Miss Rachel

Last Saturday, my mom and sister and I went Passports Restaurant in Gloucester for lunch.

It’s a pretty restaurant with a very charming atmosphere, but I didn’t get a very vegan-friendly feeling from our server. I know waiting on tables is a hard job (I’ve done it) so I always try to be very polite, but I got a sense that the waitress, once hearing that I was a vegan, was focused on what I couldn’t have, and didn’t seem very helpful about what I could have. The veggie wrap was really the only vegan choice, but first the waitress told me I “couldn’t eat” the wrap because the tortilla probably wasn’t vegan. But she checked and found that it was and then offered my choice of sides saying I “couldn’t have” the macaroni salad. She was right about that: I asked her why I couldn’t have that and she said it had mayonnaise in it so I said I’d have the pan-fried potatoes. I also asked her to include any kind of vegan condiment so my plate came with a big dollop of yummy mustard. Despite the limited menu, my lunch was tasty, and I enjoyed being there with my mom and sister.

On the way home on Sunday, I stopped at a rest area to buy gas, and I also noticed there was a farmer’s market advertised. There were only two vendors, one selling produce and the other honey. I like to support local farmers so I bought some zucchini. On Monday night, I cooked it my favorite way, as “fries” in the oven. I served it alongside quinoa and Gardein “Beefless Tips” with barbecue sauce.

I was never a big meat eater to begin with so it’s not something I feel needs to be substituted, but I serve vegan meat products sometimes because they do taste good and offer protein. I try not to have them too often because they’re highly processed. Vegan meat is also usually made from soybeans, and there is a lot of debate now as to whether soy is good or bad, but I think it’s safe to say that too much of anything is not good, and if you’re going to eat food made from soybeans, the less processed it is, the better. Here is an article from vegan author John Robbins that presents a reasonable perspective and debunks some of the most damning claims that have been made against soy: What about soy? It’s a bit long, but well worth a read.

How do you feel about vegan “meat?”

I’ve added this video to my favorites on YouTube and watch and listen to it to make myself feel better. Try it and see if it works for you.

I am in Rockport for the weekend. There were all kinds of delays in the traffic due to accidents and construction. A trip that normally takes me under two and a half hours took over four – !!! I was listening to podcasts, but I would periodically turn them off and check out the AM news radio station for traffic updates. Doesn’t every city have one of those? Up in the Boston area it’s WBZ. I don’t even know what it’s call number is; I just scanned through other stations and ended up finding it pretty easily. I learned there was big accident in “Grafton.”

Then since the traffic was so slow, I started surreptitiously texting my sister. She was giving me traffic updates too and then I’d ask her a question like “Where’s Grafton” and she’d give me some oh so descriptive answer, not what I wanted to know at all. I texted back “am I near it?” because that’s where the accident was. Finally I made it off the Mass Pike onto Route 128, and there was some kind of delay there too. Then as a final insult, on my way into Gloucester, there was construction and a subsequent delay on the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge. Oy.

When I finally arrived, the last thing I felt like doing was getting back in the car, but I did want to eat (lunch was a bag of chips procured at a rest stop) so my mom and I headed out to the grocery store. We bought all kinds of vegetables (and Smart Balance Light which I heard is vegan) and then came home and I made us some dinner: boiled beets and gemelli pasta topped with stir-fried Swiss chard, mushrooms and onion. (For dessert, there were So Delicious ice cream sandwiches left from the last time I visited.) It was great having a vegetable-filled dinner with my mom. She loves vegetables and she loves when I cook for her.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I’m planning on doing a 5K this summer after I’ve gotten some training done for it. But last week I ended up doing a 5K without training for it.  The gym at work was sponsoring a *fun* 1 mile walk and 5K run in honor of National Employee Health and Fitness Day.  A coworker asked me if I was going to do the 5K,  and I hadn’t thought about it too much, but decided why not.  The other three members of my (underwriting) team also decided to do it, and I got pretty pumped up about it even thought I really wasn’t trained for it.

The day of the race was beautiful – bright and sunny and 80-ish degrees. The temperature and sun didn’t bother me, but the running did.  After we started, everyone else in the race passed me, and I do mean everyone.  It didn’t take me long to realize that I was last.  As I continued trudging along, I realized that I was probably going to stay last.  I started feeling a bit nauseated, and then I developed a stitch in my side, but I kept going, albeit slowly. After a while some of the fast starters began to pass me as they headed back down the trail. There are some really competitive men at work and you could see they were all serious about the “fun run.”  However, I did appreciate how one of my coworkers, who is training for an Ironman (!) said, “good job Rachel!” when he passed me.  I thought that was nice of him.  It’s like, he could see I was working, and that this wasn’t easy for me.

Fortunately, I was able to turn off the trail to do the loop so I didn’t have to see everyone going by me as I was still heading out. Through the whole race, I tried to keep my friend V, who was wearing a yellow tank top, in my sites. A couple times I lost her, but for the most part, I was able to see her, even though she was far ahead of me.

The feeling of nausea and the stitch in my side went away, but the race seemed really long.  A couple times I thought of walking, but I was afraid if I walked I wouldn’t be able to start running again.  So I kept running, even though my pace had slowed so much I was almost walking.  There were a few a people around the course to direct and cheer the runners, but by the last mile me and V (who was far ahead of me) were the only two people still running. My friend S actually came out and ran with me when I got near the end to keep me going (what a sweetheart, huh?) and when I got to the finish line, I found that some of  my other friends and coworkers were waiting there for me. They didn’t have to do that but they did, and I told them how much I appreciated their support.

I finished in 43:01 (approximately; there were no chips) which is actually slower than the 5K I did in December, but I was also less ready for this one.  I honestly didn’t really feel bad about being last.  I was just so glad I was able to pull it off.  I emailed my brother about it, and he wrote back, “Glad to hear you did the 5K!  I really try to think of races as a personal accomplishment.  It’s all about ME.  Think of how many people didn’t even try.” Exactly.

Blue and I went up to Rockport this weekend to visit my mom and my sister.  Saturday night dinner, the three of us (me, Mom and my sister, not Blue) went to one of our favorite places, Passports in downtown Gloucester.  My sister treated us – w00t!

I love this restaurant’s location and atmosphere, but the menu isn’t very vegan-friendly. I had to ask them to make me something vegan.  I was nice about it, and said I didn’t want to cause any difficulty, and the waitress was able to procure a pasta dish for me.  I also shared some of the salad that came with my mom’s meal.

They do a nice job presenting the food there.  I love the little rosemary “tree” garnish on my pasta.

It was nice to spend time with my mom again.

After a dinner we went for a scenic drive.  I never get tired of this view.  You can actually see the skyscrapers of Boston from Niles Beach in Gloucester – so cool!

I’ve been in funk lately, and the only thing I can connect it to is that Woody is dying.  The past week her decline has been especially noticeable.  She has trouble standing and walking.  She’s not eating.

I have a weird sort of disconnect between my feelings and my mood.  For instance, you’d think “Her cat is sick and dying; of course she’s going to feel sad.”  The thing is, I don’t actually feel sadness directly, just a general discontent.  When my dad was sick with Alzheimer’s, slowly slipping away, it was almost agonizing to face so I kept going just feeling generally kind of “bummed” about it.  There was only one time, in therapy, where I let the sadness in and I began crying, great racking sobs, but only for about a minute before I pulled back.  My therapist said she could understand why I pulled back because those feelings are hard to feel.

Although feeling a general discontent is not good, I can function when I feel this way.  Of course, I like to deal with things head on, and I do think it’s healthier to actually experience your feelings, but on the other hand, I do have to function. I have stuff to do, places to go. I need to keep going.  Even though my cat is dying.

I’ve been holding off from posting because I don’t know how to combine my usual food and fitness-focused subject matter with the sad news of Sweetie’s uncle’s death which occurred a little over a week ago. So I’m just doing a post about that, and we’ll get back to “regularly scheduled programming” next time.

This death was very sudden and unexpected so it was especially hard for everyone.  He had a great family: a wife, six children and seventeen grandchildren.  He was also very well known and respected in the community- a former judge who belonged to a number of clubs and served on a bunch of committees.  Hundreds of people came to the wake and the funeral.  Sweetie was a pallbearer.

One good thing about events like this is that they put things in perspective and remind us of what’s really important in this life: our families and other loved ones.