As most of you know my mother and stepdad just got back from their two week motorcycle trip. On said trip they went South through Texas, and they went West and then went along the Pacific Coast, coming up to Oregon, and then finally heading back East through the Dakotas and such.
When they were on their way through Texas they came upon something that my mother said was apalling...
It is said first of all that there are numerous restaraunts that offer this- but in Texas it's a locally "produced" steak. (Sorry this is probably going to get confusing.) The steak itself is called the 'Big Texan' and if someone within your dining party can stomach eating the whole thing, then your meal is free. My parents were going to attempt it, but decided against it after seeing the example the diner had on display. So they settled on just sharing a rib-eye.
Now, to the real part in the story. This restaraunt, if you can even call it that, was surrounded by what is called a "Cattle Feed". My parents had no idea what the point of them was, and they only figured it out by reading a brochure after eating their steak.
The brochure explained what the tightly packed cages that spread out for miles was for; each cage held three-to-four cows, and the ground was all dirt, no grass, no room for the cows to move. And my mother said the "Cattle Feed" that surronded this restaraunt was one of the smaller ones they witnessed, although it carried on for miles.
The only sustenance that was brought to the cattle was some kind of wheat seed mix. The brochure bragged of how the cows were locked in these cages for all their adult life, being fed a gruesome amount before being shipped to get slaughtered. The number of cattle that go through these kind of "Feeds" is in the millions- more than six, if I remember right...
One of the companies even tried to sue Oprah because of the low sales they had the year of the Mad Cow out-break about a comment she made, which is ridiculous. I can't believe that someone hasn't sued them for the mistreatment of animals! I can't believe that PeTA isn't on their ass- it's completely worse than puppy mills; those are nothing compared to what Texans do to those poor cows!
My mother said she was so disgusted that she wished they never would've stopped at that restaraunt. She could tell how angry that it made me when she told me the story today, she tried to keep changing the subject, trying to bring up something else to discuss while cleaning, but she wasn't succesful, it stayed on my mind, it's still on my mind. I'm so outraged by this... It's not just because I'm a vegatarian, but because that this inhumane act is so sick and twisted I can't understand why someone would'nt be upset by this. So don't judge this situation on my eating habits, because that is fucked up if you do; this should make you think twice about stuff- GAH RADARADA!!!!!!!!

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SGKVACK:MCU:ACER<OCOLXCKHISAOL!!!!!!!!!

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Anyway, calming down now... Ope- I got payed today (but I can't cash it yet) but that means the people that helped me clean- you will get payed soon! Hooray! Everybody loves money!!! So I was thinking that... I don't know exactly, that we should get together some time as a group- soon would be nice- and do something. But there's barely anything super fun to do around town. Boo... So we should brainstorm! Let's see I'll put down my ideas!

-Bowling *blah*
-Swimming
-Not just swimming but tubing
-Movies *blah*
-Take a van and drive somewhere for a day. Like St. Cloud? Duluth?
-Picnic. And we could take awesome pictures, like Senior portraits?
-Do something simple, like getting ice cream

That's pretty much all I have for ideas right now, I invite you all to come up with ideas too!

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This is the longest journal I think I've ever written. At least the longest in awhile, I don't know, ah well.

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So yesterday morning I drove my grandma (actully my step-grandma, but she's awesom enough to have the title grandma) to the hospital because she was scheduled for an MRI. I love spending time with her, so even something that simple was cool. I really like driving her van, so that was cool too. It's really sad though that she's in so much pain lately; she was recently diagnosed with full blown diabetes, and it's been really tough on her body. She's always swollen all over because of the cocktail of medications she has to take. Her will-power, though, is phenominal to witness, I hope when I'm older and if I get into a mess like her, that I'm at least half as gutsy.
I hope that the doctors didn't find anything on the test. She's already had kidney cancer, and pancreatic cancer, so that test better not show a brain tumor, or anything of the sort. Although she's a young-spirited woman, there's only so much that one person can take, you know?

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Well that's all for now, I'm going to go e-shopping on PeTA catalog, find me some t-shirts or something! SO TTFN!

PS. The Wave is really good so far, I'm almost done with it.