beginners luck and the importance of being unpretentious

i read a book recently that was recommended to me by one of my good friends, Nathaniel, entitled The Alchemist. it's written by Paulo Coelho, and follows the journey of a young man who sets out to find his Personal Legend (basically, the meaning of life, for him personally). this book is full of little nuggets of wisdom, and one thing that i really liked was the idea of beginners luck.

"Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested."

the idea is basically that the beginning of one's journey will be assisted by god (or fate, or whatever energy lifesource you believe in) so you can get a jumpstart and be successful... but once you work hard, your hard work is tested, to prove you really DID learn something from it all. i love this concept, and i carry it with me when i feel myself becoming egotistical. when the old depression surfaces, i have to remember that it's not because i never learned anything or got any healthier, but it's because it is the end of my search for healing, and i, the victor, am being severely tested. it's a lovely strengthening idea when i remember this.

the whole reason i bring this up is because of the photograph above. let me preface this by saying, i am not a cook. i have never really been able to cook. i suck at cooking; i burn things, i mutilate things, it is practically a personal hobby to see how badly i can butcher a recipe beyond recognition. but last night? last night, something of a miracle occurred. i whipped up the most delicious, satisfying, healthy pasta dish of my life.

i'm honestly not really sure how it happened, but as i turned on the burners of my little apartment-sized stove (which feels slightly like an easy-bake oven for the college kid in you), there was magic in the air. the sizzling sounds of evoo and bubbling of boiling water filled my ears, and i hummed along to O.A.R.'s new album as i whipped up dinner for two. i used the pesto alyson got for us at the farmers market, and from there i sauteed mushrooms, tri color bell peppers, chopped onions, and sliced cherry tomatoes. i drizzled a little bit of evoo--and here's the touch that just made it dazzling--and added a little hint of basil and balsamic vinegar. it was so delicious!

and okay, i know what you're all thinking next: what is that slice of white-something-or-other? is that.... CHICKEN?? yes. i know, i know, you're shocked. why would a vegetarian like myself have a slice of chicken on her pasta?! well folks, blame it on beginners luck. see, since my roommate (for whom i was cooking as well) is, as i've mentioned before, terribly fickle in her desire for vegetables, i wanted to give her something else to eat with her creamy pesto bowtie pasta, so i sizzled up some chicken for her. and when i was cooking it, it looked great (i used some chicken seasoning, salt, and of course, evoo and balsamic vinegar), but i didn't want to serve something i wasn't sure tasted good--after all, i'm not one to wanna poison my dinner mates. so i tasted a piece of the chicken. and it was damn good. i mean, i was floored. juicy, tender, flavorful--did I do that? i couldn't believe it. well, alyson didn't take all of the chicken i'd made, so i decided to take some for myself--a celebration of my wonderful beginners luck of somehow, someway, becoming a world class chef in one attempt... sort of. :)

the thing is, with my vegetarianism, i really don't want to be one of THOSE vegetarians... you know who i'm talking about... the pretentious brats who brag about how long they've been meatfree. they're worse than new mothers! ("aw, he's so cute, how old is he?!" "36 months!") "how long have you been a vegetarian?" they stare down their upturned noses at you and glare viciously from their high tower, "oh, hhhmmm, about 129 weeks, but about 45 weeks ago i turned vegan, and now i'm gluten freemmmyess." ok, maybe they don't really get that bad, but i just don't want to get like that at all. my point in living a vegetarian lifestyle is as follows:

• to live a lifestyle of eating good food, food that tastes good and is good for you.
• to indulge in an eating habit of mainly things that are as close to nature as possible
• to practice dieting in the rainbow, and intaking as many naturally occuring vitamins and minerals as possible
• to avoid the chemicals that run rampant in the preservation of so many popular foods
  
• to personally stay away from supporting the disgusting ways animals are massacred in slaughterhouses, and abstain from eating meat that is mixed with (and is not limited to) bones, hair, blood, feces, hooves, feathers, and puss. ew...
• to keep myself from easily indulging in the shit The Man tries to feed us (haha), like double cheeseburgers for $1 and TWENTY FREAKING MCNUGGETS FOR $5!!! terrifying.
• to eat less fried food by cutting out fried chicken, my downfall, and thus, most often cutting out the usual side, fries (or fried anything).
• to have less sauce, which was always accompanying my addiction to fried chicken of all kinds
  

so maybe that's not a simple personal motto or anything, but that's why i'm doing it. so yeah, maybe there was a chance the chicken i ate last night was butchered poorly, or wasn't the healthiest for me. but you know what? it wasn't fried, or covered in honey mustard, or processed and shredded and reformed into a nugget. so, eh, i'll live.

i just don't want to be pretentious. so if it takes me knowing that i haven't been meat-free, or "clean," for so-n-so number of months? i'll survive. as for now, i think i'll go take a swim and get some lovely sun, after this weekend of rain. :)