Gone Green

Have you ever noticed how when the bagger at the grocery store is bagging your groceries, he/she uses a ridiculous amount of bags? I have been bugged by this for so long, not necessarily because of the environment, but more because the sheer number of bags I have necessitates a "plastic bag closet" in my household. Lets be honest, (for all those still in apartments and quite possibly those in houses, too but I wouldn't know) who has an extra closet to put them in? I certainly do not, so my vacuum has always had to share the space but with the amount of times I go grocery shopping a week (I always forget something or another) my vacuum is pretty much buried. I'm tired of all the waste because even with the 101 uses for plastic bags (did you ever see that Target plastic bag?), I just do not go through them as fast as I seem to accumulate them. And no, I will not simply throw them out because it's bad for the birds and other animals and it simply takes up needed space in the landfills. I'm not that educated on anything in the realm of 'going green' but I do remember that much from some Earth Day Awareness activity way back in elementary school.

This topic has been on my mind for quite some time but I've never found the extra cash (I like my extra cash to go somewhere else like clothes, toys, home decor!) to buy the totes until recently. A few grocery stores around here are now offering them for .99--who can't afford a few extra dollars to go home with significantly less (and reusable) bags? I grabbed a few two weeks ago and have since been using those and have toted my unused plastic ones back to the recycling bins at their stores.

Last Friday after the boys and I met Marc for our weekly lunch date, he took them back to the clinic while I headed over to Safeway to grab a few items. I usually dress up for our lunch dates so I was wearing my black boots, my skinny, dark washed, going out jeans, and a black turtleneck sweater. He's always teasing me when I dress up that Hollywood really rubbed off on me. As we walked out to the car together so I could grab my reusable bags and he could take the boys, he said to me, "You can't be granola and Hollywood at the same time." I'm really not trying to be granola, I just think I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm making my vacuum closet, my vacuum closet again plus I'm doing what I can do for the environment. (I'd love to also do the organic food thing, but it might stretch my budget too much right now and I'd love to be able to turn down the heat a few degrees but I'm freezing when it's at 70 so that's also a no go.)

BTW--granola is a term used a lot out here for those organic loving, socks with Birkenstock sandal wearing, tree huggers.