Pot Brownies

Every workplace has at least one anal, uptight worker. Mine is no different. This coworker of mine has told me off many times. She has wire spectacles which make her glares all the more severe. She doesn't smile very often. I'm always nervous working with her because I don't want to get told off again.

For the longest time I hated her. Avoided her. Checked to see which days I was working with her so I could mentally prepare myself. After a while I grew to accept her anal-ness, and always greeted her with a smile. On occasion she returns it. Still. Pretty anal.

Today my whole opinion of her changed.

I made brownies (vegan brownies) last night JUST so I could lick the batter off the spoon. The batter was delicious, but at the end of the night I had a batch of delicious brownies that I didn't really feel like eating.

So I took them to work. I like feeding my coworkers. It makes them like me better, and I feel like my chances of getting fired or laid off are much less when the boss likes my cookies. (heh. no, not THOSE cookies. The delicious peanut butter/potato chip cookies. (DON'T JUDGE until you have TASTED!))

Anyway, my anal coworker asked if there was pot in the brownies. Come again? But the best was yet to come.

I laughed (nervously. like I said she makes me nervous) and assured her there was no pot in the brownies. Then she regaled me with a tale from her youth.

When she was a young twenty-something, she had several up-tight, prudish older women for coworkers. And one day she baked them brownies. With pot in them. They just loooved those brownies, she said. And had no idea they were high. "It was so funny!" she told me.

My mouth hung agape for a while before I started laughing. If I were like her at that age, she'd be the uptight coworker I'd feed pot to.

And the world will never be the same to me, and I will never look at her the same way again. She is now the most awesome person I know.

Mm brownies

So I'm vegan. I've been vegan for about two months.

Contrary to popular believe, I am not an animal nut. I really don't care about them all that much. (or I didn't. the longer I'm vegan, the more awkward I feel about leather and animal abuse. Maybe it's a side effect? Or maybe I just don't want to feel hypocritical...)

I did it for the health benefits. See, I was already vegetarian (although again, not for all that long. maybe a couple months). Yet it was still pretty easy to avoid vegetables, and other things that are really good for me.

However as a vegetarian, I had finally started to really recognize just how much I wanted to eat healthfully. I know, this sounds weird. Who doesn't want a greasy burger or bbq ribs every once in a while? I know I still fantasize about fried chicken sometimes.

I don't want to go into too much depth explaining the whys. I went veg because I noticed that veg friends that went back to meat got really sick, so I thought maybe the meat free life was just safer. (apparently after not eating meat for long enough you just lose the amino acids you need to digest it, hence getting ill)

And then it seemed almost like a challenge to become vegan. And when it comes to the culinary arts, I am always up to the challenge. I'm an excellent cook.

It's funny, about a month and a half before I went vegan, my one and only vegan friend (who still hasn't called back. the jerk. Okay, by friend I meant romantic interest.... which did NOT influence my decision) told me I ought to go vegan. I told him I could never live without provolone cheese. Guess who's eating her words now? But I really did think that I could never go vegan.

I often thought about it, and how nice it would be to rub veganism in the face of all my omnivorous friends. (heh. yes, it's a matter of pride, too.) But I just figured that was completely impossible for me. I mean, I can't even convince myself to stick to art projects or fad diets! How on earth would I ever manage to stick to something like THAT?

But I had just gone straight vegetarian. No meat, cold turkey (heh. how's that common phrase for irony, eh?). And I'd stuck to it. So I went for it. We'll see how long I last.

Hm. So much for not going into depth on the explanation...

Anyway, I love being vegan. The food is good (I cook most of it. And like I said, I'm an excellent cook.). Also I feel better. I mean, I wasn't sick before. But now I have more energy, I feel healthier. I have less days where I just feel a little off. My hair and nails are growing twice as fast as they did before.

Oh, and a bonus I didn't even expect: I lost twenty pounds in about a month and a half. Now I've always been a little heavy. It bothered me enough in high school to push me to bulimia (fortunately I was both a sneaky and very cowardly bulimic, so that didn't last (or WORK)), and it bothered me a little at the beginning of my college career, when I gained a little more. I counted calories until I was where I was at before, and I was happy.

I've been happy with my body. When I went vegetarian, when I went vegan, I was happy with my body. It's a very proportionate body and I like it, which is what matters. Also, many men like it, so that generally helps my self-confidence.

However, sudden, unexpected weight-loss is fun. It's exciting to fit into smaller pants. It's less exciting to have old pants getting too baggy. My super tight jeans from then are my casual jeans now. I miss tight pants.

Veganism was on my mind today because I made vegan brownies last night. They were delicious, but now I have too many excess brownies. I wonder if I'll get arrested if I try to pass them out at school? I mean, they don't have pot in them... But I wonder if anyone will take them since it's believed that the typical college brownie has pot in it?

I guess I'll find out. I just hate to throw out perfectly good brownies.