Betty Leigh Verbeke

Miss B. Haven, a well-loved orange Honda Fit, died Sunday November 18th, 2012.

In an unfortunate event, a large 8-point buck decided to end it all, for he had been suffering from chronic depression by being teased all his days for his deformed antlers.  It is believed that he was unaware that his suicide would take another life, the life of a sweet little car.

Miss B. Haven led a good life, being owned, and now surviving in memory, by Betty Leigh Verbeke.  Betty adopted Miss B. Haven in 2006, right out of the womb of the automobile industry.

Over the last six years, the two of them spent many hours on the road together, approximately 81,000 miles worth.  Miss B. Haven was able to see much of Texas and had a few long road trips through the United States, one of which was to Florida and back, just car & owner, a bonding experience never to be forgotten.

If you’re wondering where Miss B. Haven got her name, she was deemed such in the last year of her life for her rather debaucherous and fun life style she led with Betty.  Such occasions will not be elaborated on.

However, not all of Miss B. Haven’s life was a luxurious road to wheel experience, she had been in a few accidents before the final blow of the horn.  She had encountered a stop sign, a concrete wall, a large tree limb falling after a storm, and sadly enough, another small deer a few years before.

In summation of her life, through the rough and the wonderful, she was a well cared for and loved vehicle.  She took on many passengers and kindly assisted friends & family in moving from one location to another.  She will be missed and always remembered.

Cheers to you, Miss B. Haven, may your engine forever roar in Honda Heaven.

<3

Yikes, this year is just flying by with magical colors of awesomeness!  I can’t believe it’s already 10 days into November..  This is what happened in October:

I celebrated my one year veganiversary!

I participated in a Fracking protest in Dallas!  ”Parks are for chillin, not for drillin!”  Why would you want to drill for gas in a beautiful park?  That’s cray!

I went on another Cross Train for Texas Campaign for the Environment!  This time I was in Syracuse, NY with Citizens Campaign for the Environment!  I was there for three weeks of super success getting folks involved to pass plan BV7.  What’s BV7?  Well, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River have had artificial water-level regulation for over 5 decades and it has caused severe damage (especially in extreme weather conditions)  to not only the ecology, but also the economy.  The plan is to allow a more natural flow of water throughout the year and to revitalize the shore line, which will allow the environment to flourish and boost the economy through longer fishing, boating, and tourism seasons.  It was an interesting issue to work on and I hope it passes!  Fingers crossed.  (:

Syracuse, where I was staying, is a cute little town with a surprising amount of vegan options at local restaurants.  I was rooming with the canvass director, Lisa, who lives a convenient 3 blocks from the CCE office.  The first week I was in Syracuse, there were two other cross trainers, McCartt from Dallas TCE, and Jess from NJEF!  We all had so much fun together!  On the first full weekend I was there we went to New York City and partied hard at the gay bars!!  That was one probably of the funnest nights I have ever experienced.  The next two weeks were more relaxed with just Lisa and I (and her roommate, Lacey) in the house.  I also have to mention the beautiful fall season, which was sooo nice to experience again.  I loved seeing all the trees with different colored leaves and the crispness in the air.  We definitely don’t have that in Texas.  Haha.

Finally, to wrap up October, Halloween was spent back in Austin.  <3  I was working, but I still dressed up (as an environment fairy)!

I love my life.  And you too!  <3 <3 <3

I put Sriracha on everything. <3

Meal One:  Angel hair pasta, red and green bell pepper, jalapeno, kale, yellow onion, garlic, tofurky Italian sausage, olive oil, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and Sriracha.

Meal Two:  Tofu, white onion, garlic, zucchini, crimini mushrooms, olive oil, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and Sriracha.

Meal Three:  Romaine lettuce, baby spinach leaves, mango, and poppy seed dressing mixed with Sriracha.

Meal Four:  Spaghetti, red onion, garlic, jalapenos, tofurky Italian sausage, Italian seasoning, salt black pepper, olive oil, nutritional yeast, and Sriracha.

Meal Five:  Ciabatta bread, yellow onion, garlic, green and red bell pepper, crimini mushrooms, corn (all cooked in olive oil), with Romaine lettuce, hummus, avocado, black pepper, and Sriracha.

Meal Six:  Cucumber with hummus and Sriracha!  Starting to see a recurring theme?  Haha

Meal Seven:  Red quinoa, yellow onion, garlic, red and green bell pepper, jalapeno, baby carrots, brussels sprouts, kale, tofurky Italian sausage, olive oil, salt, black pepper, and Sriracha.

Meal Eight:  Baby spinach leaves, avocado, and poppy seed dressing mixed with Sriracha.

… Seriously, I think I’m addicted to that delicious spicy sauce.  <3

I voted!  (:

“Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates” by Tom Robbins

Oh Tom Robbins, how you boggle my mind with your never-ending vocabulary and creativity.  If you haven’t read anything by Tom Robbins, you are seriously missing out on some amazing fiction writing with relevant life lessons seamlessly hidden in wit.   The story line of this book is too good, too intricate, and too weird to summarize, so you will just have to read it.  But, I do have some quotes for you to skim over:

“‘It’s government service, Maestra.  Morality’s scarcely an issue.’”

“The pupils of his aforementioned fierce, hypnotic green eyes were so dilated they looked like the burners on a dollhouse stove.”

“[...] and so forcefully that his busy black mustache bucked and rolled as if it were a theme-park ride for thrill-seeking tamale crumbs [...]”

“The sun dropped into the horizon like a coin dropping into a slot.  The ocean bit it to make sure it wasn’t counterfeit.”

“‘All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously.’”

“‘It’s hotter than the soles of Dante’s loafers out here.’  Immediately he regretted the remark, for he heard himself starting to sound like one of the the petty mopers who wasted untold priceless moments of their brief stay on this planet complaining about its weather.  Unless it was about to cause you bodily harm, rot your rhubarb on the stalk, or carry off your children, weather ought either to be celebrated or ignored, he felt, one or the other; although at times such as this, when it was steaming one’s brain like a Chinese dumpling, it failed to inspire much in the way of celebration [...]”

“‘Then what the? … You were bouncing around like a poot in a microwave.’”

“‘You could fit all my virtues in Minnie Mouse’s belly button and still have room from Mickey’s tongue and their prenuptial agreement.’”

“One moment he craved to give her a bath in his semen, to rub it, warm and pearly, into her navel, her lips, the nipples that in his mind evoked the candy-coated lug nuts on Cupid’s pink Corvette.”

“[...] but the sound stuck in his throat like a fake Santa in a crooked chimney.”

“[...] there was a sense that in the space behind his eyes a porcupine and a lobster were fighting to the death in front of a strobe light.”

“‘Merry Christmas, Swit.  Here’s wishing you a sleighload of eggnogged virgins in mistletoe underwear.’”

“[...] the last time he’d had his fill of the bubbly, he’d gazed into Anna’s face and told her that her eyes were like a morning mist on the fur of a squirrel.  Or something like that.”

“The sun was low but the air was still balmy, and the sea was the shade of blue that black could have been it if hadn’t stepped over the line.”

“[...] the world was as empty and dry as a mummy’s condom.”

“‘If the world gets any smaller, I’ll end up living next door to myself.’”

“Looking at it from another angle, their kiss was like a paper airplane landing on the moon.”

“He flashed her a grin that could housebreak a walrus.”

“‘I mean, it’s hardly headline news that the corporate state and its media are using the latest gadget-com and gimmick-tech to dumb us down as steadily as if they were standing on a stool and pounding our brains with a frozen ham.’”

Wow, last night while at staff night with TCE, I realized that this month marks my one year anniversary of being vegan!  Woot!  We were at this cute bar on Rainy Street called Bangers that had 101 beers on tap!  Go there sometime!

So anyways, it’s pretty fucking awesome that I have been vegan for a year.

A lot of folks want to know why I went vegan..  Well, I don’t support factory farming.  Period.  And we vote with our dollars.

Yes, I know that meat and cheese taste delicious.  I used to eat them.  I used to order my steaks medium-rare.  But frankly, there are plenty of vegan recipes (I never run out of new things to try) and I am never dissatisfied.  Yes, sometimes I crave meat.  When that happens I buy a meat substitute.  Yes, those exist.  Also, since I live in Austin, I am fortunate enough to have plenty of restaurants with vegan options.

Over the course of the last year, I can’t say that I have been 100% vegan, but I have been pretty close.  I say I haven’t been 100% because there have been times when I went to a non-vegan restaurant and ordered something altered, with no cheese, for ex, and it came to the table with cheese.  Well, the portion of cheese is already used, so I will not make the restaurant waste food and re-make my plate without cheese..  that makes no sense.  That’s just wasteful.  So, in those moments I have been non-vegan.  Also, there have been times at restaurants where I didn’t ask if the bread had eggs/milk in it, etc, but when I shop for myself I make sure that everything I buy is vegan.

It has been such a fun year trying new vegan recipes and new vegan restaurants.  There are plenty of vegan meals I have posted under “Food I’ve Made” .. feel free to check those out.  (:

Being vegan has been so rewarding.  I feel better inside and out and I feel good about buying what I believe in.

Plus, it helps that a few of my friends and my wonderful boyfriend are vegan too.  <3

Wow, the last update I did was about the El Paso Epic journey I went on with Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE).. which ended August 19th.  I know, that was over a month ago, but I have been so busy living life I haven’t had the time to blog about it!  So, this is a little recap of what has happened since my last post:

Luke spent a week with me in Austin from August 19th – 26th!  He did stand up comedy at the Velveeta Room and was a huge hit!  They told him he could come back any time!  (:  Oh how I love my handsome and hilarious and talented and wonderful and sweet and too-many-other-adjectives boyfriend.  <3  Feel free to vomit now.

I dropped the online accounting course I was supposed to take this semester because I took a summer course online and decided this fall semester is now my summer break from class.  (:  What a relief.

Luke turned 26 on September 4th!  I stayed in Dallas with him for his birthday and it was a very fun and inappropriate four day weekend.  Haha.  I did get to meet a lot of his family (mom, grandparents, uncle, nieces & nephews, etc) which was pretty cool.  I was also afforded the tour of his life in pictures.  Priceless.  For is birthday, I bought him some nice cologne that we had picked out together a few weeks before.. he was previously wearing some shitty chocolate scented axe spray that made him smell like a 13 year old weirdo.

I had a much needed dinner with my old roommate/friend Molly.  It had been months since we had seen each other so it was really nice to catch up.  (:

I finally got my hair cut!  Gah, January was the last trim I had, so it was so nice to get rid of all those split ends!

I went to the Austin Poetry Slam, one of my favorite things in the world to do on a Tuesday night!  My friend Dan went with me.  It was so good to see him and to go to the Slam because it had been about six weeks since the last time we had gone.  Oh live poetry, you will always have a special place in my heart.  <3

September 15th was TCE’s 21st birthday party and the event we held was a great success!  There was free booze and food and a fashion show with outfits made from recycled materials and a silent auction and not to mention a kick ass dance party that lasted till 2ish in the morning.  There were supporters who came from all over Texas as well as some news stations and the press and all three TCE offices (Houston, Dallas, and Austin).  Yeah, you should have been there.

The next weekend (September 20th – 23rd) was a freaking ridiculously rad weekend.  TCE Austin, Houston, and Dallas canvassed in Dallas on Thursday then drove through the night and arrived in Paducah, Kentucky on Friday afternoon.  Once there, in our executive cabin suites, we popped the tops to too many beverages and partied through the night with offices from all over the entire HBC network.  (TCE is part of a nation-wide network of various nonprofits – HBC.)  It was so awesome to meet new people within the network and to see folks from when I went on my cross-train in New Jersey back in July!  <3  The next day we all went to different “workshops” with speakers talking about various topics such as GMO’s, plastic bags, whistle blowers on our corrupt government, phone canvassing, etc.  All types of goodness.  After the workshops we had a rocking talent show and floated a few kegs.. then we went back to our cabins and partied all through the night, yet again.  After sleeping less than 5 but more than 2 hours, we got up and drove our hung-over asses back to Texas.  It was one of the shortest and most fulfilling road trips I have ever been on!

Over the last month, I have also had a few dinners with my family, which happens about every other week.  I am so grateful for them.  They are so supportive and full of love and laughter.  <3

I also chilled with various close friends who I feel like I never get to see.  (:

I am sure there are some other significant things I am leaving out that happened over the last month, but I can only remember so much..

Either way, September was a magnificent month and I’m sure October will be nothing short of that either.  You know why?  Well, of course you don’t, but I’ll tell you:  I am going on another three week cross-train in Syracuse, NY!!!  (:

I love my life.  And you too.  <3

Heard at Austin Poetry Slam <3