It’s mine and Greg’s 13th wedding anniversary today! I can’t believe it’s been so long already. In the car on the way out to my Mom’s house, where we were dropping off the kids for the day (Yay Mom!), he said he’d looked up what the thirteenth anniversary was.

“Oh yeah? What is it?” I asked him.

“It’s fur,” he said. “FUR! I’ll buy you fur.”

“Oh geez,” I laughed. “Well, if you love me, you won’t buy it for me.”

“No, if I loved you, I’d go club that baby seal myself.”

Don’t worry, he’s just kidding. I mean, he’d never do something like that. And anyway, fox would be so much nicer. BA DUM BUM.

I wrote a little post about our special day over on my home blog. I included a crack in there about the look on his face when he hears me say I’m not eating bacon anymore, which is happening more and more frequently (the comment and the face). I haven’t had bacon since, geez……early October sometime? Ah yes: October 12th. I’m sure to a lot of vegans, a month off bacon is nothing, but for me that’s like a month off of toilet paper; you know it’s possible, you know a large population of people have never had what you’re used to, but you’re not quite sure how they manage. What could possibly substitute? What will your friends think of you? And anyway, who would want to LIVE LIKE THAT?

And yet, here I am. Still kicking (and keeping my butt clean, because that was just a simile). I think this take-it-slow approach is really working for me. I know people who have gone vegan overnight and are still happily vegan a year later. Heck, I’ve met people who did that with raw foods (that blows my mind). I’m not one of them. Making radical changes overnight is usually nothing but a way to suffer that much faster and see my goal deteroriate that much quicker. Witness my latest diet attempt. Geez, that was ten kinds of bad judgement (for me personally – I’m not invalidating the positive results of others doing that – I just should have known myself better).

So, to sum up the official Going Vegan update:

Off pork since October 12th, 2008.

Off beef since about that same time, too.

Still eating chicken a couple times a week. Still eating fish once a month or so.

I’m also still eating eggs, but they’re eggs I get from a woman here in town who has her own chicken harem, and adores them so much I bet they get treated better than my corgi. They probably get bon-bons. All he gets are pomegranates.

I feel good about my path so far. I’ve been doing a lot of “passive thinking”  about this – by which I mean I use my particular super power of Mulling Things Over, something like burying seeds in soil and seeing what comes up. I’ve been mulling over the use of animals for food, over the issues of family farms and animal treatment. I hadn’t even reached any firm conclusions before I noticed my behavior changing. I’d meant to just go off bacon, to start with something that simple (but that delicious and ubiquitous around our house), and instead I’ve gone of all pork and all beef. It just feels right. I’m still clinging to chicken; it feels like the only other choice when I go out to eat except for eating JUST VEGETABLES, and we all know frightening that could be. I mean, first I start ordering them, and then I start eating them, and then what? VEGANISIM? Waitaminute….

I’ve got more to add, but it’s time to go get some tea with this guy who has stuck around me for thirteen years, and then take him to a bookstore and do some real damage.