Getting to it.

Yesterday I had tea with my friend Laura. Laura always manages to shed light on any thing I am struggling with. I told her I'd been thinking of starting a new blog. I told her I missed what it felt like to just "put something out there". I told her I didn't know if it should be about cooking, about running, about photography, about writing. Laura told me, "Well, it should just be about you." Laura's always right.

Isabelle started running with me this week. It's great to have someone to run with for a lot of reasons. I can run outside without the irrational fear that I'm going to fall, injure myself, and be unable to scream for help (I said it was irrational). I can run at night without the rational fear of being killed in any number of ways one might be killed at night. I can feel good about the fact that I'm getting someone else to run. I can feel better about the fact that it inspires me to run more.

So last night we ran 2.5 miles. I'm using "ran" really loosely here, but "jog" and "walk" and "limp" are far less sexy. And after that run I baked some tofu, heated up some leftover piccata sauce and roasted some asparagus, zucchini, and yellow squash. It was pretty delicious. But aren't most things when consumed following major exertion? (I'm using "major" really loosely here).

Coming around.

I found myself writing a letter
that summed up the last four years of my life
as I re-read what I'd been able to write
I sat back and smiled

I realized the way my story unfolded
was pretty amazing
I'd been:
semi-happy and extremely broke in New York;
then I'd been extremely unhappy and semi-broke in St. Pete;
and now I'm very happy and not really at all broke at home

How far I've come in four years
Now a vegan.
Now a runner.
Now a graduate student.
So many things I never dreamt I would be.
Maybe life starts at 30.
At least it has for me...

Why I Became Vegan.

I've never written much about being vegan, even though I keep a vegan food blog there is nary a mention of the whys and hows of my "extreme" lifestyle. So, if you're interested even a little bit, here it goes:

I was at dinner with my dear friend Jen about a year and a half ago and she was telling me about some of the books she'd been reading and how they'd affected her eating habits and more importantly her reality. She no longer saw meat and dairy in the same way, the veil had been lifted for her.

I'd stopped eating red meat more than a decade previous, but (in the interest of full disclosure here), I'd actually had a few steaks that year because when I'd been in Paris it seemed the thing to do and I did it...and I won't lie, it was pretty tasty. So then a meatball here, a few ribs there, and I was surprising myself by my new intake of animal flesh. (For the record, I was very vegetarian when I lived in New York and Brooklyn, only occasionally indulging in sushi when the mood struck).

Jen gave me a few books that night, and when I went home I opened Peter Singer's The Ethics of What We Eat. I read the entire book in the following week. I cried a lot, and ingested even more. I was outraged and so, so angry. How did all of these things happen to millions of animals each year and yet the general public was virtually unaware. Or rather, unwilling to be aware.

I started researching, I bought more books, I read a lot and watched a little (I could hardly stomach but a couple of PETA videos). I stopped eating animal flesh immediately. I mentally punished myself for the mistakes I’d made in the previous year (taking many steps backwards instead of forward by that occasional steak indulgence). I actually felt moved enough by what I’d read to go vegan. I realized even reverting back to my vegetarianism wasn’t enough.

By the end of November I was intaking my last vestiges of my non-vegan life. Funny enough, cream in my coffee was my biggest concern. I hated the way soy milk or nut milk or even flavored soy creamer tasted. I was so used to the way standard dairy flavored my coffee. But I stuck with it and finally stopped using cream and started using Silk. And then, if I remember correctly, I actually had mozzarella cheese on a pizza as the very last serving of dairy. That was right around Thanksgiving last year.

So I took the plunge. I did nutritional research, and I got educated enough to feel comfortable with living a vegan life. And it wasn’t long before I started to reap the benefits of cutting out animal products.

I think the most important thing about it, for me, and what I’d like to communicate is how amazing I feel on the inside. Yes, I am healthier than I have ever been in my entire life (have the full blown blood work up to prove it). But what I’m talking about is how special it feels to know that you are part of an elite, evolved group of people that do not put their habitual nature and their taste buds above compassion and doing what is so clearly the right thing.

Now, I realize I ate a standard diet for 29 years, many of them were years in which I was making the choice to do so. I can feel bad about that all I want, but mostly I feel good about leaving it behind. And I try to remember that when I’m getting angry at the people around me as they hit the drive through for lunch or grill up burgers for dinner. Occasionally I lose the fight and lose my cool. But more and more these days I am working toward a even keeled delivery of information if I know the person is open to hearing it.

And, if you’ve read this far, I am only asking one thing of you as a person who is in my life and how hopefully cares about me. Do your research. Understand what you are eating. Make conscious choices. Ignorant bliss is just plain ignorant. So here are some links, maybe you’ll read an article. Or, if you’re daring you’ll go over to PETA and watch a video. But at the very least think, think about where your lunch came from. Contemplate the suffering the was caused so you could bake a meatloaf for dinner. Ask yourself why you’re scared to know more than you do right now about why chicken is so damn cheap in the face of rising grocery costs.

If you have a minute read about…
factory farmed animals,

lab animals,

animals used for entertainment,

dogs and other animals forced to fight,

puppy mills,

homeless companion animals,

fish, and

animals used for fur

All in a day's work.

First a note about my photos...I got some albums posted on my website thanks to google. Go here, eringee.com, and click on the "smile" link to see them if you'd like. I'll add more soon.

Second, I've been volunteering each Wednesday in my mom's first grade classroom. To say it's been an experience is an understatement. I've liked it so much that I now wonder what would have become of me if I'd had the experience 10 years ago. Alas, I have to assume this is my ideal path as it's the one I've walked down, so perhaps I'm only supposed to understand now that teaching was truly always in my blood.

Anywho, the kids are hilarious as 6 and 7-year-olds can sometimes be. They are good group, my mom would agree, and some of them really like having me there. I took their first day photos and tomorrow I'm taking some action shots. You can see their funny faces in the Mom's Class album on my photo page mentioned above. Devin-Michael and Semaj are my favorites right now. Devin wears a harness on the bus and Semaj is about the size of a 4-year-old. Apparently I have a thing for the special cases.

Alright, alright, new site.

I got an email from Aunt Susan the other day that said, "Where is your blog?" To which I thought, "Hmmmm, where is my blog?" Turns out when I changed hosts that my blog did not migrate in the way I thought it would. To boot, many of the images I had stored in my blog over the last 18 months or so are gone (Well not completely, but from my blog, which makes reading old posts less exciting). In any matter, this has given me opportunity to give my website a facelift (check out eringee.com) and shortly there will be many new photos available there (where I know they won't disappear).

In any matter, as with many things (and in the wise words of Ms. Joni Mitchell), you don't know what got 'till it's gone. So, I'm going to try and post in my blog more regularly. That is, unless we are flung into a full-on economic depression and I am standing in line waiting for bread rations. In which case - I'll see you there and I'll just tell you about my life in person.

Powerful Stuff.

My women's studies list serv sent this out, it's very powerful. I was super-pleased to see the charity link after the video played is to my absolute favorite charitable organization, Global Giving. They've organized the projects that empower girls in poverty under a new movement called "The Girl Effect". Watch the video and then visit this link: Girl Effect

Around the House.

While a good lot of the people in my life have seen my new place, plenty have not. These are by no means a perfect replacement for an in-person tour (so stop on by and please bring wine), but they might give you a little insight into my little place...(click the images to make 'em bigger)...


(top l to r: lulu lounging, dining room pendant, hanging succulent; bottom l to r: porch lantern, vintage dishes, siam noodle cart turned liquor stand)


(top to bottom: jewlery box, herb garden, reading corner, cactus, bathroom decor)