The Christmas Season

Tonight we spent the evening with our support family and the Jesuits sharing tea and sweets (not very vegan friendly, so I had self-restraint) and great conversation. The one amazing thing about the Christmas season in the JV house is that since it cannot revolve around physical gifts of any sort, it revolves around the gift of spending time with one another.

Our JVC Yakima gift to one another is a Murder Mystery party that Sam is throwing this Friday night. We will all be given our prospective characters on Friday after work. It is a shoot-em-up Texas classic, so Sophie will be cooking dinner and we will be preparing our characters. I can't wait!

After we go to Seattle on Friday and say our Christmas greetings with our friends at the other houses, while our challenge this week was to cook with only what was in our fridge, we are returning home on Sunday for a week of beans and rice. We are limiting ourselves to only beans and rice for three meals a day... that is until I fly out Friday for NYC! I can't wait for the challenge, I'm sure my digestive system will not be too stoked about it, but I am excited to take it on. And, plus, it is not all that different from what I am eating on a poor-man's vegan diet anyhow!

Merry pre-Christmas!

Merry pre-Christmas! The holiday season has arrived full-speed ahead in Yakima! We spent this weekend in town and went out to a rural town on Saturday night for the world-famous LIGHTED FARM IMPLEMENT PARADE. Yes, that includes pitchforks, tractors, wine-pickers, plows, hay thrashers, etc! It was simply stunning.

-Work is still great, I love the clinic! I am in the middle of applications to schools next year for post-baccalaureate pre-medical programs so I can finish my requirements before applying to medical school (surprise! I want to be a doctor!)

-The community is still going well, a bit cold though. Our house is kind-of an ice box and our food stores are a bit unvaried, but overall life is good.

-I am now a vegan. I did Vegan 'Vember and have now moved onto Vegan December...or at least until I get home and my mom makes her chocolate cake...or until I see a delicious burger...yumm... Being vegan is tough on a tight budget, very very tough, but it has really given me a great perspective into how much we rely on meat, eggs, and dairy products, all of which contribute greatly to our greenhouse gas emissions and are extremely detrimental to the environment, never mind the inhumane treatment of these animals and the chemicals they are pumped with that runoff into our water supplies, etc.

-I am coming home on the 18th! Or at least I am coming to NYC, then coming home on the 20th. I can't wait! I miss New Hampshire and Boston and maple syrup.

-That was a cliffs notes version of my current life. Again, still no computer, I am holding out for Christmas!!!