"It's like walking a butterfly."- Ryan on walking Beast. Haha love it!

Real Men Watch Chick Flix.

I'm sitting on my slouchy brown living room couch next to Ryan. Bug and Beast are passed out next to us. We're watching an HBO special on the NY Jets. My girlie mind is fascinated in seeing behind the curtains on these superstar players. I want to meticulously observe them searching for every shred of gossip to discuss afterwards. (We usually spend an hour before bed looking things up online and watching YouTube). Tonight I want to look up Mark Sanchez who I think looks exactly like Brody Jenner. And I'll probably gush about how much I love coach Rex Ryan (who was eating a gigantic bag of pretzel M & Ms during a meeting. Have you tried them? You should.)

Before the show started Ryan said, with twinkles in his eyes, "Do you mind it we watch it?! We can watch a girlie show first". That right there is (one of the reasons) why I love him. Ryan indulges me in endless chick-flix and ubber trashy girl TV. He listens to all of my rants on celebrities ("OMG Justin Bieber is driving a Lambo. Isn't he like nine?!!") and lets me play Cosmo Radio in the car whenever I please. When our guy friends scoff at my TV taste he defends me saying if you don't take any of it seriously it can be hysterical.

My Tivo schedule is a smorgasbord of humiliating reality TV shows, Bravo contests, HGTV design shows and sports games. Shouldn't everything in a relationship be a compromise? I'm not trying to change the fact that Ryan plays Halo and watches football. He's not trying to change my obsession with gossip magazines and Real Housewives. It takes mutual respect to be able to compromise. He understands that I can only bear about an hour of Halo, and I understand that he'll watch my Housewives but can't put up with Rachel Zoe. We respect each other's boundaries.

Sometimes it pays off to let our guys do their thing. I got to write this blog! And equally as rewarding- I got to watch the entire Jets team test out the Shake Weight. Seeing Mark Sanchez hold a jiggling bar in front of his mouth-Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_sjkvwmwg&feature=related

Bitchy Vegetarian

Technically I'm not a vegetarian. I'm a pescetarian (meaning I eat fish). I take a lot of flack for this. "Fish are animals. Therefore you eat animals, right?" It used to make me very uncomfortable, guilty even. But I'm happy to report that I've decided to officially accepted my status as pescetarian. Call me whatever you want!

I found myself on the defense more often than not when I alerted someone new of my eating habits. People love to put me in a corner- accuse me of being a poor vegetarian, or prod into my reasoning, trying to prove me wrong. "No matter what you do animals are still dying so what’s the point!?" That one really pisses me off. I'm a vegetarian (ok, pescetarian) because I don't want to eat animals. I'm well aware that one person not eating meat will not keep more animals alive. I realize I'm probably not making a huge dent in the pockets of butchers and slaughterhouses. But that's not the point.

Everything in life seems to be a contest. Like we're all trying to outdo each other. And if we can't be number one then we put others down to justify that. In the race to be green carrying re usable bags around isn't good enough. You must drive a hybrid and install solar panels as well. In the race to be the ideal family in my hometown driving a Benz isn't good enough. You must have a vacation house and apartment in the city as well. It's tiring trying to be the best!

Early on in my veggie days (which started when I was twelve) I was a strict vegetarian. No gelatin, no fish, no cheeses containing rennet (an additive in some cheeses to coagulate milk- it comes from animal stomachs). I wanted to be the best. Eventually, after three Halloweens without my absolute favorite Candy Corn (which contains gelatin) I broke down. I ate an entire bag of the candy corn and candy pumpkin mix. I missed my gummy sugar fixes more than any meat!

After my Candy Corn breakdown I felt like a failure. I didn't fit inside those perfect lines. I wasn't the best. I stopped telling people I was a vegetarian because I was so ashamed, even though I still wasn't eating any actual meat.

I say screw those perfect lines! I'm not a vegetarian for everybody else. I'm a vegetarian for the animals. What those money hungry industrial farms do to animals is despicable. The inhumane torture they put innocent chickens, cows, sheeps and pigs through should be outlawed. I find our government, and sometimes our world to be full of Species-ism. Animals deserve our full respect. I show them my respect by not eating or wearing them. If others show their respect by eating less of them, or by not using products tested on them, or by simply supporting them then that's great too.

If everyone skipped meat for just one day the U.S would save 70 million gallons of gas, 1.5 billion pounds of crops,and 100 billion gallons of water. If you're trying- you're succeeding.

(Stats from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/the-breathtaking-effects_b_181716.html)