(no subject)

So, I turn my phone on during my last break to arrange my ride home. I had a voice mail from my mom telling me she had big news in an oddly excited voice. What, did they win the lottery? I had no idea. I called my mom at work and--my youngest brother is engaged.

Chris and Ashley have been dating since she was a freshman and he was a ...junior, I think. She's in her senior year at Westview high school. She's recently turned 18, and Chris is 19. I'm excited, my parents are excited, her parents are excited (well, her mom is, I dunno about her stepdad, who doesn't like Chris all that much).

It's not a surprise to any of us. He bought her a promise ring for Christmas a couple years back (which near as I can tell, a promise ring just means, "We're too young to get properly engaged, but we are indeed Pretty Serious").

He had work and she had color guard practice tonight, so they celebrated V day on Saturday. He took her to this nice Japanese place in Portland (she's taken Japanese all through high school and plans to major in it at PSU), and conspired with the waitress--she brought Ashley some cherry blossoms with the ring in the middle.

Yes, they are young. This isn't as big a deal to my family as it would be to most other people--my parents married young. As a matter of fact, my mom never got a proper engagement ring--just a promise ring. When they were married she was 19 and my dad had turned 18 a few days ago.

They're definitely not planning on children any time soon. She wants to get her bachelor's. I told him this over a year ago: if he does anything to jeopardize her college career, I'll hurt him. She's really smart and has gotten good grades all through high school.

Funny story: after dinner they went to Fred Meyer to show off the ring--DJ and Bink work there, as do a lot of their friends. Then to the restaurant across the street where her mom works--and she got really excited apparently. When she went to show her stepdad, she was worried about his reaction, and apparently had a guilty look on her face as she walked in the door. He said, "You're not pregnant, are you?" *giggle*

I'm going to be the last of my siblings to get married, you watch. I just know it. I have not decided whether that bothers me or not.

I have a feeling I may piss people off or alienate them, and I'm sorry

Vegans Taste Better. Short sweet summary of why a person would be vegan. Like, say, me. *lol*

Bleh. Tricky stuff. I'm not big on evangelizing to my friends, even though I wouldn't mind leafletting total strangers. BUT: I am personally of the opinion that, when given all the facts on the matter, most people would severely cut down their consumption of animal products. Note that I didn't say that most people would become vegetarian or vegan. But more of them would, certainly.

It's hard, because I know a lot of my friends are very caring and wonderful people, but the things they eat are doing so much harm to the world. Several environmental organizations have pointed out that not eating meat is the biggest thing you can do for the environment. Not trading your car for a bike, or recycling, or using low-flow showerheads and toilets. But not eating animals.

I am not against the idea of killing things to eat them. However, if I know I can be perfectly healthy (chances are, I'll be healthier!) and happy without having to kill animals, why not? Also, the way most food animals are treated (whether for meat or eggs or milk) is inexusable. Period. I won't go into details, but it's pretty awful, and the awful stuff is not the exception.

I feel healthier. Everyone around me has been laid up with a cold. I spent one day lying down and then was fine. In fact, during the day I rarely had any symptoms other than an occasional cough and having to blow my nose. I can't help but think it's related to my diet. I've always had a weak immune system, catching everything that blows by and being in bed for a week, so this is a new thing. *knock on wood* Watch, now I'll catch something awful. *lol*

Blargh. Feel free to ignore this post if you want. Please please know that I'm not angry at anybody. I know that vegetarianism and veganism are the exception in this world. I just wish people would think about it more....