It was a mostly decent weekend (We had a good opening weekend, Halloween, some dancing, some hanging out with friends, all good things); but one full of some fairly annoying attacks to my way of being and eating and the whole vegetarian thing. We all have those peeves that just want to send us over the edge of just wanting to lash out at people and struggling not to.Firstly, a friend of the family farms and their family all hunts (much like my own), they called to ask my mom and brothers if they wanted the meat from the deer one of the boys just got. (If they are going to hunt at least they use the meat or know people that will.) So since yesterday all I have heard around the house is about feild dressing, how long it can safely hang in this weather, getting it processed and butchered, finding a place to process, and what they are getting done with this meat (bologna, steaks, burger, etc.) and possibly the hide as well. There were phone calls, debates, conversations, gloating. I try to just ignore it... it doesn;'t do a bit of good to say anything, I just wish I did not have to hear it constantly. That was the start of yesterday.
Then came part two... the real point of my aggravation. It was Halloween weekend as well as an opening weekend for our show. This, unsurprisingly, means going out both night. (Halloween night I dressed as Mother Nature in a flowly, sheer, autumn inspired dress.) Well last night and into the wee hours of this morning we ended up at Denny's (after everything else was closed) and some of the group were still under the influences of alcohol (which probably did not help). Everyone had ordered and the food had just came. As the one girl (one that I had just met had already found myself shaking my head at more than once) began to dig into her chicken strips announced something about her being a vegetarian. I looked across the table at her plate then up at her, "Um, no your not." (This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves of people.) "Yes, I am. I'm just a vegetarian that eats chicken and seafood, I don't eat all things like beef or pork. You know there are all kind of vegetarians and vegans." She continued one babbling and raiing my blood pressure as she was going to lecture me about how a true vegetarian could still eat chicken and seafood and still be a true vegetarian. I don't think she liked my reference to "vegetarians" or eat such as semi-vegetarians. Finally she took a breath (I was getting more and more annoyed and just flat out aggravated) and something was said about me being a vegetarian (two fo the others at the others at the table know that I don't eat meat) and that I really didn't need her to tell me what one was. She asked what I ate and I explained as patiently as I could that I didn't eat anythign that had once had a face, that included chicken and seafood. So she started in on me about being a fake vegan... I don't claim to be a vegan and never had. She also started bragging about how good seafood was and how tasty her chicken strips are. These are the types of people who help make life harder for the rest of who us who actually do not eat meat. She kept at me about how good her chicken tasted and how I was a pretend vegan. I tried to explain why semi vegetarians who still eat some meat make it harder for the rest of us... when we go places people actually try to use chicken breath as "vegetarian" and fish as a "meat alternative." She was too caught up in her idea of always being right to even listen. I can't help it, but it just seems far worse to have pretend and fake vegetarians stirring up trouble than the meat eaters who just don't understand. It also confuses the meat eaters who think we can and do still consume things like that.
Check out these links:
http://www.theveggietable.com/articles/whatisavegetarian.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/OtherInfo/VegetarianTypes.htm
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/tp/TypesofVeg.htm
"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body." ~Mahatma Gandhi
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