Life as an Omnivore

Several months ago I wrote about life as a vegetarian. I made a slow trek from meat eater to vegetarian over the course of seven and a half years, spending the last eight months or so of that time as a true vegetarian (though not a vegan--I still consumed dairy products). And then, back in January of this year, I just decided one day that I'd had enough. What prompted the decision? A few things:

1. We'd just moved into a new house, which had necessitated Lisa leaving her job as curator of Vent Haven Museum. This put us in a bit of a money crunch, and I realized that eating a vegetarian diet was more expensive than eating a "normal" diet, so I decided to quit buying the organic dairy and the expensive soy meat substitute. It did cut our grocery bill overnight by about 20 dollars a week. Honestly, though, this was the lesser of the two reasons.
2. More importantly, I just wanted something different to eat. Also, I'd given up on meat way back in 2001 when I'd learned about the way the animals that gave us our meat were treated. I was basically boycotting the meat industry. And after seven and a half years, I figured they'd heard me loud and clear! I'd made my point!

So I started eating meat again. I couldn't tell you now what it was I ate first. Actually, wait, that's not true. I CAN tell you what I ate first that was meat. I was on my way out of town to a software conference in Louisville, and I'd left at lunch time. I stopped at an exit off the interstate to get gas, and I thought I'd eat lunch at a restaurant there. There was a Skyline Chili at the exit, and I thought to myself, "You know what? I want a 3 way!" So I had one. And that was pretty much it.

In the previous post I linked to above I talked about the hardships of being a vegetarian. But everything isn't rosy on this side of the fence, either. Here are some things I found out:

1. Fast Food still sucks. When I was a vegetarian I used to think to myself, "It's been ____ years since I've had a Quarter Pounder with cheese. Man, I miss those!" And I used to think that the reason I hated fast food when I was a vegetarian was because there just weren't many non-meat options there. But guess what? Quarter Pounders with cheese just aren't all that great! Neither are Beef'n'Cheddars from Arby's or Whoppers from Burger King. I've had them all once since I started eating meat again, and I found them pretty bad. But maybe it was inevitable that I be disappointed. After eight years of thinking about them, there was no way they were going to be as good as I imagined.
2. Beef has an off flavor. I never noticed it when I was eating beef regularly, and to be honest I don't notice anymore, either, but that first day at Skyline I thought I was going to be sick. It had been years since I'd had any beef, and I couldn't believe there was such an odd flavor to it. I guess it's the same way that anyone else feels when they eat venison or goat or anything else unusual for the first time. It took some getting used to.
3. Nine months later, I am STILL overwhelmed when I go to restaurants. For eight years when I sat down and looked at a menu at a restaurant I could quickly eliminate about 90% of what was on the menu as being not for me. I usually had about four or five items that I could choose from, and I would carefully read in its entirety the little paragraph written about each item as I tried to figure out which was right for me. Today the server seats us and leaves us with the menus, and when that person comes back around to ask us what we want to eat, I pretty much panic. "I don't know!" I say. "This is a ten page menu, and I'm only on page two! Start at the other end and get me last!" And then I hurriedly pick something, and I'm almost always dissatisfied.
4. People who couldn't understand why you were a vegetarian understand even less why you would stop being one. When most people found out I was a vegetarian, they would say something along the lines of, "Really? You don't eat meat!" And they'd look at me the way people in Jesus' time looked at lepers. These days, though, when those same people see me eating meat, they'll say, "Hey! I thought you didn't eat meat!" When I say, "Yeah, I used to be a vegetarian, but I gave that up," they say, "What?" and look at me the way people in Jesus' time looked at lepers that were oozing puss out of their skin. Apparently, if being a vegetarian is odd, being a "recovered" vegetarian is even odder.

But don't think I'm complaining. Life is good as an omnivore, though I think, after nine months, that I've eaten enough meat just to be eating it, and I may cut back a little.

Uh.

Uh.

Yeah, I can't think of a way to really wrap this blog entry up. No catchy little phrase or turn on a sentence I've written above. I keep writing hoping that at some point this thing will sound like it's over, but nothing is working. Maybe this thing's going to go on forever.

Sometimes I think maybe I need a good editor.