Andrew J. Lederer

i was so happy yesterday, i even indulged my new penchant for "normalcy" by buying a non-bargain-priced bottle of "bath and body works" shampoo.

but when i went to pay for it, i discovered i had seemingly lost a five or ten dollar bill, which, along with the waning effects of coffee and the wine i'd tasted at a nearby merchant, plunged me into crankiness and depression.

i resolved to spend less money than i intended for the rest of the day and skimped, strangely enough if you know me, on food. so, instead of buying nice things to eat, i made do with what i had in the house, which resulted in my dinner being that stick-to-your-ribs latin favorite, rice and beans.

anyway, today i'm looking at comedian mark watson's "crap at the environment" site and i see he has issued a challenge to readers to go a day without eating meat and -- whaddaya know -- i did that yesterday.

that's right.

all i had all day was the rice and beans, a vanilla cupcake (see i feel alive today.) and a bag of north carolina-made, previously unknown to me-brand potato chips.

seems i'm green without even trying.

of course, that's only if you define the day as going from waking to sleeping. if you count it as midnight to midnight, i also had a tender, delicious slab of london broil (which i'm told they don't have in london, so for the benefit of the uninformed, it's steak).

but that was before i went to sleep on "friday" night.

i'm good.

really.

no, i am.