Not that I'll get any pumpkins, but hey

I had these apple seedlings. I loved them. I really did. I tried to nourish them as best I could, but I was a novice and they were high-maintenance and, well, none of them is still with me today. I had one seedling that was a few months old, and I felt pretty good in spite of the other fifty that I lost. Unfortunately, it decided that it was going to ditch all its leaves for no reason. I was wondering if maybe the poor thing thought that it was fall or something. In any case, it never came back.

The whole affair left me sort of disheartened. I have some mint, which is near impossible to destroy; I have some coneflower and black-eyed susans in the front garden, which are native to this area; I have some lavender that didn't bloom, a parsley plant, and a random strawberry plant.

But I've still never started anything from seed, which is what I want to do. Next year, I hope to actually have a garden with real vegetables in it. Or maybe do some container gardening. Anyway, you get the picture: I'm a little self-conscious about my inability to raise anything from seed.


So, I decided to try and sprout these pumpkin seeds. I know I'm late by at least a month. I know that in all likelihood, I won't get any pumpkins. But I took some heart from the fact that these might be easier to grow, being a native North American vegetable and all. I just want them to go as far as they can 'till the frost sets back in. I just want to be a good plant mommy.

I guess I need to plant them somewhere... soon...

Come on back now, ya'll, y'hear?

I was visited by one Dan White the other day week who said to me, "hey, why haven't you updated your blog?"

I said, I don't know, I guess I wrote in it mostly so I wouldn't go completely insane at work.

He said, well, I was reading that. (Which strikes me a bit funny, 'cause seriously, who reads this thing?) So go update it.

Life is crazy-crazy for just about everyone I know, including me, so that's not really an excuse. I guess, if anything, here's my excuse:

I messed up.

I started not really caring, or backsliding, or rationalizing. And I think this happens every once in awhile to anyone who cares about planet Earth. "Well, it's all going to pot anyway, I'll just go out to Chinese and get the leftovers in that stupid little wax paper container that you can't recycle or reuse. There's no way I can change the millions of minds who are set on the inadvertent destruction of the planet -- plus, it's not like I'm polluting or something terrible like that."

But you know, God has a funny way of bringing me back. I was actually reading Romans the other day. 'Till now, I haven't done much Bible study on my own, 'cause the Bible I was using was like, I don't know, like two gears with mismatched teeth. But this one, I got at Camp Josiah last month, and it's much easier on my poor little brain.

Anyway, in there (around Romans 14) it says things like, "If you think some foods are unfit to eat, then for you they are not fit." and "Don't let your appetite destroy what God has done. All foods are fit to eat, but it is wrong to cause problems for others by what you eat."

Now, I know (think?) Paul is really just talking about unity between the different cultures who became followers of Jesus (i.e. "hey guys, quit picking on each other, Jesus said it's okay to eat whatever, but just because Sammy eats only kosher stuff doesn't mean that you get to pick on him"). But to me, it was a pretty stern reminder about how I really feel about the environment. It's pretty clear to me. Don't let your consumerism destroy creation. Don't choose products that dishonor or steal dignity from the lives of other people. Remember how you don't actually think it's okay to eat processed things? D'you know how much that's tearing you up inside under the thin sheet of numbness you've laid down in there? Gosh, Em, seriously.

So. I had to chuckle a bit to myself. Yep, I've gone astray a little here. Yep, I need to come back. Yep, I should take the extra half-hour and the ten extra bucks to shop at the co-op or the farmer's market instead of going to Safeway or Acme.

Still haven't done it yet, but at least I'm getting back to on track.

Anyway, my new goal is to update this puppy at least once a week... let's see how it turns out.

My battle with junk mail

I've been fighting a battle ever since I moved to Newark.

It's against the junk mail. And the junk newspapers.

Due to the nature of my residence, the battle has been fought on multiple fronts. One: I now live relatively close to a real city, after growing up in rural PA. For some reason, being in a city means that it's permissible for local businesses to give massive amounts of brochures and coupon books to the "postmaster" (who I imagine must be a shadowy figure who lurches around darkened rooms in post offices across the nation) to distribute to everyone in the city. You can imagine that this doesn't sit well with me.

I can remember having this issue at college, too. When you have an on-campus mailbox, you get flyers from on-campus groups who are trying to drum up an interest in an event or in their own membership.

Point being, I don't care about your event and I don't want to buy wings from Pizza Place #71 on some special Superbowl deal. I consider myself a fairly conservative spender. Heck, I turned off my heat because of the last electric bill... ("hmm... do I really need heat?" ...more on that later). So I don't care about Clipper Magazine or Redplum, and I get sort of annoyed with them for sending me shredded trees in the mail.

I actually did get Redplum to stop via their website. Everything else, I'm sort of at a loss. There must be a way to simply notify this... "Postmaster" character... that I don't want this stuff. Or maybe there's not. Maybe you just have to unsubscribe from every single annoying thing, like with e-mail. UGH. The battle continues on this front.

Front number 2: I live in a place that has been inhabited by people other than me in the last few years. This situation applies to almost anyone who rents. You get junk mail from people who don't live there anymore. Pep Boys has been sending these great coupons for a man whose name I could barely pronounce.

I called them up, and told them that they'd been sending coupons to my address for a man who didn't live there. They said, thanks for reporting it! It's no biggie. The coupons are still on his account, so he can access them in places other than the mail.

No, I said. I want you to stop sending them. Confusion ensued. I tried to explain that I was an "environmentally conscious" individual. Confusion ensued. Basically, they told me I'd have to get in touch with the post office. This is really bizarre to me, but evidently they can't change someone's account unless that someone calls and specifically changes the address. So, basically, if there's someone in the world you really don't like, go to Pep Boys, make up a fake name, register as a member and give them your adversary's address. And then do it a bunch of times in other Pep Boys.

I've also been trying to get Yes! and Crossroads, of The News Journal here in Delaware, to stop showing up at my house. I can tell you the exact dialogue I've had three times over the phone with these guys:

"Hello, this is the News Journal, can I please have your phone number to better assist you?"

"Yeah, you can have it, but I don't have an account with you guys."

"All right, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to stop receiving Yes! and Crossroads at my house. I've already called (X times), and I am continuing to receive them."

"Okay, let me get your address..."


So far, (X) = 3. I dearly hope it won't have to be 4.


There are some good resources online to help reduce your junk mail package, and the statistics they use are staggering. According to ecocycle.org (and some other sites), junk mail in 2005 used up about 100 million trees. That's too many. Even if they're using recycled paper, there are hazards in the ink. I doubt they're all using soy-based, and even if they are, it's an appalling use of something that is generally food.

(I honestly can't get behind too many processes that make food into non-food. Disposable containers made of potatoes are great, but I can't help but think of the hungry people in the world who would have loved to eat those potatoes. It's the kind of affluence that seems so inconsequential, but still sort of disturbs me.)

Anywho, there are some tips online that you can find with a minimal amount of searching, and you can even hire services to proactively reduce junk mail being sent to your house... but really, should we have to pay to defend the planet? I think that generally, when a thing defends our planet, it also tends to put my penny-pinching mind at ease. Most solutions for our environmental troubles do end up cutting us a deal in the long run -- and often, even in the short run!

I went to the grocery store... con fotos

This might seem like it's going to be boring, and maybe it will be boring, but do you ever think about how you think?

Maybe that's a bit narcissistic.

Anyway, caring about the earth changes the way you think.

Let's use the example of some stuff I bought at the grocery store today.


Toothpaste. What I originally went to the store to buy. As in, if I didn't buy toothpaste this afternoon, I was gonna brush with water this evening.

Old mindset: this is not the cheapest. why am I even looking at this thing?

Current mindset: this is not the cheapest. but it's the only toothpaste I know of that comes in a recyclable aluminum tube. The rest of these toothpaste tubes are going to the landfill. If there's an option that doesn't go to the landfill, and doesn't break the bank, I'm voting for that one.

But next time, I'm makin' my own. More ingredients = more processed = more energy. Plus the energy used to ship it here.


Toilet Paper (sorry the pic is sideways... dumb blogger)


Old mindset: find the cheapest one and get outta here.

Current mindset: this is cheap enough, at $4 for 6 rolls. Better price than the 7th Generation stuff that costs $1.80 for one roll. It's made of recycled paper, which is good, 'cause I don't need to be wiping my butt with virgin rainforest trees, buuuuuuuuuuuut 7th Gen comes in a recyclable paper wrapper, and this is wrapped in plastic...

This went on for about three minutes as I paced around the aisle, looking like a maniac, until I finally went with the cheaper plastic-wrapped TP. Decisions, decisions. I long for the days where they used pages of the Sears magazine for this purpose... but they were probably made out of real paper, and not this weird magazine stuff.

Vitamins

Old mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE!

Current mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE! Even though theoretically, my diet should include all the vitamins and minerals I need. But it doesn't. I'm working on it. Am I? Well, I will work on it. Anyway, just buy the darn things already.


Throat Coat Tea

Old mindset: Old mindset unavailable because I didn't know what this was.

Current mindset: Eh, well, I mean, tea, I mean, it's probably individually wrapped, and that stinks, 'cause it's more trash for the landfill, but, I mean, it's organic, but, I mean, I've finally got myself down to no teabags at all, and... oh, come on. It's got echinacea and it'll make your throat feel better.

Sure enough, I got home and they're INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED. CURSES. I have finally gotten away from teabags by brewing mint leaves in a mesh tea ball, and now I've blasphemed and bought these individually wrapped ones.

Oh well.

Baking Soda!!

Old mindset: don't need that.

Current mindset: I use this for everything. FOUR POUNDS for THREE DOLLARS??? fhdskafhlfg (yes there is a keyboard in my mind) Though I do have to remember that baking soda comes from mines, so it's not an awesome, sustainable thing... but it's great for cleaning and it's nontoxic. And the package is fully recyclable.

Check it out. "THE STANDARD OF PURITY"? Really? Like cleanliness is next to Arm & Hammer?...

Bananas

Old mindset: ew... gross... bananas.

Current mindset: POTASSIUM. FRUIT. Get in mah belleh. No, they are not organic. No, they are not local. Am I a bad hippie? Yes. Do I have bananas? Yes. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.


So... am I a snooty, organic-buying, looking-down hippie? No. Maybe? No, not really. There are choices to everything. Generally, I'd go ahead and say if you want to live in a city at this particular moment in history, it's going to be darn-near impossible to be 100% sustainable in your lifestyle. I'm not judging anyone when I can't do it myself. I'd rather help you than judge you. Is that weird? Sorry.

I used to think 100% sustainable meant that you were dead. There is no way you can be alive and not take things from the planet. But really, "sustainable" means that when you take something from the planet, you give something back, so that the overall health of the planet is always at 100%. It means that the way you live today, you could live for a million years. We cannot, for example, live on oil for a million years. There is not a million years of oil in the earth for people who use it as much as we do.

Changing the way we think is the first step in learning how to give back. Asking ourselves how our money translates into the ecosystem's health (or lack thereof). Asking ourselves if it's morally OK to buy plastic packaging when it ends up in the bellies of baby seabirds, destroying whole generations.

When you buy a product, you vote for the means by which it was created, you approve the method of packaging, you applaud the purpose for which it exists. I'm not perfect at it. I'm not going to pretend I'm perfect at it. But think about it for me, wouldja?

My mom says I stink.

Let's talk about smells. Personally, I think it's better to smell like a human being than a month-old bouquet that someone sprayed with starch, but this is A) my opinion and B) usually not socially acceptable. I will attempt to explain my preference. And you may be grossed out. There. You were warned.

I am a female person whose skin dries to bleeding in the winter, so B.O. is not something I've felt compelled to be extremely vigilant about. I take 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda, wet it into a paste, and use that for deodorant. Every day. Unless I forget. I've even been showering every day for weeks now. It's weird, but I'm getting used to it.

My inspiration is my mother. Mom is very sensitive to smells. She has smelled me from the opposite side of the couch, whereas my sister could not smell me while standing beside me. The problem now is not me being clean; it's my clothes. I'm not convinced that an article of clothing is dirty just because I've worn it before. It saves water and it means I don't have to do as much laundry. Unfortunately, I think Mom can smell me even if I've worn a T-shirt for just a few hours. She's that good.

So now I have to be all vigilant about that. Because by now, my parents think I can't smell. I had these pumpkins outside my garage for all of November, and by the time my dad found them in mid-December, they were very soggy. He bagged them up and put them in the garage for me. Sweet man. But they left a bit of a stain behind. I was instructed to scrub the garage, because apparently, it smells. I definitely was aware of the smell, but it smelled nice to me. It smells like butter to me, which is actually what pumpkin tastes like to me (with the right amount of salt).

Anyway, now they think I can't smell. Dad finally found out that I'm composting (in small contained buckets) and he ordered me to go home and smell them to make sure they didn't stink. Compost, when it's done right, doesn't stink and doesn't attract critters. The instruction came out of exasperation, I'm pretty sure.

Compost is a good thing. Compost means that my garbage never stinks. Compost means that I don't send useful gardening material to the landfill. Compost is the Earth's natural reclamation of its waste. (Humans, take note. Cradle to Cradle, anyone?)

Heck, San Fransisco decided to take some initiative and start up a citywide composting program. That's just plain awesome. So I guess even if my little home composting program were nixed, there are ways to get creative with this... I could go on Craigslist or Freecycle and see if there are any like-minded folks with a yard who already compost who might take my organic waste. That's how I do the recycling right now; why not with compost?

And my stance on B.O.? Well, I just gotta say two words: breast cancer. According to cancer.gov, there is no "conclusive evidence linking the use of underarm antiperspirants or deodorants and the subsequent development of breast cancer." Let's cut to the chase here. This is legalese for "we can't say anything because the deodorant industry will sue our butts if we do."

Here, read this paragraph from that cancer.gov link:

Findings from a different study examining the frequency of underarm shaving and antiperspirant/deodorant use among 437 breast cancer survivors were released in 2003 (7). This study found that the age of breast cancer diagnosis was significantly earlier in women who used these products and shaved their underarms more frequently. Furthermore, women who began both of these underarm hygiene habits before 16 years of age were diagnosed with breast cancer at an earlier age than those who began these habits later. While these results suggest that underarm shaving with the use of antiperspirants/deodorants may be related to breast cancer, it does not demonstrate a conclusive link between these underarm hygiene habits and breast cancer.

Sure, there were some later studies that said, well, maybe not. But you know what? I don't think I want to mess around with breast cancer. I don't need conclusive evidence to tell me that messing around with random chemicals is bad for my body. I don't want to get cancer and think that there was something I could have done. To think that I did not do everything I could have done. To know that something inside me said "hey, quit putting random chemicals in/around your body," and I didn't listen.

For example... do we know what aluminum does?

Aluminum-based compounds are used as the active ingredient in antiperspirants. These compounds form a temporary plug within the sweat duct that stops the flow of sweat to the skin's surface. Some research suggests that aluminum-based compounds, which are applied frequently and left on the skin near the breast, may be absorbed by the skin and cause estrogen-like (hormonal) effects (3). Because estrogen has the ability to promote the growth of breast cancer cells, some scientists have suggested that the aluminum-based compounds in antiperspirants may contribute to the development of breast cancer (3).

Did you get that? It says that aluminum plugs your sweat ducts. WHY in the world do you want to plug your sweat ducts? God put them there for a reason. If we know that much, how much is left that we still don't know, that we might never know?

So, yes, I am going to embrace my B.O. a little, and excuse me for doing so.

But I still hope I don't stink too bad.

Sorry.

I'll try to do my laundry more often.

Transition to nowhere

My, but it's been awhile. It's hard to summarize the last two weeks, but I'll give you the quick and dirty:

• 6-month internship in DC ended mid-August
• Flipped out over trying to decide what I'm doing next
• Decided to move to Greensboro, NC
• Bought train ticket to Greensboro, NC
  
• Decided against moving to Greensboro, NC
• Parents saw me flipflopping around like a fish out of water and offered the townhouse in DE for a bit
• Decided to visit NC instead of moving there
• A week after my internship ended, finally started relaxing
  
• Somehow still have a boyfriend and a family

So, the beau and I in North Carolina, having a not-quite vacation. It's almost like a vacation except we're both unemployed and have no specific prospect of employment at the current time, plus we neither of us have outstanding amounts of savings. Anyway, life is more fun that way.

Thus, I have not written. But there have been many discussions about eco-living in this state of being between the beau and I. So hopefully, I'll write about that.

I can, at least, make a recommendation about something you can watch that might change your life. My friend Steve in Greensboro lent us this DVD, The Corporation, and now we can't stop thinking about it. We may watch it again. I'd say it's biased, except that they also interviewed folks who work for large corporations and they were quite proud of their statements regarding the exploitation of various resources, including the environment, sweatshop labor, and the American public. It was an in-depth and unique take on the impact of corporations, and it's honestly totally convinced me that one of the best things I can do for the environment is to avoid supporting large corporations at all costs.

If you're curious, the movie site is here and you can view the full documentary on Youtube in 23 chapters.

I hate cars, but they do stuff.

My life has been foiled again by my lack of car ownership.

Actually, I lied. My life is great. I've been car-free for a few years now, after I ditched Grandma's old Buick Regal.

I'm willing to admit that my hatred of cars could stem from this particular car. It got me where I needed to go, and it held up fairly well for several eight-hour excursions between home and school. However, the thing was a boat. A tank. A beast. That, and it broke down a bunch. The alternator, for example, when I was driving home from work one night. Simultaneously, the coolant hoses sprung a leak, so my lights grew progressively dimmer as the fog rolling out from under the hood grew progressively thicker.

Then there was the time when the coolant hose came detached from the engine. I am in no way a knowledgable person when it comes to automobiles, but I understand that the engine is a very important, technical, and heavy part of the car. This particular problem meant that the engine had to be taken out temporarily in order to fix the hose. I got the thing towed to a very nice mechanic who gave me a massive discount -- he only charged me $400. Also, he gave me a free pen.

Despite the free pen, I became pretty much disenchanted with cars. I have a life, you know, Car. I'm not made of money, and I don't enjoy the mechanic's. That guy was very nice (free pen!), but he was out in some very sketchy part of town that I think only exists when you need it to exist. Like the room of necessity in Harry Potter. Only crappy.

Now... I know. I know what you're going to say. Oh, but, see, if you buy a nice car, and take care of it, and don't bother with your Grandma's hand-me-downs, and buy it only nice gas, and pet the dashboard and fold your hands toward the warmness of your heart and chant "Ohm" three times, you'd be fine.

Not to be flippant, but yeah flippin' right.

I refuse to be convinced that a car will not be expensive, or deadly, or require lots of maintenance (translation: time and even more money), or whatever. Try as you might, I won't budge on this. The way I see it, you can own a car, go wherever you like, and spend a lot of time and money on the thing. Or you can not own a car, go almost wherever you like, and spend not so much money. Either way, you will be inconvenienced, so you just choose a preferred method of inconvenience. I prefer to miss out on some things rather than own a big fossil-eating time-stealing polluting death machine.

But that's just me.

(I don't care if you own a car. I just care about me owning a car. You do what you gotta do. I ain't judgin'. Unless you drive a Hummer. In which case, I am.)

Anyway, back to my life. Turns out I have this opportunity to go to Harper's Ferry on Monday for work, just to ride around and... see an actual national park during my internship with the National Park Service. (Though the medians and random block-sized parks in DC technically belong to the Park Service, and therefore technically count as units of the National Park System.)

Basically, I can't go because I don't own a car. There's even a train station there, but there are no trains that run during times that allow any reasonable person to make a day trip from America's capitol. Despite the fact that there is a pretty sweet commuter train service apart from Amtrak that runs several times a day... they never run at the times one would need them to run. I could rent a car, but I'm not 25 yet, so they charge me extra for that. It's just enough to push the price beyond my cheapskate purchasing power.

Now, if I belonged to Zipcar, I could probably swing it. Zipcar is pretty cool. It's not car-rental, it's car-sharing. This means that you become a member, pay some up-front fees, and then you can rent for just a few bucks every hour. Apparently the gas is free, the insurance is already taken care of, you just call and tell them what you want, when you want it. Then you use a magical little Zipcard and the car opens for you, and only you. It's honestly a very snazzy thing, and I hope to Jeebus that it opens up in more cities. It's great for people who feel like owning a car is a big scam don't want the responsibilities that come with car ownership.

But guess what, I'm dumb and I'm not a member. Also, I move soon, so no Zipcar for me.

And no Harper's Ferry. I mean, there are ways I could make this work. If I really really really really really wanted to go, I could bite the bullet and pay $70 to go out there. It's not impossible, it just forces me to consider if I really really really really really want to do something. Which is probably not a terrible thing.

I graduated from college a year ago, and I've been hitching rides on the Student Conservation Association. I'm just about to complete my second internship with them. It's been a great way to see different parts of America, try different jobs in conservation, and meet different people. A little bonus, for me, is that the SCA provides housing and such wherever you go, and they let you know if you're about to apply to an internship that doesn't do well for carless folks.

As I said, I'm about to be turned loose on the world again (eep). By a mixture of fortitude, prayer, and helpful parents, I've managed to avoid car ownership. Part of me wonders how long it will last, and the other part is expounding constantly on the evils of automobiles. I'm led to believe that one of these personas may be perceived as more "mature" than the other. (Guess which one it is!)

The possibilities for my post-internship life are just about endless, and thinking about them all makes my head spin. Some of the possibilities involve me owning a car. I don't like these possibilities very much. I'm looking at it like I'm looking at a marriage proposal: should I really be making a commitment to something I hate so very very much? Or am I already considering divorce as an option for later on down the road? It could work out. It could. I could be a very nice person with a nice job and a nice place and not moving anywhere because of the job I need to pay for the car expenses.

But I'd hate it.