My life made absolutely no fucking sense yesterday. Seriously.


I had just gotten out of the salon, and my stylist used clippers on the left side of my head. Clippers! You know the stuff you plug in and it buzzes?
The hair looked awesome though, so even though I was a bit shaken by the whole "clippers" thing, I was able to get over it relatively quickly.

I'm not sure what possessed me to do what I did next, but I decided that this weekend would be a meat-free weekend. That I would eat nothing but fruits, veggies, and whatever weird soy-based shit vegans throw at me. The trick was to find a place that served that stuff, which I was pretty sure didn't exist in Tampa.

Well, it does! And it's uber yum, ranked one of the top 20 best vegan/raw restaurants in the US.: http://www.thegrassrootli.../menu.html

People, I can't stress enough how delicious the food was; especially, since nothing on the menu has any meat it in. Moreover, I went hardcore (cause that's just how I fucking roll), and ordered the dishes marked "RAW". RAW means that not only are the menu items Vegan, they aren't even cooked.
For those of you in Minneapolis during that last controversial "uber" invasion, The Grass Root is nothing like Stupies, and resembles more of a Californian Raw Vegan restaurant mixed with an eclectic mix of Indian/African/Thai decor.

I planned on this being a solitary lunch so that I could connect with the complexity of myself--you know, to touch the imago oneness within all of us and shit. But immediately upon looking at the menu, this man from a few tables over (the restaurant was empty save for me and him with his wife), started talking to me.

He asked me why I was Vegan, and I replied I wasn't. Moreover, I told him that I wasn't even vegetarian. But that on a whim I wanted to go Vegan for the weekend.

We talked back and forth, joking and discussing how we stumbled upon The Grass Roots. Finally, his wife, sensing that this conversation would probably not end any time soon, invited me over to the table to sit with the two of them. Eventually, the waitress ended up at the table too.

The next hour and half spawned conversations about auditing experiences (they're sceintologist, the wife an actual 'auditor'), Buddhist philosophies, the dangers of dogmatic thinking, social-economic ramifications of the typical western diet as it is applied to the developing nations of the world, fair trade, sweating to remove toxins, and the fact that they refused to believe I was 35 years old (the flattery was well received, but met with my usual air of suspicion).
My defenses were weak. Normally, when dining alone, I don't take well to folks trying to strike up conversation with me--even the waiters and waitresses, unless they're fine as hell. But here I was in this spirited conversation with these lovable but kooky-as-hell rich-as-hell scientologist, who've been Vegans for 30 years, but still remained cheery. I always pictured Vegans to be like Anxiety--you know, good looking, but crotchety and stuff.

It simply was stimiluation overload. I "woke up" out of my dreamstate and realized , "Hey Dan, you fuck head--this conversation, with these folks, in this rabbit food utopia... is. not. normal.!!!!! Run to a Burger King right the fuck now!!!!!".

OK, so I didn't run to a Burger King, but I did drive to a StarBucks and called CarrieMpls about how her influence on me with regards to curbing my appetite for meat, gets me in these uncomfortable, awkward, and sufficating social situations


That's my Sunday rant. Thanks.


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[Edited 10/28/07 16:00pm]

I love those alternate-universe moments.

i had a boyfriend who was vegan for awhile. it sucked big time.

glad your hair looked good though.

meat free weekend??? your gay card may be revoked...
[Edited 10/28/07 8:45am]

Imago said:

They're even better

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PAgQOx6X9NQ

HereToRockYourWorld said:

It was as alternate-universe as you could get for me. I mean, immediately after I got in my car I called Carrie up and just let forth an emotional outpouring of the events that just took place.

I think she still thinks I should stop eating meat though.

roodboi said:

There are alot of vegan gay men. They know how where to get their protein.

DanceWme said:

oooh. I like that song.

JasmineFire said:

Thanks Jassy

Did he try to recruit you?

Imago said:

yeah..they get it from "meat"...damn your thick this morning...

your trying to hard, undo- bjork

roodboi said:

Well, if you want to have a pre-nascar cookout, just let me know--my meat, your grill.




your edit
[Edited 10/28/07 9:03am]

Imago said:

he knew better. especially since right before he converted i had just bought a really nice leather jacket.

he went back to being a regular vegetarian eventually.

sosgemini said:

Imago said:

bean sprouts sound pretty fucking good right about now...

Imago said:

Well, I'll let Carrie continue to work on that.

I do think it's cool that you were willing to have that experience. So many people develop this blustery defensiveness over the issue, which I find annoying. You're willing to explore.

roodboi said:

I'd offer the "your meat/my grill" swap, but I'm being monitored by vegan Scientologist now.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

Well, it's a moral/ethical issue I've struggled with for awhile. If there were more places like this restaurant though, I'd be able to at pursue a 5-day-on/2-day off Vegan schedule
[Edited 10/28/07 9:13am]
[Edited 10/28/07 9:14am]

Imago said:

It would make such a difference if people would actually do that.

It may be fucking freezing here, but I am surrounded by vegan restaurants. Not sure most people would go for that tradeoff, but I guess it works for me.

omg.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

If it's freezing in Seattle, I'm at the north pole. And yeah, we got loads of yummy stuff here.

Although, I have been craving both of those asian veggie places you took me to. Particularly the last one we ate with Martin at. I mean, veggie fish sticks. wtf???? And that "ice cream"!!

Imago said:

I don't care what you eat.

But you do.

CarrieMpls said:

That's not what Tom Cruise and John Travolta have been telling me

Did you say uber-yum ?

pardonme4livin said:

You wouldn't be complaining if this was a Churches fried mutation thread

Imago said:

Just remember, they're ALL that charismatic. That's how they suck you in!

CarrieMpls said:

Come back and we'll eat our way around town some more.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

I'm sensin I'll only find out about the trip after it's taken place

Imago said:

Hey... I wouldn't be complaining if I was INVITED places!!!!!