"What, No Cupcakes?"

Last week there was the monthly office roundup for the "January birthdays." Instead of cake, there were cupcakes from one of the artful and delicious cupcake bakeries proliferating around town. I joined my coworkers for the ritual reading of the names and the requisite applause, but this time, instead of descending upon the red-velvet, coconut, and strawberry treats, I slipped back to my office.

A bit later, a coworker -- with whom I'm friendly but by no means intimate -- came by my office and said, "What, no cupcakes for you?" I had no idea it was so noticeable. And by that I don't mean my not partaking on this day; I mean my usual gluttony toward sweets. Even a casual colleague noticed when I didn't grab one? I told her, "I had a big lunch."

It was the truth, as it happens, but a lie just the same.

Only a small handful of people know that, as of the last month or so, I'm a vegan. It wasn't a New Year's resolution per se, though the decision did roughly coincide with the new year. And I'm not even a full-time vegan yet, as I'm still working my way through some baked goods and milk chocolate from Christmas, and I still have eggs in my refrigerator, which I'll use in some manner before never buying eggs again. The child of children of the Depression, I don't like to be wasteful. It will all be eaten -- vegan or not -- and even enjoyed.

Here's the truth: I'm a vegan, and I'm still not out of the closet -- even telling not-quite-the-truth to people whose opinion about me doesn't even matter all that much.

This is the type of thing I'm going to be writing about, along with reflections on the reasons that led me to this point (why this, why now, at age 48 after 12 years as a dairy-and-egg-eating vegetarian?), recipes I'm trying as well as old ones I'm adapting, mistakes I make, jokes I hear, ironies that keep me awake, comments that annoy me, judgments (my own and others') that challenge me, things that excite me, and -- among many other topics -- the liberation, rather than any constriction or limitations, I already feel.