Maybe my life isn't so bad after all...

I thought I had a bad day at work. I made an error in the computer system. It wasn't life threatening. No one will die/get hurt/be misdiagnosed. It was entirely fixable, caught quickly and in the grand scheme of things not a big deal. But it hit me hard...I'm human. I make mistakes and I HATE mistakes. There are a million bazillion proverbs and platitudes about mistakes being learning experiences, etc...but that doesn't change the fact that my subconcious goal is to be just like Mary Poppins--practically perfect in every way. I fixed my error, took responsibility and apologized for it because that is what adults do (even though none of these things was asked for/required). I was depressed about my mistake. I pouted and sulked once I got home. So what happened to change my bad day into "I thought I had a bad day"? I read this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080130/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_eating_dirt&printer=1;_ylt=Ailot6yH89g_34WbBqhIkp69IxIF

Some people are so poor that they have to eat dirt cakes. I am not one of those people. Did I really have a bad day?...No. The person eating dirt cakes for the third day in a row is the one having a hard time--not me. My life might be far better than I thought...and my heart hurts that anyone has to eat dirt...

This post is also a very good time to mention a book I am currently reading called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel. It is life altering. I first read about the book in a tiny mention on Causabon's Book blog. The author of the blog, Sharon recommended it. It immediately sounded intriguing to me. The book contains true stories/pictures of 30 families from 24 countries around the world. Each family had their picture taken in a room of their home surrounded by all the food they ate for an entire week. Stop and think about that for a moment. To me, it is mindblowing. All the soda consumed...all the burgers...all the cigarettes smoked...all of the food NOT eaten because they didn't have any more...all of the good, bad, and ugly on display for the world to read. The total amount of money each family spent on food for one week (in both the local currency and American dollars) is listed for each family. There are stories about each family. You don't just see a snippet of their lives you get to hear their words as well. The book does not pass judgment. The book does not lead you down any pathway of thinking. It merely lays out the information in front of you for you to explore the cultural differences on your own. My words cannot do it justice. You simply need to page through it yourself to comprehend the depth of it all...This book is absolutely, unquestionably just ducky.

Pet peeves and long sleeves...

Yes, I realize--I'm ridiculous (and the title of the post majorly sucks).

Anyways, first off--Long sleeves:
We have a blizzard warning here today. All of the schools are closed. Daycares, churches, gyms, senior center, colleges, community schtuff--all closed. My work--OPEN! Actually, people die if we close, therefore...we don't close. However, a bunch of my co-workers live out in the country so they had to head home (or they would never make it home thus leaving their children alone all night) and we are down to a skeleton crew now. Since I live in town...I feel an obligation to stay and cover so that others may leave. As long as the city bus is still running--I have virtually no excuse.

Now on to pet peeves:
When you have a clearly marked recycling bin (circular with a funnel kind of top) RIGHT NEXT TO a garbage bin (square with no lid)--why in the heck should bottles and cans ever go in the garbage? It has become a huge pet peeve of mine. We have these all over the place at work. It is obvious what gets recycled and where...so why can't people get their cans/bottles in the recycling bin? Why do I need to go pick them out of the garbage?...well that answer is easy...if I don't they stay in the trash and get thrown away...How much easier can recycling be? You don't have to walk any further to recycle, the bins aren't identical...what gives? Hello people?!?!? Hit the damn recycling bin!

Coffee talk (Should be said in the same voice as Mike Meyers character on SNL):
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/29/fema.trailers.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
FEMA sugarcoated the dangers of the Katrina trailers...for a couple years now people stuck in these trailers have been stricken with tons of health issues due to FORMALDEHYDE in the trailer materials and FEMA allegedly knew about it and attempted to cover it up. Shocked/Surprised?...No.... Sad?...Yes... People have been stuck in those trailers for 2 1/2 years. The situation was mucked up from the beginning. Being packed in stadiums...misuse of funds...lack of/severely delayed help...
Discuss

That's all for now folks...I'm off to get some more hot cocoa...I'm one frozen ducky!

No more plastic bags!

In case you don't live near a Whole Foods store (I don't...the nearest one is 90 minutes away by car) or you haven't yet heard--Whole Foods will no longer offer plastic bags! Oh yes, it's true. Check out their website for yourself: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/byobag/faq.html
I'm very excited about this. I saw a representative from Whole Foods speaking on the news yesterday and I felt as if I was hearing an angel sing!...cough, cough...sorry about that...I get a little "rainbows and unicorns" at times...I'll re-join reality now...Anyways, I did here a rep speaking on the news and was very excited. He said everything that I would have wanted him to say and sounded really intelligent. I thought--what a great spokesperson! He is an asset to the cause.

Also, this weekend I read that Bill Gates (or rather his foundation) will be donating a bazillion dollars...OK, really it is $306 million which is essentially a bazillion to me... to help promote local farm practices in poverty stricken countries. The link is here if you want to check it out for yourself: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/25/davos.main/index.html
I hate being overly optimistic about news like this as I feel that all too often the money ends up getting mis-spent, doesn't get to the people it should, bad things screw it all up...but if it goes down as it is supposed to---it could be awesome. My hope is that poverty stricken people are enabled to successfully grow food to feed their families. I don't want them to grow corn for the biofuel industry... My hope is that they can thrive and help others. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all unfolds...

**My apologies if my adding links all the time annoys anyone, but I am a "I want proof!" type of person...I don't want to just read some bloggers re-telling of news...I want to check it out myself. Knowing how twisted the internet can get...I hope you'd want proof as well...it's my way of keeping everything just ducky.

Random thoughts...

My husband made an incredible (and if I do say so myself--gourmet) soup on Friday evening. He stumbled upon a bag of locally grown root vegetables (carrots, turnips, parsnips, etc.) at our co-op. He made his own chicken stock--from scratch. He pureed the soup and topped it off with a roasted yellow pepper reduction. Then he made some homemade bread to accompany it. The meal was absolute heaven.

If you haven't heard of Etsy yet, then I strongly encourage you to check it out: http://www.etsy.com/
It sells exclusively homemade things like scarves, purses, dolls, cloth gift bags, greeting cards, beads and more! Most of the "shopkeepers" will do custom orders on request...which is my favorite part. I had some super cute fabric lying around that I wanted a purse made out of, so I contacted one of the shopkeepers, sent the fabric to her and in lightning-fast speed she had the exact purse I wanted made and shipped to me! I've also been working with one of the other shopkeepers on some reusable cloth gift bags. I'm having her make the exact sizes that I want in fabric that I am selecting myself. I can't begin to rave about it enough...it's awesome. You've probably known about Etsy for years...I seem to be the last one to find out about these things, but someone has to bring up the rear...might as well be me, I guess...

There is a new show on the Food Network called Jamie At Home. It features the British cook Jamie Oliver whose specialty is cooking with organic ingredients. It is set at his farm in the British countryside and often features him picking the vegetables out of his own garden prior to cooking them. It has a very natural, non-Hollywood feel to it...both my husband and I immediately liked the show. An added bonus is the theme song...My World by Tim Kay. It has a happy jazzy feel to it and has been played numerous times in my home since downloading it off of Amazon a week ago...

If you need quality inexpensive kitchenware/flatware etc., check out your local restaurant supply store. It is most likely open to the public and you can find durable products in the quantity you desire at a fraction of the cost. I wanted 4 iced tea spoons. I like the long handles and only wanted 4 of them...that's it...nothing else. Have you tried buying 4 iced tea spoons lately? They don't just have them sitting on the shelves at Target... My husband and I went to our local restaurant supply store after work on Thursday and found exactly what I was looking for--4 stainless steel iced tea spoons with NO packaging! AND the best part--they were only $0.75 a piece! I was very excited. Most supply stores sell things individually...so if you want an odd number of something like 3 glasses or 5 forks you can buy exactly the number you desire and nothing more.

Sam Elliott is hot...(just kidding my dear blog-reading husband)...(but not really...wink)...


Well, I better sign off now...I think that last statement probably got me in enough hot water...I'm pleading extreme exhaustion which has obviously rendered my judgment questionable...I'll get some sleep and that should make everything just ducky...

Want some tuna with your plastic?

I work with computers/software in regards to laboratory testing for a major medical center. That means--we rely on plastic everyday to save people's lives which is a good thing. So it has been difficult for me to join the "plastic is evil" bandwagon. Plastic has achieved a lot of good. However, now I'm starting to see that it has done a lot of bad as well... I absolutely HATE when my mother's catch phrases prove true! In this case, I grew up hearing "Moderation in all things." You know what? It looks like she was right again...(damn!)

Over the last 40-50 years since plastic has been used for--pretty much everything--many people have taken it for granted. It doesn't cause harm. It's plastic! It's safe! Why do they use plastic for kids' toys? It's safe! ...or maybe not? My questions to the blogosphere are as follows--what if the dangers of plastic aren't immediate? What if the dangers of plastic can only be truly gauged over time? What if in small doses plastic is OK, but in large quantities the toxicity emerges? What if plastic is like arsenic--the poison builds up over time bringing gradual demise and not immediate, shocking, tragic problems?

Guess what? The more I research this topic...the more I'm beginning to think that we have made some very, very poor decisions as a society by over-using plastic. Check out this blog--especially the January 22nd entry:

http://orvalguita.blogspot.com/

Did you see all of the plastic on the beaches in the January 22 pictures? And plastic doesn't disintegrate or biodegrade folks! It photodegrades--it just turns into smaller pieces, but it never leaves the planet--ever! Charles Moore is a researcher who has spent the last 10 1/2 years of his life researching ocean debris. Analysis from his research vessel's September 2007 expedition shows a five fold increase in plastic quantities in the North Pacific Gyre since Moore began his research in 1997. And this is just ONE example of how plastic is not as wonderful as we all think it is...

I found more information on http://www.plasticsareforever.org/: Marine ecosystems are harmed by plastic debris. In the Central North Pacific, broken, degraded pieces of plastic outweigh surface zooplankton by 6 to 1. 90% of Laysan Albatross chick carcasses and regurgitated stomach contents contain plastics. Fish and other seabirds mistake plastics for food. Plastic debris release chemical additives and plasticizers into the ocean.

And that is just the ocean...next time you are the passenger in a car, turn off the radio and look out the window the whole drive...how much plastic do you see littering the roadside? I've done this numerous times now and am always amazed at the plastic bags, soda pop bottles and styrofoam containers. Or do an internet search on bisphenol-A and see how it is very possibly causing numerous health issues--but they have crept up so slowly that we are only now beginning to connect the dots. Did you know that Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada's largest specialty outdoor-goods retailer, says it has pulled most food and beverage containers made of polycarbonate plastic from its shelves, citing concern over possible health risks? The plastic in question is made mostly from bisphenol A, which mimics estrogen and is derived from petrochemicals. For the full story click on this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071207.wcoop07/BNStory/National/home

Anyways...I know that I've mentioned bits and pieces of all of this before in previous posts...I don't mean to be redundant, but it has been weighing on my mind more and more lately. I'm not jumping into the deep end screaming "Screw plastic! I shall never touch it again!" First of all, I could never keep such a declaration because plastic is insidious--it's everywhere. Several bloggers are trying to go plastic-free in their lives and can't completely get away from it. Secondly, I know that with healthcare in particular, plastic does have its place. The problem is we took a good idea and exploited the hell out of it. I'm no accountant. I'm not in marketing, but I'm betting that we as a society did exactly that because of the almighty dollar. I'm thinking our desire...our greed drove us to this exploitation. How much does any given product cost to make when using cheap plastic versus metal or glass? Begrudgingly I will admit--we should have practiced "Moderation in all things." This is one of those topics that is not just ducky...

I am a lip balm snob...

Yes, it's true. I'm a tragic, opinionated lip balm snob. In the midst of this whole "greening my existence" process it has surfaced a lot. Those who have renounced plastic (I greatly respect you, but can't join you quite yet...) will scoff at this and whip out a homemade recipe and a nifty keepsake tin/jar...but as I stated before I have lip balm issues! To start with--I have to have my lip balm in a tube. I have tried the cute little pots of lip balm numerous times in the past and found that I abhor the feeling of the lip balm on my fingers. Even if I wipe it off...it bugs me. My second issue is the feel of the lip balm. It cannot be too waxy nor can it be too greasy/slippery/melty. My third issue is scent/flavor. I do not like mint, vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, some fruit scents (fake watermelon scent makes me gag, strawberry makes me hungry) or honey. And sometimes the "unscented" is actually not unscented but smells like chemicals/sunscreens which is icky. Oh! I guess I have a fourth issue as well...medicated lip balms...I don't like my lips to feel "tingly"...so camphor and menthol are out. AND--I need to have SPF in my lip balm because skin cancer is yucky. Whoops, I almost forgot! I don't like to have dye in my lip balm either...although Bonne Bell Lip Smackers Dr. Pepper is sheer heaven to my sense of smell...I can't get past the dye and the thought of ingesting it...(shiver). OK, I think that covers my requirements...let's take a 5 minute break, stretch our legs and get a drink of water before we resume--Oh sorry! I prattled on so long I thought I was at a seminar or something...

So I'm probably sounding a bit high-maintenance right now...I'm not...really...don't judge me! :) Anyways...what does that leave me with? I had previously settled on Chapstick Moisturising (in the royal blue tube...which is very different than the other Chapsticks, believe me!). However, I don't like the idea that it is petroleum based. If the bizarre "fact" floating around the internet is true, that most women ingest around 7 tubes of lip balm/lipstick in their lifetime...that is pretty darn gross. You might as well just pop open a quart of oil right now and chug it! Eeeew...that gave me the shivers just typing it...but I digress. What options are left for a sustainably-minded lip balm freak like me? After MUCH searching and TONS of trial and error I have fallen head over heals for: Kiss My Face Sliced Peach flavor and Un-petroleum Cherry flavor...which shockingly enough actually smells like real cherries not fake cherries (the Tangerine flavor isn't bad either). Yes, it is true these are encased by plastic tubes...but I'm taking baby steps here, remember? I'll tackle the plastic battle another day(year)...

If you made it through this whole post you deserve a gold star, blue ribbon, treat, whatever...so I'm including a link to the Lip Balm Anonymous website. The site is meant to be farcical...just an FYI...I don't want anyone spilling their guts in an emotional confession only to be laughed at and scarred for eternity...

http://www.kevdo.com/lipbalm/

Bringing up the rear...

Have no fear!...I'm not going to talk about how big my butt is...

I'm talking about feeling like the last float in the parade or the caboose of a train... I am the "learning challenged" of the green bloggers--and I'm not making fun of learning challenged individuals, my daughter is one and she is a wonderful kid. It seems as if I am a good 1-2+ YEARS behind everyone else. Now, I know what you're thinking--you shouldn't compare yourself to others, every little bit counts, at least you are trying to learn/change, forward motion--no matter how slow--is still good... However, as human beings we all go through times where we compare ourselves to others whether it be the thinner person standing next to you or the seemingly "perfect" family who's children are always on the honor roll...

And so I find myself comparing my meager offerings next to those of seasoned "professionals"...people who don't use toilet paper--but use cloth instead, people who only eat locally grown/produced foods, people who haven't used a paper tissue or a paper towel in a really long time, people who don't use air conditioning... Next to those individuals my CFLs, fabric gift bags and homemade laundry soap seem infantile. I may recycle with fervor...but the fact that I have a 4-5 soda per day habit is criminal in the "blogosphere of green"--I'm ashamed to even have admitted that.

I have virtually zero self-sustaining skills. I don't know how to garden...(my husband has been doing that)...I don't know how to knit, quilt, crochet, cross-stitch and my sewing skills are limited to straight lines only...My husband cooks like a madman and can build just about anything...I do the laundry with my homemade soap and hang about 1/2 of it to air dry and I think I'm pretty cool...;)

Oh my goodness--and I am queen of Nature Deficit Disorder! I'm allergic to all grass (literally--I'm not making it up)...I don't know an oak tree from a cedar tree...I don't have the first idea how to identify different species of birds, bugs or rocks. However, I like the feel of the sun on my face...so maybe all hope is not lost for me...

OK, I've laid out my ecological sins and deficiencies for the blog-o-world to see...I've whined...I've cringed...but if it's true that "a problem recognized is a problem half-solved"--then I'm half way there! Woohoo! I'm looking at asking for a sewing machine for my birthday and I'm reading up on gardening to be a seriously active participant this year. I'm going to stop comparing myself...although everyone else has already read The Omnivore's Dilemma except me---STOP. Let me start over...I'm going to stop comparing myself to others. I'm going to keep moving forward. And before you know it--everything will be just ducky.

One step forward, two steps back...

This is the first winter that I've ever actually tried to conserve energy. I have made a very serious attempt to turn our heat down. We are all gone for a few hours everyday, so I have the thermostat set very low during that time. Then when we are home, it bumps up a few degrees so that our teeth don't chatter. When we go to bed, we turn it back down again. We also bought LED Christmas lights this year--yes, I know the best thing to do would have been to give up the Christmas lights completely...but if I don't do baby steps, my husband will freak out. Plus, I gotta tell you...I like Christmas lights... Anyways, on our last power bill we saw a very real and awesome change! We lowered our usage some 300+ kwh compared to last Dec/Jan. This was the concrete proof I needed to keep me going. And that is when the heater broke. Oh, not just once...like 4 times. It has become almost comical...fix the heater, wait a couple of days, heater breaks...fix heater, wait, break... The first time we had a repairman come out and the last 3 my husband did some research and fixed it himself. We have no other source of heat and this week/weekend it has been -10 degrees Fahrenheit...colder if you count the windchill. Don't you just love the irony of it all? The last 3 years when I've had that thing jacked up to 69-70 degrees everyday, all winter long--it hummed along with no problems...I start to care about my consumption and try to save energy and it craps out...repeatedly. Oh well, such is life...

My husband said something that I thought was tremendously funny and ultimately appropriate a few days ago. He said "In our life I think it is safest to assume that Karma has some new, fresh hell waiting on deck at all times..." I should issue the disclaimer: Neither of us are negative people nor was this meant to sound negative...we both share a kind of dark humor...taking whatever comes our way, laughing at ourselves and whatever "new, fresh hell" comes along...knowing that the laughter is the only thing that gets us through some days and makes others that much more enjoyable...

The story of stuff...

If you haven't checked this out yet, I highly recommend you do:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/


It is a 20 minute video put together by a woman by the name of Annie Leonard about consumerism and how it is hurting our natural resources--and so much more. I can't do it justice. You just have to go watch it for yourself. It is jam-packed with facts and very well-written. She packs a lot into such a short video. After watching the video, if you click around the website--she provides the full script of the video complete with references so that you can see how she has proof to back up what she says. I think it is a brilliant video.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?...

Well, if you didn't read today's copy of USA Today you might have missed:

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2008-01-15-global-temperatures_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip


2007 was the warmest year on record for Earth's land areas. And global warming isn't real, right? Think again, peeps.

Oh! And in the same issue I saw this:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-15-cloned-animals_N.htm?csp=34

Apparently the Food and Drug Administration has deemed CLONED ANIMALS safe for food! WTF?!?!?! That's just asking for trouble. Do we not have enough inexplicable medical conditions running rampant? Autism numbers are skyrocketing, so is childhood psychiatric illness--both of which are just the tip of the iceberg...so let's just throw some cloned animal meat/milk in the mix and see what else we can screw up! I'm still pissed about the FDA allowing dairy farmers to use growth hormones and that happened well over 10 years ago...
Stay alert folks...I may not be Just Ducky...I may be a clone of Just Ducky!

Undoing what is being done...

Today my husband and I sat our extremely opinionated teenager down and "made" her watch An Inconvenient Truth. She has been coming home the past couple of weeks telling us stories about how her high school science teacher makes fun of global warming by using a cartoonish amount of paper towels to wipe off the dry erase board in his classroom and prints off reams of paper while making sarcastic comments. She thinks it is hysterically funny and is starting to adopt his ways of thinking...I cannot put up with this. No, no, no, no, no...

My husband and I had watched the movie the weekend before and were both really impacted by it. It puts a lot of facts out there to back up all the "hype". When my daughter (who has become increasingly politically aware this year--all on her own) started rolling her eyes and making annoying comments to us while we were checking out the environmental stances of the various political candidates, we decided enough was enough. We sat her down and put in the DVD. We watched half of it this afternoon and will watch the other half with her this evening. I don't know if it will "convert" her, but we told her that we want her to develop her own opinions and not adopt those of people she thinks are entertaining. She doesn't have to agree with all of our opinions, but she does need to be able to develop her own opinions based on factual evidence and well-rounded research--looking at all sides of an issue/topic and not just the most appealing ones.

One of my goals as a parent has always been to raise children that can think for themselves, who are not mindless sheep following the herd. Knowledge is power...as I learned from watching School House Rock many years ago--but it is true. Knowledge--comprehensive, well-rounded knowledge--is a far better weapon than any gun, bomb, military force or legislation. It is what breaks down racism, tolerance of abuse, prejudice of all kinds and apathy. It is the best gift we can give to our children...along with an inhabitable planet...

The need to be silent and still...

Have you ever felt like things were falling apart around you so fast that you needed to be silent/still? I'm talking internally...spiritually...whatever...

This was a rough morning. Nothing catastrophic--bipolar child in the throws of mania, dog decides to poop on the carpet, again...teenage child and her friends think they know everything about politics and the economy...husband stressed out by job/life...

When I finally got to work (late), I sat down and almost started crying (or leaking as my husband calls it), but then I just thought "I need to be still. I need to be silent." What does that mean exactly? I don't know. I'm not talking about some oppressive "Shut up and hold it all inside" kind of thing. I'm talking about an internal kind of quiet. Purposefully taking time to make the carousel-on-acid that is my life stop for just a moment while I re-group. No TV, no music, no talking, certainly no dogs barking... Maybe that is meditation. Maybe it's "centering yourself"...I don't know...I just have this voice that keeps saying: Be still. Be silent.

Times Square Trash...

My husband heard on the news today that 13 garbage trucks full (approximately 40 tons of trash) was left to be picked up in Times Square after the big "ball drop" on New Year's Eve. What??? Oh, but the ball had LED lights, so it all balances out (cough, wink)... Included in the trash was confetti, plastic hats, cups, water bottles and glasses that say 2008--all littered Times Square in one night. It took 109 people to clean it all up the next day. What in the heck is going on? Why, why, why? That's crazy. How necessary was all of that? I spent the night at home with my husband and we didn't even accumulate 1 full bag of trash...and we had a good time... Does it make any sense to change the ball to LED lights if you are still planning on dropping 1 ton of confetti/streamers? I don't want to sound like a witch...I'm glad they used LED lights and that little effort is better than nothing...but maybe next year they could work on cutting out the confetti/streamers entirely as well?

Oh well, I guess I'll go back into my glass house and stop throwing stones now...