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Gratitude: Celebrating my Ten Year Vegan Anniversary

May 1 marks my 10-year Veganversary! It's also my 30-year mark as a vegetarian. My regret about going vegan is that I didn't do it sooner.

For the longest time, I've felt like a new vegan and now I'm surprised to be here at 10 years thinking I could probably get Herbivore Clothing's new "Old Vegan" shirt.

To celebrate, Sam and I talked about splurging on a dinner at Harvest Beat, one of the few local vegan restaurants we haven't tried. But we're not feeling that extravagant, so I think instead, we're going to treat ourselves to waffle cones and a couple of pints at Frankie & Jo's.

I thought about getting a vegan tattoo, but I don't have any ink (!) and I'm not really feeling it. I'm going to settle for this blog post.

In gratitude, here are my top 11 favorite vegan memories and experiences.

  1. Friends and family: I have the best. Many friends and family have gone out of their way to make vegan (and even vegan and gluten-free!) meals and/or desserts we could enjoy together and to invite us over for dinner.  My mom has been amazing about making vegan Thanksgivings—so much so that it remains one of my favorite holidays.

    My mother-in-law actually introduced us to Wayward Vegan Cafe (in its original location!) where we have since enjoyed many, many, many meals).

    In return, we took our moms to Cafe Flora's Thanksgiving dinner and introduced them to Next Level Burger.
    2. Taking mom to lunch, we made KING5 news.
  2. Activism: We've met so many awesome and inspiring people and learned so much. I loved going to the Whidbey Institute's Intersectional Justice conference as well as a number of Food Empowerment Project events, and volunteering for the Northwest Animal Rights Network (their vegan activism 101 workshop got us started).

  3. Veg Fests: We got our Vitamix (recommend) at Portland VegFest and managed to go to Vegan Oktober Fest in LA (the same weekend as Das Bunker's 20th anniversary!) for Sam's birthday. Whoa!

  4. Vegan fiction: I just love reading fiction with vegan themes, vegan protagonists, or incidentally vegan characters. We splurged to attend the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest Gala because Karen Joy Fowler was a guest of honor and I just loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

    See more favorites listed below.

  5.  Animal sanctuaries: We've visited Pigs Peace, New Moon Farm Goat Rescue & Sanctuary, and I volunteered at Precious Life Animal Sanctuary.

    Pasado's Safe Haven gets its own post (see #11).

  6.  Travel: Oh, thank you HappyCow app! We've become such foodies. It's fun to find the delicious vegan food in the funky vegan-friendly part of the city when traveling. Eating vegan in Iceland. Eating vegan in Germany. Eating vegan in the Caribbean. So many outstanding meals and great walks to find them!

  7. Vegan cruise: Taking my mom and aunt on the Holistic Holiday at Sea and getting my editorial "Promote Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet" published in the local newspaper afterwards was phenomenal. How Not to Die is a great book.

  8. Vegan athletes: I had a great time (and surprised myself) by running my first couple of marathons with Team Humane League and reading tons of nonfiction and watching documentaries about amazing vegan ultra-runners (Rich Roll, Fiona Oakes, Catra Corbett, Ruth Heidrich, Scott Jurek) to get inspired.

  9. Vegan explosion: In the past decade, there are so many great, new vegan products. Now, north of Seattle, we have some great all-vegan restaurant options (Cafe Wylde and Sage & Cinder) and many, many vegan-friendly places.

    Vegan is now a word people know.

    I love it when my Girl Scout friend Chloë points out that Thin Mints are vegan.

  10. Vegan romance: I love that my spouse is vegan, and an activist, too. Valentine's Day at Cafe Flora and anniversary celebrations at Mike's Cafe and Wine Bar on Friday Harbor have been romantic moments.

  11. Vegan at work! Oh, gosh, I thought it was nice when my previous employer brought in Plum Bistro's vegan food truck for the summer party. But now, after taking a vegan cooking class, going to a Share the Love tour, volunteering at a Compassion Day, and then volunteering about a year at Pasado's Safe Haven -- I now work there, on a mission to end animal cruelty!

Still on my vegan bucket list:

Top five vegan regrets:

Gratitude is great, but it's good to acknowledge life's travails.
  1. Yeah, people do make a lot of bacon jokes and ask, "Where do you get your protein?" a lot.
  2. Those times when my workplace used "vegan" as the example of a non-protected class in HR's non-discrimination sessions. I get it, but still *eye-rolls*.
  3. Imperfect ethics. Imperfect health. GI issues! Being vegan isn't a panacea. No magic. Even Vegans Die is a great book.
  4. Being vegan can be heart-breaking. I'm more open and exposed to hearing about animal cruelty, animal suffering, and the harm routinely done to animals.
  5. Wishing I'd done it sooner. 

Some of my favorites in vegan fiction (themes, characters, some authors):

See my earlier posts: Changing the World One Book at a Time: More Vegan Fiction and 20+ Powerful Works of Vegan Fiction.
  • A Piggy's Tale: The Adventures of a 3-legged Super-Pup! by Tod Emko and Ethan Young
  • Pride of Baghdad by Bryan K. Vaughn and Niko Henricon
  • We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly and Animal Man by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog and Doug Hazelwood
  • Persimmon Takes on Humanity by Christopher Locke
  • Fox 8 by George Saunders
  • The Awareness by Gene Stone
  • Vegan Teenage Zombie Huntress by G.G. Silverman
  • The Vegan Revolution with Zombies by David Agranoff
  • The Tourist Trail by John Yunker
  • The Green and the Red by Armand Chauvel
  • The Kinship Series by Robin McKinley
  • An Oath of Dogs by Wendy Wagner
  • Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller

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