Farewell Chicken

Have I mentioned how great it is to live across the river from Manhattan? Have I also mentioned the awesomeness that is Water Taxi Beach? Well, I'll mention them again; I know none of you read each and every blog post anyway. *smirk*

Almost every day I walk across the Pulaski Bridge, which links Brooklyn and Queens, and from said bridge I gaze over the water and am treated to a great view of the Greatest City in the World. There was this ad I saw in the subway a while back (I really might have mentioned this already) admonishing people to come live in such-and-such high-rise condos which are across the river over here, in one of the "other boroughs." Here's how the ad did it: it had side-by-side panels and one said "the price here" and it was, say, a third of the figure in the "the price in Manhattan" panel. It also had "the view from here" and showed the amazing, lit up Manhattan skyline, and then it showed "the view from Manhattan" and it was, like, Queens, and some crap expanse of randomness and rail and warehouses and such. The ad makes a great point. Only those of us on the outside have the killer views.

As I have patiently tried to explain to my Manhattan friends since last fall, we are one subway stop (one!) from Manhattan. I am literally closer to some of them than they are to, for example, Central Park. But the die-hard Manhattan peeps don't hear it. They just stay on their little island at all times, unless they're running the marathon.

But the Water Taxi Beach...it's so wonderful! It's over in Queens, specifically in Long Island City, and it's on the water (duh) on the East River. So what you do is you go there and hang around in the sand and have a beer and listen to music and watch the sunsets and then look at all the light of the Greatest City in the World. (Have you picked up my sardonic tone in that phrase yet?)

It's really out of the way and from the outside you would seriously think you're looking at another nondescript warehouse across from some Long Island Rail Road tracks and a few under-construction buildings. But then you go around and across a parking lot (I know! a parking lot!) and then you step into some sand and you're on the beach.

As you can guess, we've gone there a few times. But tonight we went for the free BBQ party. Free food! Because the Water Taxi Beach is so awesome that they just randomly have a party on a Wednesday night with free entry and free barbecued chicken. (Or grilled, if you will.) Now, I have totally decided that my whole "Oh, I'm a lapsed vegetarian who occasionally eats poultry" thing has got totally out of control. I am beyond lapsed; I am heathen. I have had beef lately. Like, more than once.

Also, I have been really mood swingy lately. By "lately" I mean the past six months, or roughly since the beginning of my second 2L semester, also known as the semester I anguished through doing a clinic, also known as my Worst Semester Ever. By "really moodswingy" I mean crying jags that are a force to be reckoned with. I don't say "moody" because to me that implies a sort of temper, irritability, or kind of lashing out. Mine isn't really a lashing out. More like a lashing in. An exquisite suffering. A sudden, intense need to suddenly bawl my eyes out to the person next to me, who 99 times out of 100 is Brian; pity him. Not that this has happened 100 times -- shudder to think -- but you get my drift. It's kind of bizarre and even I'm fairly shocked by it when it happens but it's really deeply felt at the time. It can also go away just as fast.

Now, I totally want to chalk up the moodiness to the aforementioned clinic and Worst Semester Ever. It was often law school or something like it that precipitated the dissolving into tears. But it has also been Taxi to the Dark Side, the fear that Greyhound lost all my belongings forever, or even a simple misunderstanding. And a million other things. Lately I thought the malaria pills had made it worse. There's even a sticker that came with my pills that says "call your doctor if you feel sad, or have changes in mood." I laughed when I saw that the other day, but then I thought maybe it's not so funny. I have had the promised vivid dreams, after all, since taking the malaria pills. (I'm so totally done taking them now, by the way. But I have no idea what the half life is and I'm still having some vivid dreams.) So maybe they've also messed with my moods?

Anyway, lately I've been considering another possible culprit: meat. When I became a vegetarian around age 16 I remember that I started to feel a lot better, physically but also psychologically. And so right now I am considering this: all the chickens and cows we eat around here (the U.S.) are totally shot up with hormones, right? So doesn't it make sense that eating them when you totally used to not eat them would up the level of hormones in your body and throw things out of whack? These past few months in which I have become all moodified happen to coincide with when I started eating (a lot) more meat, after Brian and I got our household and kitchen equipped. The reason is a little complicated, but it boils down to: he cooks. I don't. (Especially during the Worst Semester Ever.) And he is a mega-carnivore. And I am not often known to turn down food offered to me, especially when all I have to do is warm the tortillas.

But I've got to see if this connection I've imagined between the meat and the out-of-whack mood swings is legit. So I am waving bye-bye to the chicken, beef, and so on, and returning to my non-meat-eating ways. Just like I was for a decade, without fail. Which I wanted to return to anyway but ... but ... et cetera. So I am totally going pesco-vegetarian again, and today we went to the free bbq chicken party and I danced and ate my last chicken for a while. Remember when I went vegetarian in high school and my farewell meat was a hot dog at Lollapalooza? Everyone I knew was appalled by that; rightly so!

Also, I'm fat right now. Seriously! I'm kind of horrified by it. Even though I got my big orange bag back from Greyhound eventually, half the jeans in it don't even fit at the moment. I'm sure sitting around in Michigan doing nothing for three weeks didn't help. It is so time to get back on the horse. Horse = running, exercising, gym, pilates, softball and so forth.

In summary:
1. Water Taxi Beach rules, even though the Lord sends down thunderous rain upon us when we try to go there to get free food meat.
2. I'm not sure which sucks more, doing a law school clinic or getting malaria.
3. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." -- Michael Pollan