Category Archives: The Girls

weeks1819

Tummy Status

Is it just me or does it look like my tummy hasn’t grown at all? I am thinking my boobs have matched my stomach growth and therefore looks like not much has been growing. I am also sure that my abs are contributing more to my tummy than I’d like to admit. The photo on the left is at 18 weeks, taken in the afternoon. The photo on the right was taken yesterday morning. I am pretty sure my tummy gets more food and my abs get tired at the end of the night from being engaged all day (from standing at work that is.)

Shopping

Got my baby bargains book and what is the first thing I looked at? Tips for buying pregnancy clothing! Duh. And it has been interesting. I got my jeans from H&M and they were WAY too small. I keep forgetting they have smaller jeans than Target, and that my calves and quads are little bit larger than most people. BUT I’ve never had a hard time getting my ankles through a pair of jeans. That was all new. But luckily I had to return the jeans at my local H&M and it turns out that they sell Maternity clothes there! Whoo! The selection is REALLY small, but it should be fine if I need shirts or a second pair of jeans.

Other great finds? I found an American based company that sell Boob (yes that is the clothing brand) which specializes in ethical and sustainable clothing. Best is that they have clothes that are made for pregnancy AND nursing, so they get a longer wear time. ASOS sells maternity pencil skirts that look reasonably priced… which makes me excited! I also have been browsing formal maternity clothing, you know, just incase a friend has a shotgun wedding. I found THIS DRESS which is amazing! But seriously? $150 for a 100% polyester dress? On the other end of the spectrum I found a second hand clothing store that has a maternity filter. Downside? The photos are awful and it will be a little bit of a gamble of a buy.

Snuggling

I think Toulouse knows something is going on. She has been very social lately. If Jon and I are watching TV, she comes down and lays in front of the fan with us. If I am on the computer, she takes a nap in the office with me. Working out on the third floor? Who cares that it is the hottest room in the house! Toulouse is laying down watching me do squats. She has climbed on our bed one night, which she hasn’t done since the temperature has reached over 70 degrees. 

Then it happened. One morning Toulouse jumped on my lap. She hasn’t done her morning snuggles with me in, well, maybe April or May. It use to be like clockwork. I finished making my shake, and then she would climb on my lap every Saturday and Sunday morning. I got excited because when the weather cools down again, my lap might be too full for her to lay on. She got some pets and started to purr… cue baby to start kicking. Either the kid loved the purring, or was hot and trying to kick the cat off. One of the two. Good news is that I can now officially tell the difference between gas and kicks.

Work Outs

I have been a bum in bed every morning. So I decided to try and do the Summer Shape Up Challenge that is run by Gina from Fitnessista. Week One was me remember how little I do squats lately and having my glutes (aka butt) being in pain most of the week. But now that week two is coming around, the sweat has been nice. This morning I ran for a solid 30 minutes, something I haven’t done in awhile, and clocked a pace of 13 min per mile. Okay sounds weak, but I was doing 14 1/2 minute miles earlier. Granted part of the reason for my faster pace is probably based around the awesome weather we had this morning.

Cravings/Aversions

Is just not wanting to cook a food aversion? I think saying craving or aversion is a little misleading. It is hot, and I don’t want to be in a kitchen. Bagels? Yes. Grilled cheese? I’ll deal with that. Stir-fry with rice? Way too much heat! Which stinks since I kind-of want high calorie foods that usually involve baking. Casseroles? Yes please. Oven fries? Sure but I don’t have any potatoes. Produce at my CSA is slowly turning into my more favorite foods, and I have been anticipating cantaloupe. Am I sharing? Hell no. 

I burned a hole in my stash of ice cream from Trader Joe’s and it is making me very sad. I will probably try making some homemade ice cream this weekend now that I have space in my freezer. We got a pizza from Healthy Garden (I should really write a review soon for the site) and it really hit the spot. I’ve been kind-of pouting about tomato sauce from pizza places, and they got it right. Next time we might get a daiya covered pizza.

BB Size

Parsnips? Sweet Potatoes? Who wrote these comparisons! Clearly someone who haven’t shopped at a farmer market or have grown their own vegetables! I am sitting here wondering what size my baby could possibly be, I can’t be the only one who has gotten a sweet potato that weighed a fraction of a pound and then get one that weights over two pounds. I feel like root vegetables vary the most in size! Never fear, my app says here that the baby is the size of a sugar glider! Much cuter, and I remember when I was little I wanted one as a pet so badly. 

At week 19 the baby is the size of a four-toed hedgehog, specifically the species that has been domesticated for the pet trade. This means I have been looking up sickeningly cute photos of hedgehogs in ridiculous situations including Hedgy Potter, a hedgehog building a human snow man, a hedgehog drinking milk, hugging buddies, and a hedgehog getting stuck in morning traffic. Your welcome everyone.


weeks1617

Cravings/Aversions

When I was trying to get pregnant I was convinced that I wouldn’t get any food aversions or morning sickness, because I LOVE everything. I’ve been getting cravings but largely ignore them. I do my grocery shopping once a week and that’s it thank you. My husband is much too practical to agree to grabbing a pizza on a whim, or run to grab a pint of ice cream. But I do have to say, I have been noticing cravings.

Sugar is back on my radar… sort of. I am still kind-of not digging packages sweets, too sweet you know? But I am craving fruit, but feel bad buying strawberries and eating the whole container in one sitting (mostly for not sharing.) I am crossing my fingers that this craving will last till the end of the month when my CSA starts getting watermelon, cantaloupes, and we can pick pound and pounds of peaches. 

Food Aversions? Hm… mediocre food? I skipped my packed lunch for a clif bar because of soba noodles soaked up too much sauce and was bloated. But I am not sure if that is more disgusting rather than pregnancy. I don’t want to cook anything but never want to eat the easy to make food, like pasta. I also have noticed that if I have too acidic of drinks like powder mixed teas and lemonades I get acid reflux. They probably aren’t good for me anyways.

Baby Music

My phone apps say that my lil bb can now hear, and that they can hear me sing. So far the only songs I’ve caught myself singing have been Chop Suey by System of a Down, Down with the Sickness sung by Richard Cheese, and I Wanna Be Loved By You sung by Shiina Ringo. All very different songs, collectively is a poor representation of what I listen to, and largely inappropriate for children.

Worse thing is that I am trying to think of songs that I know and will sing, and most are not happy. I mean anyone know of Fiona Apple’s most recent album? Love singing it, totally cynical about love.

Kicks?

I think I can feel the baby kick- but it could just be gas. So hard to tell the difference. I mean I know I am feeling something that is a kick, I’ll just wait till I get bigger kicks and then use that to judge which ones are kicks now.

Tummy Status

Anyone stand in front of the mirror and flex your abs, seeing how tiny your waist can get then proceed to hunch over and let all of your tummy hang? Get a super hot and super not contrast going on? Nope, just me? Well, I’ve still been doing that. I’ve noticed my abs actually squeezes in a good bit, but I think my abs get tired by the end of the night and my tummy grows out by the end of the night.

I keep hearing from my Mom about how not pregnant I look, but the other day I noticed my belly button is a little more shallow. Yeah I know my belly button will be poking out, but it is weird to see the slow transition. Weight gain? 5 pounds roughly.

Baby Animals

Most pregnancy apps and books compare baby sizes to fruit, and I think that is just the worst comparisons. I mean a lemon is round, people are kind-of a cylinder with wiggly bits. So I was pretty happy when I found out my one app compares baby sizes to various animals, and I am loving it. Week 16 my baby was roughly the size of a Philippine tarsier… which is so friggin adorable! You know, in an ugly opossum sort of way. When I found this out I texted Alexa this photo with the caption “LOOK AT MY BB!” It was first thing that she saw when her plane from Spain landed. Great way to be welcomed to the US.

What about week 17? Well I have a little chipmunk in my tum-tum. I told Jon this and now he has been eyeing up the chipmunks that run around the area. It makes me a little less mad that they keep nibbling all the plants in my garden. Bad news? While driving to work I almost ran over a chipmunk, which made me feel like the world’s worst mother. Note to self- my child isn’t ACTUALLY a chipmunk.

Clothes

Still in the awkward in-between phase. I put on my sailor dress today and it was… uh…. tight. It has gotten to the point I might cave in and buy a pair of maternity shorts from Target this weekend. So far I haven’t worn any of my special preggers clothes other than my old vintage mod dress, and my brand new sports bra. I might have to get new bras and I hate getting them. So much missing money in my wallet for something not many people see.


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This was my facebook photo for the announcement, and I just couldn’t deny my readers this gem.

If anyone has noticed I haven’t been posting much on the blog lately. I can safely say a large reason for this is because I am pregnant. Yes you might of heard me drop the bomb on blog comments or facebook groups, but my husband wanted me to wait till we formally told all our friends and family before posting anything on the blog. Frankly I am glad I waited because overall I would say like maybe 5 in real life friends read this, but I didn’t want a friend to go nuts and tell everyone else and have Aunt Bertha freak out that I never called her (FYI I have no Aunt Bertha ^__~)

I have been wanting to tell readers why I’ve been MIA, mostly because people aren’t kidding about being tired the first trimester. And reading about it in my super science-y book– it is because your body is doing A LOT OF WORK getting the baby situated. Which is weird since it is the time when most women don’t talk about their pregnancy, and look the most normal. Not to make it seem like the rest of my 6 months will be a breeze- but I’d come home from work (early mind you) and just want to sit in front of the TV or read a book. It was weird, some how sitting on the computer was a draining experience.

So how far a long am I? Well, I am just started week 15- which means I just started the second trimester. Pretty much my digestion has been weird, my tummy looks like I ate a large burrito, my workout game blows, my boobs are even more huge, and now that everyone knows I am pregnant I get asked “how are you doing” more often than I like. I also get told by my Mom about how pale I am. I’m always pale. I mean look at those photos below- the last photo is my slightly tanned body and some lighting trickery.

weekly photos- week 13, week 14, and week 15 (taken today!)

weekly photos- week 13, week 14, and week 15 (taken today!)

There’s debate on the due date- I thought it was December 11th, Jon says it is the 12th, or maybe I am getting both dates wrong? Either way baby is coming out at some point during the month of December. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And I could look up this information up, but really… do you guys care? I just care about spiking my eggnog at SOME POINT post pregnancy for the holiday season.

So what does this mean for the blog? Hopefully I will still feature restaurant reviews, recipes, and whatever else like I normally did. But while pregnant I will do weekly (or maybe bi-weekly) updates of what is going on.. hopefully it’ll be interesting/humorous to everyone. And I am sure I will talk about vegan parenting post pregnancy, but I swear I won’t be using any pastel chevron on the site.

A Little TMI Guys:
One thing that tends to be a little on the down low on commonly talked about pregnancy symptoms are the ones regarding digestion. Apparently pregnant women not only get acid reflux/heartburn but they are also non-stop farting, burping, and peeing machines (well I think everyone knew about the peeing part.) In fact I am sure if scientists did a study they would find pregnant women release as much CO2 in the as burping cows. Though I am starting to wonder if cows keep farting and burping since dairy cows are always pregnant. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But the only thing pregnant women don’t do is poop apparently.

I keep reading book and after book, blog after blog about how constipation is going to happen to me. I laughed, “Poor naive people, I’m VEGAN. Do you even know how much fiber I eat?!” Until one day I realized I went a whole day without pooping… which was a little disturbing. I felt a sudden need to buy prune juice and bran flakes to help out. I am much too young to be worried how many times I poop in a day, or week. Or maybe me worrying about gross body fluids is just preparing me mentally for dealing with a baby’s disgusting body fluids? Oh in case you are worried, I am doing fine. Everything is working right on schedule.

It came in the middle of the night:

I am fairly certain my tummy has been growing in the middle of the night. No joke, one morning I woke up with the sensation of rolling around on my tummy as if I was on an exercise ball. Which is bizarre since my stomach was even smaller than it is on the photo above. It is hard to comprehend the idea that a living thing in growing in my tummy. Yes, you know there is a baby in there, but I find myself always being weirded out by how “hard” my stomach is. I mean, if my stomach has ever been this big it has been because of food, and it can be easily squished.

I need a drink… a nice bitter one:

I can say that I miss a drink. I love alcohol, but I never needed it to “take off the edge.” I just loved the complex flavors that they would have from fermentation. So in many ways, I think it am going a little nuts without it. Why? Well, many people know that booze is off the table for pregnant women (depending on your doctor and culture) and people need to be careful about drinking caffeine.

I don’t drink coffee or beer consistent enough to consider it a need, so I skip it. And let me tell you the options are almost all sweet. Soda, fruit juice, sweet tea, kool aid, and it goes on and on. No sour, no bitter, no complex flavors. Okay sure there are healthier things out there like kombucha or freshly squeezed juice, but both are off limits since they can harbor potentially harmful bacterias. Cool. And when I do find drink that are a little sour, bitter, or complex, they are sweetened with sugar or technically have caffeine (iced tea?)

I am reaching the point of desperation. Yes, I still drink coffee from time to time. I mainly dumped it because I brew my coffee quite strong and have no way of really knowing how much caffeine is really in it. As for beer, even though many studies say that occassional drinks aren’t a risk to the baby, I can’t shake that feeling. Or worse, I wouldn’t be able to take the social stigmatism. So I am left googling “best alcohol free beers” in hopes to get my hops fix, and I am even thinking if dog beer would be worth my time. (Answer probably not)


mysteryplant

I’ve done gardening in the past. When I was younger I had a garden underneath our old swing set. But let’s face it, I was more interested in picking flowers to go in the garden than actually maintaining it. As I got older I went through many apartments that kind-of made gardening something unmanageable. I’ve always lived on the 2nd floor, making the only plant option indoor ones. I also lived in Philadelphia for a few years, and if plants went outside I risked someone kicking and breaking the pots. When I moved back to the burbs, I was still on the second floor and the rules of gardening was really murky, so I chose to avoid it.

So when we bought our row home, it was the first time we had a small plot of land to grow things in. The problem was that the previous owners wanted more patio space and filled the soil with rocks and stepping stones. At first I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, just pick out the big stepping stones and then pick out the smaller rocks. In fact my bosses took the stepping stones to use in their own gardens, so I just had to pick out the smaller rocks in-between the stones. I think my tip off that it would be hard was the fact that there wasn’t any weeds. So. Many. Stones. There was a layer of pretty store bought stones, and then just a foot of stone filled soil. It took about 2 months of random rock picking with my husband to get the stone situation to an controllable state. Even still, there are a good amount of rocks in our soil.

squirrelattack2

Aside from that we have had a few challenges- mostly squirrels. I brought out my amaryllis plant that I got this Christmas. I also tried starting seeds for a few flowers and herbs, starting them inside but putting them outside on warmer days. Well, it turns out that the squirrels were still pretty hungry from the winter and kept digging through my plants. I pretty much gave up hope for the flowers and herbs, but a few of the Black Hollyhocks have lived, though I still need to transplant them. None of the Purple Perilla have lasted, they seeds got washed away.

blackholly

cilatnro

As for the herbs… I don’t know what is growing. Well, I do know some of the cilantro is growing. I know this because I saw some of the seeds stuck the sprouts and because the leaves are starting to get all cilantro-y. I am excited because it is one of the herbs at my CSA that gets cut down fast. I also planted mint and basil, but squirrels pushed the dirt around so much that I think some seeds got buried too deep. Everything got moved all over the place.

lettucearug

There are two more edibles that I planted, lettuce and hops. I planted two types of lettuces, one I can’t remember the name of (oops) and the other is arugula (or rocket). Again I planted these because my CSA isn’t the best suppliers of lettuce. We might a head or two in the spring and another 2 heads in the summer, then that’s it. So I figured it would be nice to have more. 

I have no idea what I am doing with hops. I am taking a chance and trying to grow it on our fence, and I think a neighbor is using the community fences, so I think it is allowed (technically we own the inside of the house, and not the outside, so it makes things a little weird). I picked the Cascade Hops plant because it sounded like it might do well with my soil and it sounded like it would be nice and fragrant. We have no plans on using the hops for brewing, though maybe we can get some extra cash on the side. Where’s the dollar sign emoji face when you need it? Anyways, after a lot of waiting I THINK I see the the hops starting the grow. Either that, or it is a weed. So fingers crossed.

gnome2

Other things? Well, we got a beautiful gnome for the garden, with a golden cone hat. And he is planted to a bush that I got on sale at Lowe’s. Sadly I can’t remember what the bush is. Womp womp. It was really pathetic when I bought it, all dried out. Now it looks like there are fresh shoots coming out, so that’s reassuring. Maybe at some point I will be able to tell what it is by searching the flowers.

stepping

There also two stepping stones jointing out porch area to the sidewalk, and I bought these cute succulents that looks like some sort of stonecrop/sedum. Again, I am an idiot who forgot to save or label the plant. It will hopefully crawl and fill in the spaces over time, might not happen for a few years though. I might have to ask my boss if I can steal some of his succulent plants to help fill in the gaps.

Speaking of my boss, I’ve been getting some other freebies from him. See he LOVES gardening, and all the companies he orders from tend to give out free bulbs and the like. (for example I got free dill seeds when I ordered from Thyme Garden Herb Co.) So I planted some Balloon Flowers and Gladiolus. So it looks like we will have a fairly full garden for the first year. 

So that is what is going on with my garden right now. Hopefully I will try and post updates ever month or so as my garden fills out. 


16-01-03-01

Happy New Year everyone! I love January since it gives a nice resting period after the crazy holiday season. Once all the hustle and bustle of December is done, it gives you a chance to reflect and set new goals. I know a lot of people dislike the idea of a New Year Resolution, and I usually agree with those ideas. I mean if you need a change in life, why wait until January? Some of the things I want to work on I’ve already started in December, but I now have the time to focus on them.

But I always like seeing blogger reflect over the year, and making solid lists of goals. I especially like it when they make a list and write about what they did and didn’t get done. With that in mind, I will copy and paste my goals from 2015 and write if I was successfull or not.

Drink Less Booze – Hmm… I think I failed this one. I am pretty sure I drank more booze than I did last year, BUT I did change one important thing- I am drinking less beer because I’m bored. I think the year before I was drinking it too often before dinner when my husband was working late. I didn’t like that. It felt like I was hiding beer bottles because I felt bad that I was drinking more than him. Now it doesn’t quite feel that way, but I am still drinking on a fairly daily basis. It won’t last… but I won’t go into that just yet.

Run and Workout More Often – So this was also a kind-of fail. I was doing pretty good for awhile, but then when I moved I messed up my foot, putting the whole exercise thing on the back burner for awhile. Pretty much this is a repeat goal for this year.

Kick the Coffee Habit – Yey! Something I accomplished! I still probably drink more coffee than what I pictured when I first set the goal, but I don’t feel the NEED to drink it like I did last year. I drink often, but I don’t noticed when I don’t drink it, which was what I was hoping for. I think a lot of the reason is that I stopped drinking the beans from Starbucks. I swear they add caffeine to their coffee.

Read 16 Books (with less comics) – I set a challenge on Goodreads for 28 books (16 books + 12 cookbooks) and I failed. I read a total of 17 books, 6 comic books, 3 cookbooks, 2 food-humor, 3 non-fiction, and 3 novels. You can see the summary on Goodreads.

Have a Cup of Tea Each Night – I know why I set this goal, less binge eating at night, and I think I am worse than ever. Time to reset that goal.

Pay More Attention to Vegan Clothes and Beauty Products – I have to say I am doing really well with this. I have gotten a lot of new lip balms that have beeswax from Christmas gifts, but some I gave away. I have been much better at checking companies and ingredients before heading out. I even like getting some of the beauty boxes, and will have a review for Petit Vour soon.

Start taking a photo a day – I didn’t REALLY get a photo a day, but I didn’t do too bad. I missed some days, and I fell of the wagon towards the end of December. But I will add the photos from last month soon, but you can see the other photos with the 365 2015 tag. Truthfully I was thinking about doing it again this year but my new place is very boring. Yeah I get lots of light, but I don’t walk around as much as I use to, and the area isn’t as dense with cool things. It feels a little devoid of life and the roads are packed with fast cars. Maybe next year.

Get Out of My Apartment – Accomplished! It is a little sad that we didn’t get a single family home and got a rowhouse in a development, but you gotta start somewhere right? I am a little sad but I am a little relieved to not have to worry about lawn maintenance… yet. We are working slowly to make our house look and feel like a home, and it is slowly growing on me. 

Goals for 2016

Work out More Often

As mentioned before, I wasn’t doing so hot with my working out in 2014, and I was doing pretty well in 2015. I was a little stressed with trying to balance my new schedule and finding a new house. Then I kind-of started to hurt my foot, and it was all down hill for the move. I just started to get back into the swing of things in December. My general goal is to work out 4-5 days a week, two days strength training, two days running, with a floater day to pick and choose a workout. 

Start Practicing Yoga and Meditating

I hear so many people saying how much meditating helps keep them grounded. I am feeling pretty overwhelmed by new home, and oddly the “calming” enviroment makes me stressed! I feel like people have new obnoxious driving methods, it takes forever to drive places, and the walk and run anymore is unpleasant. I think meditating and doing yoga will help me out. I am trying to do Yoga Camp on YouTube, and I really like the instructor. I am only on day two, and I technically started to do the challenge that was done last year, before hand. I am already starting to really enjoy it, and her methods. After yoga camp I might just do meditation, but I haven’t decided.

Stop Late Night Binge Eating

After moving I really got worse with my late night binge eating. I am not even hungry and some nights I went to bed felling like my stomach would ooze out if I felt asleep on my tummy. I don’t like feeling this way, and I am not burning calories to need all this food. I am trying hard to listen to how much I want to eat, and to not feel like I always need to snack. I am trying to drink more tea, and keep better entertained. Really focus on what we are watching, or do something else other than watch TV, play a game, color in a book, read a magazine, etc. Otherwise I am great at listening to my body during the daytime.

Read 28 Books

I set the goal last year, and I want to stick to it. I think last year was a flop in part because I tried to read a book that was almost 500 pages! Ack. I am a slow reader, so that took most of year to read. I also stopped reading and reviewing cookbooks the way I use to, so that kind-of took away from my overall numbers. So I want to get back to that.

Start trying to get pregnant

Cats out of the bag! I want to have a baby. It seems weird for me to say it since so many blogs I follow are run by people who don’t want to have kids. Sure there are some with children, and I get both ends of the spectrum. In fact I am kind-of in the middle. My husband and I decided we would start the journey of trying conceive, and I am not sure if this will be a fast or slow process, nor do I know how much I am willing to try and get pregnant. But the important thing is that we are starting the journey.

Buy a second couch

Oh such a materialistic goal. But I think it is a good one. We currently have once couch and it was donated to us from my boss, who was getting rid of some of the crap her ex-husband left. At the time our current couch had a broken foot, and I was tired of Jon trying to periodically fix it. Now that we have the space, we would like two couches because 1) we might get a third human 2) sometimes we both want to read a books in the living room 3) we both want to stretch our legs at night. 

Hike More

I want to hike around more, and I don’t have any specific goals like “hike x amount of miles” or “do a trail once a month.” I know that it needs to be somewhat organic, for example I wanted to hike on New Years Day, but it has been so rainy the past few days that I thought it would be a muddy mess. We now live a little closer to Wharton State Park so we might try longer hiking trails, and maybe travel up north more often for different trails.

Visit a new vegan restaurant with Alexa once a month

Alexa doesn’t know this one yet, but I want us to hang out more. I also want to try more restaurants. I don’t eat out often, and sometimes I feel bad for not supporting local businesses. So I want to make more road trips into New Jersey, and post them in the blog. Maybe check out a few new places in Philadelphia too. Overall I am hoping to eat out with Alexa 12 times this year… so cross our fingers.

Watch a Movie Once a Week

I’ve probably mentioned a few times on the blog that I went to college for film and digital video. My husband went to school for screenwriting. You would think that would mean we watch movies all the fucking time, but we don’t. Jon really likes watching TV Shows, which is the medium for screenwriters. I miss watching movies, and I want to take the time to watch them much more. Perhaps I will post a small review each week with Sunday Reading post, to keep me on track.

Start working towards the goal of being a Dietitian or Wellness Coach

So my Mom and Aunt mentioned I should look into becoming a dietitian, and it actually has been something that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I’ve waffled back and forth with it just because I was a little scared of what the clientele would look like. But I am  slowly finding out that I know a lot about food and nutrition to the degree that it is starting to bother me I can apply it something. I am in the early stages of trying to figure out what type of certification I want, and it might be a process that will take 2 or 3 years, but you have to start somewhere right?

Alright guys, I hope I didn’t bore you too much. What are the goals you are aiming for this year?


121915-o

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or a happy holiday. I hardly consider Christmas a “christian” exclusive holiday since most of the traditions are not rooted in the birth of Christ. And there are many books and articles written about how Christmas is pretty much a bunch of pagen celebrations that no one would give up, so they tacked on the celebration of Jesus Christ part, and made it okay to celebrate.

Now that Christmas is over I have been mulling over a few things. What I want to do with my life, different aspects of veganism, health, and whatever else. And I figured I would share what I have learned this year for Christmas, then eventually my New Years Resolutions/Goals.

1 I need to clear up what vegan means

I noticed what I got for Christmas this year has shifted. Clearly people are getting me things that they thought were vegan, like my sister got me some nice beauty products from a hip brand in Brooklyn called Flynn & King. Most of their products are vegan, except the lip balm (beeswax), which my sister got me (she also got this cool soap, which is vegan). I have also gotten some foods that I think people picked up THINKING it would be vegan, but they weren’t like candy cigarettes. Which is a bit of a bummer since you just check the ingredients it would be quick to see that there is cow gelatin in it. Sadly no chocolate, which can be somewhat easy to find vegan.

So most everyone is starting to understand what vegan means, but it is the uncomfortable transition to non-food items. Leather, fur, suede, beeswax, wool, silk, alpaca, and so on. I am pretty lenient on certain things. Like I am keeping the non-vegan lip balm since I already used it, and they used locally sourced beeswax which is better than nothing. But truthfully now that I am starting to use more vegan products I am learning that beeswax is pretty shitty. 

2 My Family now remembers I am vegan, this is good and bad

I’ve been pretty much vegan for 3 years now. The first year I went back to veganism I let some things slide with family, like my Aunt bought me a special quiche since there wasn’t anything vegetarian, and I felt pretty bad for it. I was still transitioning out of seafood and eggs so I figured I would let it slide. My Grandmother was shocked that I was vegan (or vegetarian) even though I kind-of dabble in and out for a few years before. The next year, I made something, and yet again my Grandma was shocked to find out that I was vegan, even though I was a year ago. At this point I was pretty strict and got my shit together. This year, my Grandma FINALLY remembered, though my Aunt still hasn’t figured out the difference between vegan and vegetarian and I had to decline her special meal she made for me. But now everyone is assuming I am “so healthy.” Which is funny since my husband yells at me when I make some vegan mac and cheese, and how I am always craving ice cream. Health is relative, and I wish people didn’t look at my food as healthy, it isn’t. I use oil and whatever else that most people use.

The other downside is that my Father remembers that I am vegan. That means he doesn’t touch my food anymore. Ugh. I’ve tricked him into eating vegan donuts and vegan lasagna (he had no clue we was eating tofu, his mortal enemy!) Now he introduces my food as “vegan” instead of names. It is also worth noting that my Father has a very weird relationship with food. He eats like a 5 year old, and loves meat and grease. I think he is the main reason why I never liked steak (he did a poor job cooking it.) So I need to be stealthy about my food, maybe hand off to my sisters to bring into houses instead of me so my Father doesn’t know who cooked what. I get a little petty when people don’t eat my awesome food.

3 Vegan food isn’t global and therefore diverse

One thing I thought about a lot was what Jon and I do when we travel abroad. Part of me knew we could be vegan, but I was scared it would mean not being able to try some of the local foods. But over the year I have followed so many different blogs and everyone really has their own local vegan cuisine. There are so many guides on how to eat vegan in certain cities and the food looks truly unique from American food. Heck, I can noticed a different between West Coast veganism and East Coast veganism!

Even countries that I wouldn’t think that would be all that different seem to have their own flair. Like some Australia blogs pop out new recipes I’ve never heard of. There are foods I never thought was particularly American end up being so. And there are some countries that are actually naturally vegan friendly like Taiwan, which is high up on my must visit list now. I think I might make some exceptions if I was in a jam while traveling, but it seems like I could still plan ahead of time and still be pretty darn happy.

4 I really miss spontaneity

I have to admit, I miss not thinking about food all the time. Going to a party? It would be nice to never have to think about what to bring. Going out, it would be nice to just walk into a place and “try it out” rather than looking at what is vegan friendly before hand. Yes, there will always be a way to get a vegan option, but sometimes it is nice to go into a vegan restaurant and know I can try ANYTHING on the menu, and not have to ask no this, sub that, etc.

If someone would ask me what I miss most about going vegan it would be spontaneity. Never having to question your products. And I guess the end goal as a vegan would be that everything would be friendly for the animals. But that isn’t how the world works now. It stinks that I have to think out what I can eat before heading off to a restaurant, or ask a million questions before hand. Things are changing and I know it is much easier now than say 10 years ago.

5 My kids will grow up to be freaks

I was checking my social media feeds since I had the time, and found this picture on Instagram. A kid who is straight up PUMPED about chlorella tablets. I love sea greens, and I know most people don’t love spirulina. It is an acquired taste, and kids that grew up on spirulina loved it (I know my friend Devin loved them when he was a kid). And I know my kid will not be the “norm” if I choose to have one.

But then again my 5 year old niece loves shoes and still freaks out when she gets them for her birthday or Christmas. No joke, this year she opened the gift from Jon and I (these shoes by the way) and proceeded to put them on, and prance around the living room. I also use to love drinking carob soy milk, so I guess every kid will get excited about their own thing.

6 My relationship with desserts is frustrating

No, I am not talking about a fear of eating too much dessert that I will get fat. It is more complicated and annoying. I love dessert, but I need to be in the right mood, and I need the right dessert. I don’t like how most Americans make sweets so sugary. Then there is the whole vegan issue, and I have learned that vegan baking is pretty easy. But no one puts there effort, and I kind-of understand why. Lots of people just buy a pre-baked goods, there are classic family recipes, and people assume that to bake something vegan, you need special “fake” stuff. Which is mostly true.

BUT here is the problem, I like baking, I like certain sweets, but I HATE coming home with a whole cake. I made a whole bunch of cookies, probably gave away 60% of them, but now I have tons of cookies. Not too big of a deal, just send them to work with Jon. Then there is the pudding cake from Oh She Glows. It was pretty good, but no one touched it at the one family Christmas get together. So we have a full cake, and I don’t want it. I am all desserted out. So I think I come off as a “health freak” to family and friends

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7 Boxed Gingerbread Houses suck, but I knew that anyways.

My husband said he never decorated a gingerbread house before and it is kind-of of the things I grew up doing. I know Gingerbread Houses aren’t something most kids do, truthfully. At least to the extent that we did. Yes we did the graham cracker houses when we were low on time, but we have baked our own gingerbread and put together our own houses. Those are the best.

But I haven’t tried making vegan gingerbread yet, so I am a little nervous how it would turn out. So the other day I passed by a Chanukah House and laughed at how little effort was given to hide it’s “stealing” of Christmas traditions. But as I mentioned, Christmas isn’t Christian to me so I am not judging. I bought it since it looked vegan (I am not use to reading labels with so many bi-products and dye names) and we made it. 

Our house looks like shit. Yeah, super horrible. Part of the problem is the garbage frosting. It was way too thick, it wouldn’t stick to the cookie, and the bags were chunky making it impossible to pipe. How do people use these things? Plus everyone has questioned my motives of eating it, because taste isn’t the number one thing with these kits. So now I am not sure what to do with this ugly house…. I don’t even want to eat the much better tasting cake I made let alone crappy cookie. **NOTE I tried the house, it actually was pretty good for a hard biscuit cookie.

8 My Mother is horrible at buying gifts

We aren’t getting any Shamwows from my Mom, she actually is very good at buying thoughtful gifts. She is just bad at communication, and there are almost always doubles at Christmas. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we haven’t gotten duplicates. This year was pretty bad, though some of it was on our end. I got a whopping 3 double gifts! It usually works out fine, like returning the gift, or in this case, giving away the extra copy of Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen.

But here is an example of the crazy Mom gift buying escapades. My older sister was trying hard to get this creepy unicorn doll for my niece. It was apparently one of the few things she asked for Christmas. But the doll was backordered and it didn’t look like it would arrive in time for Christmas. In a panic my sister tried to buy the doll from another supplier. Both dolls arrived in time, and SURPRISE! My Mother heard my sister talk about how she was concerned about not getting the doll in time so she bought one too! It is thoughtful, and not totally her fault, but now there are three creepy unicorn dolls.

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9 My Cat is the fuzziest

As a semi gag, I put on the Lil Bub Yule Log video on Christmas morning as we were getting ready to go to my sister’s house. We had a ha ha moments then mostly ignored it. Then we noticed Toulouse started to watch. She jumped on the TV stand at one point and sniffed the TV, looked behind the TV, then eventually sat on her pillow and just watched the TV like we would. It was probably because the video had a loud purring that she must of liked, but it felt a little bit like we helped give a little Christmas gift to her.

10 How did I live so long without a tofu press?

I just got one for Christmas and it was awesome. So many wasted paper towels, and the tofu still didn’t get as pressed as using a special device. Sold!


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It is funny when people ask vegetarians what they eat during Thanksgiving. To me the answer is easy, everything except the turkey and ham (yes, my Grandma would cook both a ham and turkey for Thanksgiving). Vegan is a little bit more tricky, not because there is something particularly not vegan about Thanksgiving Day food, but because people love using butter and heavy cream. So a lot of a vegan’s job is trying to ask a host to use vegan butters or oils in the food. An easy answer is to make you own food, I usually recommend making a very not vegan dish, like a green bean casserole. Good news is that crescent rolls and cranberry sauces are usually accidentally vegan. Read labels to double check. If you found this page because you want to figure out what to cook for a vegan, I already wrote a post about it last year!

Last year Alexa asked for recommendations for cooking her own Thanksgiving, so I kind-of made a fantasy cooking list, but I wasn’t actually cooking all those things. I ate with my in-laws who amazingly made all the sides vegan (except for one dish where she left some cheese-less stuff onions for us). This year I am taking up Thanksgiving dinner. I am pretty excited but I am trying to not go too nuts, I mean it is going to be a small dinner, just my husband and his parents. We will have my family come over for desserts, which in someways nice to only have to make one pie in the end… but I’ll probably make a cake too. XD

Picking things were pretty hard, because there has been a recent obesession with people trying to make a new vegetarian showstopper. People are trying to make vegduckens, with epicurious and food52 both giving a stab at it. Food52 does a blow by blow coverage of the process, which is just interesting to read if you are trying to roast 6 different squashes nested into each other. Epicurious had a much simpler summer squash nested in an eggplant, nested in a butternut squash. But my husband didn’t seem interested in any of these ideas, so we ditched them. Maybe one year?

The Dinner Menu:

Sweet Potato Biscuits
Normally I just make the sweet potato drop biscuits from Appetite for Reduction, but these look so fluffy and flakey, I should give this recipe a try.

Garlicky Lacinato Kale
With so many different types of carbs out there, I figured having something green will help balance everything out a little.

Mashed Potatoes
Nothing special, just good old fashioned mashed potatoes with Earth Balance butter and soy milk. My husband badly wanted this, so I will make it.

Roasted Carrots with a Sweet Tahini Drizzle
My Father in Law always wants boiled carrots for dinner. I don’t know about you guys but I hate straight carrots. They are either too earthy or too sweet! But the tahini looks like it will balance everything out nicely.

Sage Stuffing and Shiitake Shallot Gravy
I’ve never made stuffing before so this should be interesting. Something about stuffing seems so unnatural, baking already cooked bread? And you make it soggy then bake it out? So, so, weird.

Seitan Stuffed with Wanuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms
Since I wasn’t doing a show stopping veggie, I figured I would make something meaty for Jon and I. This is a homemade seitan roast, and it looked impressive. So why not right?

Scarlet Barley
This recipe is from Appetite for Reduction, it is simple and easy and very striking. I figured it is a nice addition without much work since it is pretty much simmer on the stovetop.

Brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, and turkey
Yeah, my in-laws are pitching in. They are still pretty attached to the turkey tradition, and I get that can be a hard thing to let go of, so if they want to roast a whole bird at home, then they can. But she is going to bring some brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce to add to the dinner. I think we will have plenty to eat.

The Dessert Menu:

Apple Pie
Jon and I have been kind-of working on our own apple pie recipe. I think we will pull all the stops to make the ultimate apple pie for dessert. And if it works out, we will post it on the blog.

Sweet Potato Cake
I am still not sure if I am going to make this cake, but it looks good. It probably isn’t too hard to put together and I will have to roast some sweet potatoes for the biscuits.

Non-vegan pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and some cranberry something…
I swear people love making dessert? I figured someone in my family would make a dessert, Jon’s father would make his pumpkin pie, and all would be good. No I find myself giving up my pecan pie. I thought about if I wanted to make another dessert, and I am still up in the air about that, but I figured why not give some booze options?

Apple Pie on the Rocks
This was found from Vegan Yack Attack. She made a note that fireball is not actually vegan, so I would have to pick up some other cinnamon vodka. I am not a huge flavored vodka cocktail fan, but I do like the look of that sugar rim.

Maple Bourbon Cocktail
I like bourbon, I like maple syrup, and I have tons of bitters to use up. I think this is the perfect cocktail to make for people want a little bit less of the sweetness from the apple pie on the rocks.

Sweet Potato Pie Cocktail
Why does everyone need to make liquid pie? This one depends if I can find the liquor in the store, Sweet Potato vodka by Art in the Age. I mostly like the visual of having the toasted marshmallows on the top.

Sweet Potato Latte
This is probably a quickie to make off to the side for the two little girls. If we have the sweet potato pie cocktail I will probably have marshmallows on top.

Plan of Action

I think planning is what makes Thanksgiving so hard, so I am trying to plan things out. My husband is taking off Wednesday from work, and so will I. We will use that day to prepare a few things. We will roast some sweet potatoes for the latte, cake, and biscuits. For the desserts, we will try and make the pie and cake ahead of time, and they should be find sitting out of the fridge for one day. We will probably also make the sweet potato lattes a head of time so we can just microwave them for the girls. The only thing for dinner I will prep would be to wash and clean the kale, and to make the mashed potatoes a head of time. 

Day of I will probably start with the seitan roast, as it is the most labor intensive. Once that starts up I’ll start cooking the barley since it is easy but takes over an hour to cook. Then I will move along to the stuffing, then carrots, and biscuits. Then I will finish up with the gravy and kale on the stovetop. I will probably have everything spread out and pre-measured before hand to make everything run smoothly and keep warm for dinner time. 

Then when dessert comes around, I will make cocktails as they are being ordered, and the little kids get the job of taking orders. And I will probably go out and buy some trader joe’s vegan vanilla ice cream with some coconut whip. I guess I will make another post after Thanksgiving reporting how well this actually went. XD

So what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have a 100% vegan Thanksgiving? Or do you just bring your own casserole to dinner?


grandma

Let’s just assume this is fake fur.

I remember loving my Grandmother’s food when I was little. I remember eating lots of junk food (the only real time I got a chance were at grandparents and friends houses) and pouring tons of gravy over my ham/turkey and mashed potatoes. But when I got older I figured out why I used so much gravy, the meat was always dry, in fact everything was dry. Heck even last Thanksgiving she dried the only thing I could eat that she made- Pillsbury crescent Rolls. I didn’t even know that was possible. So in someways it is better than I am vegan, I get to bring my own food.

But oddly my Grandmother always forget that I am vegetarian let alone vegan. She very politely says “Oh you shouldn’t cook next time, Grandma will take care of you” but it a double edged sword, risk getting a veggie lasagna filled with cheese and/or get a not so great dinner. I think at this point I stopped tell her and just bring food. The only downside of this method is that we get like 4 desserts for the end of the night, and I can only eat one (guess who is eating all that pie? ME!)

But whenever I do say I am a vegan, my Grandma talks about how my Great Grandma was vegetarian and wouldn’t eat meat. This was a surprise for all my family. They never heard about this before. And my Grandma hasn’t talked about how wearing onions on the belt was the style at the time, so I trust she is telling the truth. It is kind-of cool think that not eating meat is in my blood. And it probably was harder to abstain from meat 80-90 years ago than it is now. Of coarse, I don’t actually know much about my Great Grandmother, she passed away before I was born. Even my Grandfather passed away before I was born.

I like to think that I can pass on the tradition of being compassionate to animals to my potential children, and they will teach their kids the same. 


So I, Jennifer, moved out to my new house. And we got the “basics” done. We have the kitchen unpacked enough to get dinner on the table without ordering out. I have clothes to change into, and the computer and TV is hooked up. So now I am stuck with all the “little stuff”, mostly needing new furniture…(hello trip to ReStore). Anyways, I needed to do some blogging, and didn’t have much time to do my normal stuff. Sometimes I like reading those mindless about me surveys. I filled it out with Alexa, so maybe you guys will find it fun.

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A – Age:

Jen: 28
Alexa: 25

B – Biggest Fear:

Jen: Being up high with steep drops
Alexa: The ocean. Also the idea of “nothing”. Sometimes I think too much about the vastness of space and time and feel extraordinarily tiny, so then I go watch cat videos online to make myself feel better. 

C – Current Time:

Jen: 5:22 pm
Alexa: 1:34 pm

D – Drink You Had Last:

Jen: Green’s Tripel Blonde Ale (vegan & gluten-free btw) or water
Alexa: Water, Fit Aid (post work out), coffee (black, like my soul).

E – Easiest Person To Talk To:

Jen: Sometimes Jon, Sometimes Alexa.
Alexa: Sometimes Ian, Sometimes Jen (but also my *other* main squeeze Vreni). 

F – Favorite Song:

Jen: “Super Sexy Woman” – Sufjan Stevens
Alexa: “We Sink” – CHVRCHES

G – Grossest Memory:

Jen: Stepping into some cat barf right after taking a shower.
Alexa: Cleaning up cat barf, either that or a REALLY bad diaper change when I was babysitting little babies. So bad it’s been blocked from memory…

H – Hometown:

Jen: Fair Haven
Alexa: Rumson

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I – In Love With:

Jen: Ma bb Toulouse— and my husband Jon.
Alexa: Miso, my cat, my soul mate. I like Ian too.

J – Jealous Of:

Jen: People who have the time, certain type of job, and perfect hair for dying it crazy colors. 
Alexa: ^ what she said!

K – Kindest Person You Know:

Jen: Hands down Alexa. (Alexa, don’t feel like you HAVE to say me, I know I am a horrible person)
Alexa: 1) I’m so totally flattered right now!! 2) Jen is definitely on my list no matter what she says, Ian is also absolutely on the list. He’s almost too kind for his own good.

L – Longest Relationship:

Jen: Friendship- Justine, Romantic- my husband Jon.
Alexa: Friendship – Morgan, Romantic – Ian

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M – Middle Name:

Jen: Christine
Alexa: Helen

N – Number of Siblings:

Jen: Two older sisters
Alexa: 1 Brother, 1 Half-Brother & Half-Sister, 2 Step Siblings (brother and sister, my step-mother’s kids), and 3 MORE Step Sibling (1 sister and 2 brothers, my step father’s kids). 

O – One Wish:

Jen: Magically all my packed boxes would go into the right spots in the house, and furniture would magically appear where I need it.
Alexa: That I could be moved out of my parents’ house and have my own room for making art. 

P – Person You Spoke To On The Phone Last:

Jen: Telemarketer. Lame.
Alexa: Ian!

Q – Question You’re Always Asked:

Jen: “You’ll never ever eat a hot dog again? Ever!?” Feel free to insert bacon, hamburger, turkey, etc.
Alexa: “You really like cats don’t you?” 

R – Reason To Smile:

Jen: Toulouse is getting use to the new house and is hanging out near me.
Alexa: I snuggled with my cat last night and had a delicious vegan breakfast!!!

S – Song You Last Sang:

Jen: “Apa” by 2NE1
Alexa: “Take My Love and Run” by Bad Suns

T – Time You Woke Up:

Jen: 6:30 am
Alexa: 8:00 am
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U – Underwear Color:

Jen: Grey with black leopard spots
Alexa: Grey with stars all over them. 

V – Vacation Destination:

Jen: Going back to Bar Harbor for Hiking, or going a tour of Eastern Asian (South Korean, Japan, China, etc)
Alexa: A tropical Island, Japan, Disney

W – Worst Habit:

Jen: Drinking too much before dinner, drunk chopping = bad.
Alexa: Picking at my finger nails and then my fingers.

X – X-Rays You’ve Had

Jen: None, well my teeth.
Alexa: Teeth!

Y – Your Favorite Food

Jen: Beer, Calzones (yey new big kitchen for making vegan calzones!), and Ice Cream.
Alexa: Sushi, Ice Cream, Tacos (veggie friendly of course)…I’m just gunna stop there…

Z – Zodiac Sign:

Jen: Taurus, I don’t really believe all this sort of “when you are born” sort of stuff, though The Secret Language, totally hits me right on the nail. So creepy guise!
Alexa: Astrological: Capricorn   Chinese Zodiac: Border of Snake and Horse


Once I became a “Flexetarian” (flexible vegetarian: I am working more and more each day to be a full veggie-saurus, but sometimes eating meat -with exceptions- is hard for me to avoid at the moment) I started to take note of the people I follow in media who are vegan and vegetarian. The more I thought about it the more I felt as though they needed a shout-out and appreciation post, because these people are not only health, animal, and Earth conscious, but they are also just plain awesome. This will be an ongoing project, I think, seeing as I find more cool people who love the planet and it’s inhabitants every day. 

Tyrannosaurus Lexxx on Youtube

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I stumbled across Lex’s page a few months back after seeing a video from Laci Green that was about internet equality and making the internet a safe place for women. The main reason her page had popped out at me was mainly because I had created a character with the same name during college (she was a super-villain version of me that wore a silly dinosaur suit and had a fat Komodo Dragon as her companion…really old and badly drawn evidence here), Obviously I had to investigate! It turns out that Lex is a super awesome Vegan-British woman who also happens to be very funny and smart. I hadn’t actually found out about her veganism until I was searching through more of her older videos. All I had known was that she was a big proponent of Lush which specializes in cruelty free and natural based cosmetics and bath products. Along with her main channel (listed above) which is updated weekly with varying types of videos she also hosts a channel called “Girly as Hell“. It hasn’t been updated in about a year, but it still has a great amount of informative videos about veganism and cruelty free beauty products, as well as fashion and ‘haul’ videos.

 Daniel Bryan

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While Daniel Bryan is not currently a vegan, he still tries to maintain a mostly vegan diet while being on the road for WWE. He has certainly mentioned his love for vegan food in a (somewhat) recent interview, but he’s been unable to continue his veganism because of a negative reaction to soy. Many “on the go” vegan products have a soy base, and while traveling at all hours of the night/day (and feeding themselves enough calories for an athletic body) it isn’t easy to keep to a strict diet like that. I also want to mention that he and his lovely wife Brie Bella are, as the call themselves, “locavores.” Being on the road as much as they are, they always make sure to post which local farm-to-table restaurant or coffee shop they visit. It’s adorable and I’m sure it helps out the businesses in some way as well! They also have a grey water system built into their backyard in Phoenix, Arizona. These two are probably some of the most earth conscious wrestlers I’ve ever heard of and I appreciate the fact that they don’t hide it to try and keep some sort of weird “street cred” in the wrestling world. It also helps to add to Bryan’s TV persona from time to time if the story calls for it.

Beside the fact that Daniel Bryan is a super chill guy, he’s also a fantastic athlete in the squared circle. He had two amazing matches during Wrestlemania 30 which led to him becoming the World Heavy Weight Champion (until complications intervened) and is currently the Intercontinental Champion. I could go on and on, and I wanted to post some of his best matches below but WWE keeps a pretty tight lock on their best material. I’ll just post my new favorite photo of Ian and I below!!

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Mr. Ian and I got to meet Daniel Bryan last month and I gave him a little drawing and a note telling him how much I appreciate him as an athlete. It was very brief, but it made my day (week, month, year). He’s also Ian’s favorite wrestler so it was nice to be able to go with him.

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