Its been a year!

Its been a year since I arrived in Maine ( promptly left 345 days later). A year since I started eating a vegan diet. Yeah, I tend to do everything at once. I have to say that moving to a few place and starting over as a vegan was far easier for me then starting a vegan diet in the same place.

Anyway, what's a vegan diet? A vegan is a person who doesn't eat animal products - meat, seafood, fish, dairy, eggs.

How to I put this into practice? I cook 100% vegan and feed whoever comes over for a meal vegan food, but I allow them to bring their own cheese, sour cream, butter, etc. I do this for me and my food choices should not be forced on others - I'm just happy to feed people a vegan or vegan based meal. Also, I do eat honey. As far as I know bees haven't been genetically modified, pumped full of antibiotics, or consume massive amounts of energy to raise. I also buy it locally from bee keepers in the area and believe that it helps support the immune system. I do make exceptions, if other people have prepared me a vegetarian meal but it has small amounts of dairy or eggs in it, I'm okay with that. My intention is to try and eat a vegan diet as much as possible, without being a jerk or wasteful. A few of my friend's mom's have made me veggie meals but cooked with dairy, a my cousin's uncle fixed a elaborate meal for us not knowing that I was vegan, so I picked out the veggies and called it good. This is not a political statement for me, so I'm okay bending the rules a bit from time to time.

Why did I make this chance? Well I have been trying to live a health live style, which I think, means eating very little if any meat and animal products. I also try to avoid all things artificial, over-processed and labeled "healthy." I also buy organic when I can afford it.This means that I cook, a lot, but I love it! Over time my reasons have changed from just wanting to be healthy to also wanting to use my food choices to mirror my world view. These now include - being green, giving up meat greatly reduces your carbon-foot print, uses less fossil fuel, increases the amount of plant-based food available to people. Good for me, Good for the Earth, Good for Others, Good for the Future:-)

Is it hard to eat out as a vegan? No, not for me. I order vegan from the menu, beans and rice, pasta with red sauce, cheese-less veggie pizza, french fries and steamed veggies, veggie burgers (not a fav, but eatable!), veggie sandwiches - hold the cheese and creamy sauces, etc. Most ice-cream places have at least one fruit sorbet as well. Since I decided to not worry about the tiny details when eating out, I've been okay. About 1 in 100 people are thought to be vegan, with about 1 in 30 being vegetarian, more and more restaurants are offering vegan/veggie options and all (even Taco Bell!) will modify your order to you specifications (no cheese on the bean burrito!). If you can veganize a dish in you head by removing one or two items, the order it and enjoy!

How long will you stay vegan? I don't know - this started out as a three, six at tops, month experiment to see if I could eat vegan and enjoy it. And you know what? I did, I do and I still love it. The first set of holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, were a bit hard. Okay well I spent Thanksgiving in Canada solo, so I looked up a local vegan restaurant. Christmas was at a beach house with my family, so that was a bit trickier, but it worked. Everyone my friends and family, have been supportive and pitched in and eaten vegan with me when I've visited and cooked. My sister and I found the Loving Hut in her city and have enjoyed it a lot. So yeah, no plans to start eating animal products again any time soon. I also realize that I have the blessing of being single with a vegan-friendly guinea pig who happily shares kale, carrots, mango, grapefruit, cherries, cilantro, etc with me without asking for a steak or bacon (or maybe he does since I don't understand guinea pig).

So yeah, that's that in a nut shell. Well coconut shell:-) I'm going to try a post more of my vegan creations in the near future. As you can probably tell, this is something that is very near and dear to my heart. I believe in using food as a medicine. I believe that our food system is broken and that people are being poisoned by the food-like substances sold in grocery stores. This is my soap-box.

Stay Safe for Someone Else's Sake

I get told to "Be Safe," "Drive Safe," "Stay Safe," etc. A LOT. Probably because I enjoy things like rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, mountain climbing, downhill skiing, ice climbing, rollerblading, and hitch-hike in developing countries.

My reply is usually "I have to much living to do to die young." And its true, but there is also another reason that I'm very careful when I'm out and about - Others. During my drive from Maine to Arizona, I listened to NPR. A lot. They did a story about two ice climbers who got lost on Mount Washington, NH for 3 days. Once they were rescued, they found out that a search and rescue person had been killed in an avalanche while looking for them. This was devastating for them, that their mistake had costs someone else his life.

And that is my biggest fear, not for myself, but for others. I do my best to reduce my risk of getting lost or stranded so that others do not have to risk their lives to rescue me.

To those who worry about me, relax a bit, I'm staying safe for the sake of others.

To those like me, stay safe for the sake of others.

Door = Slammed

After making my decision to move to Arizona, I'm been wondering a bit if it was the thing to do. While the road here in Maine has been REALLY bumpy, its a road that I know. And you know, do you trade the devil I know for the one I don't?

Well, I got an email the other day from my boss saying that the position I had had here in Maine did not get refunded with the new grant and that as of December there would have been no job for me if I was still here.

After getting that email, my peace about moving to Arizona has tripled. I'm happy and excited about this move. Everything has lined up perfectly and its going to work out and be AWESOME:-)

Sometimes when God opens a door and you walk through it, it shuts the other door closed behind you so that can't look back and not focus on the future. God is good that way!

Its only money

In the process of moving, I must have left my car unlocked and someone helped themselves to so money that I had in there (Yup, I learned my lesson - no more leaving money in the car!). Its funny because there was other stuff in my car as well - some jewelry, my passport, etc. but all they took was the cash. While I feel violated - I also feel thankful that they just took the money and left the valuable stuff. In terms of money - the cash was probably more valuable then what they didn't take, but its replaceable, the other stuff- well that would have been a nightmare and while not valuable - I'd have hated to have had my stuff stolen as most of it has memories attached and was given to me by special people who have touched my life. And at least with the car being unlocked all my windows are still in there. For me its a reminder that not all people are to be trusted. Also, I'm lucky because I can say - its only money and move on to always double-check the locks. Its sad that this is this is the world me live it, but then again I think its always been that way.

I'm going to hope that this was someone who was really down on their luck and need money for food and rent. Also, Karma's a pain and what goes around comes around.

This of course happens in the middle of my quest to let go of things, reduce, and simply. I guess I needed to let go of some money and be reminded that I am truly blessed because I have enough to let go. In the future, I'd like to be in-charge of the letting go and the picking who it goes to though.

A year

Okay - sooo its been a long time since my last post so a quick catch-up timeline of the high points of the last two years:

Feb 28, 2010 - completed my first Marathon in under 6 hours and had a blast though it was rough at points.

May 7, 2010 - graduated with my MPH in Epidemiology (no picture because I didn't go to the graduation ceremonies because I was to burned out from trying to finish everything so I could graduate on time).

August 28, 2010 - Arrived in Augusta, Maine to start work with the state (I'd never been to Maine, so why not just move there for a while - that was my thought behind the move!)


Okay so we're all caught up and back to the present in July 2011.

Almost a year ago I move from Florida to Maine. While I knew it was going to be a cold, dark, long winter, I still wasn't prepared. I did make it, though not always as gracefully as I'd have preferred.

I did learn may may things:

- how to shovel my car out of 18" of snow (okay - maybe it was only 12, but it seemed like 18" to this southern gal)
- that downhill skiing is awesome and scary and needs to be done repeatedly!
- when you're ice climbing you must trust the ice tools and crampons to work and keep you stuck on the ice
- that good friends/roommates are recommended for survival, but are required in my case (I love you all!)
- that sliding down hill backwards in my car is NOT fun (it was controlled so nothing was damaged and no one was hurt, but still!)

And most notably - that I was not made to thrive through cold, New England winters.

While I called a truce with winter and Mother Nature, a Maine winter really isn't something that I enjoyed or wanted to repeat - therefore Arizona here I come!!


I will miss all the wonderful people that I have met here, but I'll be back - maybe for a ski trip or a cool week on a Maine lake. I'm like a bad penny - I always turn up!

Training for the next big thing

So I'm going to start training for a Marathon the end of August with a friend from school. One night over a glass of wine we were talking about how we both wanted to run a marathon so we pledged to start training the end of Aug when school starts again and to run the Tampa marathon the end of Feb. Hopefully as our training runs get longer the weather will get cooler and the humidity will let up. One can dream, right?

What makes a person want to run a marathon? I'm not really sure, but I love finding my limits and pushing beyond them, but this will hopefully keep me on track with my work outs in the fall and spring and give me a goal. So armed with a book, a few websites, work-out clothes from the salvation army, and the knowledge that if I can walk 62.1 miles in 19:39, then with some training I should be able to complete a marathon. Its not about speed, its about enduring and completing what you start. There is something addictive about challenging yourself and rising to that challenge. If I can make it, anyone can. Its just a bit of training and mind over matter, sunshine and light breezes:-)

You know you're frugal when....

.... You contact a Peace Corps volunteer living a 45 minute hike up a mountain in rural Panama (no power, internet, etc) to sleep on her couch. And yes that person would be me, and yes I'm actually really excited about it. I figure that it will be a throw-back to TMI trips. There will also be some local festival going on while I am there so it should be interesting. I mean, life is all about the journey! Trust me pictures will follow in about 6 weeks. Oh, for all of my 3 readers, I'll be in Panama from July 27- Aug 6, then in Costa Rica from Aug 6 to Aug 18. I need a break from the US and from school.

Speaking of school, this is my last week of my third semester and I'm finished the majority of my classes!! I only have 6 more classes plus an internship and special project (no idea what that is, but I'll figure it out at some point!). I feel like I have so much more to learn and not near enough classes to learn it all in, but that's what the job after Grad School is for!