Fun
Take your husband here…
…and let him drive really fast. Really, really fast.
Thanks to an awesome Groupon snag last July, I was able to get the husband pretty much the best Christmas ever. {And yes, I waited from July to December to give it to him. That was hard.}
The gift? A Nascar driving experience at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And now I’ve been hearing “I wanna go fast, I wanna go fast!” for the last four months. Thank you Ricky Bobby.
We tried to go in March, but just as the husband got to the front of the line, it started to rain. Rain = no driving. While attempting to wait the rain out, we got to look at the race cars up close in the garage. But the rain never stopped.
This week we finally got to come back. There was a 50% chance of rain the forecast, but this time as the husband got in line, the skies cleared up.
Time for driving school!!
After a few brief lessons {did you know race cars are built to turn left?}, it was time to get suited up.
Just a fireproof suit. No big deal.
Before driving, the husband got to go for a ride to see what it was like.
Nothing like the force of 2.5 Gs coming at you as you slide up near a retaining wall.
And then it was time to drive.
This is when I start wondering why I thought this was a good idea and what did do. Who puts their husband in a car to drive 160+ mph?
Too late to turn back- he was ready to go!
He was told to take the first 2 laps slow to get the hang of things…
And to practice aiming for the marks on the turns. The way the track’s built, you actually have to steer into the wall in order to take the curve properly. Yikes.
By his 3rd or 4th lap, he was off. Seriously flying around the track. I didn’t know whether to be terrified or proud as he zipped around the oval, passing every.single.car on the track.
All too quickly, it was over.
I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to get out of that car.
Nascar’s newest champion driver. {
}
I don’t know how I’m ever go to live up that present….
Food thoughts
Of course when I heard the topic of Tuesday’s Oprah episode, I immediately set up the DVR to record. “Oprah & 378 Staffers Go Vegan”
I’d barely hit play when the show was interrupted by an NBC Special Report. It didn’t matter though- the ideas were already concocting…
The poor, unsuspecting husband chose that moment to walk into the room. I’m sure he regrets it.
Me: “Hey. Oprah’sgoingveganforaweekyoushouldtoo.”
Husband: “Oprah’s doing it? Oh I can totally do that. Sign me up.”
Ok…that’s not exactly how it went. More like:
Me: “Hey…. I’ve got an idea.”
Husband: “What…?” {He knew it’d be painful for him as soon as I said “idea”…..}
Me: “You should go vegan for a week.”
Husband: “Ha. NO. Why would I want to do that?”
Me: “It’d be interesting to see what you thought about it.”
Husband: “No way.”
Me: “It’s just a week.”
[Enter more protests here. Lots.]*
I’ll summarize. Eventually I got him to agree to go vegan for 5 days, with several stipulations:
– He can quit whenever he wants
– I have to prepare all the food
– He gets served steak, black-eyed peas, and cornbread when it’s over. {I don’t know why the black-eyed peas & cornbread….}
And no tofu.
Challenge accepted. He starts Monday.
* Some of the intermediary protests included:
“That’s for treehuggers.”
“But what if I want to eat out? You can’t eat out vegan.”
“It’s tree-hugging, hippie, granola crap.”
“It’s gross.”
“It’s grainy & disgusting. No texture.”
“No sweets.”
“I like meat.”
“I’m not eating tofu. NO TOFU.”
“Most super hippie-ish thing ever.”
“Tater tots are vegan? Let’s eat tater tots. And pizza. Pizza’s vegan.”
Keep in mind all of this is coming from a guy who’s wife eats vegan 85% of the time and therefore feeds him vegan meals regularly. Read: he should know better!!
If he’s clueless, I can only imagine what other people think. So of course I’ll be documenting how his week goes. He’s thrilled. 
So…send over your favorite vegan –but not hippie, gross, grainy, granola-y, or tofu-y—recipes to add to my arsenal. This meat-eater’s going down! {Ok, not really. I just want him to stop saying it’s gross.}
What vegan or vegetarian stereotypes or kinds of resistance have you heard?
