Random Rants: Eating Food at Work

I'm starting a new section in my blog called Random Rants. Since the word "kat" is in the title, this may develop into a feline-related title, like "Litter Box." Anyhoo...

On to the ranting!

I live in Arkansas, which for the most part consists of a mindset recycled from the Civil War. Pretty much anything that happens in the real world takes about 5-10 years to process in The Natural State. It baffles me that even in the college town where I live, go to school, and work, that this kind of narrow-minded mentality still exists. So anyone with the naivete to announce to anyone that they are Vegetarian or Vegan will probably be shot on sight, then quickly dressed and served at a Boys Scout Chili Banquet. I am not kidding.

I'm at work, eating my vegetarian/vegan garb, minding my own business, when one of the managers of over ten years comes into the box office (I sell movie tickets by the way, more random rants on that gem of a career); he asks me what I'm eating, and as soon as the words "veggie burger" pass my lips, he starts wailing on me about fake food, how meat gives you protein, vegetarians are pussies, ad nauseum.

First of all, if I could tell him everything on my mind, I would be swiftly fired, so in my mind I was saying: Excuse me, but did I ask your fucking opinion on the matter? You asked me what I'm eating and I told you: end of story. If you don't like it, leave! And you're eating something with meat, I don't care, it's your obese body you're damaging! What AM I, on trial for eating something healthy? Leave my presence!

However, my other manager has just recently been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes--the kind that arises from lifestyle, and can be prevented by a healthy lifestyle. On a side rant, that kind of Diabetes used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes, but with the rise of so many fat kids the term was changed to Type II (Type I is the genetic kind). Anyway, he told me my food smelled delicious, and that he liked that brand of frozen organic meals I was eating. While I'm glad he's not bashing about the fact it's vegan, I can't help but think of all the times he used to make fun of my vegetarian chili, and joke about how delicious "charred mammal flesh" really is. Not kidding, that's what he calls it. But his opinions on vegetarian eating has changed because now he has to watch his blood sugar and he's noticed that a vegetarian/vegan diet does not cause crazy spikes in his sugar levels. In fact, he asked for my famous Two-Can Chili recipe at work one afternoon. So I guess it's a sometimes-win, sometimes-lose situation in Arkansas.

I did laugh though when he told me he thought of me when he saw a T-shirt at an outdoors/hunting store that said something to the point of "Don't eat frozen meat" : i.e., I only eat fresh meat because I hunt, in a pseudo-organic perspective that doesn't make a hunter look like a tree-molesting hippie.

That's all for today, now go eat some carrots you pussies!