what’s in jenn’s head?

Random thoughts and questions running through my head at any given time.

No More Meat?!? March 10, 2008

Filed under: about me,vegetarian — jcarvin77 @ 4:16 pm

…or in the words of my husband “YOU’RE giving up pepperoni?!?”.

I only remember the date because it was so close to our anniversary and it was my maternal grandfather’s birthday…Monday October 15, 2007. It was my first ‘meat free’ day.

So, I’ll start from the beginning. October 12th was just like any other day except that I was excited because it was our anniversary and we were going to have dinner at a restaurant we had both loved (they used to have the BEST filet with crab meat & bearnaise sauce). Anyway, I was on my lunch break and had decided to take a look at some of my “have to look at daily” websites, one of which is cuteoverload.com. While getting my daily fill of cute puppies, kitties, etc., I noticed an ad off to the side BEGGING me to take a quiz and find out my “Chimpanality”. I, being the primate lover that I am, happily obliged and was taken to the Humane Society of the United States‘ website.

After taking the quiz (by the way, my chimpanality matched Kitty — who do you match?), I decided to take a look around and came across the Factory Farming campaign section. Then I came across the videos. Now, in my head I’m telling myself “Don’t watch them. You’ll only upset yourself. I’m telling you! DON’T WATCH THEM!“. I didn’t listen and I watched them. I’m not going to go into detail about them but I was crying by the time I was done watching. That night, we went to the restaurant and, with the videos fresh in my mind, I still ordered the filet with crab meat, etc. When the food finally came, I played with it a lot and took bites here and there. Between what was in my head and the general suckiness of the food, I couldn’t eat it. And I promise that it wasn’t just that I was thinking about the videos. The food was bad…hubby’s seafood was barely cooked and smelled “off” and the steak I had was burnt and very tough. We both agreed to never go there again. Anyway, two days later was the last time I had meat.

At this time, I was still a “closet vegetarian”. I didn’t know how to tell anyone! During the week, I had continued to cook vegetarian meals, but my husband never realized it. That Thursday (Oct. 18th), my husband, my best friend and I decided to go down to Atlantic City to watch the Sands hotel be imploded. We went to dinner and I still hadn’t said anything. They decide that we should get egg rolls for an appetizer (they had meat in them) but I didn’t say a word…I wasn’t going to eat them anyway. The appetizer gets served:

“Hey Jenn, why don’t you have some?”
“No thank-you, I’m fine.”
“Come on! They’re really good!”
“Nah, that’s ok.”
“There’s plenty for all of us!”
…with my face buried in my menu…“Um, I don’t eat meat anymore.”
…in unison now…“YOU WHAT?!?”

I think you could have heard a pin drop. They were absolutely shocked! So, after some teasing and begging, my husband says “Well, birthday’s and Christmas’ are going to be a real pain in the ass!”. I turned and said to him “What? Were you going to buy me a crate of meat for Christmas???”.

So, now it’s been almost 5 months and I’m still going strong…and my husband and best friend STILL tease me all the time! They’re both very supportive but I think that there’s that glimmer of hope that I’ll re-join the ranks of the meat eaters. I really don’t think that’s going to happen.

My next topic will be about becoming more “green”. It’s still a work in progress so it may be a short post.

Till next time…

 

No More Bayer the Smokey :) February 21, 2008

Filed under: about me,no smoking — jcarvin77 @ 3:57 am

(note: for those who don’t know, Bayer was my maiden name)

I don’t know what led me to it, but I just knew it was time. I had visited my doctor for something else and, when I said I was still smoking, he suggested Chantix. I told him it was too new but I’d think about it. After a month, I went back again. It was suggested again by the other doctor in the office. Again, I said it was too new but I’d think about it. She turned around and said to me “Jenn, the side effects are no worse than the side effects of smoking.” I had never thought of it that way! Here I was, concerned that a new drug was going to do some type of harm, or worse, kill me when I had been slowly harming (and probably killing) myself for about 16 years! I was scared to death but at my next visit I told my doctor I was ready.

Chantix is a freakin’ miracle drug! Well, it was for me anyway. I started taking the medicine and set my quit date — you’re allowed to smoke the first week you’re taking the meds. By my quit date (07/07/07 — yes, I picked that date on purpose) I had already significantly cut down on how much I was smoking. I had my last cigarette around 11:55 PM on July 6th so that the 7th would be my first full smoke free day. I’m not going to lie – it was tough at times. It took all my strength not to give in but I was so determined to do it this time. Jolly Ranchers became my best friends – they really helped me get through some bad cravings. Now, technically, you’re supposed to take the meds for 3 to 6 months. After about 1 month, I realized that I kept forgetting to take the pills so I finally decided that if I forget to take them and am ok, I’m just going to stop taking them. So today, I have been smoke free for a little over 8 months!

It’s still difficult sometimes. I’ll be in the middle of something and all of a sudden I’ll think “boy, a cigarette sounds really good right now”. You have to keep on your toes and remind yourself that you quit, your reasons for quitting and, in my case, that it just tasted really nasty.

That’s all for now! Next post will be about going vegetarian. :)

 

Whoa there! Who ARE you? February 17, 2008

Filed under: about me — jcarvin77 @ 9:58 pm

I saw a friend last week-end that I hadn’t seen in probably a year and, when I was telling her all the stuff I’ve done (or stopped doing), she folded her arms and blinked her eyes (a la ‘I Dream of Jeanie’) as if to say “What happened to you?”. So, for those who I don’t know or maybe haven’t talked to in a long time, I’ve made a few BIG life changes over last 7 months or so.

For the quick and dirty and for those who don’t care about the details, here’s a list of the changes so far:

  • Quit smoking 07/07/07
  • Became a vegetarian 10/15/07
  • Becoming more “green”

I’ll do separate posts with the stories around each for those who are interested in the details.

 

Adoption Day!!! February 15, 2008

Filed under: orangutans — jcarvin77 @ 6:22 pm

Yay! I finally did it! I adopted Kesi! She is an almost 4 year old orangutan that is being taken care of by the great people at BOS International!

Do you want to help them? An easy way to help if you’re short on funds is to avoid purchasing items that contain palm oil. It is believed that Kesi lost her left hand when a palm oil plantation worker killed her mother. Read the labels on almost EVERYTHING you buy – palm oil isn’t only in food!

To find out more, go to the Orangutan Outreach website: http://redapes.org

 

Welcome! February 13, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — jcarvin77 @ 1:39 am

This is my first blog and will be exactly what the title implies…random thoughts and questions I may have at any given point in time.

People say I have a vivid imagination and a very strange thought process and I look forward to sharing it with you! Please leave comments and questions of your own, otherwise, I’ll be blogging to myself. Which I guess isn’t too different from talking to yourself, which I do all the time!