More time has flown by. So much I forgot the password for this site. More decluttering has also taken place. I was still thinking our place was jam packed, until we went to look at 2 possible new apartments. So much stuff in one I could barely make out the colour of the walls. Even though they were rich, primary colours! Our place feels positively deliciously airy by comparison. Maybe we don't need to move.

Bags, bags, bags

I'm going to post pictures of my bags soon to make my point. But for now... When I moved here to la-la-land, I was a recent ex-smoker, and from la belle province. Which meant, the first time I went to a store and bought something, and the sales clerk was exuberantly cheerful, I was taken aback. (Clerks in said province lean towards haute-couture and snooty posture, not birkenstocks and polished smiles) But not quite as shocked as when she then asked "Do you want a bag?". My mouth dropped open, and I was like, "uh, yeah". Totally blown away. It was unheard of then in my neck of the woods. That was my first taste of living in the same province as David Suzuki.

My second introduction to the keen sense of environmentalism out here was at the coffee shop at my university. The first time I visit the cute place with great cinnamon buns, I order a cup of joe, and the chap asks me, "Do you have your own cup?". I'm surprised I didn't keel over. I coughed politely. I am Canadian after all. So then began the long, drawn out process of buying the (plastic) cups they sold, which gave me 10cents off every cup of coffee. At least I think it was 10¢. Either way, I didn't save any money. At the end of the semester, my room was lined up with a shelf full of these coffee cups. I dutifully bought one most every time, and even though they say it takes 30 days to form a habit, it didn't stick with me.

But now, I 've been living here for a while. I recycle, I re-use plastic bags, I don't go as far as that guy who doesn't use toilet paper in his efforts to leave a lighter footprint, but I am reformed. I still don't smoke too. So as the new and improved reformed me, I even found myself taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz and when I found out that even though I don't drive (never got my license...I know it's insane), walk or take the bus everywhere, am a vegetarian (more or less) , live in an apartment, and whatnot, I still would need 2.5 planets to sustain my existence! Shocked again, I followed up the quiz with the section that lets you calculate how to reduce your footprint. Which brings me to my point, about bags. I have a lot of shopping bags I bought (see aforementioned coffee mugs) that I constantly forget to use. I figured I was bringing them about 20% of the time. Ok, 15. So, amongst the other saintly and unrealistic promises I made on myfootprint.org, the only one I remember (maybe I need to take ginko or something) is that I promised to increase my BRINGING OF THE BAGS TO THE STORE to say, 60% (ahem). And, I'm happy to say, that by and large, I've surpassed that percentage! I get anal about these things and I put it on the calendar when I don't remember the bag. Catholic guilt means that I'm bringing the bags more often than not.

Now, I'm too wiped to go on about the real, actual point of this, which is what happens in the actual stores with said bags. Stay tuned...

Link of the week - in honour of the Playoffs: Hockey Shrine

10.19.06

Almost a month later. This is the thing about trying to get back into this space. A month flies by and all the fabulous, delicious thoughts become only ephemeral ghosts. Oh bother!

Today, I, well BB, to tell the truth, sold some of my old comics. I'm not a comic fanatic, I don't have a stack of them lined up with cardboard backing in archival plastic bags. Although I do know that they were bronze age :) But I do have a thing for comics. BB + I went to a comic convention this fall in fact. So selling these dusty, wrinkled and well loved comics was a big deal. Almost as big a deal as selling Celeste (my former super loved bike, sold this summer for more than I paid for her, that's another story). So, for the price, $18, it's not quite as big a deal. But I do feel a curious sense of loss. Or, even a biblical type of state -- that whole "When I was a child....something something... I put away childish things" . I hope the good (Superman and Jimmy Olsen), the bad, (Super Goof) , and the ugly, (Chip n'Dale) are in good hands now, being tenderly read with much enjoyment.

On following the Biggest Loser - I missed the show two weeks in a row! Hopefully this proves I have a smidgen of a life. Did catch it last night. So impressed by the gal who was sent home -- in terms of how much she did on her own. Renee - another fabulous BL blogher, was keeping very amusing blow-by-blow accounts of the show, but she seems to be taking a break :(

09.21.06

" There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husband's necks. Anything can happen."

Raymond Chandler via » Fussy

Hey, I'm back, on the miniscule chance someone's reading. So many thoughts, so little time. The Biggest Loser started last night and I ate a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie while watching. My Catholic self tripped out on the waves of guilt. I haven't picked a favourite character yet. Pasta Queen is my current favourite BL blogher.