Trying to be green, part 2

They have been available at the grocery stores for years and have been even more prominent lately: the reusable grocery shopping bag. Everyone should be using them, but so few of us do, even though we've heard numerous times how plastic bags use petroleum and linger in the landfills and icky chemicals are released in the manufacturing of paper bags. Sure, it is nice to have a few paper bags to put newspapers in for recycling and a few plastic bags for walking the dog, but they really pile up after a while. The grocery stores have bins where you can recycle your plastic bags, but who remembers to do that? And, are they really recycling those bags or do they just want you to think they are recycling them? We don't know for sure. Anyway, after months of threatening to buy a bunch of those reusable grocery shopping bags and bid farewell to paper and plastic, we finally did it. But now, the big question-- will we ever use these bags again? Place your bets, folks.

I am trying to be green, but . . .

I really am trying to be more "green." The problem is, I can't quite get it right. You see, I prefer to use paper towels to clean up messes than cloth towels, even though cloth towels are the greener choice. I also like to print things out sometimes, even though that involves bleached white office paper. There are situations where I could ride a bicycle, but end up driving the car because I didn't allow myself enough time to get there on a bike. What else? Oh yes, I don't always turn off the light when I leave the room because I think it is good to show some light in different rooms. (It is supposed to throw off the burglars). We subscribe to magazines that don't get read and sometimes we have to throw food out because we let it spoil. Who can keep up with this all the time? Can anyone? It would take a constant, 24-hour vigil to really get it done. It makes me wonder about the people that make that claim and lord it over everyone else. I bet we could find something on them. But, wouldn't that be a waste of energy, too?

The spirit is willing, but the mouth is weak

I really wish I could go back to being a vegetarian. Back in 2002, I decided to stop eating meat. Unfortunately, the decision was made before I went to the National Planning Conference in Chicago that year. The first place we ate lunch was that place that they used to spoof on Saturday Night Live-- "cheeseburger, cheeseburger"-- what was the name of that place? Anyway, to order anything but a hamburger or cheeseburger in that place was asking for trouble. I became a vegetarian the next day. I actually kept up with it in full force for a year. I lost 20 pounds without doing anything else. It was great. It was not easy though. Eating out was tough. Most places had only one veggie option and it was a salad or a cheese sandwich. You get tired of those after a while, especially if you don't like iceberg lettuce in the first place. So, every now and then, I would have to go ahead and consume animal flesh. Then, those occasions got closer and closer together. It was easier to just order a turkey sandwich and be done with it. When visiting relatives, it was just easier to eat whatever they were serving than to be a pain in the butt asking for different food. Then, I got married. Then, we went to Poland. I don't think there are any vegetarians there. Plus, I did not know the word for "vegetables" or "vegetarian" in Polish anyway. It pretty much unraveled from there.

But now, I am trying to get the magic back. We do pretty well here at home, but eating out is still a challenge. I just have to remember how good I felt during that year. It was interesting though, how much opposition I ran into during that time. I stopped eating meat for me and for no other reason. I never told anyone else that they should do the same thing but I was happy to talk about it with them if they wanted. I let the results speak for themselves. There were no lectures, no self-righteousness, no judgment. But, I got a lot of it in return. So many people tried to convince me that I was the one doing the wrong thing. Sometimes though, you just have to listen to your own voice. Hopefully, I can do it again.

Almost the new 30

Today, I turned 39 years old.  I keep hearing that 60 (years old) is the new 40.  By extension, some say that 40 is the new 30.  That's fine with me.  I will be the old 40 or the new 30 or whatever, as long as I don't have to go through my 20's again.  They sucked.  I was in a toxic relationship, 60 pounds overweight, and didn't know how to stand up for myself.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life or how to make anything good happen.  Miserable stuff. I am much happier now.  Please don't make me go back.  Some people pine for their "youth" and don't want to grow up.  I embrace it.  I feel more alive now than I ever did then.  I think I look better, too, if I do say so myself.  Next year, maybe we'll have a big party when I turn 40, or the new 30, or whatever.  I can't wait.

Make a decision, please!

I was in a department store the other day trying to buy a few things. I was not in a hurry per se, but I needed to return to work at some point. I could have accomplished all my tasks in a much shorter period of time had I not entangled myself in this trite, bordering on insanity decision-making process that always goes on in my head. First, I went to pick out a belt for Eddie. All he wanted was a black belt, silver buckle, size 34 waist-- one that he could wear with his work clothes or more casually with shorts. Not exactly detailed criteria. Anyway, I find the rack of belts. I could ignore all the brown ones and the ones with gold buckles. I started going through the black ones. Wrong size, buckle too big, belt too wide. Oh, wait, here is one that has the right sized buckle, black leather, size 34 waist. Perfect. Great. Walk away. Nope. Not so fast. Instead of taking the belt and going on my merry way, I continued to look through the belts to make sure there wasn't a better size 34 waist black belt with a silver buckle. This went on for several minutes before I walked away with the same belt I picked out in the first place.

Then, I went to women's lingerie. They had underwear on sale-- 3 for $21 or something like that. It was a brand I liked, so I started to look through the underwear. I have to pick out 3 pairs. Do I want beige, black, yellow or this nice rose color? I have to wade through the thong and bikini styles to find the hi-cut style. Or, should I get the hipster style? Oh, they don't have it in my size in that nice rose color. I finally find 3 pairs that I like. Perfect. Great. Walk away. Nope. I see another display with another brand that uses organic cotton and bamboo. I want to try that. That's a nice purple and a nice blue. Oh dear, I can't find 3 pairs. Then, I realized that I probably had enough underwear at home already, so I put the 3 pairs back and went on.

Next, the baby department. No, not for me, for our next door neighbor and one of my tennis teammates. Both are having boys, both have a girl already. So, they need boy clothes, right? Because that's what we do with babies right? Boys have to wear blue, girls pink. They can't use hand-me downs. Since my neighbor and my teammate don't know each other, I could get them the same thing and save some time. Yeah, right. I looked at toys, blankets, stuffed animals. No, keep looking. Three racks stuffed to the gills with baby clothes on clearance. Here we go. I found a couple of cute outfits. Perfect. Great. Walk away. Nope. I kept looking to see if I could find anything cuter (because they would know if I didn't). Finally, I settled on two outfits for each. I guess I'm done with shopping. No, wait, there were those shoes that I saw in the ad. Oh, you sold out of the size 10s? Hmm, maybe there is a pair sort of like it around here some place. Let me try these on. No, those won't work. Aaaaaaaaggggghhhhhh!

Obviously, I eventually made it out of the store and back to work. On the ride back, I kept asking why I insist on tormenting myself in this manner. I guess I just want things to be perfect. Good answer. Great. Walk away. Now.

Bah! Spring

This is next door at our neighbor's house. Over the last year, while we have been planting begonias and cultivating roses, this guy has been systematically removing 95% of the plant life from his property. He even went so far as to remove a large oak tree from the back. It must have cost thousands of dollars to do that. I joked that maybe he was getting ready to put in a grass tennis court, but it really is no joke. It is not that the fact that he made all these changes-- it is his property and he can do with it as he chooses within the city codes and ordinances and the bounds of civilized urban society. The problem is that he wants everyone around him to do the same and has engaged in aggressive and verbally abusive behavior to get his point across. Anyone that has been to our street knows what an unlikely and undesirable prospect it would be to carry out his plan to turn it into the surface of the moon. So, we try to stay out of his way and hope that he doesn't snap like so many twigs he has removed from his yard. In the meantime, it is not all bad. The roses get a lot more sun now.

Ahhh, Spring!

Winter seems to have abruptly ended around here. We woke up one morning and all the trees were green and the flowers blooming. One nice surprise was the rosebush that I thought would not make it through the winter. Instead, it grew to twice its size and covered itself with big, yellow roses. They are so fragrant, too. Every morning I go and clip at least three of them to bring inside. I don't think Mother Nature wants me to take them-- the bush is so thorny that the roses are almost too difficult to harvest. But, I manage. The other rosebush (with the orange roses) is not doing as well, but I will try to be patient with it. Maybe it will come around.

In the front yard, the snapdragons we planted last year came back with a vengeance. I guess they heard us talking about maybe pulling them out because the yellow ones did not match the pink begonias. We did not have the heart to pull them out after all, so we let them be and planted the begonias anyway. True, we could have picked something other than pink begonias, but they remind us of one of the parks in Krakow that we visited on our honeymoon, so they are the sentimental favorite.

Goodbye, old friend

Last week, we had to retire our beloved 1960's coffee pot. The poor thing probably made more pots of coffee than the ones in most restaurants. I started to smell something burning while the coffee was brewing. I finally discovered the burn marks on the end of the cord and the damaged prongs on the pot itself. After some consideration, we decided that a morning cup of coffee was not worth burning the house down. So, I went in search of a replacement. We like the percolator style because it matches the decor of the kitchen and it does not use the paper filters. One of the local antique stores had one for about $14, but they had not been open for several weeks. I went to several department/discount stores, and finally found one on the clearance rack at Sears (as if nobody else wanted one). I brought it home and immediately put it into service. Ahhh.