I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely weekend. I can’t believe it’s already Sunday afternoon, so I want to make this quick and enjoy the rest of a lazy day.
I spent all of yesterday working to clean up and paint some boarded-up, abandoned buildings. The “after” shot reminds me a theater set.
The reason I wanted to share this, besides me thinking it’s pretty cool, is that I’ve noticed a difference between the way the friends I volunteer with and other people deal with the way I eat. I see a lot of folks writing or talking about how they get grilled or chided for what they do (or don’t) eat, and I rarely experience that. I’m thankful.
At the end of last week, I got together with some old college friends for dinner. I chose the restaurant. We all had a great meal (more on that coming soon) but one of these girls started questioning me about my nutrition. I giggled to myself, thinking how lucky I am that a girl I’ve seen maybe five times in the last ten years is so concerned about me. And I resisted the urge to question her about her nutrition from her meat and bread sandwich. She even requested they leave off the tomatoes.
That’s such a big contrast to my friends, family, and Alex. New people I meet don’t bother to ask why I brought a sandwich when there was free Papa John’s. We’ve talked about it once, and that was enough. Plus, after we cleaned up, we went to Findlay Market’s Biergarten and there were party trays with snacks. I enjoyed something no one else wanted to try – pickled Brussels sprouts!
Good for you--I hope someone is going to restore those old buildings, because they are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI think pickled Brussels sprouts sound awesome!!!
You guys did a great job with the restoration process. Everything looks really clean and tidied up! Just curious--is that a design on the boards in the back, or graffiti? Haha.
ReplyDeleteIt's really nice that your friends are so supportive of your eating style. I also have soo much respect for how you handled that nagging girl situation... I would've probably taken it to heart and been pretty annoyed. It's something I have to work on :P
The restoration project sounds like a wonderful way to volunteer! Glad to hear you have cool friends that aren't insecure about your veganism! I have to say, that is a great idea for dealing with the vegan-doubters who bring up nutrition! Being equally concerned about theirs is a great tack!
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of pickled brussels sprouts.
I can't wait to see the restaurant you chose. You've been hitting em out of the park lately with these restaurant meals.
ReplyDeletePickled Brussel sprouts?! That's crazy. But I'd try it. Probably pretty tasty. I rarely get questioned either...only very occasionally. But I chalk that up to the fact that I mostly only hang out with other vegans and vegetarians. My omni friends are probably tired of hearing me preach anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to volunteer your time! You're lucky that you rarely get "grilled" over your eating habits, nice pun. I still do by friends and relatives that have known me for decades.
ReplyDeleteDiana, there is still some graffiti on the upper windows. I'm kind of tempted to check back in a month and see how our door designs held up!
ReplyDeleteShen, my secret for having awesome restaurant reviews is that I only write about places I like. I've had a couple of bad experiences lately.
Yay for picked Brussels sprouts!