The Vegetarian Pendulum

I'm chasing my best running time. Even after incorporating sprinting, I still can't beat it. Today I managed my third best time. My best time was achieved last spring when I was in the height of IPA abuse and averaging 6 hours of sleep a night, so I'm at a loss as to how I scrounged up the energy to roadrunner through my neighborhood.

Monday I met my husband for lunch at Indian buffet. I hadn't eaten Indian buffet in ages, and it was nice to be in a restaurant with just as many vegetarian options as meat. I'm not vegetarian, although I probably should be because when I chew food and start thinking about the meat, and how it got to be in my mouth, well, my mouth fills up with saliva and my throat closes.

I only really like to eat hamburgers and hotdogs. Someone once told me these are the most common meats vegetarians eat when they decide to get back on meat because they don't resemble flesh. It seems stewed meats, like curries, would be desirable too since they don't really resemble body parts, and this is the case, if I were cooking it myself, but I find budget all-you-can-eat buffets too questionable in their quality of meat to dig in with gusto.

My husband asked, "Are you going to try the goat?"and I looked at him like do you know me at all, shook my head, and piled a second scoop of curry broccoli. Goat is something I can't get on board with because all I can think of is their psychotic looking eyeballs. Lambs have the same daemon eyes, so I pass on lamb too.

We ordered take out last week and Kiki took a piece of the lamb kebab. She kept asking questions,
"How do they get the fur off the lamb?" "Why is this lamb brown" "Would we turn brown if we were cooked." That is a very good question, I've wondered myself. Is human flesh red meat or white meat. I'm too scared Googling it could come back and haunt me. I'd get put on a watch list or it'd be brought up at any trail I might be a part of.

You see Alicia did commit the crime because she once Googled how to cook human flesh.
But I was only curious, I don't even like to eat meat! I'm innocent, dammit!!

Maybe were like chicken, and we have a bit of both. Anyways, she went on asking about the lamb, and I remained bipartisan on her meat questions, so she can figure it out for herself, and I didn't say, "Kiki, people don't talk about how the animal was slaughtered while they're eating it because it reminds them of the animal being alive, and possibly living in inhumane conditions, and with industrial farming and slaughtering, the images are so horrific it can be soul crushing.

I answered her questions, swallowing my last bite of chicken, and deciding pita and hummus would be enough for the night. I then ate a stack of pita that looked like a Denny's LumberJack breakfast as we talked some more about food, steering our conversation toward hummus and garbanzo beans.

After Indian buffet, I dropped my husband back off at work, went to the gym and ran four miles. Surprising to me, since I expected the two plates of food to slow me down, and that I'd spend the time power walking while watching the TV screens. It must have been the carbs, rice and bread covered in all the different sauces.
The IPA carbs last spring were probably what gave me the added juice for my best run time. After I finally decide to just be vegetarian, and spare myself the questionable meal times, I'll probably be ingesting carbs like I work a farm all day, putting me right where I want to be to beat this Best Time. It's haunting me, like sheep's eyes.