It's not easy being green...

Life continues to be a wild, faster-than-the-speed-of-light type of ride...Cait (oldest daughter) got a role in her school's musical, but has been ditching practice and wants to quit. It was HER idea to try out. It was HER interest in acting/singing. All I did was provide emotional support, so we are making her honor her commitment to be in the school musical. Too many people in the musical are counting on her--it's not fair to leave them hanging. Grace (youngest daughter) continues to be manic then depressed then manic...she also broke out in virtually inexplicable hive/rash things last weekend. We took her to the doctor and he couldn't figure it out either. Throw in a couple of phone calls at work--"I missed the school bus", bad grades, no homework being done or when it's done--not being turned in...and you have stressed out parents!

But enough about the fam...I need to talk about stuff that will lower NOT raise my blood pressure...Did you hear about San Francisco being the first city in the US to ban plastic bags made from petroleum products? The mayor still has to sign the bill, but once that is through--all large supermarkets and drugstores will have to use an alternative to plastic bags. I read all about it on CNN.com this morning and was quite pleased. It will save approximately 450,000 gallons of oil a year and 1400 tons of trash in the landfill! Isn't that friggin' amazing? For the past 2 weeks I've become more and more concerned with how much trash my family creates. I didn't even realize that plastic bags were that big of a deal until I stumbled upon www.reusablebags.com. The facts/statistics are mind blowing. So--I have been refusing bags for small purchases at stores this past week as my little contribution to the planet, and I've been taking a canvas bag to use in place of plastic bags when I buy more items than I can carry. Don't get me wrong...I'm no tree hugger...far from it actually. But I finally hit a point where I realize that what we do today really does impact future generations--specifically my kids. If I stay concerned with myself and my own personal happiness/comfort, I'll leave nothing but more shit for the next generation...and that's not cool.

On that note...April 22nd is Earth Day...I've never given a crap about it before, but this year during that whole week, another lady at work and I are "going green". We certainly won't be "purists"---we've both decided that using Kleenex is non-negotiable...we must be allowed to use our Kleenex, dammit! However, we are not accepting ANY plastic bags at stores that week. We are not using any ziploc bags, disposable water bottles or plastic utensils. We haven't ironed out all of the details yet, but I'm proud to be at the point where I'm willing to try...at least for one week. Maybe there is hope for me yet...Join us if you'd like--it would make me feel just ducky to have more company...