Fourth Floor Walk Ups

Photo Credit

Now that I live on the fourth floor in a New York walkup, I am more inclined to SIGNIFICANTLY decrease the trash that I generate. I have never been this inspired before! Just saying. What ever needs to be your motivation, let it be. 

These four flights of stairs also make me questions EVERY purchase. I mean seriously! I've been purchasing a few things for my new apartment and in every store, I ask myself, "Do I really want to carry this up the stairs?" And while I live by a budget and am an eco-conscious shopper, this reasoning has given me about 5% more pull towards eco-conscious shopping. :)

I ask myself how I can creatively grocery shop so that I only have one bag and it contains all that I need.I think about the fact that everything I bring up those stairs, will eventually have to come back down. And you just have no idea the decrease in products and things going into my home and the decrease in the waste that i generate. I mean, every container, every piece of paper...I just keep thinking, "But I'll have to carry it downstairs if I throw it away."

What are you random motivations that also line up with sustainable lifestyle choices? For example, I hate artificial light. It makes me sick. It sucks my soul away and drains my energy. UGH! Therefore I rarely turn my lights on. Hardly ever during the day and only sometimes in the evenings. I work with as minimal artificial lighting as possible. I'd rather light five candles than flip a light switch on. That's just my natural inclination. What's great is that without even trying I'm consuming less energy and keeping my electrical bill low. There are many steps each person has to take towards living a sustainable life. Its nice when some of your everyday habits don't even need to be changed.

Natural Hair Care

After posting a video about how I style my hair, a friend asked if I had any advice on dreadlocks since that is how she rocks her hair right now.

Wearing your hair as it naturally grows...is a very sustainable approach towards being more conscious of the footprint you leave on the earth.

I didn't realize how many women of ALL races chemically and/or permanently alter their hair, ALL the time. Whether they are coloring it, straightening it, curling it, styling it, blow drying it, and whatever else. Think about the amounts of products you put in your hair. Think about all the chemicals and unnatural substances that you are putting on your hair and body. Think about all the money you use to buy those products or pay the beautician. It's crazy!

What are the sustainable benefits towards wearing your hair natural? These are the ones that I've experienced.

SIMPLISTIC LIFESTYLE: If you hair is curly, wavy or straight, embracing its natural state of being gives your life and personal upkeep a sense of simplicity. I know women who spend HOURS doing their hair ALL the time. Whether its in the morning during their wash, condition, blow dry, flat iron, style or in going to the beauty salon. Just letting your hair be, lets you BE. I love the time that I have saved and given back to myself by wearing my hair in its naturally curly state.


SAVE MONEY: Wearing your hair as it naturally is, enables you to SAVE LOADS of MONEY. Since my hair is curly and heat can damage my hair, I don't own a blow dryer, I don't own a flat iron. I don't go to the beauty shop. I don't have to pay for a relaxer every month. I don't have to pay for products because my hair doesn't really need them.

CREATE NATURAL PRODUCTS: Before I was natural I used products like spritz, gel, setting lotions, and all kinds of other things. The list is too long. Since embracing the natural I now mix and make my own products. I've realized I don't need to put as much stuff in my hair...(simplistic and money-saving realization). Now I have three main things I put in my hair occasionally. One is a mix of tree tree oil, olive oil and grapeseed oil with a little water and a little conditioner. Another mix is of vegetable glycerin, water, rosewood essential oil, rose otto essential oil and rosemary essential oil. I also put various forms of shea butter in my hair. That's about it. While I use an all natural shampoo and conditioner, sometimes I just use Apple Cider Vinegar as my shampoo and it works just as well when toned down with water.


GENERATE LESS TRASH: Since going natural I have generated less trash since I am purchasing less products. A lot of the oils and things that I use to put in my hair are the very oils that I cook with, perfume my home with, or make other body products with.

GENERATE LESS POLLUTION: Isn't there something to be said about all those chemicals and sprays that you put in your hair also being put into the environment. Since going for simplicity and creating my own hair care solutions, I don't pollute the air I breathe with crazy products. I suppose I'm also generating less pollution since I'm not driving to and from the hair shop and/or stores to buy more stuff for my hair.

LEARN A NEW THING: Since I don't go to the beautician anymore, which has enabled me to save lots of money, I learned to style my own hair. I'm not an expert. I probably can't do your hair even if you paid me. But I learned how to do my hair. While I can't french braid or do corn rows, I do know how to do two strand twist and with that simple knowledge I've been able to generate all sorts of styles for the last six years. People say, "I never know what your hair is going to look like but its always fly." There is a sense of empowerment in taking care of myself like that. I don't have people dress me, feed me, and bathe me so why pay someone to twist my hair when I can go it while catching up on tv shows on hulu.com?


Whats my advice towards those with locks? I suppose it depends on the advice you are looking for.(I wore my hair in locks for a year and then pulled a Britney and cut all my hair off)

Photo Credit

For general upkeep, no matter how you wear your hair, make sure you to keep your hair moisturized and healthy, but don't over do it and layer your hair with oil, water, creams and such. Find the right balance of what to put in your hair and when.

For style ideas, just try stuff. Even if you think its crazy or weird. Every now and then, I just do something that I think is completely out of the norm with my hair. I'll pin one side this way and do a flop thingy here and all of a sudden I have a new style and everyone is asking, "who did your hair." Or google pictures to find ideas.

For coloring locks, I have no clue. Google that!

For starting them, do them your self, have a friend do it or go to the shop. I used google. Found some you tube videos and started my locks myself.

For general upkeep, make sure you stay fly. I have seen some crazy looking hairstyles with people who have locked hair and I've seen things growing out of them and moving about inside of them and that's scary! Keep your locks clean! I washed my hair as often as I did before I had the locks. Keep your hair looking fresh and presentable. Its completely doable even with locks.

I realize as I type this advice about locked hair, it can apply to those with unlocked hair. And my hair advice about wearing your hair natural, applies to all women across the board no matter their race or hair type.

There is something spiritual about hair and its connection to the gods, the kundalini and the chakras. Channel your inner god and practice your granola ways by wearing your hair as it naturally grows.

Do you alter your naturally straight or curly hair on a consistent basis? Why? Do you wear your hair natural? How does that line up with your sustainable lifestyle? What other advice did I leave out or what are other benefits towards wearing your hair natural?

Dive! The Film

I came across the trailer for this movie in one of my sustainability RSS feeds. Having just watched it, I'm at a lost for words.

I'm sure there are some people who look down on people like those in this film because the Dive in dumpsters for food. They see them as too granola. And that fact that they can be arrested is sad.

We waste so much food!

To digress a little bit I remember a commercial years ago about dieting and they said something like, "Leave a little of your food on your plate at each meal"...because if you did that every time it would add up to you eating less and less. What that means is that left over food goes into the trash! Why not just put less food on your plate in the first place.

Anyways. I know a little bit about food being thrown out when its still viable. My company when hosting an event that's catered sometimes tosses the food out at the end of the day. Why? Because we don't have a place to store it. Because we can't give it to the homeless because of liability issues. When I am able to, I take as much food with me to rehearsals and performances for the actors and crew to eat. Sometimes I've taken fruit and made cookies and pies with them and brought them back to work.

Still. So much food is wasted. But what can you do when you can't donate it to a worthy cause. At least, don't arrest the people who have the balls to dive for you food.

Why can't all restaurants and such offer the day old food that's still viable at discounted prices. I know some places that do that.

Somehow I believe part of this is due to money. Profit. Capitalism and consumerism. Its like when instead of sharing the food with the underprivileged in the past, farmers would burn the food instead. It's crazy.

I have faced my own challenges with living alone when it comes to preparing food and not wasting it.

• A lot of my food used to go bad by the time I got around to using it
• I've tried shopping as needed versus doing monthly shopping. Sometimes though I don't have the time for that
• I've also tried cooking multiple recipes that require the same ingredients, thus lessening my chances of wasting raw ingredients

• A lot of my food used to go bad because I didn't want left overs three and four days later
• I've learned to invite friends over so they can eat my food too. Makes it disappear faster
• I've learned to alter a lot of my recipes so that I'm not making as much

Do you waste a lot of food in your home? Do you compost? Would you ever dive in a dumpster for food?

Honestly, I'm not sure that I would ever dive in a dumpster because all the other germs and trash freaks me out. But I don't judge the people who did it. I think they are pretty cool. And I'd eat the burger at their party too.

How do I dispose of....label tape?

I am really digging the fact that I can post a problem and readers are able to give me advice on solutions. Its like the reverse of most blogs that offer the tips and tricks. :)

So...I need help with a new problem involving waste reduction and recycling.

Do you know what these are?

These are the labels for my amazing label maker.

I don't personally own this label maker. I use it at work. A lot of people use them at work. You'd be amazed at all the things we find to label. You'd also be amazed at the variety of label tapes that we have.

But what do I do once the label tape is empty? Do I just throw it in the trash? Can is be recycled? Where does it go? I have a pile in a drawer in my desk and don't know what to do.

I ship pack used ink toners to xerox and other vendors.
I ship old cell phones to charities and broken ones are given back to vendors to properly dispose of.
I reuse scrap paper.
I sort my trash from my recyclables.
I think heavily about wanting to compost the pounds and pounds of coffee grinds that are thrown away each week at work.

But I'm not sure what to do with these label maker tapes when they are empty? Anyone have any idea?

Expired Medicine

I have a bunch of medicine in my medicine box, some of it prescription from surgeries and such this year. I doubt I'll have a need for them since I tried to ween myself off them sooner than I should have anyway.

In order to make sure I disposed of them in a proper way, I googled it. Because that's what you do when you need information nowadays. What I found wasn't that encouraging.

You could always just throw it away. (Unfortunately, people or animals might get to it in the trash and that's not a great idea. One article said if you don't have a choice but to throw it away, you should take it out of the medicine bottle and put it in something else and conceal it with other things like coffee grounds or kitty poop or something)

You could flush it. (But now that's in our water supply. I thought it was gross when Chicago put out its annual report of the test done on our water from Lake Michigan and what they found in it. Gross. Gross. Gross. And yet, I'm told I should drink tap over bottled water. Hmmm.)


You could return it to your pharmacist. (Some of them have drop off bins or just take them back. But there's something about that I don't like. Maybe it has to do with some 20/20 report I saw where the pharmacist were not giving people the right medicine in an effort to save money and people ended up dead. What if they take my expired medicine and give it to someone else and they get sick. I just don't trust them.)


You could donate it to a third world country. (Umm. When I came across this option, I was quickly offended. We can't sell expired medicine in our stores but its good enough to send to someone who is less fortunate. Like "oh, the apple is rotten and I'd never buy it but send it to Africa, at least its something." Yeah, that option just doesn't work for me.)

So I still haven't found an answer and I just have a box full of all kinds of medicines that I no longer need. What am I supposed to do with it?



throw away
flush
give back to pharmacy
donate to third world countries

My bike has a flat

I was bummed last Saturday when I was not able to attend the International Climate Action Day Chicago Bike Ride because my bike had a flat. And although I own a helmet, lights, and a bike pump..I don't own a flat repair kit. If that's even what its called. True cyclist probably own four or five of them. And because I didn't prep for the event the day before, it was too late for me to find a bike shop to have it fixed in time to meet up with the group. Insert sad face here.

I found out yesterday I have this weekend off from rehearsal at Winter Pageant at Redmoon because they have a HUGE GIANT EVENT going on at the "buzz buzz buzz..." I can't really say but rumor has it that its at the ........ (click the little dots and find out where since I can neither confirm nor deny it).

Anyways, I have this weekend off so I will look for a bike shop to have my flat fixed, amongst other things. Because if you have ever seen my bike, you would know it is the baddest bike in the city!

Do you see this red bike in the front of the pack with the huge handle bars...that low riding baby is my bike. I bought it off craigslist from a lady.

(On a side note...I love craigslist. I purchased my amazing bistro table, living room furniture, box spring, brand new laptop, bike and other endless wonders from craigslist. Some things new and some lightly used. That's a green thing. Even if the seller is in the suburbs, I rent a zipcar and drive out to the burbs to purchase something used, thus extending the life of something and keeping it out the trash.) Have you ever used craigslist? Sometimes, its hit or miss. More often than not, I get amazing hits.

This summer I used my bike a lot of ride to my beach volleyball games and to ride to rehearsals on the weekends. I think I made it home a lot faster than if I had taken the bus. Plus I was making a lower carbon impact on the earth by doing so.

My bike isn't that great for riding in the city though, because it's really big and takes up space (although its light), so I am currently searching craigslist for a much skinner city riding bike.


Anyways....really, I just wanted an excuse to feature my bike. I just need to add a basket to it and I'll be all good.

The Granola That I Am

A few of my most recent granola tendencies.... (as mentioned before, if I keep going down this path, you might actually catch me hugging a tree)

REUSING

On Sunday I brought a small brown paper bag of fruit to rehearsal for the actors. Once they had consumed the fruit, I folded the bag back up, put it in my bookbag and took it back home with me. Its now under my sink with my collection of bags.

On the same table with the crumpled brown bag, there were also two zip lock bags from the week before that had been filled with almonds and cashews. The bags were now empty and ripe and ready for the trash. Instead of tossing them, I put them back in my bag, took them home and washed them, dried them and put them with the rest of my ziplock bags.

On this same Sunday, we ordered Thai food. (I ordered Spicy Basil with Tofu. It could classify as vegan. It contained no dairy) The container that the food came in was definitely reusable! So dirty container and all, I stuffed that in my bookbag too and took it home, washed it and then used it to store my left over vegan black bean soup in. (vegan except for the scoop of yogurt i added into it. oops)

What have you extended the life cycle of lately?

ECO CONSCIOUS EATING


In considering my carbon food print, the waste I produce, and intriguing leaning towards a vegan lifestyle...today I did some things differently.

I walked past this candy bowl a BILLION times today. This one and one other one that is being kept around the office in preparation for our Oktoberfest this Friday.

It started at 8 am thing morning and I literally slapped my hand away. Man I wanted that twix and that snickers in the lower right hand corner. It has my name on it. But guess what....insert sad sigh here...I grabbed a pear instead. Yes, Sheena actually grabbed a freaking piece of fruit. I figured it was healthier. Plus our fruit is organic. And it yielded less waste than the snickers and twix. If only we had a composter at work. We'd be in serious business with all the coffee grounds and other organic matter we have in the trash there.

What I like, since participating in the No Impact Project, is that even though I ate the pear, I wondered if it was even in season. It's not in season in Illinois but it is in one of our bordering states...Missouri. (Honestly, I wouldn't have even asked myself if the fruit I was eating was even in season a week ago. Before I would have thought, I'm eating fruit so shut up and be grateful its not a pop tart. But now, with what i know, I find that I wonder beyond that. Knowledge really is powerful. Now I'm sounding like a freaking PSA)

This morning I also really wanted a nice cup of coffee. We have this K cup machine at work with lots of flavors and I was planning on mixing Mocha Nut Fudge with Rainforest Nut. Then I was going to add sugar, cream, whip cream and caramel. I was going to do it big. But then I thought about the Low Carbon Calculator Diet and I didn't make the coffee. Instead I had Sweet Ginger Peach Tea. I added honey instead of sugar since I didn't feel like generating more trash with little sugar packets. (However the tea comes in individual boxes that are wrapped in plastic. Really! So I thought about bringing my own loose leaf tea in from now on because that's even less trash. My loose leaf tea is purchased from Teavana and various tea vendors that I come across at street fairs and green festivals. Again, these are not things I even gave thought to before last week.) I realize now its not just about eating healthy and organic, but its also about eating with an eco-conscious mindset. Sure, the coffee is fair trade but have you considered the water it took to produce it? Have you considered how far it needed to travel? Asking myself these questions is growth and I'm glad its all circling through my mind.


WATER

I recently wrote about my struggles with finding ways to reduce my water usage and a dear friend, Erin gave me a very helpful suggestion. My problem was letting the water run for a long time in the mornings to warm up before I brush my teeth and wash my face because its ICE COLD! Erin suggested instead of letting it run, that I microwave it and use that. She suggested rinsing my mouth with the water that was left over. Honestly, I thought that was going to take too much time and take too much effort. And while I want to help the world, the selfish part of me doesn't want to be inconvenienced while I do so. Well ERIN....

What the hell is that, you ask!

Well the clear bowl is the water I heated up in the microwave for two minutes. It was enough to brush my teeth, rinse my mouth, wash my face and water my plants. It worked Erin! And I didn't waste any water!!!!! Thank You for giving me advice!!!!!!

What's that other stuff? Well the cream cheese container is actually full of my homemade tea tree face toner. The little bottle on top is full of my left over homemade face wash that I made the other day. I need to find a recipe for an all natural face moisturizer equivalent to the one I get from the Body Shop.

(Which by the way in the tally in how much I spend on my facial line from the body shop, I left out two things. The moisturize which is $16. And the make up remover which is $14.50. Which brings the total to $81. I spend $81 on all the stuff I used to buy for my face. WOW!)


TRASH

I noticed this at the end of the day today.

What is that, you ask!

That is one piece of trash in my garbage at work! That is a personal record. Usually my trash is overflowing so much that I sneak and throw stuff in other people's trash too. Usually its full of misprints from printing too much. Its full of wrappings from candy and gum. It's usually full of sugar packets from all the ones I put in my coffee. And I can't even tell you what else. Its just usually full of crap. And today, I almost threw a bag away but realized I could still reuse it and as I looked down I thought, "Holy crap! There is only one thing in my garbage!"

Its a piece of tissue that I used as a coaster because my reusable water bottle was sweating on my desk next to my iPhone and I was too lazy to find an empy conference room that might have coasters. I looked around me and saw a number of people using napkins as coasters and so I started looking for some coasters to order to keep around people's desk. The bag that I decided to keep...

....it made its way into my drawer where I keep all my left over bags.

What are you latest granola tendencies? Any suggestions on further steps I can take?

The Price of Convenience

For the past year I have been consistently purchasing my facial products from the Body Shop. I enjoy MANY of their products. This is a picture inside my bathroom mirror where you can see I have almost the entire line of their seaweed facial collection.

I tallied the cost from their website.

Face Wash 12.00

Toner 12.00

Exfoliating Scrub 14.50

Mask 22.00

Did you calculate that? Thats $60.50 for my freaking face.

I will say that it yielded impressive results. My skin wasn't in the perfect shape this time last year and after I adopted a regime after the best facial in the world, my skin became better after using the Body Shop products.

But this isn't about who's version is better. From what I could feel after making my own products, it felt the same. My toner was too potent in smell and needs a stronger essential oil. But then, my exfoliating scrub was a lot gentler but still just as effective.

What this is about is taking more control in how I spend my money. This is about having a sense of freedom in knowing exactly what I am putting on my body. This is about finding other ways to spend my time that shopping and consuming and purchases nonstop. This is about finding somewhere else to invest $60.50 since I have the ingredients in my pantry. This is about me attempting to generate less trash and stuff. And tonight, I found simple, easy, quick ways to do that.

I like that instead of products, I have ingredients...to make whatever I want to concoct.

I know have completely natural, organic facial products. I can tell you every single thing I put on my face and I kind of like that. I like having full control over my body and my choices and my money. (well, sort of. Uncle Sam still takes what he wants)

Now, I'm not saying everyone should start making their own products. Although I encourage you to at least try. What you have to do is way what its worth. The price of convenience no longer outweights the price of all natural products, the price of trash produced, and the price of money spent.

I will say, essential oils are costly. I'm sure there are some websites that sell them in bulk for better prices that I found at Wholefoods. But it is an investment. However, essential oils can be used for EVERYTHING. So it may be worth it to buy an essential oil for $15..knowing that you have all the other ingredients in the house to make your own products and knowing that you'll use that oil for many other things as well...as oppose to spending $15 on a toner or something.

Just saying.

The Granola that I Am

A few of my most recent granola tendencies.... (i'm scared if I keep going down this path, you might actually catch me hugging a tree)

COFFEE AND TRASH

Today, since I'm being more cognizant of of trash, as I have been the past couple of days, I give second thought to most things that I grab. As I mentioned before I've been putting honey in my tea so that I don't have to open and discard little sugar packets. Today when making my coffee, I almost grabbed the little containers of half and half creamer. But that would mean two small containers of waste to throw away. So instead, I grabbed the skim milk and used that as my creamer. I've never done that before. And you know what, I liked it! My coffee was smoother and my stomach handled it much better. I suppose I should stop drinking coffee altogether but that won't happen until pigs fly. So in fairness I drink fair trade coffee that is distrubted locally. Intelligentsia.

PAPER

I have been using my phones more to take down notes instead of post its and even scrap paper. I am also printing so much less that its ridiculous. Do they give awards for that? Because I deserve top honors. If only you could see how much I used to print a day. Maybe 50 pages or so a day sometimes. And in the last week I've printed one page because for accounting reasons I had too. But when I spoke to my boss about it, he said I'd no longer have to do that starting January 1st. Yea! I didn't have my phone on me at one point today, so instead of grabbing a post it...I did something probably worse...I wrote on my hand instead. Ink poisoning or Killing Trees? I've been using Evernote. I was able to put in on my mac laptop at home, my iPhone, and my PC at work. Unfortunately it doesn't work with my blackberry pearl. However, if you have another kind of blackberry, I think you are all good. In a meeting I used it to take a picture of a graph someone drew. I used it to take notes for another meeting. At my pc, I used it to snap a picture of a website that i want to go back too. (Now if I must use paper however, at my job we use 100% post consumer recycled paper and recycled post its and scrap paper...fyi)

COMPUTERS AND ELECTRICITY

In my 15 months of working at my job, before this last week, I've turned my computer off only ONCE. My computer has been turned on for more than a year non stop. Yes, tree huggers everywhere...say a prayer for me. Its the culture of my job. No one turns there computer off. We just log off at night, if that. One person said be programmed his computer to automatically turn on and off. I can do that on my macbook pro but not on my pc. Anyone know of a way to do that on a pc? Well, it doesn't even matter. Because since last Thursday, I have been turning my computer off at night.

CELL PHONES AND ELECTRICITY

My lovely friend Sam mentioned that she no longer keeps electronics in her bedroom and has found she sleeps better for it. In the book Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston speaks about this. I highly recommend the book! Anyways, Sam told me about this last Sunday when we got together to make Apple Pie with Gouda Crust and Stuffed Tomatoes. So on Sunday I moved my phones into the bathroom. (I been hitting snooze too much anyway) So now my alarm goes off and I have to go to the bathroom to turn it off. Which then since I'm up, I brush my teeth and began my day. Along with doing this, I stopped charging my phone all night. While I'm consistent with letting my battery run down on my laptop before I charge it, I don't do that with my phones. They stay plugged in from the time I get home until I leave the next day. Since Sunday, I have just left them uncharged. When I wake up in the morning, there is still enough juice in it to begin my day with. Nice!

UPCYCLING

An associate at work received an invitation to some event...that doesn't really matter. What matters it that it came in the most beautiful envelope I had ever seen in my life.

As she was telling me about the event, I kept starring at the envelope. She started to throw it in the trash. "WAIT!" I said a little too loud, "Are you going to throw that away? I could cut off your name and use it for arts and crafts. As well as a reference for the perfect colored dress that I want. Can I have it?." She smiled at me and then passed it along. Trust me, the picture doesn't do it justice.

I'll take a picture of whatever I use the brown envelope for. Most than likely it will be in one of my art journals.

What are you latest granola tendencies? Any suggestions on further steps I can take?

By the way, I'll be featuring my first interview with Sam and her roommate Laura on sustainability and their city dwelling granola tendencies. Stay tuned.

Trash - No Impact Project

Photo Credit

The focus of today in regards to the no impact project was TRASH. In the free how to manual a simple comment was made..."finding out if wasting less improves your life."

Even after one day and huge need for improvement, I would have to say YES.

First off, having to collect your own trash, its embarrassing. I really got to see how much stuff I actually throw away. First off, at work...I order a LOT of things. When I say a lot...hmmm. Today, I had eight boxes come in for me. Three each from both Staples and Office Depot. One from Dell and another via FedEx from Cases.com. That's a lot of boxes and and peanuts and plastic protector thingies. Since there's no way I can lug around the boxes from the stuff I have to order from work...I decided I wasn't going to count that. Although it makes me more conscious of ordering in bulk. We also reuse the boxes for shipping things out and the peanuts. We reuse the bags that catering foods are delivered in. But enough about my job. They do a fairly decent job.

Me. First thing I noticed was this morning as I made my tea. Different teas require different enhancements. English black tea needs a little milk. Jasmine tea needs nothing. Peppermint tea needs a real peppermint added. And Green Tea...yeah I like adding sugar. Sorry for the purist. But today...I didn't want to add more trash to my bag of shame....so instead of opening five sugar packets...( i know. all that sugar is a problem to tackle another day)....instead, I added a tablespoon of honey because it wouldn't generate any trash to do.

At work we also just put out candy for our Oktoberfest celebration. And I had a couple pieces because green or not I am going to eat a Twix if its put in front of me! But then after a few pieces, I didn't want to add more to that freaking bag of shame. So I went into the kitchen looking for a snack that wouldn't generate trash. I found almonds, added some cinnamon and called it a day. Later I ate a piece of fruit. Instead of opening a bottle of mango orange juice, I drank water.

If I want to prevent myself from wasting...I found that I was eating better. Yeah, interesting! Who would have thought?

Over the weekend I finished my train reading book and realized I wouldn't have anything to do on the train ride to work...therefore I grabbed a RedEye. I haven't grabbed one in weeks. Nothing worth reading. I'm sick of celebrities, the balloon boy, the gosselins, and everything else...so I just don't grab the paper anymore. But today I did. Or course I did...on trash day. And I added that to my bag of trash shame. I thought, "why the hell did I do that when all the articles are available online?"

I realized that without even thinking about it, I went through a lot of napkins though. Now the idea of blowing my nose through a hankerchief disgust me. I'm not saying you are disgusting if you use one to blow your nose...but for me, its sickening. But I looked at the ways I was using napkins. I rinsed out a cup and needed to dry it. We don't store towels at work. I was eating a sandwich and wanted to wipe the crumbs off my mouth. I spilled a little tea on my desk. I could see using a hankerchief for that. I guess.

I thought about the idea of carrying these bags of trash all week. Since my hands are already full from going to work and then to rehearsals .... I realized that might not work. So perhaps I'll leave a bag at work and leave one at the theater and at the end of the week, I'll see how much trash I generate. (On a side note, I haven't printed anything at work since Thursday. I usually print a novel a day worth of paper. Three work days and no printing. That's crazy!)

So I'm thinking about this bag of trash they ask us to carry and it makes me think about other trash that we carry...emotional trash. spiritual trash. relational trash. past trash. If I'm working on finding ways to waste less physical things...what about non-physical things. Like, what is I waste less emotions?

Photo Credit.

What if I worked on being present and intentional, therefore reducing my emotional impact on the world? Sustain the world but also sustain myself.

The thought just intrigued me. So today, very intentionally I watched my thoughts. Tried not to let negative trashy things enter my mind. Tried to keep a positive balanced emotional state in everything. I didn't give in to the office gossip. I didn't let myself get stressed. And I ate more almonds in a bowl instead of twix in wrappers.

And it felt good. My physical bag of trash had a few things in it. Five napkins. Three pieces of netflix envelopes. One newspaper. A few candy wrappings. And my meta-physical bag of emotions and whatnot...that had only a few things as well. And I feel very present and alive. I feel like what the world got today was ME and not my trash.

How about that?