Comments (29)

By kilax, November 30, 2009 5:11 am

When Steven and I attended Jonathan Safran Foer’s reading and discussion of Eating Animals we had him personally sign our copy of the book! How exciting! The only time I have ever had an author sign a book before this was when Frank Warren signed my copy of The Secret Lives of Men and Women (I also had him sign a book for my sister) – I have since lost interest in Post Secret. Ha ha.

Anyway, guess what?! I brought an extra copy of the book and had Foer sign it as well – so I can give it away to one of you lucky readers!

This book has been getting an amazing amount of press. I think part of the reason is because Foer delivers the message – that we need to start discussing whether it’s right or wrong to treat animals (for human consumption) the way they are being treated – in such a gentle, non-judgmental manner. You don’t feel put off reading this book – you feel intrigued to read more. Yes, there are some disturbing statistics, but they are not blared in your face. They’re just discussed as what they are – statistics.

A pescatarian coworker came with me to Foer’s reading. She hadn’t read the book yet, but started to right after the reading ended. When I saw her the next week, she told me she had finished most of the book and there was no way she could eat animals products every again. I was really surprised by the effect the book had on her. I didn’t feel like it pushed a vegan, or even much of a vegetarian agenda. But, Natalie Portman said Eating Animals turned her vegan as well. I’m just so surprised by the profound effect of this book!

Now, I don’t expect you to become vegetarian or vegan if you read it! I just expect you to think about it! I would love to hear what anyone else thinks of the book.

And on to the nitty gritty…

Contest Rules:

1. To enter the contest, simply leave a comment below telling me why you want to read this book. Again, you can check out my review of it here.
2. To get an extra entry, link to the giveaway in your blog, and leave me another comment linking to your post.
3. This contest is open until 5:00 PM CST on Sunday, December 6th. I will probably use the old “name out of a hat” drawing to select a winner on Sunday evening, or the Random Integer Generator. I will announce the winner on Monday, December 7th.
4. This contest is open to readers everywhere.

Comments (13)

By kilax, November 5, 2009 12:17 pm

Note to self: Using a napkin to cover your mouth so you can talk with your mouth full of food is NOT COOL. QUIT DOING THAT.

So, I’ve been eating a lot of salad lately, and for some reason, it takes me forever to chew, and I get anxious when I am eating with other people because I cannot respond as fast. So… yeah. The napkin thing.

That is just so gross.

Do you know anyone (besides now, me) who has gross food habits? Do you?

Steven and I once worked with this guy who always chewed with his mouth open at his desk, and smacked his food so loud… you wanted to smack him. He was always eating something, and would walk around the office smacking his food. Yuck. Oh yeah, and he was a vegetarian who any ate meat if it was free (?). And he cut all of the tops off of the cupcakes I brought into the office because he didn’t like frosting (he ate 6 or so cupcakes though).

Bitter much? Ha. I laugh about it. Now.

My other bad food habits are eating too fast and apparently, Steven says, I do a bit of smacking too. BUT NOTHING LIKE THAT GUY! I am working on it too!

Comments (26)

By kilax, October 8, 2009 5:03 am

A coworker was politely and continually inviting me to social work events that focused around drinking alcohol (Happy Hour, Booze Cruise, etc.). I continually, and politely, declined the invitations, because social drinking is not my idea of fun, and most of the after-work engagements would have me getting home after 10:00 at night.

This back-and-forth invite and decline situation continued until I found out I would be going on travel with this coworker for training, and she began mentioning hitting the bars after class. That is when I told her, “Drinking is not my idea of fun. I also don’t enjoy hanging out in big groups of people, which is why I haven’t been going to the work socials and probably won’t want to go out to the bars after class while on travel.”

I thought she understood what I was saying – that I don’t think of drinking as an “activity” or way of having fun. But I think she really took it as “I never drink. I am opposed to drinking. I am anti-alcohol.”

This came to my attention when she acted nervous buying beer at dinner (while on travel) around me. And when she seemed ashamed to want to go to Trader Joe’s and buy a 6-pack of beer. And when she timidly asked if I would mind if she brought a beer to my hotel room to drink while we watched TV.

Then yesterday, we were talking about Facebook (which inspired tomorrow’s Friday Question), and I said, “It’s not like I have any drunken pictures of myself on there*.

“Of course you don’t,” she replied. “You don’t drink.”

“It’s not that I don’t drink,” I said, “It’s that I don’t drink for fun.”

“Oh, so you drink to get drunk?” she was completely serious.

“No, I just don’t view it as an “activity.”

“Well, I don’t either.” She seemed offended.**

I was with another coworker, and we started talking about having a glass of wine now and then. For me, “now and then” is probably 4 times a year, tops. But, I have proof below! My mom, grandma and I had “wine-a-ritas” on my birthday this year. I am not opposed to drinking. One coworker seemed to get that. I am not sure why the other doesn’t.

Some people I work with drink every night. They come in smelling like alcohol. The coworker I am talking about does not do that, but she does stay out late on the weekends, drinking in the bars, from time to time. There is nothing wrong with that! It is just not something I desire to do. I try telling her that, but all she hears is “I don’t drink.” Is it even worth talking about? It’s not causing any problems in our relationship, I just get the feeling she thinks I am judging her. I’m not. We’re just different.

*This will make more sense tomorrow.
**It’s a big pet peeve of mine when people post long dialogue in their posts. Sorry.

Comments (12)

By kilax, July 16, 2009 5:35 pm

I hate that I wear my heart on my sleeve, therefore making every emotion I am feeling obvious.

Last week, a coworker said, “Hey! You seem happy today.” I was happy that day. The last few times she’d seen me, I’d been very stressed or sad.

Yesterday, I ran into my mentor in the hallway of my building. I just said hello, and from that, he asked “what’s wrong?” He could hear the stress and panic in my voice.

And the worst example – a few of my college friends are visiting this weekend, and one just called me and said, “It seemed like you are kind of stressed out in the last few emails you sent. You seem worried about what we will do while we are there and what we will eat. We just want to see you and relax! We can just sit on the couch all weekend and eat whatever, it doesn’t matter!”

I wanted to cry when she called. She was trying to reassure me, but knowing that my stress was so obvious just made me feel worse.

Comments (20)

By kilax, April 23, 2009 5:32 am

Update: Aron is right – the Chicago Marathon is now closed. Funny thing is – it was open this morning when I checked it. Total bummer. Steven wanted our first full to be local – time to look into Wisconsin!

Earlier this week, a coworker (who is also a runner) asked if I will be excited when the May 2nd Half Marathon is over.

No way! I will be SAD when it’s over! I am having so much fun training. I love being on a schedule. I love having a race to look forward to.

And yes, I am a little bit worried of keeping my mileage up when I am NOT training for something specific. I feel great when I get at least 25 miles in a week.

My guess is, I will spending most of May 3rd convincing Steven to sign up for the Chicago FULL Marathon before it’s too late. (Wait, is it a good idea to give away my reasoning for signing up? Ha ha.)

Related story: On Saturday, after I got my medal, Steven said to me, “That medal is pretty cool. A lot better than a block of cheese.”

Ha ha. Yes, the Kenosha Half Marathon Medals are blocks of cheese:

And… today is the first day that weather.com is showing the forecast for race day. Let the worrying begin! I have absolutely NO faith in weather predictions. But I still look at them, and somewhat plan my life around them. Why? I am not sure.

Looks good so far…

Comments (15)

By kilax, February 25, 2009 5:50 am

• I’m awake on the train ride to work and read the paper
• No one gets in my way on the walk to work
• I ride the elevator alone on the way up to my floor
• There’s no wait at the microwave to make my oatmeal
• No emails/phone messages at my desk
• My pants and shirt are hole-free (unlike yesterday…)

Hmm, makes me seem a bit anti-social, but that’s how like I like to start my day.

What’s your perfect start to the day?

I have a lot on my mind lately. There are some other things I want to post about, but I am going to split the topics up into two scheduled posts later today. I hate to bombard your reader, but I don’t want my topics to get lost in a “bullet list of topics” post.

Comments (14)

By kilax, January 6, 2009 12:23 pm

I’ve somewhat stayed in touch with my coworkers from Italy (I worked there summer ’06). Somewhat, as in, every once in awhile, one of us sends out an email. And, every once in awhile, as in, every six months…

So I was excited when a French coworker contacted me last week saying she was trying to find me on facebook. I know if we are facebook “friends,” our chances of keeping in touch with increase dramatically, because that is what a lot of people prefer over email.

I was looking through her photos and saw a group photo of all of our coworkers at the studio. I looked to see if I was in the photo.

Then I didn’t see myself and felt kind of sad.

Sad because it reminded me how antisocial I was that summer. I was friendly and talkative at work, but I didn’t spend a lot of time hanging out with friends after work.

Okay, I hardly spent ANY time hanging out with friends after work. There were only two occasions I went out with them – for my birthday dinner, and a night in August before we all departed for holidays (because the studio closed for two weeks in August).

My birthday dinner with coworkers in Roma. What a fattie I was! Ha! I miss that Italian bread!

I didn’t regret it then, or feel left out, or lonely. I was volunteering every night. I was super busy and super tired.

But now I look back at her photo, with a bunch of people smiling and having a good time, and I do feel left out. I feel stupid for being so independent.

I feel sad that I don’t have a large group of friends – now or then (or even before then). I feel sad that I don’t connect with people very well.

I like to think that I am outgoing and fun to be around, but I find myself at parties, keeping to myself, not feeling like talking to new people. I sometimes find myself being quiet around people I DO know (only sometimes, but still).

Lately, I’ve been quiet when a group of people are talking about something I know nothing about. And they keep talking and talking about it. Like gossip. Or a tv show I don’t watch. Or how drunk they were the night before. I try to stay interested, and involved, because I would expect them to do the same, but hey, they don’t! So, I just get more turned off and discouraged from reaching out to people.

Oops. I didn’t mean for this to turn into another rant. I just wanted to express how seeing that photo made me feel. It’s weirding me out that it made me feel this way.