Enter to win $40 vegan essentials gift certificate at Vegan and so forth blog

Jenny at Vegan and so forth is having a give away to win a $40 vegan essentials gift certficate. If you've never shopped at this online store, you're definitely missing out because they have TONS of awesome vegan stuff from food and books to clothes and housewares. Enough reading, go enter already!

I'm profiled in The People Project and Saturn Cafe now has vegan pancakes!

I'm happy to see that my profile is on The People Project website at veganvoice.org. The purpose of the people project is to show people from different races and countries that are vegan as well as show the various reasons why people decide to become vegan. It's a great website and I definitely recommend submitting to it.

In other news, I just read from one of the many blogs that I follow that Saturn Cafe is now offering vegan french toast and pancakes. Score!!! I've been craving pancakes for a while now and can't wait to taste what Saturn Cafe has to offer.

My first vegan festival (with photos)

After months of reading about the upcoming World Veg Festival in San Francison, Den decided to indulge me and take me there. We went to festival yesterday and it was so much fun, I can't wait for it to come around next year. The World Veg Festival was a two day event filled with vegetarian and vegan speakers, various food vendors and San Franciso's first ever vegan fashion show. I was super excited because I got to take photos with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Rory Freedman, author of the Skinny Bitch books series! I also ate way too many samples and bought more cookbooks to add to my collection.Without further ado, here are some photos from the festival.



Collen Patrick-Goudreau & me




Vegan rice krispie treat and smores cheesecake square



Dr. Joel Fuhrman &  his sister



Banana leaf tamale and vegan taquitos



Den pinkine promising Rory to he'll try veganism for a month



Author Rory Freedman and me

If you'd like to see all the pics I took, check out my flickr feed at flickr.com/photos/bamalibrarylady.

I've been a bad, bad blogger

I'm sorry I haven't written in such a long time, we've been extremely busy traveling and trying to get settled in after having moved to California. Travelwise, we left from drove from Huntsville, Alabama to Bakersfield, then from Bakersfield to Columbia, South Carolina for my mother in laws family reunion then me and Den took a trip from Columbia to Huntsville and Huntsville to Wahsington, D.C. then returned back to Huntsville and finally drove back to Bakersfield. The next week, we went on our yearly trip to Adventist Campmeeting in Soquel, California. It was fun but tiring considering we hadn't really had time to relax after our cross country trip.

Now that all my traveling's over (unless it's for a job interview), I have time to clean up our new digs. It's proving to be an uphill battle but I know with persistent, I can succeed. I am also happy that the 29th will be my veganversay;I can't believe I've been vegan for a whole year-it's been rocky but completely worth it! I did partake of some extremely delicious foods during my travels so try not drool too much on your computer while looking at the photos:-) I'll post some more photos later.

Cupcakes- Sticky Fingers Bakery, Washington, D.C.

BBQ Tofu-RP Tracks, Memphis, Tennessee

Vegan veggie pizza- Whole Foods, Atlanta, Georgia

Greek Tofu Scramble-Dharama's Restuarant, Capitola, California

Preparing to move and enjoying good food

As I mentioned in my last post, Den and I have decided to relocate to California to be closer to his family. At this point I'm finishing up porjects at work as well as emptying our place before we make the big move. In other news, Earth Fare (a new grocery store) has opened in Huntsville and we really love it. There's so much tasty food there that we always end up buying more than we planned whenever we go.

I've been reading other vegan blogs and the writers have been raving about Amy's vegan Mac and Chreeze. Prior to Earth Fare opening, I could find this product anywhere however I was downright giddy when I saw it in the frozen food section at Earth Fare. I took this for lunch yesterday and after eating it, I'll definitely be buying more of this in the future. Although I've had Dayia cheese before, I wasn't really sure how it would taste when paired with macaroni. While I was warming it up, it smelled so much like the real thing, I actually double-checked the box to make sure it was vegan and it was. When I took my first bite, all my food fears melted away and one of my meat eating co workers tried some and said it was good. This vegan mac and chreeze rocks!

The times, they are a changing

After having a very long discussion with Den, we've decided to relocate to California. I gave my job my notice on Wendesday and we've started the packing process. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done because I'm leaving my hometown and a job I've been at for eleven years. I'm kinda torn because I'm happy to be moving to California yet sad because I'm leaving my family and co-workers.Although I won't be living in Huntsville anymore, I'm still going to keep the name of the blog veganintheville since I am from Huntsville.

Tranferring from Easyjournal to Blogger

I've keep a online journal at poetchik.easyjournal.com since 2003 but I recently realize that this website doesn't have a back-up feature so I've decided to shift my previous easyjournal entries to here. Keep in mind that my earlier journal entries were written when I was younger and not yet vegan. I'm also posting my older entires because they reflex who I was as a person back then and show what life was like for me at that time. Happy reading!

Life goes on and my first poem in two years

So, it's been a while but I'm back. Got my Masters degree and now I work at the local library as the Web Services Librarian. The new job is lots of fun and I'm talking to more groups of people than I ever have before; I even had the opportunity to present at the annual Alabama Library Association (ALLA) convention that took place in Huntsville last week.

In other news, Mom is displaced due to a kitchen fire at the house. She's currently staying with Martha and hopes to be back in the house soon but there's some outside drama going on so we'll see. I've also been losing weight and I am now do to 224 from my highest weight of 298 (woo hoo!) My goal weight is 170 and at this rate, I'm confident I'll go there soon.

The Limestone Dust Poety Festival is happening this weeked and although I usually don't go to those sort of things, something is urging me to go....to not only go but to read a poem during open mic time. I dunno...I wrote this poem yesterday to express how I've been feeling lately and Den liked it;he said it was deep.Maybe it is time for me to start writing again, I just wonder if I've still got the creativity to do so.

No without any further ado, here's my poem:

Middle Class Poor

My mama always said
“go to school,”
“get an education”
“get an degree”
“get a good job-a good life.”
Always believed if you play by the rules, life would be fair; everything would fall into place.
Didn’t know that the rules were made to be broken
unspoken deals made between unknown forces.
The game is the same but the world has changed:
got an education,
got student loans,
got a degree,
got no job,
got no job,
I get got I got no shot
I got no shot
I got to get out
Out of time
Out of money
Out of home
Home is where the heart is
Is this all there is
Is minimum the new maximum?

Tasty Vegan Donuts in Las Vegas

Over the Christmas holidays, me and Den went to Las Vegas and California. While in Vegas, I just had to stop by Ronald's Donuts which I'd read about in Quarygirl's blog. I was everything I hoped it'd be and then some. We went a little donut crazy and bought apple fritters, cinnamon bun and cinnamon twists. We're definitely putting that on our must visit list when visiting vegas from now on. Here's a picture of our donuts from Ronalds.