Eating raw food: Its all about attitude; Part II

In my original blog; called; Eating raw food: Its all about attitude: Posted on; Thursday, August 9, 2007
I wrote about my perspective, and experiences eating raw meat.
That was 5 months ago; in this post I am writing about my first social experience on the RVAF diet.

In march, before this blog was put out; I moved to Illinois to be with my current fiance. I moved in with his friends, a couple and their 3 year old.
I had only been on the diet for about a month at the time, but the couple was very accepting of it. The wife(I'll call her A)was especially "protective" of my diet.

One day her husband(I'll call him R)and my fiance and I went to pick up my meat from the grocery store. R noticed that the ground beef in the bulk butcher section was on sale for only $1.99 lb. So I got a huge package of 5 lbs, and we went home.
On our way home, R decided to randomly tell me that the reason it was so cheap, is because it was all the meat that was going bad, ground up and set out. Needless to say I was a LITTLE mad, that he failed to tell me this when we were at the grocery store.
When we got home I opened the package, and took a bite. It was DISGUSTING; it tasted like old warm mushy nastiness.
My boyfriend Sam had asked me if he could make a cooked hamburger with it. I said yes; as he proceeded to pat the ground beef into a patty, it was so mushy and gross he was horrified, and couldn't even bring himself to make a burger with it.

A was very mad, and told me; "We're gonna take that meat back, and if they won't let you return it, I'll tell them that you eat raw meat, and this meat is old and gross and you want a refund!" She also told me we could try Aldi's meat(the local poor people grocery outlet)and that she would cover me and we could poke a hole in one of their meat packages and I could take a bite and see if it was any good.
Her husband R was horrified; "A! You can't do that, are you really going to do that? You better not poke a hole in the meat and eat it!" A and I laughed and winked at each other as we told R; "Uh sure we won't..."
We went to the grocery store and returned my meat, only to find out that the good meat was the same price as the gross meat.
We picked up 5 packages; at the time I only ate one pound a day, of 15% fat ground chuck.
A and I drove over to Aldi's, and we walked in; meandering around, pretending to check everything out. We went by the meat cooler, and A stood in front of me; I was too nervous to poke the hole in the meat package myself; so A did it for me and handed me a chunk of ground beef.
I popped it in my mouth; it wasn't terrible, but it sure wasn't good. I shook my head at her; "no."
Then we walked our happy butts back to the SUV and headed home.
Of course when we told her husband R what we'd done, he was horrified, and proceeded to berate us for our illegal activities.

A few days later A did something I would have never expected ANYONE to do...
Now A was very motherly, she liked to cook for everyone, make sure the house was immaculate, do everyone's laundry....etc.
Unfortunately I'm the same way; just a little more specific about how I do things. My laundry is mostly high quality vintage and couture clothes, therefore only jeans and t-shirts can be washed in the washer.
She attempted to do my laundry one morning, and as I was coming down the stairs, I stepped into the kitchen and she told me she was loading my laundry. I was horrified, and ran up to her and started to grab my delicates out of her evil crappy washer. I thanked her, but politely let her know that the clothes couldn't be washed in a washer.
I then went to get my food out of the fridge; suddenly she cuts in front of me, and tells me she made my breakfast. She then opens the fridge, and hands me a plate with ground beef lettuce wraps with plastic wrap over them.
I am in shock, horror, speechless...
She had even poured balsamic vineger, and salt and pepper on them, grated carrot, and sliced up radishes. She had prepared them just as she'd seen me do. Needless to say I could not believe that someone had actually made me my raw meat breakfast...
At this point in my diet I was still very much into putting preparation in my food, because I was still slightly squeamish about the taste of my ground beef.
I was horrified at the fact that someone else's hands had prepared MY ground beef. I mean it was raw, I only wanted my hands to touch it; it felt like an invasion...

Although it was awkward and unsettling, I really appreciate A's efforts to make me feel at home, and included in things.
R and S were the first people I ever ate my raw meat in front of, and because of their kindness and non-judgmental attitude, I really feel that it helped my confidence in my social experiences on my diet.

In my next blog I'll cover my most recent social experiences, and how my family reacts to my way of life.