loveliberate

Veggymeggy,

I get physically ill when I get stressed out too. School, Money, Moving, Robert in that pink thong & beanie - there's a lot of stressful stuff out there. Laugh, Relax & Refocus. Drink some peppermint tea or even just water, keep your breathing slow and deep, take a nap or a nice hot bath, get some exercise - things will get better eventually and getting overly stressed out will never help anything.

All we can ever do is do what we can and then let it go....

Come chat folks! I'm almost always in there while I'm on the boards.

Robert - that's right. I forgot that you wont be going down to Corvallis for a few days...

CollegeB - Do It! We can have a Vegan Bellybuilder photo contest!

I'm going to have to put in extra hours for the plane ride, but I don't think I can make it all 6 days, but we'll see what goes on, I definitley want to get out there and meet some of the people on the boards.

I'm looking forward to meeting you and everyone else who come out! It's going to be awesome!

Odinnetne,

I hope you can make it out for Vegan Vacation and if you do want to go to California, you'll be a whole lot closer once you're here!

Robert and I have both been to California, and while there are many cool places, cool folks, etc there - both of us are just as excited, if not more so, about VV going down here in Portland. Portland has a TON going for it within city limits, and the other towns & nature around the region are awesome too. I've traveled and lived around much of the US and this is THE place I want to be.

By the way, the city that I find most similar to Portland is actually Pittsburgh, PA - both have lots of rivers & bridges, big hills and a lot of cool folks. Portland is cleaner & greener, much more vegan & natural foods friendly, surrounded by bigger mountains and is closer to the ocean and other cool towns. But if I ever chose to live in a largish city out east, I'd give Pittsburgh some serious consideration.

Robert,

Let's see some photo's from today!

Friends,

I just posted info on the Vegan Vacation gathering over at VeganFitness.net - hopefully we'll get a lot of crossover interest.

Wow Robert - That was a quick update! Where did ya get those numbers? On a good day, I may be able to bring a dozen folks out!

It's awesome that you're meeting so many folks Robert! I wore my schfancy new VB&F shirt for the rest of the day after hanging with ya. The only response I've gotten so far was "Vegan Bodybuilding!" followed by a nervous chuckle from some folks I know... Not sure how to take that...

That should be "Loveliberate & Crew"! As usual, I'll be bringing family and friends whenever possible.

Thanks for the replies!

Jay,

Great idea. Becoming a RN (Registered Nurse) is a prime possibility for me. I've worked in several entry level medical positions, including as a Nurses Assistant. I'm also considering becoming a Dental Hygienist...

Anyone here work in the medical or dental fields?

finbarrio,

I've got a couple of years of non-profit experience and I'm very open to working with a NPO again. Sadly, it seems that many NPOs demand more from and give less back to their employee's than most other professional workplaces...

Any other ideas folks? What kind of work do you do now? What's your ideal job?

Hello & Welcome Liam!

I met a Liam here in Portland fairly recently but cant seem to remember a face or when/where/how we met...

if i had cash i'd probably go.....plus dunno if im even allowed into the states so that could cause some problems

Well if ya hadnt taken a leak on Bush when he visited Ottawa...

Seriously though, how come ya might not be able to come down to the states?

When I lived in southern Arizona, the tarantula's would come out in force after the rains...

Hello & Welcome Meg!

Awesome that you decided to go vegan despite the wheat allergy. I've met several vegans who don't do wheat - and others who dont do soy, nightshades (tomato, eggplant, etc) as well.

Robert and I were just talking today about the fact that despite the name of the forum, most of us here are not bodybuilders. Whatever folks here are into they tend to be wonderful, friendly people.

I'm not sure if I should mention it but ya know there's some real tasty vegan ice cream available right?

I've spent a few days in your area and really enjoyed it. If i was ever to live out east, western nc is on the top of places I'd like to be!

Did you know that there is a chatroom that goes with this website & forums? I'm hoping that more folks will start using it. Heck, I'm going to go sign in there now - Bye!

All,

I am currently looking for a job after many months as a stay-at-home dad. I dont particularly like filling out applications, going through interviews, etc but once settled into the right job, ideally with cool co-worker's, I really enjoy working.

In the short term, I'm mostly focused on getting a decent job, with decent pay and doing it quick! Having said that, I am also really craving greater stability and putting serious thought into my permanent (or at least long-term) "career path"...

I welcome all suggestions on jobs & careers for me to look into and I'm also curious - what kinds of work do all of you do?

No DC for me! I'd love to hear how the conference goes though - photo's are always nice too.

I posted this in the new thread and am adding it here since this part is stickied.

!!!!!AWESOME!!!!!

You just made my day Robert! I think Portland is an excellent choice for all the reasons you mentioned and more! Plus there was minimal chance of me going to LA but I think I can swing Portland.... Ya mentioned VF.net - I assume you'll post info on this over there eventually? They have that new outreach forum for things like this.

So far, I've met Robert & David face to face - it'll be great to meet a bunch of the rest of ya's! I can most likely provide floor space + a futon for some folks & I am always up for playing tour guide. Robert, please be sure to let me know what I can do to help!

Here's my Portland testimonial: I've traveled through much of the US, plus a bit in Canada & Mexico. No other city I've been to comes close to offering such a great mix of so many things as does Portland. Besides being about as good as it gets for vegans, it is a very green city that is only a short drive from tons of wild and fairly wild nature. Robert didn't even mention the awesome hot springs we have in Oregon! Add to all that the fact that Portland is a city with some of the most socially & politically conscious folks you'll find anywhere. Did I mention the vibrant arts & music scene? Have I told you about Cascadia, our bio-region?

I could go on and on...

So me & mine are in. Who else is going to be here?

!!!!!AWESOME!!!!!

You just made my day Robert! I think Portland is an excellent choice for all the reasons you mentioned and more! Plus there was minimal chance of me going to LA but I think I can swing Portland.... Ya mentioned VF.net - I assume you'll post info on this over there eventually? They have that new outreach forum for things like this.

So far, I've met Robert & David face to face - it'll be great to meet a bunch of the rest of ya's! I can most likely provide floor space + a futon for some folks & I am always up for playing tour guide. Robert, please be sure to let me know what I can do to help!

Here's my Portland testimonial: I've traveled through much of the US, plus a bit in Canada & Mexico. No other city I've been to comes close to offering such a great mix of so many things as does Portland. Besides being about as good as it gets for vegans, it is a very green city that is only a short drive from tons of wild and fairly wild nature. Robert didn't even mention the awesome hot springs we have in Oregon! Add to all that the fact that Portland is a city with some of the most socially & politically conscious folks you'll find anywhere. Did I mention the vibrant arts & music scene? Have I told you about Cascadia, our bio-region?

I could go on and on...

So me & mine are in. Who else is going to be here?

Thanks for working on this Matt! Please let us know what we can do to help.

That depends - you buying?

It's a kind of kale - haven't ya seen "Vegan Fitness - Built Naturally"? That's where I got the recipe from. For a photo, you can type in dino kale here: http://www.images.google.com

Watermelons Beware!

Matt!

That's a great idea! Travel is something that I'm really into and I was actually just looking for good vegan travel websites last night. I'd like to see a website that allowed us to post questions, reviews & suggestions for other vegan travelers.

Beyond restaurants, it'd be good to have listings of things like hostels, open-air markets, coops, natural foods stores, bookstores, infoshops and other vegan resources & hangouts. Anouther nice thing would be a calendar of events, meet-ups, potlucks that folks might want to travel to or be aware of if they were in an area.

I'd love to see a vegan hospitality exchange website!

So those are some things that I'd like to see, here's a couple of websites that I use:

- http://www.greenpeople.org - all kinds of stuff, some vegan specific

- http://www.hospitalityclub.org - free hospitality exchange, has a veg*n subgroup

Sorry you missed it Robert, End Cruelty - and everyone else too!

MontanaVegan, SeaSiren and myself had a good chat and got to know each other better. I'm online a lot these days so I'll try to always also be in chat if anyone wants to say hello.