Today was long and exhausting and possibly the greatest day I have had in a long long while. It was the first day of the Illinois State High School Tournament. AND IT WAS AWESOME!!! After spending forever planning this, I am happy to report that day one went smoothly. A lot of credit for that goes to my undergraduate mock trial students, who showed up like bosses and did everything I asked of them the day after Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. My students get shit done! I am so proud of them.
We also had some amazing attorney volunteers who came from all over Illinois to help make the tournament happen.
Oh, right, and I almost made it through the day vegan. My only slip-up was in the afternoon when I realized that I hadn't eaten lunch yet and so I reached for a handful of chips. I unfortunately grabbed the Harvest Cheddar chips. Instead of being an asshole and not chewing them, I ate them all up. And then I switched to plain old Ruffles wavy chips.
At dinner, though, with some attorneys and a very mock trial enthusiastic judge I got a veggie burger loaded with even more veggies and drank about 100 cups of water. I also didn't drink much water today. But despite being underfed and slightly dehydrated, I had the most amazing day ever. Big things are in the works, folks! I can only pray that they come through. If they do, be prepared to face Mega Overly Happy Maybe Exploding Marley.
It will be epic.
But for now, I need to actually sleep before Day 2 of trials.
GO MOCK!!!!!
Love to all,
Marley.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
30 Day Vegan Challenge - Day 1
Recently, I received an email from PETA urging me to give them money in order to stop the suffering of animals. I am all about stopping animal suffering. It's a good part of the reason I have three cats and am constantly pestering my poor husband to adopt even more cats. But this email...
The email was about a cat named Double Trouble who was killed during experiments performed at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was starved, kept immobilized in a nylon bag, and had all sorts of awful things implanted in his ears, eyes, and brain. It was horrible enough to read about, but then there were the pictures. He was a cute little orange and white striped kitty, and they had the pictures of him all cut up and with stuff in his head and I couldn't help it. I started crying. I couldn't stop crying. I cried so hard for so long that I started my husband crying. I just couldn't deal with it and I couldn't get over it.
Plus, it made me realize why not eating meat is just not enough for me. Even if I don't eat meat, the facewash that I use could be tested on cats, rabbits, or any number of other animals. Animal cruelty goes beyond meat to testing, to leather, and to plain old mistreatment.
So I've decided to try to do something about it. I'm going to be vegan - as best I can - for 30 days. I'm going to try to extend that beyond my food as well, to ensure that other products I buy (in particular, I'm thinking of soaps, cosmetics, and other personal hygiene items) haven't been tested on animals. I'm going to be sure that if I buy clothing, it's not wool or leather or any other kind of animal fiber.
In short, I'm going to become the raging hippie I've always wanted to be. Today was day one, and I already made the discovery that my Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats have gelatin in them. Lame. There goes that breakfast cereal. I also found out that many of the soaps I buy are either directly tested on animals or they are made by companies that test on animals in their general production.
And every time I think that maybe I should just be lazy, or that I can't afford the extra cost for animal safe products, I'm going to think of the damn photo of Double Trouble that I can't get out of my head, with all of the awful things implanted in his brain and the dead look in his little kitty eyes.
It makes me feel like an asshole for even thinking about falling off this wagon.
Double Trouble, your life may have been a horrific stretch of pain and terror without any comfort. You may have never known what it feels like to have someone snuggle you and give you pets until you fall asleep. You probably had no idea what a warm lap feels like and you never knew the joy of racing down the stairs under your own power when you heard your person opening the cat food can for dinner. You missed out on all of that. But I'm going to do my god damn best to make sure that I live the kind of life that will spare as many other animals the life you knew. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but at least your little kitty life may not have been completely in vain. Because you sure changed my life.
Writing this has made me cry all over again over that cat.
Maybe you think this is too big a change to make, or that you can't give up your turkey/ham/bologna/whatever sandwiches. Maybe you think hamburgers and mascara are worth killing kitties and bunnies and puppies and sweet little monkeys. Then we'll just have to agree to disagree. Because you're wrong. And I can't do it anymore.
So this is day one of what I hope will be a kinder existence for me. And I'm going to snuggle the heck out of all of my cats today.
The email was about a cat named Double Trouble who was killed during experiments performed at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was starved, kept immobilized in a nylon bag, and had all sorts of awful things implanted in his ears, eyes, and brain. It was horrible enough to read about, but then there were the pictures. He was a cute little orange and white striped kitty, and they had the pictures of him all cut up and with stuff in his head and I couldn't help it. I started crying. I couldn't stop crying. I cried so hard for so long that I started my husband crying. I just couldn't deal with it and I couldn't get over it.
Plus, it made me realize why not eating meat is just not enough for me. Even if I don't eat meat, the facewash that I use could be tested on cats, rabbits, or any number of other animals. Animal cruelty goes beyond meat to testing, to leather, and to plain old mistreatment.
So I've decided to try to do something about it. I'm going to be vegan - as best I can - for 30 days. I'm going to try to extend that beyond my food as well, to ensure that other products I buy (in particular, I'm thinking of soaps, cosmetics, and other personal hygiene items) haven't been tested on animals. I'm going to be sure that if I buy clothing, it's not wool or leather or any other kind of animal fiber.
In short, I'm going to become the raging hippie I've always wanted to be. Today was day one, and I already made the discovery that my Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats have gelatin in them. Lame. There goes that breakfast cereal. I also found out that many of the soaps I buy are either directly tested on animals or they are made by companies that test on animals in their general production.
And every time I think that maybe I should just be lazy, or that I can't afford the extra cost for animal safe products, I'm going to think of the damn photo of Double Trouble that I can't get out of my head, with all of the awful things implanted in his brain and the dead look in his little kitty eyes.
It makes me feel like an asshole for even thinking about falling off this wagon.
Double Trouble, your life may have been a horrific stretch of pain and terror without any comfort. You may have never known what it feels like to have someone snuggle you and give you pets until you fall asleep. You probably had no idea what a warm lap feels like and you never knew the joy of racing down the stairs under your own power when you heard your person opening the cat food can for dinner. You missed out on all of that. But I'm going to do my god damn best to make sure that I live the kind of life that will spare as many other animals the life you knew. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but at least your little kitty life may not have been completely in vain. Because you sure changed my life.
Writing this has made me cry all over again over that cat.
Maybe you think this is too big a change to make, or that you can't give up your turkey/ham/bologna/whatever sandwiches. Maybe you think hamburgers and mascara are worth killing kitties and bunnies and puppies and sweet little monkeys. Then we'll just have to agree to disagree. Because you're wrong. And I can't do it anymore.
So this is day one of what I hope will be a kinder existence for me. And I'm going to snuggle the heck out of all of my cats today.
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