Stay on the Path

I don't do waiting well. The thing is that I've been doing an awful lot of it lately, at least when it comes to my graphic novel, school, work...OK, I've just been waiting a lot. But I'm a little nervous about it because this time, as I wait for the next move for my book I'm starting to lose the feeling that it's actually happening. It's not a logical feeling, because it is happening and these periods between steps are perfectly normal in the creation of a book. But it makes me apprehensive.

I find that when my life opens up, the way that it has lately, all kinds of distracting fillers flow in, and it's not easy to tell which are blessings and which are not. I believe roller derby was one of those fillers.  A good, educating experience, and in many ways, The Right Thing, just in The Wrong Time. In that case, I screwed up, over estimated my power and resources, and ended up missing registration for school. That Cannot Happen Again.

Then along comes my friend Tara. Tara is the mother of a friend of Lala's. She's a personal trainer,  sells health & wellness products, and is a text book Type A personality. She's also a sweetheart. But that is neither here nor there. Tara calls me the other day and says that she wants to tell me about her company because "With your self motivation, your health values, your energy, your need for flexibility right now- you'd be perfect!" I sniff a pyramid scheme, but there are a few factors that lead me to bite:

1. She's nice and talkative and I want to go have tea
2. She's the sole income of her house, and she's loaded

I'll never get her off my back if I don't

I meet her at Life Alive and we have a nice visit. We talk about me leaving my job and different kinds of tea and our girls. Then she tells me about the business. It's called Arbonne. I'm not wrong in the type of business model it is- you get bigger if others get bigger too, but on the other hand, it's the highest compensation program in the industry (I looked that up). I don't want to be the Mary Kay lady by any means. But on the other hand, they encourage a more casual, natural recommendation model. So she talks to me about the products. They're vegan- bonus. They remind me a lot of products like Juice by Alicia Silverstone. And she tells me that she can get them for cheaper than Clinique- which is the only thing to this point that's done me a lick of good. And she's brought samples for me. OK, OK, I think. Can't hurt if it's free.

This is where I've fallen to pieces.
I love the samples.
My laugh lines, eye lines, and worry lines are all gone. I've had worry lines since I was 16.

I don't know what to do. I want these products and I want them cheap. This is stupid. Am I getting distracted? Do I want to spend my time doing what she does? What if it was just a little bit of time? Can I do it all, or am I going to screw up again? Not if I get to class registration on Monday, right? Right!?

Veggie Mama

Happy Mother’s Day!
I hope your mother knows you appreciate them, or if you’re a mother I hope you feel appreciated.
I sure do! This morning, after sleeping in very late I woke up to kisses and hug, hand-drawn cards and a delightfully thoughtful gift, but I’ll get to that in a minute. For the rest of the day was amusing chaos as I watched Jason take on the bulk of the household/parental-drudgery. When he crumpled on the bed after saying goodnight to the children, I couldn’t help but feel simultaneous pity, awe, gratitude, and satisfaction. I think this has been the best Mother’s Day yet and I know my family loves me.

 As for the awesome gift, it starts with a story. Now stick with me- I’m not going to get all preachy and whatnot- I’m just going to tell it how it happened. About a year ago I was feeling pretty crappy about myself and life as a whole. I was having prolonged bouts of low grade depression, trouble with my weight, my skin, my energy level, and generally feeling yuck. I’d tried a number of methods to treat each individually, but needless to say, nothing worked.

 One day I was wandering through a book store as aimless as anyone could be without bumping into stuff, wondering what exactly I was going to do about it. Then I realized I was in the cook book section. I’m no chef. I follow the back of the box, thank you very much. But I was moved to pick up The Kind Diet but AliciaSilverstone (another weirdness since I’m definitely not the Us Weekly type). But cover bragged a forward by Dr. Neal Barnard, of whom I’d read several times. But what hooked me was inside read a list of everything that had been bothering me; all could be solved, allegedly, by eating a vegan diet with the processed sugar cut out. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t have tried at that point and the serendipity was a little much for me.

So I went for it. So how did it turn out? In two weeks I was feeling better than ever. Everything improved! It wasn’t perfect, but neither was I- but everything improved. I was feeling better than ever. Then life happened, stress happened, money didn’t happen, and I fell off the wagon. And trust me- the list of symptoms has reared its ugly head. It hasn’t been hard to stay vegetarian and that has been helpful, but it’s not a vegan-friendly world. It takes a conscious effort till you really get in the habit. Not to mention that while I have all the support imaginable, I’m the only one in the family doing this.
 I’ve known all this time that I wanted to get back in the boat, and in this recent burst of ambitious energy I’ve decided that now is the time. I’ve been prepping food differently for a couple of days and feeling pretty good about. I’ve been scouring the interwebs for good vegan blogs, and reading up on new cook books to try.

And just how supportive has Jason been with all of this? Look what he got me for Mother’s Day! The VEGENOMICON: The Ultimate VeganCookbook. No way am I eating these by myself! Now I'm really stoked. Step back! Mama’s in the kitchen! 

What did you do for your mother today/ what did your kids do for you? Have you ever been interested in eating vegan/vegetarian?