Progress: Mmm-Hmmm, Now Changes

Hey there!  I’ve missed you guys!  I realize that that’s my fault for not posting, but be assured I missed you while I was avoiding you.  So after that vacation to New Zealand, I was useless with jet-lag for a few days, then the sniffle I brought back got worse for a few days (no, not swine flu, got it checked out, but I did get prescribed this amazing cough syrup for whatever it was), and then I got inspired for a few days, and now it’s now.  More on that later.  First my July goal.

In July, that sunny month of my birth, I had pledged to travel sustainably.  And I think I did a very good job.  Bought local, stayed local, ate local, considered the sources of things, etc.  Usual behaviour, only over there, not here.  And with souvenirs.  I will be posting on some the places I stayed- all of which have excellent green practices and were run by locals.  I’ll be posting on some of the environmental issues I noticed there- fishing (obliquely related, with a book review) and pest control (I think you’ll like that one!  It comes with taxidermy photos!).  And the food I can summarize here- I ate a) well, b) meat, and c) more vegetarian than I expected.

As you have gathered, my attempts at being vegetarian- even for a little- have been largely halfhearted and begrudging.  The first meat I had after the pre-trip veg was Air New Zealand plane food.  Not terrible, and if you forget how it looked, pretty good,  and served with free wine (refills available), so rock on, ANZ.  But ordering meat again in restaurants was strange.  It felt wrong.  Wrong and freeing, but still wrong.  One nice thing about meat in New Zealand is that it’s probably locally produced- a lot of cows and sheep and plenty of seas about, and your dinner doesn’t have far to travel.  They also have deer farms too- tried the venison a lovely terrine in a pub opposite Parliament.  It was very easy to stick to local restaurants.  But transportation isn’t the biggest sustainability issue with livestock, so that’s a small consolation.

I did my time on the North Island (Auckland, Napier, and Wellington) traveling alone and thus entirely according to my own whims, but in the South Island I was hosted by the dashing D, who has vegetarian proclivities of his own.  His excellent cooking and general good behaviour about picking restaurants with tofu on our road trip inspired me to try harder myself- buddy system.  We still ate meat (oh dear I do love lamb) on several occasions.

Coming home, though, I haven’t had meat since the last ANZ meal- lamb and oh that wine- and I feel good about that. I noticed my digestive system is happier without all the meat, too, especially the red stuff.  In-teresting.  But whether it’s just too hot out to eat anything ‘real’ or I’ve actually unfurled a new petal, I’m getting my kicks from lots of fruit and vegetables (and cornbread) these days.  Even making plans to get a blender and crock pot (craigslist!) to aid me in my attempts to prepare fruits and vegetables in new and exciting ways.  This is an unexpected and pleasing development.

Alright, that’s the goal summary, now the changes:  I’m not making new resolutions for August.  Or probably for a while after August.  I’m going to keep on posting about all the other things I’m trying (there will be compost changes shortly, for instance) but I won’t add things.  I am beginning the process of applying to graduate schools of urban or city planning for next fall, starting last weekend- and with that on top of the real job, studying for an exam that’s real job related, and architecture classes beginning in three weeks, I should not have the time to make any big new changes around here.  If I do, someone please tell me to get back to my homework.  I am very excited about all of this (ok not the job exam, but I am excited about passing that as a revenge for all the boring stuff I have to learn for it), and I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going.  So far I’ve got specialties of interest identified, a list of schools to apply to, a list of deal-breakers, and I’m starting the asking-other-people-who-actually-know-planning about it.  Not bad for three days, think I’ll take a month off.  Ha ha!  Ha.

Busy fall.  I planned it that way.  But I’ll be back, and soon, and you will see some opossum taxidermy the likes of which you have probably not imagined.  At least I hope so.

Progress: Hurried

Heading out the door soon, but before I go, it’s a new month, so goal summary:  I turned on my AC that once, but otherwise the no-AC thing hasn’t been horrendous, except for not sleeping.  I’m heading to the antipodean winter, too, so AC becomes moot for a couple weeks.  Certainly won’t be on here while I’m gone.  As for everything else, vegetarianism, check, carbon offsets, getting done, yeah.  Let’s describe last month as distracted, but tending in a positive direction.

New monthly goal- sustainable travel!  I clearly spent days coming up with that one.  On my trip, beyond the carbon offsets and the personal offsetting fun, I’m going to examine all my touristy choices.  Choosing local places with green missions, and not big chains, for instance.  Buying souvenirs from real NZ type people, not imported trinkets.  Respecting the local environment by not kicking a moa. Etc.  I’m sure I’ll think of more there, and it’s possible I’ll get a chance to post while away, so I may even share.  But for the next couple weeks, be pleasently surprised by updates, instead of expecting them?

Pre-trip breakfast (the tomatoes came along just in time):

Have a great weekend!

Progress: Wha?

I’m really glad I post once a month about what I’m supposed to be doing, because today I had to go back and check what I was supposed to be doing last month.  It appears I was supposed to be working on travel offsets, gardening, and talking to the apartment complex.  Right.

Well, I gardened- put up some pictures recently too- and I started some research on the carbon stuff, hopefully I can get up a post on my initial impressions on that tomorrow.  I did realize it’s a much bigger question than just picking a good offset group.

Didn’t do the apartment stuff at all, though.  Actually I haven’t talked to the apartment manager since then- and she definitely hasn’t sent out the recycling reminders she promised.  So, yeah.  I should probably get on that. Perhaps I will feel the motivation later.  Summers are good for building revolutionary tempers, right?

So, this month.  No big plans on my mind.  Keep gardening, finish up the offset stuff, plan my trip (I leave in a month!).  See if I can build up any anger about the recycling situation again.  Bleh.

Know what?  It’s too hot to care.  I’ve lived in VA my whole life, and the summers are getting more unbearable every year.  When we were kids, we spent the hottest month or so of the year with Dad’s family up in northern Wisconsin, so maybe I just didn’t notice it so much then.  And this year I’ve got two weeks in an antipodean winter to look forward to, but it got hot and humid again yesterday and I couldn’t stop thinking about armpits and despair.

So this month, while I bake in the heat and can’t care, let’s pretend it’s an environmental thing. I’m starting a No-AC-Summer Challenge.  Rules are easy: I’m not turning on my AC.  Instead, I will learn to deal.

My apartment is on the top floor, and has uninsulated windows that get full sunlight until about 1pm.  I pull in solar gain all day, then, plus heat rises up to me from apartments below.  I am up high enough to get some nice breezes, though.  So, my goal is to keep the sun out and the air circulating, so I don’t come home to an oven every evening.  My windows will stay cracked, then, while my curtains will remain drawn all day.  To save energy during the workday, I’ll only plug in the portable fans when I come home.  In addition, I’ll keep the ice cube trays full for when I need them, some water in the fridge, and popsicles handy.  Showers will need to be cooler.  And I’ll need to dress for the temperature inside- gym shorts, tank tops.  I haven’t had the AC on yet this year, so hopefully I can keep that up.  I’ll share other coping strategies as I come up with them.

The goal is more reactive than proactive this month, but its too hot out for that to bother me.

Progress: Growth

In April, I was focusing on gardening, and negotiating with the apartment complex for unlame recycling facilities.  Now May is half over, and they’re both going very well.  My garden is growing, up and out.  Dad gave me tomatoes and a pepper, and Mom gave me a flower and some oregano this weekend, so my deck is pretty cluttered.  I’ll take a picture for you if it ever stops raining.

I’m growing spinach (and/or baby’s breath- I thought I planted both but everything looks the same, and this might be weird because I might have planted spinach with the morning glories), morning glories, peas the vegetable, sweet peas the flower, and I think that’s it.  Compared to last year, it was painless- I dumped some seeds in and forgot about them, it rained for two weeks, and now everything is green.  I’ve either gained garden perspective, or I’m more easily distracted.

Next steps:  Ascertain what I did plant, repot and stake the tomatoes.  Stick trays under the pots, since they’re peeing on the deck underneath me, and it’s just too soon to alienate my neighbors.

I was also bugging the office.  I determined they are violating a law!  I’m not sure I properly expressed how thrilling that day was for me.  Felt like a citizen hero, became David to Goliath, etc.  I did talk to the property manager about that last Friday, actually, and she said the city never enforces those laws so it’s cool for now.  It was a fascinating interview- I learned a lot about her personal life- but the management position is, the law isn’t enforced, and we residents are uncooperative, so they aren’t going to push it.  She wasn’t aware until I pointed it out that they were in violation, though, and she said she’d send out another notice.  Which is required anyway twice a year.  She did mention that, if more people recycle, they’ll save money on trash pick-up, since recycling pick-up is basically free, and the trash is changed by weight.  So, I see a two-fold path on this:  figuring out who enforces this for the city, and why they don’t, and cajoling the management to take some recycling baby steps.  Proper container labeling, for one.  No progress on the bike racks so far.

I’m going to follow up on the apartment agitation, so let’s count that as something for ‘half-May’.

For a legitimate new challenge, though, I’m going to work out my travel offset plans.  I finished my classes this Tuesday, so I can let myself read my guidebooks and do the fun research for New Zealand with a clear conscience now.  I’ve been vegetarian for a couple weeks now, as part of that project.  I did eat some pepperoni, and I had shrimp on Mother’s Day, but otherwise awesome.  Except for when I tried a peanut butter and banana sandwich, which is seriously gross and how did Elvis eat those?  That was a rough morning, gastronomically.  It sounded like such a delicious idea.  I’m pretty sure I’m getting enough protein- eggs, tofu, chickpeas, those are protein right?- and I’ve done a little online searching for recipes, which worked well.  Though they did lead me to the pb and banana combo.  Mixed bag, I guess.

More of that for the rest of the month, then, plus some research on carbon offset programs, and commenter bullmooser made a great point that some sort of activism to reduce emissions in the long term would be another great way to offset my carbon guilt.  Stay tuned.

Progress: It’s Been A While

Hey there!  I moved.  It took a while, because there was also a wedding and a class project in there too.  But the composter is humming away on my new balcony, my herbs are sitting in the window of my new kitchen, and I’ve got my very own separate gas and electricity bills are coming in, so pretty soon I can follow EcoCheap’s excellent example, and switch to wind power!

So, good start- I’ll post photos of the seedlings, which I expect any minute now.  I have checked three times in the past day- nothing yet.

Oh, also!  Biking to work?  I can, as soon as I mentally prepare myself to carry the bike down two flights every morning, then up the same stairs each night.  I’ll be in the weight room tomorrow morning, working on that part.  I imagine this will build me more character than muscle, really.

But the eating-my vegetables thing has been going really well.  I cooked a big vegetarian meal for the folks who came by to help me move- cheaper than pizza.  After the move, I’ve been living off of, well, cheese and crackers, but I’ve cooked two or three other big meals too.  I’ll post the recipe for my most recent tomorrow- pierogies with onions and apples.  Actually, that pretty much is the recipe, but I’ll flesh it out a bit for you, I guess.

The most important thing is, I haven’t purchased meat in a couple weeks.  And I still eat it when I eat out, and when other people cook, but I’m not missing it in my own food prep.  You can thank me later, environment!  Just make my plants grow.

New goals:  definitely gardening, this month.  I might also start harassing my apartment complex to working on the truly pitiful recycling options here.  They have three normal garbage bins for the hundreds of people who live in this complex, and they’re hidden in the back.  Now, I’d like them to fix a few things in my apartment before I get annoying, but maybe I can convince them to at least get recycling depositories in each building, or maybe even bins in each apartment!

Gonna dream big.

Goal: Eat My Vegetables

March 9th, hunh?  Fancy that.  But I’ve settled on a goal, finally:  I’m going to work on eating my vegetables for the rest of the month.  It’s good for me, it makes my mom happy, and it helps me out with the reducing carbonful meat products- plus, it forces me to cook a little.  I have already thought of a new way to prepare salad greens!  Now, I roll them in a tortilla, and have a tortilla and arugula wrap.  It would probably taste better with some other stuff, but it’s fast, cheap, and it gets a whole lot of rabbit food in me, with no fuss.

I imagine there are better ways to go about that.  In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not really a cook.  But I’ll tell you what vegetables I ate and how, day by day, and work on preparing them with more or less intricacy.  So, new exciting recipes!  I’d promise three a week, but I think we’re all wise enough to not believe that.  As I am inspired, then.

Also, did you guys know there’s an environmental film festival going on in DC this month?  Anybody want to go?  I’m game for most stuff, except that one where you hear the guy get eaten by a bear.

And A Thankful New Year

I’m back, and it didn’t even take until Epiphany.  I assume this is due to modern transportation.  I had a good holiday, thanks, and I hope you did too?  I didn’t post a thankfulness even day last month, but goalwise I was feeling it.  Let’s see, it was 31 days, and I gave you about 4 things I was thankful for already, right?  Here’s some of the rest:

The friendly cat that visits my basement, books I have, new books I get, the Chinatown bus services, thrift stores, my savings account, family in interesting foreign lands, Mr. Poof, etsy, pajama pants (esp my grey ones), my sewing machine, the Smiths, Russian history (kinda), houseplants, my GF’s sense of humor, various creamy cheeses (not the bleus), feminist blogs, the color green, salt, my readers and especially commenters, fairy tales, science, the idea of learning languages, forgiveness, haircuts, dinosaurs, hulu, confidence, and grandiose plans.

That might be more than 31, which is cool.

Anyway, things are rolling, the new website is being designed, and I have several ideas for goals this month, so maybe I’ll try two.  (I made New Year’s resolutions too this year.  I’m feeling quite energetic in 2009- you may start a pool on when this will peter out.)

I’m purging my apartment so I can organize, so that’s one- Reduce.  Plus, I want to look into how I can travel, greenly, but travel indeed.  The first is self explanatory, I hope- I’ll post a picture of my cleaner closet!- and as for the second, this will be a process. I need to research, consider, and obtain a passport.  Further bulletins as events warrant.

Onwards!

Progress: Volunteerism and Giving

I did ok this month.  I did start volunteering, a little- I showed up in person, for sure, but I haven’t done anything big.  Working on it, getting better, and the GF is my volunteering buddy- we’re interested in volunteering at the same place, so we can push each other to actually show up.  Also, I gave, and planned how to give more (sustainable christmas lists!).  Baby steps.

This month is volunteerism still, of course, and Counting My Blessings.  Yes, one whole month out of life (not really, I’ve got exams) to reflect on how fortunate I am, hopefully posting one thing per day.  Ish.  For instance (to take care of Dec 1-3:  I have a job I like that allows me economic freedom.  I can afford classes for an exciting different job.  My commute to two of those classes is during rush hour- on the part of the beltway no one uses so it’s super-unbelieveably-fast!  Even though those two classes in particular make me want to poke out my eyeballs with a straight edge.  No matter, I’m the girl doing 70 on 495, and it’s 5:15 pm.

How is this sustainable?  I’m betting exercising my gratitudes will make me strong enough to tackle a new year of giving back and helping out and activism and difficult choices and such.  We’ll see.

First day of lucky-me:  The boss is taking us to Restaurant Eve tomorrow!  Salivate drool drool.

Progress: Volunteerism

Welcome to my failure.  I don’t do activism, I don’t do volunteering, I mostly do sleeping late and donating online.  That’s what I’m comfortable with, that’s what I’m good at.

I actually have volunteered since I set it as the October goal.  I spent a couple hours canvassing for Barack Obama November 2nd.  That took two days of personal guilt trips and John McCain’s stance on women’s health to get going.  I started a new job and there were midterms and this wedding and it was cold and I am fantastic at having a ton of excuses to not leave my basement.

So yeah, I lose.  But this is it.  This is what I’m bad at, and it’s always been my problem:  I am no good at giving my time to other people that I do not personally know.  Also I get a little cranky when people invite me to parties while I would rather stay home and sew, but that’s a different issue.  Maybe not.

Point is, I have to work on this until it’s gone.  So, this month, it’s volunteerism again.  Volunteerism and um.  Giving.  Like Christmas, but the organic whole wheat soy fairly traded version.  They’re kinda the same premise, I guess, doing for others the wholesome way, and I need to work on it.

Volunteering/Activism/Acting in general will continue to be a monthly goal until i get it right, and I’m redirecting all the guilt I can muster at it.  I’m finding a local food bank and taking them a bag of groceries a week, in person.  I’m going to see where I can tutor or clean up or something.  I’ll get a friend to harass me until these things get done.  You can help.  Make me feel bad.

I’m looking forward to Giving, though!  A Gift guide!  Recipes, perhaps!  Anything to distract me from argh.

Progress: Finance

I did very well with the financial restructuring this month.  I got a credit report, I have a meeting with a financial advisor next week, and I’m employed again, so hey hey hey.  Bank of America has a neat little “Portfolio” tab where you can categorize everything you spend and set a budget.  So I’ve got the budget set, and I’ve been really good for the past two weeks.  It turns red when if I go over my categorical allotments.  Here is my fancy expenditure graph:

And that includes my unfrugal trip to New York.  So!  All balanced and such.  Well, except for the ridiculous amount of groceries- that’s because I had a housewarming party and bought drinks and liquor, and there’s no good other obvious spot for “booze” than “Hobbies” and that’s just not how it is.  The rent check hasn’t been cashed yet, so that’s why I appear to be homeless, also.  I’m fine, I’m fine.  And don’t freak out, dad, this is only what I spent, and I have other stuff saved and not spent and I’m being very wise, but that’s not part of the spending.

So, that is what I did last month, and it’s a load off my mind.  Perhaps one day I will be able to put myself through grad school and maybe buy a place, at least if money is worth anything anymore after this banking crisis plays out.

This month I’m trying something also a little more esoterically “green”.  I am going to volunteer.  At something.  Somewhere.  I’m not sure what.  Maybe something environmental, maybe other things too.  I need to get out and give back, and be active in my community for a while.  I was singularly bad at the “green activism”, and I’ve always been better at donating to charity than working for it.  So, once more into the breech.

Plus, Christmas is coming, and I’m dreading the season and all the giving.  I want to start giving somewhere and someway it’s actually needed for a while.