Today was another beautiful day! I was determined to stay off of my computer all day until it was time to blog and I was successful! I slept in and then exercised with Wayne. Andrew avoided exercising since he was still tired from his accidental 11 mile run yesterday. Good plan!

I had breakfast and then took out my crochet project. I don’t like crocheting but I really want this scarf and it’s nearly done so I’m going to suck it up and get it done. I made pretty good progress until it was time to go to the Hillsdale Library. I was one of three panelists participating in a moderated talk Sustaining One’s Self: Food, Dietary Practices and Identity. I’ve not done anything like that before so I was a bit nervous but it was really interesting and enjoyable. One panelist is a Naturopath who is gluten zero, one is a rabbi who keeps kosher and then there is me, the vegan. Our moderator is an anthropologist who teaches at Portland State.

We spoke about why we eat the way we do, the social consequences of our food choices, availability of food for our particular dietary needs and so on. Eating is such a social activity and is filled with so many traditions. Although the three of us had completely different reasons for our choices (health, religion, ethics) and eat vastly different foods we all had very similar experiences with friends and family struggling to come to terms with our choices.

I think we all learned a lot today. One audience member brought up the fact that she is older with health issues/physical limitations and finds it difficult to eat the way she wishes due to these limitations. She has trouble with the physical aspect of food preparation. I hadn’t really considered that before. It wasn’t a financial issue or a lack of access issue as is typical. Something to consider for sure. Also Catholics who are gluten sensitive have a problem because the communion wafer must be made from wheat.

After the talk we made a quick stop at REI and then a quick stop at a neighbor’s house to pick up a dresser for Jordan. The husband offered to just bring it to our house since we didn’t have our truck. Wayne gave him “The Tour”. Our house is ridiculous but it’s going to be so nice someday! Our neighbor agreed.

Wayne made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and it was just Wayne, Andrew, Natale, Jayde and me. Very quiet in our house tonight. After dinner we watched some Dr. Who and called it a night.

There exists the TomTato.