I am a carnivore

I know I know. That's the wrong word for us... Nice people get a nervous smile on their face when I say that and quietly whisper, "now Juli, you are an omnivore. That's what you are." or something like that. But I just like saying that. It's fun to say. And I also like the expressions on the faces of two of my housemates who are vegetarian. They like it too.

I haven't eaten meat since February 11th when I accidently ate beef inside of my chimichanga on culture night at Baldwin. That next Sunday I had a scare. I got real dizzy in the shower so I got out and threw on some clothes quick and crawled to Jamie's room to pass out. Luckily I never did, but it was close enough to get me thinking about what I'm doing to my body. I am a carnivore. My body likes meat. My stomach asks for it by name. I've been feeding that stuff down my throat for 22 years and my body is begging for an explaination for all the torture.

It started when Katrina, my roomate, sent me a valentine's greeting from PETA. What a lovely greeting. Roses are red, Violets are blue, you have a heart and chickens do too (ok that wasn't really it. I don't remember it). It could have been something as creative as "Roses are red, violets are blue. KFC saws the beaks off their chickens, and feeds them to YOU!" How clever. I should work for PETA. But then I'd have to become some crazy extremist. I get really mad at them. They'd have a half decent following if they went about it the right way. I agree that animals should be treated more decently. I agree chickens' living conditions should not be so bad that they try to peck themselves to death and KFC and Taco Bell would stop sawing their beaks off. I agree cows shouldn't be so sickly in their living conditions that cow killing companies have to force steroids into them just to keep them alive. I agree. It's all sick. I especially get angry when I realize all the rainforests that are supposedly getting cut down to house all these cows. And these don't become pretty little cow pastures, but giant cow industrial killing factories that only pollute the air and water sources even more and shove the native people out of their lands.

BUT... I don't appreciate PETA telling me it is impossible to say you care about the environment if you still eat meat. THAT especially ticked me off. I believe we are carnivores (fine, omnivores, whatever) and I believe we are allowed to eat meat and still not be considered barbarians. I don't agree with the way it's done, but I am willing to fight to make things right... so I can go ahead and eat meat again.

So why am I not eating meat? At first it was cause I watched some disgusting animal killing videos that were attached to my happy valentine's greeting. Then I realized it was time for lent. So I gave up meat and french fries and other fried foods (wow this has been difficult). And then I felt guilty cause I never even let God in on the plan and if I understand lent right, I think you're supposed to let God know. So I realized my main reason was because I hate vegetables. And the only way to get myself to eat vegetables is to deny myself the foods I usually eat to avoid them... cheeseburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets...

I don't know when this will be over, but I'm planning on eating meat again when I like vegetables and salad and stuff like that. I think this will be good also to prepare me for hiking during May because I'm told we won't eat much more than little snacky foods along the way. Sorry for talking about this for way too long. It's really not worth all the words I just spent.

I'm going to go eat a bean burrito.