Charitable Motivation?

So here we are 9 days in, and not surprisingly, S365 is getting old. Being obligated to turn down all of my favorite foods, I’ve decided that I need a deeper motivation than just glory to continue along this ridiculous path (as if there’s any glory involved anyway). David agrees, and for the sake of this post, we’ll go ahead and say that Brie agrees too.

If I’m going to keep participating in Soup for a Year, I’m going to need participation from YOU. “Why should I participate?” you might say. “You’re the stunt-junkies that volunteered to eat the soup for no reason, not me!”

Well what if there was a reason? i.e. charity!

So…here’s what I propose. And bear in mind that this idea is a work in progress, but I’d like to get the ball rolling on it.

For every day that we eat soup and only soup (excepting of course rolls and crackers when integral to the soupy meal), you pledge to give a canned good (or other non-perishable food item) to the charity of your choice. You can choose to sponsor only me, only David, only Brie, or some combination of the three of us. Pledge whatever you can, and keep in mind if you’re going to pledge something, we’re going to hold you to it.

So we know who’s on board, you can document your pledge a couple different ways. First, you can leave a comment on this post indicating how much you’re willing to donate and to which charitable organization it will go (also leave your address so we can come Paulie your knees if  you “forget” to ante up). You can also input the same information at the Soup for a Year Facebook page. Eventually, if people take to this idea, I’d like to have some kind of charity landing page where we keep track of donations, donors, total days on soup, etc. Let’s stick with this for now though, and we’ll see where it takes us.

Also, if you think it would just be easier to donate a dollar per day or week, or a quarter per day, we can do that too. You can send us a check, and we can make sure it gets to the right place.

Let’s make this ridiculous stunt worthwhile, shall we?

Sadly (though not that sad), if we don’t get enough people into this to make a difference, I’m probably going to revert back to solid food. Which honestly sounds amazing.

Mushroom soup: It’s good!

I had already eaten the soup in question before I had time to make the video, but here is a photo of it’s gray goodness before I ate it. (And yes, I know that using the flash washes out the colors and makes for crappy indoor photography. Why don’t you come over to my house and show me the quick and easy way to turn off the automatic flash on my camera?)

Soup for a Year: My Defense: The Pineapple Came on to ME!!!: It’s Complicated

Right. So this is my punishment for the incident that happened on Friday. Let me paint you a picture with words.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. I got out of work at 1:00 PM because my stuff was being moved to a new cubicle. After eating a lunch of shrimp and red pepper soup, I was off to Whole Foods. As I walked in, I was quivering with anticipation at the thought of beholding a bounty of delicious soups. I was distracted, and that was when it happened. A delicious, manly yellow pile of pineapple sample chunks appeared before me in a very aggressive fashion. I was powerless to ignore it, and I was thinking about soup. What kinds would there be? How many would I get? I was drunk with thoughts of soup, so when I approached the pineapple and it was so nice, so understanding, so much the opposite of the last fruit I had many moons ago, I unconsciously gave in to its desire to be eaten. Something about what was happening didn’t feel right. It felt WRONG, but also so good. I chewed the pineapple and proceeded through the produce section to the area where the hot soups were located. I knew the pineapple would be gone soon, and although I was sad, I knew it was for the best. I can’t hold on to something in my mouth that longs to be free, free to be digested by my stomach and intestines. So I gave in. I swallowed. It was over. The pineapple was gone, but I knew what we had experience was special, somehow, in its own way. And that is how the pineapple came on to me.

I would also like to point out that Mike also cheated did not receive anywhere near the verbal chastising I did. I implored my heartless friends to leave me with my guilt, but they demanded that I be punished. “Isn’t eating only soup punishment enough?” I argued. Apparently not. I would again like to disagree, as this was my lunch today:

This crap is delicious! Oh wait, it's actually not. It's crap.

The above bowl is filled with brandied wild mushroom soup, and it is disgusting. Per usual, after the first bite I tried to convince myself that it was actually good. It was not. It mostly tasted like pureed mushrooms with mushroom chunks, mostly. I did not find that taste appealing. As I tried to convince myself to eat it, I made the mistake of wondering what would happen if I moved my spoon back and forth in the soup. What happened was it grossed me out by jiggling like Jell-o. Aaaand I was out. As Mike kindly pointed out, if I am only eating soup, it should at least be GOOD soup!

I do believe that soup, along with the cream of spinach and mushroom, was punishment enough. I spent $14 on those two damn soups, one of which I gave to David, who cockily thinks he will eat it tonight and it will be delicious even though he refused to even try it at lunch today. We’ll just see what he says about that gross soup!