July 2008

There was a time in my life where I was what some would call a vegetarian. I did not eat any red meat or pork. The chicken was a very rare sight on my plate, but I did eat fish. At the time I was living in the midwest and the big thing there was fish. Every Friday there was a fish fry somewhere…

Anyway, my journey to my beef-free life began after watching a documentary about the beef industry. They showed me a little too much, including how the cows died etc, and it was really traumatizing to me. I mean, seriously. I cried like a big idiot.. and then my husband came home and I declared that I was no longer going to eat anything that caused harm to an animal.

Cows Are My Friends

I lived the life fairly well all while still cooking beef and such for my husband. I never tried to force my beliefs down his throat and I am sure he really appreciated that. Every now and then he’d have a burger and I would ask for a bite, and then regret it and vow to never do it again.

I had made a promise to myself that I would not become one of those frantic vegetarians who threw myself on the ground when I discovered that I might have eaten some beans cooked in bacon grease.¹ In fact, I took pleasure in laughing at those types of people whenever I saw them on TV having fits over it.

Cows Are Yummy

Fast forward three years. It was late December and my DH’s company was going to have its annual Christmas party at Brett Favre’s Steakhouse. I was very excited about it because well, I thought maybe I could meet Brett Favre.² They had sent us some forms to fill out in regards to what we wanted to eat. I could pick from chicken, shrimp or steak. They were offering us some top quality prime rib so I said what the hell, I’ll get that.

My DH was quite worried about my choice and up until they brought us the food kept asking me if I was sure about my decision. I kept telling him I was fine… I would be fine. Just fine. Really fine.

The prime rib was delicious. Oh my god. Every bite was like some yummy goodness that words can’t even describe. Everyone made jokes about it³ and checked on me frequently to make sure that I wasn’t going to regret my choice. I really thought everyone had gone insane, because remember, I was never going to be one of those crazy people.

After we all done we exchanged hugs and headed out, chatting and laughing as we got into our cars.

Sane Girl Go Boom

As we were driving down the highway headed towards home, I was still laughing and chatting with my DH… and then it happened. I suddenly, without rhyme or reason, burst into tears. I became some frantic mess of nerves. Naturally my DH was wondering what the hell was my problem and I wasn’t revealing too much about the exact cause of my breakdown.

And then out of no where, I began screaming,  “I murdered
the
cows!!! I
murdered the cows!!!!!
It’s my
fault they are
now dead!! “I murdered the cows!!! I murdered the cows!!!!! It’s my fault they are now dead!! Holy fuck, I am a MURDERER!!!!!”

Because my DH was a smart man, he figured he should not be driving down an interstate with his wife acting like a deranged lunatic so he pulled over to the shoulder. He calmed me down as best as he could⁴ and then drive us home.

I got home and threw up over and over and over. I wanted no parts of that poor cow left in me. And then to punish myself, I fasted for three days.

After I fasted, I sat down to eat a nice salad when it dawned on me that I had finally gone over the deep end. I had broken the one promise I had made to myself, and that wasn’t going to work for me.

I’ve been eating meat ever since.

1. I saw a girl on the Real World cry for days when she ate some green beans with bacon bits in it [↩]
2. He is a sexy man, imo [↩]
3. actually the jokes were about me [↩]
4. although I am sure what he really wanted to do was punch me in the face [↩]

It’s Tuesday and I am beginning my mini-vacation. I don’t return back to work until Sunday. I plan on getting a lot a few things done around the house, Plus, I was hoping to finish setting up the meme and award portion of my own site as well catching up on a few of my favorite blogs. I still haven’t uploaded my doodles for Doodle Week!¹

Anyway, as I was surfing the web today, I found myself getting cranky which only means it’s time for me to go down the dreaded, yet pretty simple list, of my blogging pet peeves. If I offend you, sorry, but my usual blog surfing has gone from pleasurable to being rather annoying. And I really don’t like being annoyed.²

With that said, let’s get started.

I Do Not Want To Hear Your Music

I really like discovering new blogs. I enjoy reading what you have to say and share.³ However, if you opt to have auto-play music on your blog any slight possibility of us being friends will come to a screeching halt. I know we all would love to share our new favorite song with the world, but you don’t have to force it down my throat. Direct my attention to it, and then allow me the freedom to CHOOSE to play it if I want to hear it.

Not Everyone Uses Blogger

The world wide web is a big big big place. I mean it’s huge… and I know this might shock some people, but not everyone uses google’s version of a blog. I personally use Wordpress. I know there are people who use Diaryland, GoDaddy’s Quick Blogcast, Typepad, Joomla and well you get the point. So, knowing this, why would you set your comments to only allow people who use blogger? Is that fair? I know we all want to avoid spam and other crazy nonsense, but I am sure you want to have people coming to your blog and commenting right? Otherwise, what is the point? I’ve been nice and leaving comments anyway but I won’t any more. If you won’t take 2 minutes⁴ of your time to make it so I can comment without using some made up google blog then I figure you don’t want my comments anyway.

Oh Yah! I Get To Spend 5 Hours Searching Your Site!

If you use Entrecard, and actually drop your card on blogs, then you might be able to relate to this.

I do not want to spend my life looking for the Ecard widget on your blog. If you can not find a spot near the top or on the absolute bottom then I’m not dropping on you anymore. Wait… I’m going to make an exception and say that I will drop on you if it’s in the middle… but not if its surrounded by a ton of useless links, pictures, advertisements, garbage, and badges. The days where I enjoyed playing “Where’s Waldo” have surpassed, so I don’t want to play it on your blog with your Entecard. I could be mean and pinpoint the specific blogs I am referring to, but I won’t.⁵

In Conclusion

1. Please stop forcing your music down my throat.
2. Enable ALL forms of comments on your blog… It will exapnd your readership, and I bet you will get even more comments.
3. Put your Entrecard somewhere where its easy to be seen and quick to click.

Thank you, and I really hope we don’t have to have this little chat again for at least a year.

1. I am such a lazy ass! [↩]
2. Actually, no one likes seeing me annoyed [↩]
3. Unless it’s 20 pages about how to make money quick [↩]
4. I am sure it will take even less than 2 minutes [↩]
5. Even though I reaaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy want to [↩]