Just a lil' update.

I've been busy as hell what with the new job, school and life. I've been writing a lot in my notebooks... while in class... I swear... I'm paying attention... I just have ADD.

Anyways.

I've got some interesting shit to rant about... just not right now.

Oh! BTW! I helped another girl go vegan :D More on that later.

Parenting. Vegan or not.

Warning: Abuse of quotation marks to follow.

Raising a child is an extremely difficult task to begin with... but then you add to that by realizing that not only do you have to make sure this little person eats, sleeps, learns to use the potty and gets an education - you're also a mentor and guide for this being to grow into a well-rounded individual. And I'm not talking about waistline.

At least, in my opinion, as a parent you should be guiding your child and teaching them right from wrong and all that good stuff. How do we do this? Well, how did you learn? It's time to take the "best practices" of our parents and benchmark them. Spanking didn't do a whole lot of good for you, did it? Axe that. What about "time out" did that work? Worked for me.. keep that one..

And how about dealing with society? Is it always good to "shut up and do as you're told"? Well.. not always. Sometimes you have to ask "why".

What about diet? Is it me or is the "normal" size of a child getting bigger? Why do I get questions on my sons "smaller end of average" size when most everyone elses child is overweight?

What about religion? Obviously you're going to want to teach your child whatever you believe, right? If you're Christian, you'll most likely want to raise them Christian. If you're Catholic, the same. And the same goes for Atheists, Jewish and Muslim, etc, etc, etc. Because it's what we know, right? Maybe you believe personally that a child should choose for themselves? That's a choice as well.

So the point of my little bit of rambling is this: If the "normal" thing to do is raise a child according to your beliefs and what you feel is best for their safety and well-being, why do vegan parents get so much shit for wanting to raise their children vegan??

My son is five. He's been vegan since conception. I was vegan throughout the pregnancy and it was a very healthy pregnancy and he was a very very very healthy baby. 10lbs 4 oz healthy, what do you think about *that* "malnourishment"? I had to have a c-section because he went breach, but that was the only complication. He's continued to grow at a steady speed and is rarely sick. He enjoys being vegan, he likes to help cook and he likes to talk about rescuing animals.

In those five years, here are the most common gripes from omnivores that don't agree with my raising my child vegan.

1. You're depriving him.
Seriously. "Depriving" him?! I'm so sorry that I'm "depriving" my son of a higher chance of cancer, high cholesterol and heart disease. I guess I should run out and get him a hamburger to make up for the years of "deprivation". I'm such a horrible mom for not allowing my son to dine on the flesh of the tortured innocent animals!

2. He's malnourished!
Oh yeah. He's the absolute picture of malnourishment.

In fact most vegan children are healthier than children on the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) especially since non-vegan American kids most likely live off of chicken nuggets, cows milk (puss & veal mmmm...), hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza... oh and french fries.

3. It's not right for you to push your beliefs on him, he's just a child!
Oh no! Why on earth would I want to push my moral values upon a poor innocent child? How dare I raise him to be thoughtful and compassionate?? I should be rushing him to the nearest forest with a shotgun and teaching him how to murder the innocent! That's a step in the right direction! First start with deer, then maybe he'll graduate to hurting people too! How dare I teach my child that there is no such thing as "happy meat" and that we don't have to exploit another species just to eat? For shame!

"Imposing our beliefs" on our children... Isn't that what parents do?? If I think a vegan lifestyle is the healthiest and the best way to live, wouldn't I want the best for my child? I don't see a problem with that.

4. What are you going to do when he gets older and wants to eat meat?
What's to suggest that he will *want* to eat it? I accept that he may try it out of curiosity, or whatever reason. Why do people seem to think that vegans secretly want to eat meat? If he decides he wants to "rebel" and start shoveling dead animals into his mouth, that's his problem. I'll still be cooking my tofu at home.


Most of my friends and family are pretty supportive, but I have had run ins with some pretty arrogant and ignorant people. Unfortunately his father is one of those people. Lately my ex-husband seems to think that I am being cruel by "forcing my beliefs" on our son. Apparently when I'm not around, Ethan doesn't want to be vegan. That's funny... because when he's not around, Ethan doesn't want daddy telling him he should eat meat.

Like I said... Ethan's five years old. He's going to tell daddy whatever daddy wants to hear. In fact.. hehe.. he said to me one day...

"Mommy, I'm going to take your side, okay, but I'm going to tell daddy that I will listen to him."

I tried to hold back the laughter and high five by saying, "Ethan, you shouldn't take sides. I'm glad you want to stay vegan, all you have to do is say 'No thank you, Daddy, I'm vegan.' and you don't have to worry about taking sides."

-sigh-

That's all I can think of for now. If you have anything to add - by all means do so!

First Blog!

Hello everyone and thank you for checking out my blog.

I decided to start this to give myself a little place I could go to specifically to ramble on about veganism in any way I please.

So, to kick off this blog I'll go ahead and just tell my "How I went vegan" story. Long as it is, its true.

Don't worry, not all my blogs will be this long.

Enjoy.



I became a vegan when I was seventeen although I think my path to veganism had started when I was just a kid. Like most of us do with any kind of social disfunction, I blame my parents. Unfortunately neither of which are vegan nor do they have an inkling of vegetarian tendencies... rather I spent most of my childhood surrounded by lambs roasting on spits in the backyard, pig heads on the table and the oh so typical Greek uncle telling me that I should eat the lamb tongue because it's good for me. I am of Greek, Native American and Spanish decent, which means in almost every aspect of my upbringing I was taught that eating meat is right. "God put animals on the earth for us to eat" blah blah blah.

But the funny thing was my mother thought animals were so cute and cuddly we'd always be watching the Discovery Channel and movies like "Bambi" and "The Bear" which instilled in me this anger toward hunters and love for wild animals. Sure I thought cows were cute... pigs were cute too atleast until they got older and fatter (for the record, I think the old and fat ones are cute now too..)... and I loved ducks and chickens.. but I never connected the magestic animals in the wild or the many dogs and cats we kept as companions to the animals that were being "raised" for food.. then again I was just a McDonald's eating kid.

After seeing the movie "Charlotte's Web" when I was a kid I remember a brief moment in time when I was going to stand defiant! I was eight years old and I was going vegetarian! No longer would I partake in the disgusting practice of devouring the flesh of those poor defenseless creatures! Well.. until they served sloppy joes in the school cafeteria.. mmmm sloppy joes... (Vegan sloppy joes = way better).

I don't know how long that lasted, but that was my first attempt at vegetarianism and because that failed for me, for the next few years I would not attempt at going veg again because apparently, "I tried it once a few years ago and it just wasn't for me."

A funny story.. (this is getting long.. but I don't care...) I was about 10 years old when I went on a camping trip with a friend, a mother duck had abandoned her egg underneath our camper, I assumed because she sensed it was a dangerous place to keep her egg, and I took the egg home, put it in an incubator and decided to raise it. At that time I decided to stop eating anything duck... and since I never ate duck... "duck sauce" was the only thing I knew of. Would you like some duck sauce for your egg roll? "No thanks, I don't eat duck." hahaha..

Anyway, the egg grew for a little while but unfortunately didn't make it.. I did enjoy the process though, I got to see through the egg by holding it up in the light and seeing the little baby duck inside was very inspiring.

My evil-horrible-disgustinglysexist-pigheaded-childmolesting asshole of a stepfather had absolutely no respect for our animals. We had a dog and a few cats.. he came into the family and brought along with him two St. Bernard's which I adored. For the next two years or so I became very close with these dogs.. especially since I made an arrangement with my stepfather when he suggested we "get rid" of them because they were too big. I could save one! But she had to live in my room. She was just "too big" and "too hyper" to roam free in the house and we couldn't keep her outside all the time.

So this 175 lb dog lived in my room for about a year. She was my dog. She was my best friend. I didn't have a lot of friends because even at eleven years old I was a "freak" in school, so I spent most of my time with her and my one human friend. I took her for walks, I fed her, I trained her as best I could and she in turn kept me warm at night when the heaters weren't working, she cuddled me when I'd cry.. and she'd snarl at my sister when we would get into sibling arguments ("You wanna slap me? Well I've got a 175 lb St. Bernard that wants to BITE YOU FOR IT!") Alas, it wasn't enough. My stepfather took her to the SPCA and replaced her with a smaller dog.. and when that one got annoying, he took that one to the SPCA and replaced it with another... and another... I think we went through about 6 or 7 dogs in like five years...

Did I go vegan then? NO. But it did bring me closer to animals and coincidentally more isolated from humans. Eventually we "got rid" of my stepdad. Good riddance!

So... here's where it gets cheesy..

When I was seventeen I was pretty into the punk scene and of course, so were my friends. I didn't know any vegans or vegetarians even so that wasn't a part of it at all... they were mostly just stoner kids that hated school, hated their parents and wanted to drink, do drugs and play angry music... and they did it all at my house! (My poor mom worked nights...)

One of these nice punker gals that I spent my time with got a happy birthday gift from her father... Blink182 tickets... 2! So she can bring a friend! And she loved Blink182 as much as I did! I fucking HATE Blink182. I can atleast tolerate them now, but I hated them with a vengeance back then. So we decided to go because the tickets were free and we could atleast entertain ourselves by making fun of the stupid brat kids in the pit.

I am so glad I went! The opening band was Silverchair and if I hadn't gone to that concert I would probably have not been reintroduced to this brilliant band (and if you don't like them, I don't care so don't bother telling me) and I would have never been introduced to the word "vegan". Well.. maybe I would have years down the line when I was a lil' more exposed to the world... but being that I was seventeen in a meat hungry town, it wasnt happening anytime soon!

So after learning about veganism through Silverchair's Daniel Johns I decided to stop with my stupid eating disorder (which I had BEFORE seeing Silverchair...) and give vegetarianism another shot. At first, my family hated the idea. They made fun of me for it, they told me it was a fad and I'd get over it and of course they gave me the "You're just obsessed with Daniel Johns and that's why you want to stop eating meat!" crap... Which was not true. My obsession with Daniel Johns is TOTALLY separate from my compassion for animals... (lol).

I was a vegetarian for about three months until I realized how incredibly stupid it was... How could I say I was a vegetarian for ethical reasons and still eat cheese, wear leather and drink milk? My new puppy and I went vegan the day after Mother's Day in 2000 (because I wanted to make my mom a super huge cookie..) and I haven't turned back in the path since, although I have twisted my ankle, fell into pot holes and fallen off the road into a ditch here and there... even played chicken with a few people going back in the wrong direction. Point is, I've always brought myself back to veganism. Not because someone else thought it was cool. Not because it was fashionable. Not because it was healthier. Not because I wanted to be like Daniel Johns. But because it's who I am and who I've always wanted to be.

I'm 25 now and I have a happy, healthy vegan son who is 5 and asks new people he meets whether or not they're vegan and if not, why?

That's all for tonight, I hope you enjoyed the first introductory blog... I don't know how often I will post... depends on my mood ;)

Thanks and goodnight!