Loving and Hating Nature, Tree Hugging, and a Reusable Shopping Bag Rant

I have always had a fascination with plants, I know that it stems from the fact that, growing up, my parents kept tons of plants. Indoor and outdoor, potted and in the ground, we had them all. We had a banana tree that came in every winter and went out every summer (unfortunately now deceased), and many others.

In my backyard we have a wonderful deck with plenty of seating and a yard enclosed by bog old trees, evergreen and deciduous. I love to step out the door on a warm summer's evening, barefoot perhaps, onto the boards soft from years of wear and warm from the day's sun. I take a seat, or perhaps lean over the railing, and then I hear it. The unmistakable sound that reminds me why I sometimes dislike nature. It's a thin, high-pitched humming followed by that inevitable prick on my arm that means I'm being feasted on by my nemesis, the MOSQUITO! Whether I have slathered myself in bug repellent or forgotten completely seems to make no difference. They have little buggy homing devices to find the one square micrometer of skin that I missed. Perhaps next time I should take a bath in the stuff!

Sitting outside quietly, the animals start to creep back into the yard, the birds splashing happily in the birdbath, and the bunnies nibbling on grass. Turning, I look over at my gathering of pots where I planted Spring's bounty of flowers and (fingers crossed) lettuce. It's great after starting seeds to glance at the pot daily and count the new seedlings, young and tender, and water them carefully while shielding them from harsh sun or pounding rain.

On this particular day, I look over, and in the shadows it seems one of my pots is moving. Thinking my eyes are playing tricks on me, I walk over to check. Turns out, there is a little beady-eyed, fluffy-tailed squirrel digging to China in my lettuce garden! Not only does he have the arrogance to help himself to my carefully tended treasures, but as I come closer, he begins flinging soil more frantically, and by the time I arrive he lifts his head to stare at me impishly, all the while kicking soil some more with his rear feet. I am 10 feet away, 5, 2, 1 and this squirrel continues to stare at me. Shocked at his brazen lack of respect for me, I stare back, trying to assess the damage he has done. He turns, flips he tail at me in disgust, and chatters angrily at ME as he strolls away.

My gardening trials continue. Tuesday, I separated a banana pup from my dwarf banana tree, and re-potted it. They have both been doing fairly well. At least the squirrels leave THEM alone! I grew an avocado tree from seed, as well, and it is now about 5 feet tall! Grown simply from the see you get out of an avocado you buy at the supermarket!. Unfortunately we don't have quite the correct climate, and the leaves are not looking very happy. I'll be researching what special care they need, but if not, I'm off to the supermarket to buy an avocado!


Recently I've been interested to read articles on this new (to me) website that I found called TreeHugger. Although I know that it sounds like some kind of enviro-freak website, it is not at all like that. (hehe but I found this picture and I HAD to share.) It just addresses issues such as environment and sustainability, which I firmly believe are things that EVERYONE should at least know about and think about, even if they do not take it to any kind of extreme. We are a very consumer and disposable based culture, with no thought for the environment that sustains us. There are so many simple ways that we can be environmentally aware even without drastically changing our lifestyle, that it angers me to see the people who do not even care to try.

I would encourage everyone to recycle, not litter, and reuse whatever you can. I recently bought some OliveSmart reusable shopping bags, seen here in-use.
(picture originally found at this site, it is not my own.) >>>>

They are designed to be washable and reusable, and they have a large capacity that definitely is as functional as the classic plastic bag, if not much more so. A perk is that it doesn't stick to your sweaty hands like plastic does in the midst of a summer heat wave!

Honestly, I LOVE THEM, and I carry them with me everywhere. And when they get dirty, I can throw them in the wash. Plus, they're much PRETTIER than a yellow Shop-Rite bag! OliveSmart just came out with new colors ( I own the original) and also a smaller (3 instead of 6-bag) pack. Please check out their website, I HIGHLY recommend these bags! For those who own a pet and use their shopping bags to pick up after their pets, the draw to getting free "poop bags" when you go shopping is understandable. But any other use is really a waste. (And now biodegradable poop bags are sold in all pet stores!) Plastic bags take a very long time to break down in the environment, and to simply use them to carry items briefly is a waste, when plenty cheap, and also stylish versions of the reusable bag now exist. Simply Google "reusable shopping bags" and you will get 379,000 results! Some are more expensive, but all are a good alternative to plastic.

Until next time, hug those trees!

Reality Check.

So this summer, I'll be free on Monday and Tuesday, and perhaps Thursday. I'm going to try to set myself a reasonable goal of three posts a week. Let's see how I do with that. My life has been changing so fast it's hard to keep everything straight. I'm heading into my Senior year of college, and I'm terrified. I've also been trying to actively *green* my lifestyle. I know it's the trendy thing to do right now, but I'm doing it both for my health and enjoyment of life, knowing I'm not adding to any problem. I've also gone *mostly* vegetarian. I eat meat maybe once a week, and have been eating soy, eggs, etc as a healthy alternative protein. Also I have found that cutting dairy out of my diet as much as possible, my spring allergies have gotten better! Yay to less congestion! (Like you wanted to know that.) I'm also on a track to lose weight. I've been enjoying wonderful salads and smoothies these days, and the scale is reflecting my commitment! I had so much trouble keeping weight off in college, and I really needed this time to refocus myself onto a healthier track. Well, that just about sums up my Summer goals! More on that tomorrow and beyond!

Back again.

Hello all! I am back at it. I am going to try my blogging again. I stopped during my Fall Final exams, because I needed all the studying I could get in. I kept journaling for myself, the old fashioned way. It's quite therapeutic. If you haven't done it, I dare you to try. I have trouble keeping up with it, but once I start writing, I can't stop! I write in a very stream-of-consciousness type of way when I journal with pen and paper. It's so different than this, in that I use spell check and edit these posts, however they may seem. I look forward to this, and even though right now I'm tired, I'm so excited to work on improving my blogs, and perhaps create something that others will want to, or maybe even enjoy reading on a regular basis! This is a new semester, and with a new semester I find myself feeling much more positive, and even excited to have another chance. Last semester didn't' go so well for me. In fact, it was one of the worst semesters of my College career. But yet I think I learned more about myself in that one semester than in any other, I also proved to myself that subjects I sometimes struggled in I can actually excel in. Goodnight to all. I will post tomorrow if I can.

Day 27: Workload and Juggling Life

So let me tell you. I have so many exams coming up, but I finally think I can handle it. I'm looking and planning, and feeling much better about it. I do, though, still struggle with getting distracted. I have been deciding to study out of my apartment, like the library or the campus center, so that I have less occasion to get distracted. I think it works, but honestly I don't know how to make myself buckle down. I am looking forward to the days I have less classes so I can work more.

Day 25: Irregular

SO I haven't been as regular with posts as I should be or as I planned to be in the beginning. I think that as I get more into the groove it will become easier, but I worry about Christmas Break. I am away from school for a whole month, but maybe I will post from home. I cant' wait for break, because maybe next semester will be better than this one was.

Day 23: TGIF

So it's Friday, so what? I work all weekend, and I don't get time to myself. What's to look forward to? Well, evidently this weekend it's supposed to snow. How do I feel about that? I'm not sure. I certainly like snow. When I don't have to shovel. I'm sure you'll agree, the white fluffy stuff brings only joy when you know you don't have to do anything but sit at your window with a cup of hot chocolate sipping it and watching it steam. But I, I have to pull on my new winter boots and run out there. NEW WINTER BOOTS! Yay! Alright so sometimes I act like a stereotypical girl. I get quite excited at the prospect of wearing anything new. Sooo... here's to new winter boots!

Day 21: My new obsession...

I wanna learn how to make blog layouts like this and that and this other one. Wow!!! *swoons* I didn't know it was possible but that is SO AWESOME!! GO check those out, even for a moment, RIGHT NOW! But then please come see me again some time soon. I look forward to it! :)

Day 20: I can't resist posting this.

I couldn't resist posting this, it is a link in a blog to a talk by Richard Hamming, "You and Your Research" Sounds boring but I could NOT stop reading. It is completely inspiring and if you have an intellectual mind I HIGHLY suggest you go here and read it.

Day 20: Begging to be taken seriously...

What does it really mean to grow up?
a.Get bigger
b.Get older
c.Get a job

There are many differing opinions on this one. When you're very young, everyone bigger is automatically older and wiser, from the paperboy to the mailman to the grandfather living across the street. It seems to you that it will be just forever until you are "old enough" to matter. So then you get there... the next milestone you see. You turn that age you once looked up to, but for some reason IT FEELS NO DIFFERENT! you don't feel bigger older or wiser. And so it goes. You graduate eighth grade, then high school. You learn to drive, turn 18 and can vote, turn 21 and can drink (legally). I have known people who in all honestly don't act any different today when they are 20 than they did when they were 12.

But yet almost all of us, that it, my age, the college crowd, have probably said at least once: "Why don't they (insert... "my parents" or "my friends" here) trust me?" or something similar. And I've been frustrated with this from the day I went off to college. Frustrated because, damn it, I'm a good girl. I don't drink, smoke, or run around to frat houses. I study (though as I've mentioned before I do struggle from procrastination), I read, I do my work, I... do "everything right." But yet, my parents still see fit to lecture me on everything under the sun, and when my parents see me or talk to me, they can't seem to ever see when I've done anything right. Things I am proud of they just shoot down. And I wonder why I care, really care, so much about what they think. If I'm Miss Independent, if I'm all grown up and mature about life, why do I still screw up so much?

I WANT...
to buckle down and not procrastinate,
to not sleep through an alarm or make excuses,
to graduate with good grades,
to not let anyone down,
to go on to get a job I enjoy and that supports my living,
to (some years down the line) be a wife and a mother and own my own home,
to have pets and land and a place to finally call my own.

(And here I must admit... it feels DAMN GOOD to put that all down and stare at that list, realizing that, really, those are truly the goals my heart desires, and it's not an impossible list, a pipe dream, and a terrible trek to get there, after all. )

Once I got going, making my list of wants, of plans, of desires for the future, it came so fast and so simply. I encourage everyone to try it, and maybe post it in a blog, because honestly nothing is more freeing than realizing there is a potential for SO MANY people to see a post and read it and know your heart. How can you slack ever again when everyone knows your goals, and everyone will know if you have followed through?

So, honestly this post is an extension of a sort of odd epiphany I had over thanksgiving break. I had time with my family, and time to look at them, and think about why I really look up to each of them. Let me explain, I was, for many years, the youngest kid in my family, so I was the baby, and I've had plenty of cousins to watch through the years.

Now, the majority of them are in their 30's and married/have kids. And I stare at them and wish I could bypass college and go straight to that; to a stable life with a set schedule where you go to work, come home, and forget about work until the next day. Where you have weekends (usually) off and where you have the same people you love to look forward to after every single day. Really, I want the structure. Thats where I failed when I came to college, I lost the structure, and even though I'm a pretty organized person, but having freedom, although it was nice, gave me too much time for my mind to wander, to look at the possibilities in front of me. I unfortunately like the computer too much. Or rather, the internet. Ironic, since that's where I am now. :)

So I like the internet, or rather go through phases of addiction to different things, like a game (*cough*Second Life*cough*) or a site (You Tube.. I like following channels with a storyline...). It kills me, but I often stay up late doing it, being distracted, which causes me to lose mucho sleep, and then I sleep through the morning and sometimes miss classes, it's terrible but true and i know if I can learn to control that part of my life i will do SO MUCH better at everything else. Ha, did you ever notice sometimes you are thinking things but you don't realize them, or really acknowledge them until you put them down on paper? This is a pretty stream of consciousness post for me today, and forgive me if it comes through too much. I'm really just trying to get to the point. :)

My point is, since I now see where I have gone wrong and can or need to change, I know how to change and how to fix it. I've given myself the power by thinking it all out, and to do this, to be able to change how I've been living, to see where I am wrong and fix it, to be mature enough to admit when I was wrong to the world (ok to the few who read my blog)... THAT is what it means to "grow up." We look up to those people we choose to look up to because it always seems that they have it all together. When you're a few years old, the paperboy is the one who has a job and had money to spend, when you're in eighth grade the High School kids are applying to college, when you're in college the 30 year olds have jobs and families.

Always we are aspiring to be more organized, and more IN CONTROL of our lives. But just because we can be in control doesn't mean we all take responsibility for it. My peers who go out every night and drink to the point of recklessness, even those older than me, are not in any way more mature than me, but just because I don't have the same vices they do doesn't make me any better. If they stay out drinking and I stay up playing a game, come on, admit it, I'm still on their level. My goal and my battle cry is to get past these things, these stupid addictions holding me back. In 5 years who will know what I did in Second Life, or how many beers the kid down the hall can drink? They'll only see the job we both do (or do not) have and judge us as we judge the world, by how much we "have it together." So in fact, stating my goal for the next few weeks or rather the rest of my life as "I want to get it together," is really a much deeper statement then it seems.

And I'd like to challenge you now. If you see someone else struggling to grow up, to get out of the rut of addiction, of holding onto something that's holding them back, I'd like you to slap them in the face (not literally, I don't condone violence ;)) with the facts of their life, because often the people outside one's life can see the life so much clearly than the person living the life. I've had people do that for me in the past,and it really does help. Although sometimes it is required to state these facts MANY TIMES before it can soak in.

I know I'm not going to be perfect from now on. In fact, I KNOW I will fail a few times. To expect perfection is idiotic, but to accept failure is insane. I know I can do better, and I always will have pride in myself. College is a buffer time, time for growth before we hit the Real World. So, college students, seize this time while you can. Fail a few times, but be mindful of your failure, and use it to improve. You have a minimum of 4 WHOLE YEARS to fail, and if you don't fail once all the more power to you, but I have a feeling that means you haven't yet grown enough to fail. Or you're still not open to see the failure and admit it. If you have any personal things you have a need to let out, any failures to reason out on paper (erm, virtual... paper...?) feel free to post a comment, or email me, because I'd love your feedback.

Forgive my lack of posts in the past week, but it was all minute adjustments to this post, as I wanted to sound lucid. Thank you for being patient!

PAPER

Deleted... but it's an interesting story. Did you see when I had my paper posted here? Alright. Well, I was writing the paper in a library, and that library did not have Microsoft word. In addition, the computers had a nasty habit of unexpectedly restarting and losing all my work. So, remembering the wonderful properties of Auto-Saved blog postings, I took advantage of it and wrote my paper on Blogger before transferring it to Word to finish it's formatting. I'm sorry for those of you who had to have it take up your time, but now, I will go back to normal blogs! And if you got a chance to read it, you got a rare glimpse into my life! Congratulations! :)

Suldog: Thanksgiving Comes First

Suldog: Thanksgiving Comes First

Day 13: THANKSGIVING COMES FIRST!

Alright, time to do it, and Thanksgiving is a few days away. This is a post inspired by Suldog.

So, a few months ago there were already Christmas decorations in the stores. They started small, with pretty red bows on various things that had no need for them, and soon Santa was inside the store, when outside the weather could still be described as... warm. I'm sorry, when I think of Santa, I think of snow days and blustery winds and the like... it makes me feel like I had stepped into one of those Christmas-all-year-round stores. And, in my opinion, it's sad. I really enjoy Thanksgiving, from the colors: browns and oranges and reds, to the turkeys you make when you trace your hand on a piece of construction paper. you know, and then you color each finger a different color and give your thumb a beak, eyes, and a gobbler (that little red thing hanging off Mr. Turkey's chin)? :)

Fall is one of my favorite seasons as well. I love winter and snow, but hate to shovel. (Who doesn't?) If I see Santa in the store, I walk out thinking about long hours of "lift from the knees" while shoveling of snow, basically moving water from one place to the other. And no matter how fast I shovel, in the morning the snow plow has still left a mound of snow for me to dig through. And don't you worry, over night that cute little mound has frozen, so now I have this little mount everest for my car to attempt to climb. Makes me wish I had a Hummer, not a Subaru.

Regardless, I HATE that they skip over one of my favorite seasons. It's terrible and I won't stand for it! Alright so, what can I really do about it? Well, Suldog says:

OK, here's my list of offenders, thus far. I will be boycotting these places and things. I hope that, in addition to posting, you'll make a list of your own. I'll boycott yours, if you'll boycott mine.

TARGET
MACY'S
LOWE'S

All three have had Christmas advertisements running on television. I will never shop at any of these stores again, until I either get a guarantee from them that they will forego holiday advertisements until at least the week of Thanksgiving - I'm not insensitive to the need to advertise their big sales for the Friday after Thanksgiving - OR next November rolls around and I do not see advertisements, by them, touting Christmas in early November.

So, you can certainly do that if the passion is within you! I think I can live without those stores, maybe you can, too, or you can think of your own. Our hope, that is, all of us who have responded to Suldog's call to arms, is that we can persuade stores that early advertising does not garner more sales, and is not worth doing so early...

I have more to say but it will be saved for a later post. PLEASE GO CHECK OUT SULDOG'S ORIGINAL POST! :) Please? It's really worth it.

Day 12: Emotions run Wild...

Living in an apartment with all females, although at times we get along great, sometimes I swear we PMS simultaneously, and it is not a pretty sight. In addition, I'm a person that normally attempts to completely hide and emotion from them, I don't know why I do it, I guess because I hate the feeling of appearing weak. But I think at these times I just appear to be an unfeeling... B***h. I really want it all to work out with us, and I get really frustrated, sometimes I feel that although their requests are good (we're been going over ground rules to make us all happier in the apartment), the way they ask makes them sound hypocritical... alright I'll go into more detail tomorrow I think.

Day 11: incoherent

(Insert anecdotal story involving a spontaneous hour-long drive, Johnny Rocket's, being scared in a dark city WHEN DRUNKS HAVE ALREADY GONE TO BED, and a broken car when no one in the area is awake to tow. Than add on a long search for a random stranger willing to jump said car, and a drive back home, and arriving home at 5:30 AM.) I'm sorry I'm not coherent at this point, but the trip was quite a shining example of Murphy's Law. And I work today, in... under 5.5 hours. *cries a little* To top it all off, I'M NOT TIRED!! This indicates I will feel this little trip greatly in a few days, and will live off of coffee for at least the next two.

Day 10: FRIDAY

I think the title says it all. And I"m also happy because next week is Thanksgiving, who doesn't like that! I think today I'll talk all about food. Yesterday at my school's dining hall they had Thanksgiving night, don't ask me why they did it so early, but, the did. And guess what? THEY HAD POMEGRANATES!!! Hehe I haven't had one in ages, so last night I had lots of fun with that.

How to open and eat a Pomegranate:
(Oh, what the hell, I'll do it right and copy and past someone else's pretty instructions...)

This is what you need 1) A pomegranate 2) A big bowl of water 3) A knife 4) Your fingers

First with your knife slice the pokey end off the top

Next with your knife score the skin of the pomegranate from top to bottom as if you were making it look like a pumpkin. You don't want to cut too deep and damage those magical seeds. Just deep enough to peel each section back a little later on.

Now place your pomegranate in your bowl of water. This is the breakthrough. This is the killer app.

While keeping the pomegranate in the water and using just your fingers gently peel a section apart. This is the epiphany monet. You should notice something that will literally change your life and make pomegrante's a bigger part of your life. Yes, it's true the seeds sink helplessly to the bottom of the bowl while the other nasty stuff you don't eat, floats to the top.

Keep working until you have a huge pile of seeds at the bottom and then skim all the non-edible stuff off the top and throw it away.

Now drain the water and you have a pile of crunchy, juicy, anti-oxidant filled pomegranate seeds to enjoy.

Remember these babies stain like nobodies business. So be careful.

Now, I have to repeat the stain warning... do not wear a shirt you are not willing to have purple spots on! Also might stain your fingers a tiny but, but it's well worth it. Also, though I didn't do it this time, the little individual seedy things freeze very well without losing their texture, so if you don't eat all the seeds in one sitting you can save them for a later date! Keep in mind, pomegranates are VERY healthy.

Check out my poll... what's your favorite type of pie at Thanksgiving time?

Day 9: Multiple Posts

I realize some days I post once or not at all and other days I can't stop talking. I think it will be a better idea to post once at night, though honestly it's when the mood hits me and I'm not sure I can control it.

Tonight I went for a nice walk and got some dinner with my boyfriend. We had gone to the mid-week church service and it was nice to relax, though I haven't been feeling well and I had a headache for a lot of the time. I can be so grumpy, but I got over it. He's so tolerant of me, and he knows how to make me feel better even when I'm in one of my "moods" which I find myself being in more and more lately.

I was browsing around blogs and I came upon a few that I liked, which led me to something called NaNoWriMo. *giggles* What a name, right? It's a cool concept, National Novel Writing Month. Some people commit to writing a whole novel in a month, 50,000 words. Crazy, huh? Stemming off that, there's NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. *giggles* People out there can be crazy, but the concept is cool. I was thinking of finding some daily blog prompt sites, to get me writing not only about my life but more about things, I believe that more things happen to me in a day that would make good material, but I'm unsure where to look at this point.

I've come a cross many interesting blogs, and I will try adding more to my list of blogs very soon... :)

Day 8: Stepping It Up

Many thanks to David McMahon of authorblog for his advice. :) As a new blogger, I appreciate any feedback I can get.

*raises her eyebrows* Well, I was attempting to add a picture to this post but for some reason it's not working. But, as this IS a blog, after all, I'll leave my attempt up so you can feel my pain. :)

"Dear diary... Posting pictures is harder than it seems... Love, Di."

(Hey, did anyone else notice how many of my post names begin with S? hehe, I'll try and work on that for you.)

Day 8: Live and Learn

Ok so I missed a day. Not the end of the world. Let me tell you, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest days of my week. And the earliest, and the latest. Go figure. The other days I only have one class each day. Tuesday, yesterday, I had an exam at night. I did fairly well, I think, but since I've been so stressed about it it's a relief if nothing else to have gotten it over with.

One issue I have is skipping classes... terrible thing to do , I know, but regardless, I do it. Then I fall into the trap of telling myself that I'll get some "very important thing" done in that time, and therefore equal it out. It never does. I am going to work on getting to class on time, and posting this on my blog for all to see is my attempt at making myself somehow accountable... well that's the theory, at least.

My frustration of the day. There is a bandwidth limit on my internet connection, and so time spent online is a commodity, especially because SL takes up so much bandwidth. Well, last night I fell asleep and didn't turn it off til I woke up. Luckily when I am not moving around it uses less bandwidth, but it is still a huge chunk of time online. So, I woke up this morning to see I"m over my limit. Now I have to sit here, waiting to see whether I lose the internet for another few days. When you're in college so many things in life are transmitted via computer, and this is a huge loss for me... so could you keep your fingers crossed for me? Thanks! :D

Day 6: Sleeping.

I have been ridiculously tired all day. I slept til 10, but at 5 I passed out and didn't' wake up til 10 PM. Some days I swear I must have mono or something... it's terrible. Anyway today was my studying day for an exam tomorrow, so now I'll be staying up all night. well not all night. if i do that i tend to fall asleep in the exam.. now THAT is never good... I"m trying to stay awake.. will probably go eat food now. :) Hmm... oatmeal...

Day 5: Skipping.

"Must... not.. skip.. a blog..." :D

So, I really want to make this a habit so even though I don't have much to say, here ya go. My daily blog. I worked all of my waking hours today. Nope, actually that's a lie. I used photoshop to create my first item of clothing in SL. I learned a valuable lesson about clothes, but that's for another day. Needless to say it frustrates me to have to pay $10 L every time I upload an image. So Right now, I'm dead broke. An even zero. How nice is that? lol. Anyway once I am happy with the way the outfit I am making looks, I'll post it for your viewing pleasure. Yayy pictures! Now I'm off to find some grub. Wish me luck!