’d been complaining about a problem, just so you know, but anyway, “You think you got problems?” she said, “I’ve got a vegan coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”

None of the food at our family’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner is even accidentally vegan and unlike routine family dinners where adjustments can be made, none of the foods on that menu are permitted to be altered. There are things people expect and without these things? Anarchy.

“Not to worry,” I told my mom. I would be bringing my own food for Thanksgiving.

This left me with a decision. On the one hand, I could come up with a simple plate of food for myself. On the other hand, I could prepare an entire vegan Thanksgiving dinner, knowing that I would be the only one eating it, and I would have lots and lots of leftovers.

I opted for the other hand. I was pretty excited about pulling together a vegan Thanksgiving and who doesn’t want lots and lots of leftovers?

Sunday night assortment

Are you happy?

Stay in a wild hotel. 

Watch this.

Free yourself of duality.

Winston Churchill was not a fan.

I'm thinking about launching a loving and friendly campaign to convince every locally owned restaurant in Lexington to put one vegan item on its menu. 

Hoop girl

On Sunday morning, we were at my brother and sister in law’s house. We don’t have a fenced in yard so we often take the liberty of setting our dog free in their yard. The girls were out on the porch eating lunch (Woody got in the way of some tomato soup and now has stains on his legs. Yes, our dog is stained) and telling us stories (Emme: Willie was walking around on one foot, one foot. Me: Willie was walking around on one foot? Emme: Uh-huh. Ava: I think what she means is that Willie was walking three paws and holding one paw up. Emme: Uh-huh, because he wanted to go to the vet.) and Ava, who was wearing this rocking cute pair of rhinestone studded jeans, came down into the yard and started spinning her hula hoop.

Now, I was present the first time Ava ever saw a hula hoop; it was last year at a Halloween party. Learning to hoop was frustrating for her. Because she was at a party, in front of a lot of people, she kept her cool pretty well, but I could see that it upset her everytime the hoop hit the ground. She kept trying and kept trying and she, being a child and therefore sort of bendy, was actually pretty good at it by the end of the party, but it was labor for her and she dropped the hoop a lot. This summer, I watched her practice and remarked at how much better she was than the last time I’d seen her. Yesterday morning, she wasn’t even like the same person. The hoop was an extension of her. She appeared to spin it around her waist effortlessly and she could spin it and spin it and spin it on and on. She could do tricky things with her arms, she could make the hoop slow down and speed up. It was really cool to watch.

Blessings

Sometimes my clothes make me happy. Today is one of those times. I bought a dress in Louisville a couple of weeks ago and I wore it for the first time today. It’s soft and has these little velvet pockets and I’m really happy with it even thought the sales person who took my money said, “We almost sent these dresses back because they looked nothing like the photo…so I’m glad you like it.” Yeah, well, I do like it.

I also like the floor length 70’s number I bought for five bucks at the same store where the same clerk kept insisting that surely I was purchasing it to serve as my Halloween costume. No, I assured him, I was buying it because it was a sweet five dollar dress that I planned to wear in my normal non-Halloween life.

Speaking of Halloween, I still have glitter on my boots and that makes me happy, too.

This was my massage day. I seriously can’t think of any ill that a good massage can’t put right. Well, except vertigo maybe.

I did take Tracy to the doctor yesterday and found out that his severe vertigo isn’t caused by any other physical condition (good to know). He got some meds that seem to be doing the trick, thankfully. Can you imagine spinning for a week unable to tell up from down? The doc told him the condition would resolve itself in four to six weeks, or he could take a pill and get better faster. Mmmhmmm. We got that pill.

I may have mentioned before that I go through periods of my life thinking that I want to go to nursing school. What I’m specifically interested in is working for hospice, but I’ve always had this weird nagging thing about nursing even though my logical mind knows that I would mostly hate going through the things nurses have to endure and that I would philosophically disagree with much of what I’d be asked to do. Taking Tracy to the doctor’s office nipped my latest bout of nurse-thoughts. As soon as I walked in that place I was flooded with the understanding that nope, this is not for me.

How I spent my fall vacation: day nine

Lars and the Real Girl is a fantastic movie. (Although I'm not sure I would categorize it as comedy).

We also watched Outrage last night, which should be required viewing for everyone. It's difficult to watch and listen to hatred and hypocrisy of the anti-gay movement in this country. Terrifying, actually, but this film is so well-done and we do need to look and listen, because this is where we live. And love.

How I spent my fall vacation: day eight

Last night's marathon of sitting under a blanket eating popcorn and watching things continued with Smart People (liked it) and Wanda Sykes (love, love, love her). 

Today, we drove to Louisville for more vintage clothes shopping. It turned out to be a beautiful day, so beautiful that I danced in the leaves of someone's yard. 

We had lunch at Ramsi's,where I've never had a bad meal, and I wondered why it is that Lexington doesn't have a restaurant that caters to both vegans and omnivores the way Ramsi's does. I understand (maybe understand) why a completely vegan restaurant may not be viable here, but why not something like this? I have these thoughts a lot when I'm in Louisville (why don't we have this, why can't we have that? The answer, I suppose, is just to relax and enjoy the fact that Louisville has so many things I love, including a little house in the Highlands painted like a rainbow!)

How I spent my fall vacation: day five

I neglected to mention yesterday that in addition to experiencing the ethereal floaty sensation and rearranging the house, I made these. They were quite good. You're thinking that my vacation has been a little food-heavy and you're right. This will most likely continue. It continued this morning when I ate two of those cookies for breakfast. It's not my fault that chocolate goes so well with coffee.

This vacation is a regret-free zone, so I didn't feel guilty about those cookies at all and I didn't beat myself up for not making it to the Carnegie Center yesterday to contribute to the world's largest short story, even though I had intended to.

How I spent my fall vacation: day four

Normally, my massage appointments are in the evenings after work but since I'm not working this week, I experienced the luxury of a mid morning massage. There is no bad time for a massage. I would wake up at three o'clock in the morning and go get a massage, but I did wonder what it would be like to show up for my appointment without the detritus of a work day weighing me down.

(This is me getting ready to leave for it, standing in my new cleared out work space, which may not look cleared out to you but is, believe me)

The answer is, it was fantastic and wonderful.

Buffalo tempeh salad

Going vegan has not felt like a sacrifice to me at all. In fact, it has felt like a great burden lifted off of me. Sometimes I have to do a little fancy dancing at restaurants or other people's houses, but it's been remarkably easy overall and the benefit to my health and well being continues to astound me.

That having been said, there are a couple of flavors -- not the meat or dairy itself -- but a couple of flavors that I've wondered how to incorporate into my vegan dining experience and one of them is the buffalo wing flavor. I once was a buffalo sandwich/finger/salad junkie.

Last night, I satisfied that craving with a buffalo tempeh salad. It couldn't have been easier or more delicious. I just sliced the tempeh, marinated it in my favorite hot sauce and sauteed it then made a crazy-delicious dressing from vegannaise, tahini, toasted sesame seeds, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and garlic powder. 

Yum.

How I spent my fall vacation: day two

Last night we ate giant popcorn and watched Dracula, which made me think of this:

which made me think of this, the inspiration for my ankh-wearing of 1985-89.

This morning I threw away another couple of bags of stuff (still can't tell a difference in that room), did some dance club dancing in the privacy of my own home, and made the agave nectar vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

The afternoon held within it the most delicious adventure; I went with a friend  to a party at the home of a an artist I admire. Oh, it was good in that inspiring-remind-you-things-about-life-you-may-have-forgotten sort of way.

From there, we headed to marching band practice, and after that Tracy and I went to my parents' house to celebrate my brother's birthday (the reason for the cupcakes).

Vegan cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake recipe here. Frosting made the usual way with Earth Balance replacing the butter, soy milk replacing the cow's milk and vegan organic powdered sugar and sprinkles.

The stream of my consciousness

My brother’s birthday was yesterday and the baby niece’s birthday is tomorrow (since she’s three, I’d hesitate to call her a baby but for the fact that this is how she refers to herself. Recently, her mom explained to her that none of the adults at the table were available to play because we were chit-chatting and she said, “I don’t like chit-chat, I’m a baby.” Fair enough.) Dinners and shindigs are in the works, but the girls may or may not have the flu and so all of this is up in the air…It’s also Boomslang weekend, and March Madness performs on Sunday, and there’s much to see and do and be a part of, but notices of illness are appearing on Facebook at an alarming rate, and I did not like the sound of that cough coming out of the person with whom I shared my office yesterday…Last night, we needed groceries, so I suggested we have dinner from the hot buffet the Co-op. “You wanna eat at the flu bar?” Tracy asked me. That gave me pause (but we went right ahead and the sweet potatoes and kale were outrageously good.)…I’m thinking vitamin C, though, and preemptive hot tea. I might put some bourbon in it…Seriously, people, I need to clean my house, but October is booked up with goodness and adventure and fall is always the time when I most want to be out in the world with my hot apple cider and my sweaters, just walking around feeling the blessed bittersweet ache of this season…We got our first real handwritten card from our eldest niece (in cursive, no less) and her pengirlship was flawless. We’re going to frame it and behind that frame will always be the mental image of a six year old girl sitting at her kitchen table, taking the time to carefully script our names and a heartfelt thank you…My Parents Were Awesome and this made me cry and Sunday is National Coming Out Day and my heart is filled with love and support and awe for everyone who plans to speak his or her truth on that day and claim his or her own life and say this is who I am, and also for everyone who is not yet ready to do so in a public way. May we make this and every day the time to passionately speak out in support of the rights of gay, lesbian and transgendered peoples everywhere. May we nurture and honor one another always. May there come a day when no one ever feels pressure to be in the closet about anything…Us and them is a big lie. It’s just us…

Vegan cake in a mug

I've made this twice, both times on a Friday night, once to accompany a viewing of Footloose and tonight just because I felt like it. It doesn't puff up the way the non-vegan version appears to, but it does taste chocolatey and it's pretty good if you want to have a little something sweet (and if you don't mind eating food that's been cooked in a microwave.)

This is neither low fat nor low calorie

but if you're in the mood for a scrumptious treat, take one of these

and put some of this on top of it.

Food, glorious food

For two weeks running, we’ve been gifted with someone else’s CSA shares (thank you, kind benefactor!) The experience has been surprisingly wonderful and we are one hundred percent committed to signing on next year. The produce comes from Three Springs Farm and picking it up is not only easy, it’s a pleasure. We go to a convienient location, put our empty basket on the stack of empty baskets and pick up our full basket. It only takes a minute, but feels better than any other food shopping experience I can think of. It feels like being part of a community, which it is.