My Vegetarian Summer

This year, from May 29 to Sept 4--a total of 98 days--I ingested no meat besides the occasional fish.

For the bulk of that time, I didn't really miss the taste of animal, not until the very end. I also inadvertently lost over ten pounds. Ultimately, I learned that I need to listen to my body's nonverbal cues and that a vegetarian diet is not for me. Rather, for this body of mine, at least a little meat is best.

This really all began in the summer of 2008 when I went about 60 days without meat. I found during that time that I ate healthier in general because I had to prepare meals in advance or choose from the veggie menu. I don't know if cutting out meat was the real health-boost, or if it was simply my new conscientiousness about what I put in my mouth.

I resolved to repeat the experiment for a longer duration, not only to increase food awareness, but also to more strictly follow the wording of Doctrine and Covenants 89. In it, the Lord's charge is that we eat meat only in winter or times of famine. I'm not saying it's LDS doctrine to follow this wording to the letter, but in my mind it was worth trying.

And aside from near lapses in memory, it was surprisingly easy to forgo at first. Since meat is expensive, the new diet saved me a bit of money. I supplemented my diet with a lot of beans, peanut butter, eggs, and other protein-rich foods. I rode my bike a lot and worked out in the weight room downstairs in my building. All seemed to be going well and I wondered if I should become a permanent vegetarian.

With only two weeks to go, my cravings wildly kicked in. Evenings often found me spooning peanut butter into my mouth from an open jar. What's more, I started to really crave meat, to feel pangs of jealousy and hunger when a roommate made a delicious meat-tainted meal. It was strange to me that this only occurred as Labor Day approached and not earlier in the summer.

I also started to lose weight. It's not atypical for my weight to drop in the summer as my appetite naturally decreases and outdoor exercise increases. But I lost over ten pounds without really trying. I've gained five back since Labor Day, but for a stick figure such as myself it was worrisome.

So at a cabin in Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend, I broke my months-long meat fast with a simple turkey sandwich. No fanfare, no averse reaction. In fact, after a few meat-laden meals, I felt healthier than I had in over a month.

Still I don't think I'll ever eat as much meat as I used to. I just don't think it's environmentally sustainable, physically healthy, or in accordance with even a loose interpretation of the Word of Wisdom. But I doubt I'll ever entirely omit meat from my diet either. As with so many other things, I'll stick to the middle road.

I've cut out sugary desserts from my diet now. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Post-Summer Update

Yes, as of next week summer is over. Sure we'll have a few warm weeks ahead, but school is in. And get ready, because I'm moving back to D.C. on Monday!

I'm been working furiously on my class syllabi the last couple of weeks. I'm teaching two sections of a course called "College Composition II" at Northern Virginia Community College and one section of a course called "Techniques of Reading and Writing" at Montgomery College. I won't say which, but I am much more excited about one class than the other. The less exciting class has lots of hoops the school is making the students and instructors jump through, making it difficult to find ways to keep the students from disliking English. But, I'll do my best to be creative.

I'll be living with Carl Cranney and Steve Ward, just a hop, skip and a jump (or a street, a bridge and a parking lot) from Parkside. That's very exciting, mostly because normally when I move into a new apartment it's usually always with strangers (LDS strangers, but still strangers). It usually leads to good friendships, but how comforting it is that I already know my roommates. Oh, and if you're reading this, feel free to drop by my new digs (during reasonable hours).

Lastly, my sister Angela came over last night for an end-of-summer party. We played video games, watched a movie, had dinner, and painted. Here are some pictures and my latest painting:

Angela at work
Angela's half-finished painting
my painting, supplies, and work area
my half-finished painting

Mid-Summer Update

In a previous post, I announced to the world that I dislike summer. After reading a few of your comments, I should clarify: I have nothing against warm weather or Mother Nature--the flora is beautiful--it's our man-made tendency to let our minds atrophy that hurts me so. Still confused? I shall now give an example from my personal life:

In May, I graduated with a Master's degree in English. I had three full weeks to look for gainful employment so that this summer I might continue, um, living. I had no time to look for work before graduation because writing my thesis had eaten up every sane moment of my life. I know what you, my fellow blogger, are probably thinking. If you were strapped for cash why did you go to England? I admit it looks like a strange thing to do, but I'm fairly certain it was personal revelation that prompted me to visit those London streets (and scroll through microfilm of about the same length as those streets). The point is that in making it my full-time job to look for work for the three weeks prior to my trip, I thought I had it covered. Alas, I spent between 6 and 7 hours a day at it for that long, all to no end. I kept praying for God to just give me something, but He had other plans in mind.

So as I packed my bags for England, I was also packing all my worldly possessions in order to move back to my parent's house as soon as I returned to American soil. It was a strange feeling for me, a 28-year-old who had been living on his own for several years. (My mom was thrilled though. Thanks Mom!) Sadly, I did not know if or when I would live in D.C. again and, to my surprise, I had grown attached to this urban area.

I wish I could say I redoubled my efforts in job hunting upon my return to the States, but I felt slightly defeated. Nevertheless, my earlier diligence was paying off and I started receiving e-mails and phone calls. In fact, of the three voice-mail messages waiting for me when my cell phone started working again (London is outside its range) two were about job interviews.

I started making frequent trips to D.C. from my parent's home in Virginia--a few hours' drive--to interview with potential employers. I was also looking for summer employment in this area, anything to keep me productive and financially self-reliant. I finally found work with a temp agency in Charlottesville. Reminiscent of the Great Depression, a horde of hopefuls and I descend on a downtown office every morning at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. for work. We wait in the lobby for up to five hours for our name to be called. If I am called, I can expect a full or half-day's work moving office furntiture or doing construction cleanup at $7.80 to $8.50 an hour. I collect my wage the same day, check or cash. If my name is not called, I go home with no pay, ready to wake again at 4:30 a.m. the next day to try again. I now have odd hours of wakefulness and sleepiness; also, I'm reading more these days....

But, thankfully, the job hunting has paid off. I am happy to announce that I am going back to school, only this time I'm the teacher. I have been offered two classes at Northern Virginia Community College-Annandale and another at Montgomery College-Rockville. All three are freshman English courses. I'm really excited. I will actually be professionally doing what I've always wanted to do. How many people can say that?

I am very grateful to my parents who took me in and for friends who let me crash on their couches in D.C. every now and then. But once again--and here's my point--just like every other summmer, I am counting the days 'til Autumn so that my life can resume.

England Vacation

Here, as promised, is my post on the England trip of '09:

It is my maternal granddad's 80th birthday this year and we're having a family reunion in Washington state to celebrate his life. His name is Clinton Law but I call him my glowing granddad and perhaps you can see why. The man is virtually luminescent!

My contribution to the family reunion festivities came about because of a friend named Heidi Johnson and her inspired idea to go to England this summer to do family history. I have long wanted to go to anywhere in Europe and especially England, and coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences), the Law family hails from the West Midlands there. I was able to walk the same street my ancestors may have walked, study their lives, and see the churches they worshipped in and the cemetaries where they're buried.

A few months after Heidi introduced the idea to me, I had a plane ticket to London in hand and I was standing in the Dulles airport, about to fly across the Atlantic.

We spent five days sightseeing in London and then I alone traveled by bus to Birmingham in the West Midlands to investigate my own family history. The first thing that struck me about my family's old stomping grounds is how different the area must be compared to what my ancestors knew in the mid-nineteenth century and before. Today there is a sizeable Indian and African population with accompanying cultural influences and Birmingham is very industrial and dilapidated in parts. Indeed, the experienced shattered many of my preconceived notions of England. I often remarked to other members in our traveling group (Heidi, her sister Michelle, her aunt, two uncles, and two cousins) that it didn't really feel like I had left home. England felt like a very quirky corner of the USA.

Some of my favorite parts of the trip were seeing Canterbury Cathedral, taking in a production of Wicked, and walking the streets of London and Birmingham. But the coolest thing by far for me was finding the names of five people. I spent a couple of days in the Smethwick public library scrolling through microfilm for 7 hours, but when I found new names that I knew I was related to a thrill ran through me every time. One name brought such an onrush of the Spirit that I knew she had been waiting to be identified. She seemed to be saying, "You found me!" I also got to visit a cemetary where several of my ancestors are buried to take pictures and rubbings. I leave you now with a picture of the final resting place of my 4th-great-grandparents:

I am a Master of the Arts!

I just finished my last final today!

I am now on my way home to spend Mother's Day weekend with the family and for a much-needed vacation. See you next week, D.C.!

Summer Blues

Last Friday was the first day of Spring but I'm already dreading summer. What is it that gets me down (besides my fear of sunburns and sweating while standing still)? The absence of school.

When I was a kid I thought winter break should last three months and that we could continue going to school in the summer. Many a frigid winter morning when I was a kid I would stand in knee-deep Utah snow waiting for the bus and wish I were at home hibernating like the rest of God's creatures. I still love the cold, the snow, and believe that keeping kids off the roads in the winter just makes more sense, but I'm probably in the minority there.

Yes, even today I wish for summer-school. When summer comes it means I have to get a job in retail, let my mind go stagnant, and spend my time wishing I could be in a classroom somewhere. Let's face it, if I'm not hiking or eating icecream I'm dissatisfied with the whole summer experience.

Even more troubling is the fact that once this school semester ends, I will have a 15-month hiatus from school before I can start a Ph.D. program. So I've started weighing my options and I've decided to let friends and family vote on my future. I'll probably make the decision on my own anyway, but this at least will have the trappings of a democracy. Please select one of the following, with an explanation of your choice:

1) Teaching English abroadI've thought about ditching the USA for a year to teach English in Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, or some other Portuguese-speaking country. (East Timor anyone?!) Not only can you pick this option, but you can weigh in on which country I should go to. I think I might even consider a country whose language I do not know. I loved living in Brazil for two years, love foreign cultures, teaching and learning languages, etc. etc. The down-side is that I've heard it's a very difficult and long process (3-6 months) to get a work visa and usually you need a sponsor employer before going. I could go to Brazil on a tourist visa (renewed every three months) but I don't think it's exactly legal, so due to my moral leanings that's out. I also worry about getting shot, mugged, or abducted but that could happen anywhere, right?

2) Tutoring full-time

I could stay in D.C. (I think I have an apartment lined up in Parkside if I want it) and try my hand at tutoring elementary and high school students. The plus-side is that people are willing to pay exorbitant rates for tutors and I already have a friend involved in it and he said he could find me some work. Moreover, I would still be relatively near my family and I still be in DC 2nd. I also love the idea of the tutor-student system, which is almost totally absent from our public education system. The down-side is that I have little experience, so I can't charge $100/hour, meaning I need to work more hours and I need to buy a car. I'd also be trying to start in the summer, when kids are on break (see my above grumblings) so work would be slow when I need it most. Plus, I won't be living in Brazil.

3) Teaching at a community college

I've already applied to teach at Montgomery Community College in Maryland and I can also apply to Prince George CC. Both are Metro-accessible so I wouldn't need to buy a car or move any farther than next-door to where I live now. Teaching would look great on my resume and it would be the closest thing to what my future career will look like, but for some reason, this option seems the least appealing to me. Maybe it's the thought of standing in front of forty students day after day, week after week knowing that if I assign a five-page paper it amounts to hundreds of pages of student-writing to read at home. *cringe*