Testing the Waters

One of the items on my "to do" list for 2011 is to go pesco-vegetarian. I'm really struggling with the idea of never eating another piece of sushi. Ever. It's a little depressing because I love sushi. It's so yummy! But...

I think I need to embrace vegetarianism head on. I don't know if vegan is practical, at least not for now. My husband enjoys meat and dairy products and isn't a fan of modifying his diet overall. I don't want to totally freak him out or overwhelm him. Heck, I don't want to overwhelm myself! I know there are plenty of meaty/veggie couples out there who make it work, so I'm sure we can do it, too.

That being said, my husband is out of town on a climbing trip for the next five days. Naturally this seems like a perfectly good time to stop eating meat! I'm going to challenge myself to seven days meat free. I'll tackle the first five days sans husband which removes the temptation to eat meat out of convenience. Then I'll (very gently) break the news to my wonderful husband that I'm not going to eat meat. If he wants to make a piece of chicken, we can modify my dinner accordingly. This will call for some creativity -- and creativity is fun!

To prepare I've stocked my fridge and pantry with a bunch of fruits, some veggies, yogurts, soy milk, grains and legumes. Like any new "hobby" or "interest," establishing a good base of foods was a little on the pricey side, but I know I'll be happy I did it in the end.

Wish me luck!

Two books down, fifty to go

Oh, hey there, February. Didn't the ball drop, like, yesterday?

Well, four weeks into this year and I've read two books so far! Well, a book and a half.

First, I finished the sixth Harry Potter novel. I don't know if that counts as a success but I'm going to roll with it. While I love Harry Potter and the wizarding world on the big screen, I've had a heck of a time reading the books. This has basically been a ten year process. Seriously! Ten frickin' years. I picked up my first Harry Potter novel in the tenth grade.

It's okay. You can judge me. I'd judge me.

The second novel was an "easy read" called If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I say "easy" because it was an emotional novel but it only took me a few hours to read. During my search for books to add to my queue I stumbled across an article on NPR which recommended this book. At the time, I didn't realize it was a teen novel. Considering I'm struggling with a Harry Potter novel, I didn't let the genre keep me from purchasing this book. I'm glad I didn't dismiss it. It was a good read. I had to fight the urge to cry through most of the novel. (Okay, I cried. Big, fat tears of sadness and despair. Judge away!)

My only beef with the book was the hospital social worker. As a hospital social worker, I resented the depiction of this haggard, sloppy social worker. The first thing I did when I read the words "hospital social worker" was do an internal jumping jack... until I read her character description. Come on, folks. Let's not feed into the stereotype of a frumpy middle-aged baby snatcher. I've never worked for DCF and I reckon most of our department are lively, attractive and youthful individuals.

I'm currently working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This might be a year-long project. It's just so hard to read. It's painful at times. I love the movies... why do I struggle so much with the books?

Probably because I spend my time reading blogs rather than reading books.