Man Alive!

This can be a laughing matter, or you can just shrug your shoulders and assume I am a freak. Just so you all know, I am an incredibly difficult person to sleep with. I have been told I am a fan of flailing in my sleep, talking, laughing, crying, and/or making sudden jerky movements. Boyfriend obviously has the patience of a saint, because he spent most of last night quarantined in the smallest section of the bed while I occupied the rest of it in a position I can only liken to doing the YMCA dance.

Poor soul. It must have been all the high fructose corn syrup and sugar I ingested yesterday. I discovered that sour patch kids (an old favorite of mine) are vegan! This led to me purchasing a huge bag of them and consuming most of that bag while watching Frost/Nixon with Boyfriend. This was an unusually large amount of sugar for my fragile mind to handle, and it resulted in dreams of me swimming in a large tub of moisturizing lotion.

Boyfriend survived the night, and I suppose that's what is really important. When I got home today I realized I had never made it to the grocery store at any point this weekend and I was out of kale and a few other choice items. I grabbed my bag and headed for Whole Foods AND Trader Joe's! It was a double whammy, and I enjoyed the walk/shopping trip immensely, especially because it was so nice outside. I took some choice photos of my purchases!

I also wanted to take a picture of my new re-usable water bottle! My trusty Nalgene was stolen at school (boo!) and I was distraught for quite some time. I finally recovered/got sick of drinking out of water fountains and sinks, so I made a new one out of an old Snapple bottle! It's the perfect size, it's glass with no BPA's (hooray), and it doesn't make my water taste like plastic! Took me forever to get the glue off the side of the bottle, though...

In other news, I have a paper due tomorrow. This means I will be cutting this post short in favor of finishing my work and then posting again tomorrow after school! Until then, my precious readers.

Why Whole Foods?

Interestingly enough, on Mondays and Wednesdays I sometimes find myself eating my lunch on the floor outside my America on Film classroom. A girl in my class who is sometimes waiting in the same spot asked me what I was eating today and commented that she often wonders what I am eating but is usually afraid to ask for fear of seeming nosey. I found this incredibly amusing, as I am one of the nosiest people in the world. I was eating homemade vegetable sushi (avocado, carrot, cucumber, nori, and brown rice) with some shredded daikon. This conversation led to her asking where I got the nori and me detailing it's precise location in the Symphony Whole Foods.

Already I was proud of myself today for taking two leaps at social interaction. Now, instead of dwelling on my success at being a functional human being for the afternoon, I would like to discuss Whole Foods as a whole. Why is it important to me that I buy my food there as opposed to Shaws or Stop and Shop? Someone asked me this quite recently and I would like to elaborate.

Above the simple fact that a lot of my favorite foods (or even a variety of vegan foods in general) aren't available at the average supermarket, there are the environmental and health concerns:

1. Whole Foods is an active participatant in the non-GMO project. I have no desire to eat genetically modified foods. Anything that has been genetically engineered to withstand endless amounts of Roundup (a pesticide) is not something I want to be putting in my body. Mother Nature had it right from the beginning, and Whole Foods makes an enormous effort to avoid and protest the sale/distribution of genetically modified foods.

2. Whole Foods also has a great deal of locally grown/locally created products in stock. This contributes to the local economy as well as putting less strain on the environment. They are also avid supporters of the Free Trade and Organically grown movements.

3. Whole Foods does an extraordinary job of providing proper nutrition labeling and information to their consumers.

4. Whole Foods was also listed alongside Trader Joe's and Starbucks as one of the most wholesome and friendly environments to work in Forbes. Their employees will go out of their way to help you and generally give off a feel-good vibe that really enhances my grocery shopping experienced.

These are just a few of the many reasons when I am doing my grocery shopping and I have to give my money to a particular store, I choose to shop at Whole Foods. I can feel much better about the direction my money is taking and even better about the food I am about to eat, not to mention I can feel super good about my shopping experience lacking the same stress I would be feeling at another store.

I'm excited for tomorrow. It will FINALLY be March, and I'm so very happy for that. Also, does anybody else think Orson Welles looks like a total creeper in Citizen Kane?