Keeping up with the Flintstones

As weeks go, last week was pretty much devastating. I spent most of the weekend recovering, and yesterday, I got back on the horse. More research. More phone calls. More questions. And soon, I will be out of this horrible cycle and back to my old snarky self again.

Today SG and I headed to Costco, where we has a Paleo book sighting in the wild:

 It's exciting to us- where we live seems to be some kind of vegan mecca, and going to the local bookstore can be stressful. Actually, any shopping here is stressful: the amount I spend at amazon.com is outrageous, but it's worth it not to have to deal with people looking through you at the grocery store and then having several traffic-related near-death experiences on the way home. Let the UPS guy deal with that crap. (Sorry, UPS guy. I know you think it's funny that you have a shelf in your truck dedicated to my own personal use.)

So: the bookstore. I wanted to get a copy of The Vegetarian Myth a few months ago: which is a pretty amazing book. HOWEVER. I couldn't find it anywhere. You see, the B&N near us has a pretty creative way of shelving books. So after much fruitless searching, I went to the kiosk, and asked the woman there where it was. And she became absolutely enraged. It was like I had requested a copy of "Killing Babies For Fun And Profit." The least obnoxious thing she said was, "I assure you, I am a vegan, and we DO exist."

The old me would have rolled my eyes and left. However, the grass-fed beef must be doing something because I retorted, "You know what? I don't come here to be judged for my taste in books. I do plenty of shopping online, but I thought I'd help stimulate the local economy. Amazon certainly doesn't judge me: and I doubt your manager would, either!"And I stalked off, with her following behind me with a flurry of apologies.  And I did eventually get the book, which she made a point of telling me, was in the "Theoretical Fiction" section- or something similar. Right by Religion.

And of course, she seems to be there every time we come in: long limp grayish hair, sallow skin, stooped posture. And every time SG pokes me and says, "There's your friend." And I wonder, kind of sadly, how much of that is due to her vegan diet.

We went to that same B&N over the weekend, in an effort to cheer me up, and did our usual rounds- magazines, Photography (SG) Knitting and Crafts (me) and then we meet up in the Cooking and Food section. And (unlike our Costco sighting) it is like PULLING TEETH to find Paleo cookbooks. There will be a few of them together- but typically, they're dispersed throughout the Gluten free section, or the special diets section, or the diet and fitness section. I know there are other local Groks besides us though: I keep seeing tidy stacks of Paleo books set out together on the "new releases" tables: even stuff that's not new, and obvs not supposed to be there, so I know it's not stocked that way. I have noticed that Paleo magazine is also more prominently displayed- we used to really have to dig for it.

Anyway, I had a huge stack, and SG had one of the leather bound reproductions of the classics he loves so much. And I said, "Hey, Steven Rinella has a new book out! I think it's called Meat Eater?! Let's get it." And we looked. And looked, and looked. And then I had to admit defeat. Ugh, I didn't want another scene. So I sidled up to the kiosk and asked the young man (very softly) "Do you have "Meat Eater" by Steven Rinella?

He crinkled his brows. "OK, let me look it up."  And did some typing. And then said, "We don't have a book called, "We Meet Here"."

So I upped the volume a little bit, and explained my rabid vegan story, and he laughed, then rolled his eyes and said, "Don't worry; I had ribs last night, and they were DELICIOUS." Whew! It was like a secret handshake.

As it turns out, Meat Eater is in the Sport and Recreation section.