Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Tag: bulldog

  • My Friend the Vegan

    My best friend Suzanne is a vegan, she’s been a Vegan for a little over a year now. It’s a personal choice for her, I know she thought long and hard about it but ultimately decided that if she wanted to have a clear conscious about how people treat animals then she had to become a vegan. I’m sure there was more to it, I’m almost positive there is. She’s managed to become a vegan and still teach insane amounts of exercise classes that whenever I’m in town she drags me along to. So she gets enough protein, vitamins, sustenance or what have you to be totally awesome as a Body Step, Zumba and Body Pump instructor (for the record, I hate Body Pump and my body hurts so much after)… ok, really the vegan thing has little to do with the class instructing, but she can do that even without eating meat which I think is pretty amazing, because I live on meat. She even says that she loves the tastes of all the new vegetables and tofu she’s discovered on this journey.

    She’s not pushy about being a vegan either, she doesn’t talk down to me because I eat meat, she just knows how she feels about it and lets me go on about being the person I am and she lives by example… that’s a novel idea isn’t it.  She’s a pretty amazing woman for that reason too (there is a long, long list for why she’s amazing, I’m just focusing on a little here).

    This weekend I was going to try some of her fake milk, but I forgot – someone somewhere is probably saying “It’s not fake, it’s ALMOND milk.” or “soy milk”. Whatever… the point is I really was going to try, but this morning I had the bowl of oatmeal already in the bowl when she reminded me and I don’t take milk in my oatmeal, so I didn’t get to.

    So because I didn’t get to try the fake milk (let it go people) I decided to post these really cute photos of her dog instead.

    Farley loving the cool air from the vent

  • Getting Away

    It was nice to get away for the weekend, even if only to Virginia Beach. I flew down to spend time with Suzanne and celebrate my 17th AA birthday – even though that was on the last day of the trip. Thursday night we hit a Big Book meeting and some fellowship before at Ruby Tuesday, we had tried to go to a Mexican restaurant but as it was Cinco De Mayo it was impossible. All the Mexican restaurants get busy with white people on that day and we were the unfortunate whiteys. Ruby Tuesday’s while good food, was just one of the oddest restaurant experiences I’ve had. The wait staff thought one of our party ordered a side dish as a main meal, a glass came apart at the table a flooded us with soda, asking for napkins to help clean up the soda was confusing to them… and to top it off they didn’t even give any discounts for the soda/glass disaster.

    At the Thursday night meeting there was fun too – one of the guys present was on fire with AA and the book, he brought some life into the meeting – just a little over five years sober and he was alive with the spirit, great to see. We also had the other spectrum, the new girls who kept chatting during the meeting about this and that and we kept hearing “Cinco De Mayo” they were asked to be quiet and when that happened were insulted – one of them left. Alas, we alcoholics are sensitive creatures and it takes some of us a long time to outgrow that handicap.

    Friday I just sat around and watched cartoons on my iPad and that evening we went to see the movie Thor – which we all liked.

    Saturday I walked around the mall while Suzanne took a final and then taught a fitness class, it was alright. Then she and I went out to eat before hitting another meeting, this one started with a read from the Daily Reflections and was going pretty well when “Part-Time Alcoholic” started to share about why he was different and special and didn’t really belong – several people interrupted him with “Keep Coming Back” (including me) until the lead asked him to stop advising him to find a sponsor who could help him sort out if he belonged there. He left, and then the meeting changed to folks talking about that as other people thought the meeting chased him off – and a few people who are forced to go to the meeting were offended and left… someone chased after them. I was actually alright with it, the “Part Time Alcoholic” is still suffering from his terminal uniqueness and if he’s going to start to learn it should be now.

    Sunday, the morning of my anniversary, Suzanne and I met her husband Paul at the gym for Body Step – at least it’s not too boring. Then Paul and I went to iHop where we had a self-proclaimed “OCD server” who asked us if we were right or left-handed (so he knew which way to turn the cup handles) and if we could place all our trash in a pile at the end of the table so he could collect it…. it was odd, but the food was good. Then we moved a couch from their garage to their living room, one of those sofa sleepers that are stupidly heavy.

    All in all, it was a nice weekend. Suzanne kept asking me what I wanted to do and there really wasn’t anything that I wanted. Which I think she found very frustrating – not much I can do about it. It was nice to be away. Oh… did I mention I got to spend time with Farley, her dog? I’m his favorite uncle.