Introduction

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. I hope it's okay if I introduce myself. I live on the

San Leandro/Castro Valley border in the east bay. I have been a

vegetarian for awhile, but I am now a vegan. I'd always had this

idea that being a vegan was really hard, but I have found it to be

surprisingly easy, and it also makes me feel surprisingly good. I

guess I've seen the light progressively. I'm not a stupid person,

but I'm amazed at the ideas I have managed to harbor (or hide from

myself) over the years. I now try not only to eat vegan, but clean

vegan, make-up vegan, and wear vegan.

 

I am a mom, and my kids are moving into the young adult phase

themselves. I have living with me kids ages 13, 15, 18, and 21. The

13-year old has been a staunchly committed vegetarian for a bit over

a year now, and I am just moving her into veganism. Yesterday, I

got my 18-year old to watch " Earthlings, " narrated by Joaquin

Phoenix. He is at least honorable enough to agree that if he's

gonna eat it, he needs to be educated about just what he is eating.

He goes to SFSU and I know they have a lot of vegan food available

there that he chooses regularly, and the only thing I've actually

seen him eat since watching the DVD is oatmeal, so here's hoping.

 

I am also a terrible cook. I work full-time, I attend classes at

CSUH in the evenings, I have the world's tiniest oven ... and, well,

I'm just not good at it. I have discovered lots of vegan

convenience foods that keep me happy, although my family pretty much

won't eat them. I made a tofurkey roast dinner the other day ... my

15-year old would only eat the mashed potatoes and gravy. She was

really surprised when she found out (the next day) that they had

both been vegan!

 

I have a real quandry over my family. They are not little kids, so

they go out and eat quite a lot and make their own choices.

Sometimes they go grocery shopping also. But when I do the shopping

I am always faced with non-vegan requests from them. In particular,

they CANNOT give up the milk. So I drive to Whole Foods out in San

Ramon and buy Clover Stornetta milk, which makes it sound as though

their cows are lounging around in a pasture somewhere. Am I fooling

myself? In particular, Thanksgiving is coming up, and while I love

tofurkey roast with all the trimmings, they are going to feel I am

cheating and abusing them if they don't get a turkey, and they will

refuse to eat the tofurkey. I see my health food store is selling

free range turkeys that they claim at least avoid the Butterball

abuses, but I don't know. From what I've seen, those people who

have jobs that involve killing living things seem to get some kind

of a demon in them or something that causes them to behave like

murdering psychopaths.

 

So I don't know what to do. Do I make my family happy and myself

sad by preparing a turkey alongside my tofurkey? In the normal

course of events, I DO NOT prepare non-vegan foods, but in the

normal course of events they find something else somewhere else. We

can't do that on Thanksgiving.

 

May I ask also if there is a good place to find vegan shoes in the

Bay Area? I see them on-line, but I broke my ankle last spring and

that has left me with some issues regarding fit.

 

Thanks!

Sharon