I've been a vegetarian for almost 1/2 of my life (13 yrs. in October). I wish I had more guts. When I first became a vegetarian, my classmates bothered me about it: asking me if I had leather shoes, if I eat eggs, if I eat cheese, and did I know that leather, eggs, and cheese come from animals too? After all, they didn't want me to unknowingly be a hypocrite. Oh, and the most annoying, most ignorant question that vegetarians have to put up with: Where do you get your protein? It sounds innocent, but at least to me and, I would guess, to other vegetarians, we hear things that aren't said: Don't you know vegetarianism is so unhealthy? -and-You must be pretty stupid, cutting out your only protein source. -and-I'm going to catch you in your uninformed ignorance. -and-I'm determined to prove to you that being a vegetarian is a bad choice.
Finally, the absolutely most annoying is the assumption that just because I'm a vegetarian, I love all vegetables, and cast aside all preference. The idea is that when you cut out meat, a "major" part of your diet (primarily derived from 4 sources: cows, pigs, chicken, fish), you limit yourself way too much by also refusing those vegetables that you dislike. My parents explained this to me when I refused to eat mushrooms, which aren't really a vegetable, and asparagus, as I had refused for my entire life. Vegetables, incidentally, are derived from many many sources, so many that I can't name all of those that are sold in my local market. Therefore, my refusing to eat one or two types of "vegetables" shouldn't be too much of an issue. (I do eat asparagus now, with Italian dressing.) The argument didn't hold, and everything turned out ok.
Honestly, I forget that I'm a vegetarian. I read labels and order food without meat instinctively, and I forget that it's weird. One time we were going to make a chili bean dip with some friends, who I had known for two years. We all went to the grocery store, and one friend picked up beef chili with no beans. That's when I realized that I had never told her. No harm done, no one offended. It's just something that doesn't come up unless it matters.
I've been known to choke down meat and mushrooms, for that matter, out of fear of offending a, usually foreign, host. The last time I had beef was in Turkey, mushrooms in SF, and pork eleven years ago in Czech Rep. The last time I had chicken was out with DBF's colleagues at a Phoenix restaurant, where we waited forever for our food, the waiter was incompetent, and my dinner got switched with someone else's at our table, even after the waiter took them back to check which was which. Meat as a surprise is the least amusing kind.
And that brings me to shoes. Actually, I have some leather shoes, which is something that I try to avoid if I can, but also something that is pretty hard to avoid. We have a dinner to go to tonight, so I went to look at shoes to wear with black pants and one of those stylish polyester shirts. I'm picky about shoes with heels because I really don't think one should be in danger of falling or twisting an ankle due to tipsy heels. I found these, which had a blue sticker, which meant that they were 50% off, yay. Then one of the workers came over to me and said that they were changing all of the blue stickers to yellow stickers, which meant they would be 80% off, YAY! So, these are so cute, entirely man-made, non-leather shoes, which I got for the low low price of $10. I can't even stand it!-MsLin
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