If I could spend all day around awesome ingredients and amazing food I would be the happiest piggie in town, but I'm not writing a book and I'm not a chef – I don't even work in a restaurant. It's not something that is appealing to me when I break out in hives at the touch of gluten or milk. I don't think I would last very long. While all things food do take up a small portion of my daily life, there is plenty of time left in the day for me to do other things and live a non-food obsessed life.
I work. Imagine that!? I have a shitty job in a shitty location downtown Austin. When I mention the word downtown before I tell people where I work, they assume something glamorous or at least something that pays well. Oh, how wrong they are! There are bums and while I do not think I could ever get paid enough to deal wi
th bums, I still don't get paid what I would like. Who does? I like being downtown because it's an easy bike ride or right on the bus line, whatever I'm feeling for the day. The bike is dangerous and the things people do to bikers would really shock an average person (I hope) who has a shred of sense in them. As bad as some of this may sound, it keeps my day interesting and I really would not change it right now.I learn. I'm an accounting major going at an incredibly slow pace. College is expensive and I go when I can afford it. I'm hoping this will pay off more than most college educations and I might actually be able to use it in the “real world”. I really hate that saying.
I knit. Knitting is not for your grandma anymore. I could make a sweater that would put your grannie's to shame. While I'm pretty much a vegan in what I eat (minus those eggs and honey), I do not abide by the vegan laws when it comes to knitting. Bring on the silk, Alpaca and sheep's wool, baby! I never really understood the vegan point on wool anyway – it's a 100% renewable resource each year. They get sheared anyway to help with the heat in summer, so why not use it instead of throw it out? Some silk harvesting can be damaging to or kill the worms, so I suppose I could understand that point, but there are programs that have no cruelty silk.
I also sell my knitting on a great site www.Etsy.com. It's a wonderful place for crafties, such as myself. Go support someone there! I've got a little banner up on the left with my shop items, but there pretty much anything you can think of there. Great for Christmas gifts! I know that I've already got my eye on a few things from a local clay artist for my kitchen!
I read. In my living room you will not find a television, you will find bookcases. Same goes for the bedroom. We read around here – lots. Mountains of books. We've gotten rid of hundreds of books, too, enough to fill small dumpsters and we've still got enough to last us through the next nuclear winter. Well, almost. Books are a vital point for us. We're always pulling something off the shelf to reference or share with someone or just to browse. The goat and I have fairly similar tastes and so everything of ours is just kind of thrown together.
I ride. I love my bike! It's hard to want to go places in the winter, but its still so much fun. My back tire is bent from a silly bike accident and that needs to be repaired before next spring. Nothing major, but it rubs my breaks when it turns so it's like driving with your emergency brake on. I've been hit by cars, but thankfully nothing bad enough to knock me out or land me in the road. It's illegal to ride on the sidewalks here, but I'd rather do that than ride in the street.I understand that it is much more dangerous for a bike when you ride on the sidewalk because cars do not see you there for some reason, but I'd rather stop on the sidewalk before they hit me than not be able to stop in the road and get creamed. Austin is a major city for bike activists – it's one of the worst cities for bikers and we're everywhere here. Our Critical Mass events draw close to 300 bicyclists regularly. The sad part is, with as much awareness as we try to raise bike cops still get hit on their bikes and regular riders still get harassed by the cops in cars for silly things. People tell me regularly how much they hate bicyclists and how we need to watch out for the cars on the road. Pedestrians even tell me to get in the road when there is no bike lane. Please remember that we all carry bike locks and chains and are pretty much guaranteed to be in better shape than you. An ass beating is not out of my league and it's happened before.
I like to think I'm a pretty typical 20-something, but I don't really know if that exists. For now I'm happy with where I'm at sharing my ½ food obsessed life with the goat and riding the Town Lake Ladybird Trail with him. Maybe one day I'll have a less shitty job that pays more in the accounting field. Until then, I'll keep knitting.
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