vegan chai

visiting farm sanctuary

as i mentioned in my previous post, i had the chance to visit farm sanctuary a few weeks ago, which was just a fantastic experience. i had such a great time, and it was over much too soon, and i've thought about it every day since.

my husband and i decided somewhat spur-of-the-moment that we would go to a wedding in lake tahoe. it was the wedding of a old and dear friend, and we'd just put off our decision-making and trip-planning too long, but once we decided to go, everything fell into place quite nicely. we planned to stay with another old and dear friend in sacramento, and pretty much the INSTANT i realized we'd have friday "free," i started lobbying for a visit to the orland farm sanctuary.

i wasn't actually sure if it would work out, so i tried VERY hard not to get my hopes up, but i went about trying to set things up with sarah, my VRF friend who works there. she was so sweet and helpful (and excited like me!) and i kept my husband informed about all the details, in the hopes that it would really work out. we would be staying at least an hour and a half away from the farm, and we weren't sure what our friends would want to do that day, so it wasn't a sure thing... but i kept my fingers crossed very tightly that the trip would materialize (all the while telling myself it probably wouldn't. heh).

we arrived late thursday night, and sat out on their patio talking until about 1am. when we all headed in to go to bed, they asked us what we wanted to do the next day, and my husband passed the conversational baton to me, all, "well, she wants to go somewhere..." so i awkwardly explained about farm sanctuary as quickly and "breezily" as i could. our friends were like, "that sounds great, let's do it!" and i was floored, and explained that it was a good 90 minutes away, but they were completely cool with it. woo hoo!

the next morning i BOUNDED out of bed, got ready, and called sarah to set up the details. she had to run work-errands all afternoon, so we were trying to get there early enough in the day to have some time for visiting with her and getting the grand tour (the perks of having a friend work there!).  we managed to get out of the house in relatively good time, but the drive took longer than we thought it would (i think we thought there would be more freeway--i.e., speeding--miles), and we ended up getting there much later than anticipated. i felt awful because i totally screwed up sarah's schedule for the day, but she was sooo awesome about it and never once made us feel like jerks. hee.

when we parked the car i was kind of in a state of shock, because days before i could have never predicted that i'd be standing there. it was so awesome. i scurried over to the shelter office to find sarah, and it was just so funny--my brain was on a constant "oh my god i'm at farm sanctuary!" loop. sarah was on the phone when i got inside, so i stood in her doorway and acted like a nerd for awhile, then pet one of the cats sitting on a big pillow on the floor. it was SO cool to meet sarah; she's just the greatest person and such a wonderful host. i heart her.

we went around to every barn and visited tons of animals. we started with the cows, which are amazing and enormous and gentle and gorgeous. we walked right up to them--some walked right up to us--and got to pet them and hang out and talk to them. i have a super-soft-spot for jersey cows, so i was crushing on tyler and eugene and eli, among others. we also met roberti, who is absolutely massive, and nellie, who has a beautiful face.

we got to hang out with the donkeys, bonnie and waylon, which was particularly exciting because both sarah and i really really really love donkeys. and these donkeys are SO sweet! oh my goodness. waylon followed sarah everywhere, and bonnie seemed to like me. it was so great to snuzzle with them.

after the donkeys we got to meet kiwi and fergus, two piglets who will just charm the pants off you right away. when kiwi came running over to the fence i swear to god i welled up a little, she was so cute. (i do that. i'm weird.) she has spots and she's so friendly and i just wanted to take her home (she's in the picture above, click for a better look). fergus is part pot-bellied pig, part feral, and his tail wags like a little helicopter blade. They Were So Cute! we fed them banana peels, which they loved. we went from there to the "big pig" barn, and met the piglets who were rescued from UC-davis and some of the giant piggers. they were all totally friendly and loved the banana peels. i met lily, who weighs 750 pounds, and ramona, who is smaller and has spots and loves people.

then we headed over to the goats and sheep, and the goats were totally interested in us but the sheep were more shy. we pet a bunch of goats and then all of a sudden we realized a lone sheep was following us around. her name is zoe, and she was from a wild herd on santa cruz island. she totally loved attention, and was really patient about waiting for it. she would just stand quietly nearby with her head ducked down a bit, like, "um, you could pet me and that would be all right." she was so cute! i hung out with her and talked to her for awhile.

after we were done in that area, we headed over to see all of the chickens and turkeys. sarah had brought bananas to feed the turkeys (something i never knew turkeys liked!) and it was totally hilarious--she peeled a banana halfway for me and said, "here, if you hold it they'll come peck bits of banana off," and i was all, "kewl!" and then this greedy turkey lady busted over and YANKED THE ENTIRE THING OUT OF MY HAND and ran away. it was the most hilarious sight, this crazy turkey running around with an entire banana sticking out of her mouth, peels flapping in the breeze. she would get somewhere, stop, look around all shifty-like, then run again. i really wish i had video of it; the image is burned in my mind forever. the turkeys loved being petted, and they were so gentle and sweet about the whole thing. and they're really soft!

we peeked in on the rabbit enclosure, which is like a little Rabbit Town, i swear. cool hiding places and lots of room to hop around and have fun. we saw geese strolling around, and then flying to the pond. we checked in on some adorable white ducks. oh!! and we got to meet the baby turkeys who survived the horrible northwest airlines fiasco--they were adorable. the whole experience was beyond amazing; i am sounding terribly inarticulate because i'm running out of normal-sounding words to describe it. we took some pictures while we were there; if you want to check them out, here you go!

i wish i could have spent the entire day there, but i wouldn't trade the 90 minutes we had for the world. i have always thought that farm sanctuary was a tremendous organization, but being there, and meeting the animals, and spending time with sarah has really driven the point home, and made it so much more personal for me. i want to go back, like yesterday. i want to adopt all the animals. i want land so i can rescue a cow and a donkey and a piglet and and and...

summary: farm sanctuary is the bestest EVAH. you must go.

farm sanctuary walk (2006)

last year i participated in the farm sanctuary walk for farm animals for the first time. i blogged about it here, and then again here, in case you're extremely bored and need some stuff to read. heh.

this year i sort of dropped the ball on promoting the event here, which is a bummer. i fully meant to, but as you can see my blogging has been a little sparse the past couple of months. anyway, i'm here now and that's what counts! in most participating cities, the walk for farm animals will be taking place next weekend (to coincide with world farm animals day on october 2nd). at the time of this writing, there are 44 cities listed on the roster, so please check to see if there will be a walk in your area, and consider participating!

just like last year, anyone who sponsors a walker for $20 or more becomes a farm sanctuary member for the year, which includes a newsletter subscription. i love that angle, because it's an additional opportunity for outreach. in a new twist compared to last year, farm sanctuary has made it easier than ever to sponsor a walker, which i was excited about because i'm a nerd. they teamed up with firstgiving and every walker can make an online fundraising page, for people who would rather not go the cash/check route. you can see mine here if you like. i am absolutely certain that having this option improved my ability to get pledges, so, YAY!

this year our walk is being organized by a new person--someone tied to our campus/community animal activism group. i've tried to help out with publicizing the walk by sending my emails more widely, and i've approached businesses about posting the flyers (with about a 95% success rate on that front). i really hope we can boost attendance over last year. regardless, my sister and my 2-year-old niece will be walking with me this year, which should be a blast.

one last note: it fully deserves its own entry, so i won't go into it just yet, but i am super-duper-extra-excited about this year's walk, because i got to visit farm sanctuary two weeks ago! it was SO AMAZING and they are truly deserving of all the support we can give them. i heart them, for reals. please support them if you can!

the greatest sandals in the history of ever

okay, i've been meaning to write this post for quite some time. my apologies for waiting until summer is basically over, but i assure you that it won't matter, and you should buy these sandals anyway. (if you are not a girl, you should buy a pair for your favorite girl. or, you know, get adventurous and buy some for yourself. heh.)

i was first introduced to the amazing mohop sandals on vegan represent (VRF), and immediately i said what can basically be summarized as, "ooooh, pretty! but, um, ouch." i really couldn't fathom wearing wooden shoes on purpose. anyway, lucky for me, annie mohaupt soon registered at VRF (because in addition to making ridiculously great sandals, she is also vegan), and she set me straight. because the sandals are made out of wood and curved so prettily, they offer wonderful support. i remained a teeny bit skeptical, but i was definitely interested.

because seriously, how could you not be interested? these are a million sandals in one. totally customizable from start to finish! you can pick what shape you'd like; the heel height; the design on the shoe itself... and that's just the beginning, because then there are all the ribbons. oh, the ribbons!! for serious, annie is a goddess and a genius. she's a geniess goddius.

i spent Quite Some Time clicky-clicking around the mohop site, fantasizing about the perfect combination of height/shape/design. i lusted after the vintage ribbons, and wondered which colors and widths might work best for me. and then do you know what happened? she added more options! back to the drawing board for me.

meanwhile, my dear pals summer and tracy were brave, and they each ordered a pair. when their shoes arrived, they gushed and gushed and pretty much helped me decide that i needed to get me some. as luck would have it, annie was doing a show in my town pretty much exactly that weekend, so i got to meet her and try a pair of mohops on--and i was so pleasantly surprised! they didn't feel weird at all. they're actually quite comfy, because of the aforementioned support thing, but also because the ribbons go through these great elastic loops, so even when you tie your ribbons on tight, they move with your foot on accounta the elastic. like i said: genius. goddess.

my mind made up, i placed an order that very day. i got a truly custom order (it doesn't appear on the website, but annie was very sweet about doing it for me), and i totally copycatted tracy, because evidently we have similar taste when it comes to these things. i got a mid-heel with a square toe (seen in the low heel section) in the navy hibiscus pattern (seen in the high heel section). i also ordered some turquoise, silver, and black ribbons, along with a set of vintage ribbons with buckles. then i sat back and waited for the box to arrive. and while i was waiting, i chatted about mohops to anyone who would listen. i was SO excited!

on the day my shoes arrived, i was walking home from a morning meeting at a local coffee shop. i got to my driveway at the same time that my mail carrier did, and she said, "oh here, i have a box for you," and i was all, "where is that from?" and i tried very hard not to snatch it out of her hands. when i saw it was from annie i squeeeeeeed it up all over the place and i told her she had just made my day. she found me amusing.

not only are the shoes even more gorgeous than i could have imagined, but annie is even more goddess-like than i originally thought, because she threw in extra ribbons for me to play with. sigh. i love her. i have since ordered even more ribbons (i can't stop myself), and i think i'm up to about a dozen (or more) sets by now. oh! for those of you feeling scared about lacing up your sandals, never fear: annie provides a cute little help sheet showing lots of different methods to try. have i mentioned that i love her?

so, for the love of all that is good and holy, get some mohops. support a vegan artist. adorn your adorable feet. look at how amazing they are! you know you need a piece of that action. and when you order, tell annie that i love her.

AR2006 day 4: sunday

i received a voicemail early sunday morning from an adorably chipper jen. “hi, it’s 7.55am and i’m just wondering where everyone is!” i almost died from the cuteness. i missed her call, but eventually i hooked up with her after i got to the hotel. yay jen! 

before heading to the conference for the day, though, anne wanted to take me to the farmer’s market dealie near her house. i am totally spacing on the name… perhaps the eastern market? in any case, the whole fam headed over there (i ate a sticky fingers chocolate chip cookie on the way) and it was a lot of fun! i tried my first actual (non-yogurt, non-smoothie) peach, which was pretty exciting for me. i had two pieces of regular ol’ peach, and then one piece of a white peach, and then since i was feeling so terribly brave, i also tried a nectarine, which i REALLY liked. yay! i’m a big girl! the market is really big—there’s art and music and jewelry and all kinds of great stuff in addition to produce and flowers—so we spent some time just browsing around. i bought a gorgeous necklace; a charm of a pressed leaf in between glass. after we were done there, my sweetest hosts evah trucked me over to the hotel again. 

as soon as i got there, i set about finding isa (again) and jen. isa originally said she was hoping to spend the night saturday and be at the conference sunday, so i kept my fingers crossed. i wandered into the exhibit hall, and i found jen almost right away—score! we were both kind of hungry, so we decided to get some lunch and head outside to eat on the grass. what did we get? all together now… grilled chreese sandwiches! heh. we sat and talked for awhile on the lawn, and it was just wonderful. all of the people i met from VRF were like old friends! jen and i both had panels we wanted to attend at 1.30pm, so we finished up our conversation and headed back in. somewhere in there, we bumped into josh and i asked him about isa. he said, “oh! she was here last night looking for you! and she was here this morning too, looking for you again, but she left.” i was all “crap!!” and he was all, “eh, she wasn’t at her best anyway.” heh. i was really sad to have missed isa, but i suppose there’s always a next time. 

before i went to the afternoon panels, i had to swing by the sticky fingers table to buy a treat i hadn’t had room for on saturday: a little devil. holy cow, was that ever worth it! the cake, the filling, and the icing were all perfect, and it was so enormous i had to squish it down to eat it, as if it were a giant sandwich. YUM. 

at 1.30pm i attended a panel on effective tactics for agriculture, which was a nice overview of ideas for ending abuse of animals used for food. it strayed a little off-topic at times (that is to say, i wish it had been a little more “applied” in its focus), but it was great to see elliot katz, bruce friedrich, and richard schwartz speak. richard schwartz shared his idea to set a goal and a timetable—his is to create a more vegan-conscious world by 2010—in order to keep us focused and on track at all times. i like his idea, and i think it would be neat to see lots of organizations get on board with it. having a specific goal is always helpful when your task seems overwhelming and daunting, isn’t it? 

i stayed in the same room for the next panel, “what price animal liberation?” this was a rap session facilitated by cat clyne, and it was really great. there were lots of good points, lots of great discussion, and i wish it could have gone on longer than an hour. we (well, they) talked about when we should sacrifce; how much we should sacrifice; when we might actually be acting in counter-productive ways; etc. i was particularly impressed by lawrence carter-long (satya) and jenny brown (woodstock farm animal sanctuary), but in general this was just a great session. during this panel i also realized i was in the same room with gary (of animal writings), which made me very excited. i’ve been dying to meet him, but i waited until afterward to pester him. oh, and after this panel was over (in between this and the next one, which i also stayed for), a small discussion started up near me involving a few strangers and gary. i noticed that one person who came over to listen (but never spoke) was jerry vlasak. i consider him to be kind of “famous,” so that was interesting/exicting. i’m kind of a gawker that way.

the next panel in that room was called “which movement priorities?” and was another rap session, this time facilitated by karen dawn. i was pretty psyched to see her speak, too, because i get emails from her every day. i think she’s really amazing, and she was great in this panel too. lawrence carter-long stuck around for this panel, and bruce friedrich and sean day both showed up for it too. there were lots of topics covered during the hour: welfare vs. abolition, which animals do we prioritize?, aggressive vs. mild tactics, and so on. we (they) talked about PeTA giving an award for a humane mouse trap, and the animal welfare act, and property destruction, and all kinds of stuff. as with the plenary on friday evening, i was quite interested in (and impressed by) the debate on welfare vs. abolition. bruce and sean reprised their roles, but there was “audience participation” this time, too. as bruce put it, ignoring welfare in favor of abolition almost seems like “selling out” the current animals who ARE being abused and killed in order to work for a hypothetical future situation. as they were on friday, bruce and sean were incredibly polite, repsectful, and professional, even though they were also quite passionate. it was refreshing to see, and i truly relished the opportunity to witness this civility when the online wars about this have often been anything but. as you may have figured out by now, this was yet another panel that i really wished could have been longer than one hour—and karen did an awesome job of facilitating, with so many topics of interest on the table.

after this panel i got a chance to talk to gary, which was great, and as it turned out, he was planning to meet some people from the veganfreak forums, so i accompanied him to meet them too. yay! it was just so wonderful to meet people who i only “knew” online before; and they all turned out to be great people. we all wandered together to the exhibit hall and harrassed josh some more (poor kid!), and then after awhile i found katelin and jen so we could take a picture together outside (gary served as photographer, although now i’m smacking my head because i never got a picture with him! i was terribly disorganized about pictures the entire weekend; it’s a wonder i got any at all. hmph.). we chatted some more, until everyone had to get a move on and head for home. gary and i hung on for awhile, because he was planning to go to that evening’s closing plenary and awards ceremony. it was really nice to get a chance to hang out with him; i admire and respect him a great deal.

i hadn’t paid to go to that evening’s banquet, so i called anne and told her i was ready whenever she was. we decided we’d just pick up some dinner on the way home and she said she was on her way. i decided to be a total celebrity dork once again, and i went downstairs to see if i might run across moby in the hallway (he was being honored at the awards ceremony). heh. when i got outside the room the banquet was in, i found myself basically staring right at the back of his head, and i got the giggles. at the last moment i remembered my camera and decided i’d take a picture. i am such a moron, honestly. but hey, it’s proof! i saw moby! when anne picked me up i showed her the picture and she agreed; even though you can’t see his face, it is undeniably moby. awesome. 

as i was heading out to wait in the parking lot, i bumped into josh once more, which was great. we hung out and joked around and made BFF memories and all that mushy stuff. anne arrived and we went to cosi on the way home (it was my first visit to cosi, but I really liked the hummus sammich and smoothie that i bought), then sat around all night chatting. i loved being with her; it was the perfect complement to my conferencing. she’s such a sympathetic and wonderful friend. :hearty hearts for anne: 

i feel like i’ve missed important things here and there in these recaps, but hopefully i’ve given the gist of everything. i absolutely LOVED meeting my “online friends” in person—it was so fabulous—and the panels i went to were really good the exhibition hall was really great, too, and i didn’t spend all that much time talking about it… but it was a fantastic opportunity to learn about various organizations and chat with all kinds of people you wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to meet. oh! that reminds me. i mentioned in an earlier post that there would be more about dan piraro later. i suppose now is the time, although i’ll say in advance that i totally embarrassed myself. 

i was visiting the woodstock farm animal sanctuary table on sunday afternoon because i really wanted to support them by buying a t-shirt. i had heard jenny brown’s interview on the veganfreak podcast awhile back, and she just seems so wonderful. then i saw her speak at a couple of different panels at the conference, and she’s really great. dan piraro is on the board of directors for her sanctuary, so he was selling his book at their table, and on this particular afternoon they were both at the table when i came by to get my t-shirt. well, because i had limited cash on me (and i wanted to buy everything i saw, practically), i was always asking about whether various organizations were equipped to take credit cards. when i asked jenny, she said that the table next to them had offered use of their machine, but cash was probably easiest… at which point dan jumped in and said that they would accept bartering. at which point i offered makeouts. yes, you heard me. makeouts. sometimes i just can’t help myself. i’m an idiot. one of them asked me which of the two of them would be the recipient of said makeouts, and i compounded the embarrassment by saying that they were both pretty adorable, so. 

i can’t even believe i’m admitting i did that. consider it a gift. 

ANYWAY (hey look over there!) i really loved the conference. i’d totally go again (it’s in LA next year), and i’d love to round up more and more friends to go with me. translation: start saving now, people! hee. but in all seriousness (i said this in an earlier post but it bears repeating), i can’t even describe how amazing it was to be among hundreds of people who think like i do. it was so relaxing and uplifting to know that i’m not alone, because i do feel kind of “alone” in this respect during most of my day-to-day life. it can be a little--i don't know, exhausting?--to be vegan among a social network of omnivores, even if they’re polite and sympathetic omnivores. i can spend a good amount of time feeling confused (or even sad) that people don’t “get it” or “get me” or whatever, and there was none of that during the four days i spent at the conference. it was really rejuvenating and it was quite apparent that we can make a difference. i recommend going to a conference like this no matter what, but especially if you don’t really have an “in-person” vegan support network. it gave me lots of warm fuzzies.

AR2006 day 3: saturday

(subtitle: the day of desserts.) 

yay, saturday! i was going to get to meet isa on saturday! boy oh boy was i ever excited. 

but first! there was bakery to be had. i convinced anne (well, anne’s awesome, so i didn’t have to work very hard) to drive me to sticky fingers bakery so i could revel i the veganity of it all. anne, alan, josie and i headed over and when i walked in i almost did a little happy dance. a big bakery case, full of vegan delights! cakes, cookies, sweet rolls, you name it—and they have vegan soft-serve! i couldn’t decide what to order; everything looked so good. i ended up getting a sticky bun, because it’s their signature item, and i also decided right away that after i was done eating it, i’d be going back for soft-serve. anne got a sticky bun as well, and alan got a muffin. we all LOVED our food (josie, who doesn’t eat or sleep, despite being the most energetic baby evar, kept saying she wanted ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, and pointing to our sticky buns. heh). i went back inside and ordered chocolate soft-serve with chocolate chip cookies crumbled on top, and then decided i may as well get some cookies to go while i was at it. i got a couple of chocolate chip and a couple of pecan. everything, and i mean everything, was delicious. amusingly enough, i found out while i was there that they were going to have a booth at AR2006 that day and the next day (duh), but oh well. at least i got the full experience (not to mention the soft-serve)!

after that, they took me to the hotel where i kept my eyes peeled for isa. SO EXCITED!!

as i was on my way into the exhibition hall (surely isa would be with josh or something), i noticed a huge commotion at the satya table. there were giant bakery boxes involved, and a small line. color me intrigued. and suddenly hungry again. i asked cat clyne (satya’s editor! famous person!) what was going on, and she explained that they were going to be giving away bakery from vegan treats. Giving It Away!! i was all, “okay then,” and got my butt in line. as they started unpacking the boxes i was honestly in awe. i keep describing this table to other people as “magazine cover food,” and i’m not exaggerating. there were a million different things to choose from, and everything was absolutely freaking GORGEOUS. shiny pretty fatty delectable gorgeous. i wanted to take pictures, but i felt kind of embarrassed, so just snapped one quick one when i got to the front of the line. it does the treats absolutely no justice, i’m afraid. by the time everything was unpacked and ready to go, the line stretched all the way to nebraska. vegans love them some free awesome bakery, let me tell you what. i had a really long time to stare at the table and decide what i wanted, but i was truly struggling. eventually when it was my turn i chose the chocolate peanut butter bomb. good night nurse, it was ridiculous. it was basically a tiny chocolate bundt cake with a massive pile of amazing peanut butter mousse on top. all of that was covered in a chocolate shell, and then that was drizzled with peanut butter sauce and chocolate sauce. i don’t even have to tell you how delicious it was, i’m sure it speaks for itself. i really wish bethlehem PA wasn’t so far away!

after i had my slice of heaven on a plate, i made it into the exhibition hall to gloat with my fellow VRFers about our yummy food. at this point i learned that chicago soydairy temptation ALSO had a booth for the weekend (right across from sticky fingers bakery), and good lord, i’m sure you see where this is going. greg let me sample his temptation peach cobbler (verdict: YUM), and i headed to the herbivore corner to seek out josh (and isa! surely there will be isa!). i found josh, but he was isaless. sigh. eventually i dragged my bloated-with-bakery self to a panel.

at 1.30pm i attended “how vegan is enough?” which was a “rap session” facilitated by matt ball of vegan outreach. this is another one of those hot topics lately, so i was kind of excited to hear how everything would play out. matt ball is a great speaker—very calm, sincere, and intelligent. the room was mostly supportive of his ideas, which are loosely defined as follows: we make a much bigger impact by setting a good example and working on outreach than we do focusing on our own microbehaviors and striving for “purity.” this is another one of those issues where i understand the arguments on both sides, but i thought it was extremely cool to hear him speak about it for an hour.

i took the next hour off and looked for isa again (no luck), and then attended a panel at 3.30pm called “how to deal with loved ones.” this was a rap session facilitated by dallas rising, and it pretty much featured bunches of people sharing annoyances they’ve encountered with their families and friends, and then other people offering ideas for solutions. it was nice to hear everyone’s experiences, but i came away slightly frustrated by the lack of any “hard and fast” guidelines or suggestions. i guess that’s not what rap sessions were supposed to be about, so my fault, but still. one thing i did come away with was that it’s a good idea to be work within the framework of “sharing” rather than “convincing”—in other words, try to phrase things more like you’re letting them in on something, not that it’s a “you’re so messed up and let me prove just how much” kind of deal. in retrospect, i think my frustration with this session is largely based in my own experience with my profession; interpersonal relationships are what i “do” for a living, so i wanted this to be like the kind of class i’d want to teach, if that makes sense. alas, it was a rap session. heh.

let’s see, what did i do after that was over. oh yes! looked for isa! *cries* then i bought a massive triple-scoop of temptation (chocolate and strawberry, in a waffle cone) to console myself. good god that was tasty.

my sweetest friend/host/chauffeur anne was coming down with a cold all weekend, and by saturday it had gotten really nasty, so we decided that i’d cut my day a bit short (not shorter than i’d like; just shorter than the other days had been) and we’d just pick up some pizza to eat at home that night. she and alan were super-adorable and had me order vegan pizza for all of us to eat, and they didn’t bat an eye over the whole thing. i ordered some kind of garlic & potato concoction, and i had them use the vegan gourmet follow your heart cheese, which was pretty good. (it’s vegan cheese. we take what we can get. sigh.) anyway, anne and alan were awesome, as always.

AR2006 day 2: friday

i arrived in time to select one of the 10am panels. during all panel sessions, there were four panels to choose from. loosely defined, there was typically a panel on: (a) issues (i.e., showing videos and explaining problems we are faced with… i called these “the sad panels” or “the panels that would make me cry”), (b) organizing (e.g., starting groups, doing fundraisers, etc.), (c) remedies (e.g., how-to panels on outreach, effective tactics, campaign reports) and (d) rap sessions (i.e., discussion sessions on various hot topics). each day i tended to migrate toward the remedies panels or the rap sessions.

my first session on friday was called “acting individually,” and as such it was focused on little things one person can do to make a difference. (for instance, my little take-home point from that panel was that i’m going to try to remember to say “i don’t eat animals” rather than “i don’t eat meat.”) one of the panelist was bruce zeman, who helped get nathan’s law enacted in new jersey. pretty cool story. anyhow, the panel wasn’t exactly what i expected, but i got something out of it regardless.

after that panel ended, i wandered the exhibit hall for awhile. there were tons of organizations tabling, and lots of them had merchandise to browse through, so i kept myself occupied for a couple of hours. while i was in there, i found josh at his herbivore table way in the back corner, and i introduced myself using the predetermined greeting. let me just say that josh is awesome. it was kind of an odd sensation, meeting someone that you have “known of” for quite some time, but weren’t “officially friends” with yet. reading herbivore and interacting with josh on message boards and his blog, i have always thought we would probably get along; we have a very similar sense of humor… but still, you never know if that feeling will turn out to be false, or if the other person will actually think you are a ginormous tool. i was relieved to learn that josh and I totoally DO get along, and as far as i can tell he didn’t think i was a ginormous tool. and plus! free stickers! heh.

somewhere during this time, i caught wind of the fact that road’s end was setting up a grilled cheese sandwich table. they were making their chreese sauce (which i’d never tried in that form—i’d only had their boxed mac & chreese before) and frying up sandwiches on an electric griddle. i was all over that, because i’d decided against paying for the Official AR2006 Lunch, and i made a beeline to their table the moment i saw them laying bread on the griddle. and because i am a particularly awesome new friend, i bought josh (tethered to his booth) one too. i have to say, my sammich was quite tasty! i also bought a delicious dark chocolate caramel bar from vegan essentials, to snack on in my afternoon panels.

at 1.30pm i attended a panel on diet campaigns, which featured some really great speakers—bruce friedrich from PeTA, matt ball from vegan outreach, dawn moncrief from FARM, kenneth williams from IDA, and richard scwhartz. this was a great panel to remind me that the diet issue is HUGE when it comes to trying to reduce cruelty. 99% of all animals killed in the united states are killed for food. i have to keep reminding myself of this; it almost seems to crazy to be true. 10 billion land animals (and then add sea life to that!) are killed every year. the panelists pointed out that diet is an extremely important issue to focus on because: (a) it represents a MASSIVE amount of animals, (b) it’s a mostly hidden industry and could really use the exposure, and (c) it is extremely easy to act upon. i found this panel really useful because it reminded me of things i already knew, but helped me really force them to the front of my brain.

for the next session i attended a panel on conducting open rescues. i first learned of open rescue when i was researching veganism; i found compassion over killing’s website and watched some of their egg industry videos, and i have to say that those videos along with PeTA’s meet your meat really sealed the deal for me. i have a lot of respect for people who do this work. the panelists for this session were nathan runkle (mercy for animals), bryan pease and kath rogers (APRL), and the now-famous adam durand (compassionate consumers). they did an awesome job—they explained what open rescue is (offering aid, rescue, and vet services to animals suffering and confined; the rescue is “open” because they are easily observed—rescues are videotaped and no faces are hidden), and the benefits of conducting open rescue (true direct action; individualizes suffering; documents cruelty; generates media coverage) in extremely articulate ways. they showed some footage and just generally discussed their experiences with it. i think this was one of my favorite panels of the entire conference—all of the panelists were so inspiring; i was deeply impressed. i wish we could have spent more than an hour together!

at 3.30pm i went to a panel on companion animal campaigns and listened to speakers cover issues like feral cats, the IDA guardian campaign, and so on. when that was over i headed back to the exhibition hall and dorked around a bit. whenever i could, i chatted with VRF friends, or pestered josh, or talked with the people who were tabling. it was so nice to be surrounded by people who think like i do! i don’t have a “vegan support network” at home, so this was a real treat for me. eventually i got hungry again, and because (again) i had decided not to spring for the Official AR2006 Dinner, i (again) bought a road’s end grilled chreese sammich. heh. a little while later, i ran into heidi, and we decided to have an adventure before the evening plenary, and we drove around in search of burritos. yum.

the evening plenary session featured some really great speakers talking about important (and timely!) issues. we got to hear eyewitness accounts of hurricane katrina animal rescues (tim gorski), we got updates on the SHAC 7 (will potter), and we were treated to paul watson (sea shepherd conservation society) regaling us with tales of foiling the whale hunt. this was another case where i wish we had much more time to let them speak—just fascinating stuff!

the second portion of the plenary focused on paths to animal liberation—specifically, welfare vs. abolition, and how aggressive our tactics should be. steve hindi from SHARK discussed his experiences videotaping at rodeos (his simple advice: show up, bring a videocamera. cameras don’t lie.), and pattrice jones talked at length about the difference between violence and force. as she put it, it’s okay—in fact, it’s imperative—to use force when rescuing animals; our tactics use force to rescue animals from violence. one of the most interesting parts of this discussion was the debate between bruce friedrich and sean day on welfare vs. abolition. there has been a lot of paper, ink, and bandwidth devoted to this debate in recent months—it’s a hot topic to be sure—and i have to say that it was extremely interesting to see this hashed out in person. i have mentioned before that i think PeTA takes some undeserved beatings from time to time (from “our own”), and this is a topic where they get raked over the coals a lot. sometimes i think people bash PeTA simply because they can. they’re an easy target. believe me, i understand the arguments against them—i truly do, and i even agree with more than a few of them—but i also get frustrated when people act like PeTA is the enemy, or like they’re not on our side (or the animals’ side). anyway, all of this is to say that i really enjoyed the debate. bruce friedrich is a great speaker (and so is sean day), and he was quick to point out that welfare and abolition are not necessarily at cross-purposes. even more importantly, he noted that he is absolutely and vehemently pro-abolition. of course he is, but it was nice that he got the chance to say it out loud several times. the mood in the room was ever-so-slightly tense during this debate, but i came away terribly impressed with both sides. i will write more on this topic later, because i also attended a panel where bruce and sean debated the issue some more.

after the plenary, we headed to the Free Snacks Room where we were again treated to little tofurky wraps and tortilla chips. yum! josh and i then made a beeline for dan piraro’s presentation, “bizarro on the rampage,” which was to feature several of his cartoons along with his witty commentary. josh and i were all proud of ourselves, because we got back to the room before everyone else, and we could pick the best seats. oddly enough, there were worker bees moving the furniture all around, which eventually made us re-think our seat choice and move to a better spot. the longer we sat there, the more the room got broken down, and the more we seemed to be basically the only ones in there. heh. eventually someone came in and announced that dan piraro’s spiel was going to be back in the Free Snacks Room. duh. we headed back and squeezed our way onto a table near the front, so we made out okay in the end.

when i was little, my parents got divorced and due to whatever set of events that transpired, my sister and i used to go to my grandparents’ house on school mornings to eat breakfast and wait for the bus. it was really fun, because we got to see our grandparents every morning, and they made us special breakfasts each day. one of the things that i thought was really cool about breakfast at my grandparents’ is that we got to read the comic page from the morning paper and giggle over it together. bizarro was one of the cartoons we all liked, and i remember going from initially thinking that it was kind of weird, to thinking that it was just so quirky and awesome. never in my life would i have imagined that: (a) i would meet dan piraro one day, (b) mostly because dan piraro and i would both become vegans one day, and (c) that dan piraro is totally fricking hilarious in person. i think as a 10-year-old reading the comics, you have no concept of the artist as a regular ol’ human being just like you, so as a 32-year-old attending this event, i found it all kind of surreal. anyway! i’m getting off-track. the important points are: dan piraro looks very young, he likes to wear kooky hats, he has cool glasses, and he’s really funny. and his wife is gorgeous. more on dan later.

that about does it for day two! whew!