Bein' Green

It's not easy.

I've said before that the Hubs is Mr. Recycler, the Garbage Police. Also a vegan. Now, who doesn't support the whole idea of recycling and being green? I'm taking baby steps.

A year or two ago, I switched all the light bulbs in the house to those compact fluorescents. Let me tell you, it is nasty when one of those breaks, or burns out.

A few months ago, I banned paper plates and cups from the house, along with disposable plastic tableware. (I really, really hate to wash dishes.)

The other day, I picked up some paper towels and toilet paper to try. It's unbleached, and made from recycled fibers. (Presumably not from recycled toilet paper fibers.) We haven't started using them yet, because I just stocked up on Bounty and Charmin last week. Those two are on the list of the worst environmentally friendly paper products. Who knew.

Next, once I've got the paper all sorted out, will be dishwashing and laundry detergent. I also picked up two huge bottles of Tide on sale last week, so that'll be a while, too. And then the other cleaners.

Why? Why not? Why not, hey, everybody stop using stuff that puts toxins in our bodies, our houses, our water. Just seems to make sense to me, I guess.

I will not, however, use the compost in the summer. We have a big compost bin outside and a small stainless steel one on the kitchen counter. I have no problem using the little one and dumping it outside all winter long, but I went outside to do it yesterday, and of course, a cloud of those horrid little flies flew out when I opened the lid. I swear, I almost stripped to my naked torso* right there on the porch lest I bring even one of them inside with me. So, for the summer, I throw my apple cores in the actual garbage, and let the little pail sit there until the Hubs takes it out. Those flies freak me out.

(*for kitchenlogic.)

But my big success of the day was the finding of the educational documents. Last weekend, K got her brandy-new master's degree diploma in the mail. (We're not fans of going to the ceremonies.) She opened the envelope, said "Oh, it's here," and R said "You have mine someplace, too, right?" And I said, "Oh, sure!"

Uh .... uh ....

I looked with something less than zeal here and there throughout the week, and it -- her graduate diploma -- was not where I was sure it was. And then I started to think: where were their undergraduate diplomas? For that matter, where were mine? I tore the family room apart this morning and came up with zippo. Nada.

What I did find, which surprised me, were copies of all my teaching certificates, which is pretty funny because I just received the duplicates of those I requested from the state to the tune of $80 in money orders (what a pain), but I found what I needed, even the one that the state somehow neglected to send me. Which made me think, now where could everything else be?

I have a sort of captain's chest which we use as a coffee table, but it has doors on one side and is full of all the family pictures. It was the only place left I could imagine all of it being, so I looked. What I found was actually a nice archival storage box for each of us, full of the kids' report cards, camp swimming awards, and all that stuff, and our diplomas. All of them, except mine from library school -- no idea where that is, don't care -- and the Hubs', which he has framed someplace. I found all our high school diplomas (all from the same school), and even, tucked into my box, my kindergarten diploma and my three years of high school Latin awards. Aw.

So that's my accomplishment for the day. I barely slept last night, was wide awake from about midnight to four, and couldn't sleep this afternoon. I sure hope I sleep tonight, or I'll be cranky tomorrow.


watching L & O/SVU :: ENTRY #2066
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