richpurcell.com

So for the past few weeks I’ve been a vegetarian. I know, I know I’m skinny enough as it is. You’re probably wondering why I’d wanna stop eating meet for. Well it’s mostly about will power. In the past I’ve had days where I would avoid meat dishes, but I was never able to extend any of those times past the one-day period. This time I’m giving it a try. I made a deal with myself that I’d try it for about a month to see how it feels, if I’d really want to exert the effort. So far it’s been going well, but it does take effort. Fortunately a co-worker told me what to expect. Very few restaurants have more than a few vegetarian dishes. So whenever I get lunch at work I usually have to pour over the menu searching for the one or three dishes without meat. And sometimes even when a meal looks like it may not have meat in it you still may have to ask the waiter if it really is vegetarian. On the second day since becoming a vegetarian I had to send back a dish that was in the vegetarian section of the menu because the chef prepared it with chicken. And going out with friends can be a challenge, because I don’t like being the one that every one else has to bend their tastes for. Also since starting my vegetarian thing I haven’t had any one over for a meal. Of course if I have friends over I would cook a meat dish for their benefit but I’d be concerned about cooking enough of a variety of vegetables so that I could also enjoy a decent meal.

At this point I think it’s important to say that I’m not doing this because I don’t want for an animal to have to die so that I could eat. That’s not my reason. So at any time I could decide to change my mind and go back to eating meat. Animals not dieing for me to continue eating is just a nice side effect. But it is a challenge and so far I’m living up to it. At this point I think its also important to mention that I’m not going vegan. Yes I do eat eggs, but that’s about as far as I’m willing to go right now.

So far I’m enjoying it. However I can’t quite decide if its because of my latent desire to be different than the crowd. I mean, what if everyone went vegetarian, would I want to start eating meat then? I don’t know its too much for me to think about now. I’ll cross that bridge it it ever comes.

Just last week I discovered that one of my good friends here in Seattle was a vegetarian for about eight years. She gave me the “Best Vegetarian Cookbook Ever”. There are so many recipes and I want to try so many dishes just based on the pictures in the book. Yes, “I like da pretty pictures.”

The best thing is that I haven’t lost any weight. I’m still holding to the same weight I was in High School. Yes, I’m still a bit of a bean pole but hey skinny is in… Right? Any way I’m pretty happy with the amount of energy I’ve had in the last two weeks. I mean come on two blogs in one day? That has to be a record for me.

Whats with this insatiable human desire to choose favorites? Is it the way we define ourselves or is it the way we find our place in this vast cosmic sea of possibilities? I don’t know maybe its just me. Anyway since moving to Seattle I have started collecting quite a few favorite things. For instance, my favorite radio station is KEXP, my favorite coffee shop is Cafe Ladro, my favorite lounge is Mona’s, my favorite eat-in pizza place is Talrico’s, my favorite takeout pizza place is Papa Murphy’s, my favorite West-Indian restaurant is Pam’s Kitchen, and now my favorite Greek restaurant is Kokora Greek Grill. Is this what it means to settle into a place?

Music: Muse, “Feeling Good”

Today I received an email from a coworker in Spokane asking if everything was business as usual, here is my reply:

“Business as usual?” True, if “business as usual” means going home with head aches because you are learning more stuff each day than you can stand. All in all I’m doing fine. Don’t be alarmed by my ranting. “New experiences?” Last week I ate at not only a Vietnamese place but also a Mediterranean place for lunch. Did I mention this is a neat little city?

 

Glad to hear that everyone is still operating within normal parameters. Wow, I had no idea I would miss everyone’s little distinguishing quirks. I can just see it now, Mark is ranting about some new or old intolerable situation, Jarom is teasing you and Debbie, Kirk and Brent are looking at the latest interesting video, and making funny sarcastic remarks about Mark’s ranting. All that you need is a dweeb sitting in the cube next to Mark banging away at some script with a few spare coins sitting on the cubicle divider and the picture is complete :-)

As you can tell I’m loving it here. I find myself sitting in a coffee shop on Sunday evenings, sipping some great brew and reading a novel or some technical book for work. All that I need now is an eco friendly vehicle and a neat looking townhouse and I’ll be an official Seattleite.

Well after a year in Spokane we are finally in Seattle. We are all moved into our new apartment, well at least we only have a handful of boxes left to unpack. I’m getting settled into my new job and I’m pretty fortunate that I’m working with some really good people. I’m learning lots of kool new stuff. And, actually I’m surprised that no one has yelled at me: “No, no, no, that’s all wrong”… yet. You know this is really a neat little city. There is so much to see and so much to do, I’m trying not to walk around gawking like a country bumpkin, bein’ I done moved to the big city from Texas and all. So far, we have found Indian restaurants, a Caribbean restaurant, and Mexican restaurants. There are so many choices here that I don’t know what to do with myself. I guess at heart I really am a city boy. the weather here isn’t so bad. I’ll tell you it sure is a lot warmer than Spokane. Anyway got to run now, I’m about to check out the movie Breach, hope that it’s good.

Music: Nina Simone (Verve Remix), “Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair”

Today Amanda took us to Philly. Of course, Amanda doesn’t even need an excuse to go to Philly. That’s her town. This was our first time going there for fun. Satonya and I had been a couple times before, but that was mainly to go shopping at the two Philadelphia area Ikea’s. We saw both the ghetto and the posh sides. It’s really a nice city. And even the ghetto isn’t as much of a ghetto compared to New York. Clean streets, awesome murals on some of the buildings, and cool places to eat. We ate at Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que at Penns Landing. It was really good. Even better than Dallas BBQ. Afterward we headed downtown. Like I said Philly is a really nice city. We went to the gourmet type market downtown and the main cruising strip. Cool, trendy little clothing stores, restaurants, bars. That strip was made for walking and oh yes we walked it. I took a few pics, but we were on the go so none of them were as clear as I would have liked them to be.

An interesting conversation took place in the car on our way back home. Though I don’t intend on divulging the contents of the conversation. I have to say that men and women have a markedly different way of communicating. I’m often amazed that we can communicate at all. Or, perhaps we only believe we’re communicating and each has their own, and probably very different, idea of what the conversation was about. Maybe its better that we don’t know the extent of our miscommunication. But somehow we seem to understand enough to get by and find happiness in coexistence. And to that, all I can say is Vive la differance!

Music: Kaskade, “Everything (Kaskade’s Big Room Mix)”