You Just Can’t Hire Anyone Anymore

December 29th, 2009

I’m beginning to think the web developer I hired must have registered the domain name incorrectly.  I’ve only just now taken notice.  I am certain that what I told him was that the web address should be “Year Without [as much] Shopping”.  Because “Year of At Least Think About Where Things Come From When You Buy Them and End Up When You Throw Them Out ” was too clumsy.

Oh, did you think I said “Year Without Shopping”? You must’ve heard me wrong.  I didn’t do that anyway, that was the web development department.  That guy smokes too much pot.

Anyway,  I looked back over my Confessions post, and I realized that I have really caved on the original purpose.  I bought two shirts at Mal-Wart for four and seven dollars.  I feel guilty now, because I know that means somebody is suffering so I can have a cheap shirt.

I’m actually suffering a little bit my own self.  I find that I am deeply sorrowful most of the time.  I probably shouldn’t be; what do I have to complain about?  I found myself wanting to go shopping this afternoon, and I think I am beginning to realize that it doesn’t really fill a void at all.  If anything, it creates one, because then I’m all dressed up with no place to go.

On that note, I am going to try to live up to that impossible standard that stupid web guy set when he named this blog.  Obviously it won’t be a year, since I’ve already done it, but I’d like to try to get back on the horse.  I am trying to free up some money so I can go back to school and make something of myself, I mean besides a mess and a laughingstock, so not shopping for clothes I don’t need would probably be a good thing.  I have stuff in my closet with the tags still on it as it is.

The hard part, though, as I said at the very beginning, is that I dress to reflect how I feel:  sexy, confident, shy, or belligerent.  It’s hard when I see an outfit in a magazine that I could put my own spin on if only I had some slouchy jeans or whatever.  It’s hard when I have somewhere special to go and I want to feel special and new to go there, and I can’t let myself go buy a new outfit.  It’s hard when my son is away and I have nothing to do and no one to do it with, and going to the mall to pick out clothes sounds fun.  I guess I have no business complaining that it’s hard, since I didn’t actually do it.  But in honor of you, dear reader, I am returning a belt and a studded tunic, and I will try to sin no more.

(Ok, I was actually going to return that stuff anyway, but still.  And I need a pair of yoga pants, but that’s it.  After that I’m off the mall.)

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Boxing Day

December 26th, 2009

In honor of Boxing Day, and in the spirit of maintaining a portion of the original purpose of this blog, and also in honor of the fact that I want my house to be neat again, I gathered up all the cardboard boxes still in here this evening.  The photos below represent the cardboard I needed to throw away today, including stuff that had little to do with Christmas, and excluding some boxes that I threw away yesterday.

I took it to the grocery store and weighed it.  That’s a lie.  I wanted to, but I didn’t.  I’d guess it weighed about ten pounds.  My friend graciously offered to take it to his house to put it out with the recycling, and I said sure.  By the time I gave it to him, it was crammed all the way full.  The thought of every house in the US having at least that much cardboard to get rid of after Christmas bothers me, considering how many of them will just let it go to the dump and then never think about it again.

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I’ve been criticized for participating in the annual gift frenzy, and I wonder what your take on it is.  In my case, I buy my son a lot of stuff for Christmas, and then I am pretty prudent when it comes to stuff he might think he wants throughout the year.  I don’t usually need to buy him clothes more than twice a year.  Once at Christmas, and maybe once in the summer.  I make the things I buy for Christmas purposeful:  I don’t buy him stuff just so he has stuff, I buy him toys to match his new developmental stage, clothes to fit his growing little self, books and games, and movies and tv shows on dvd, since we don’t have cable.  I try to be equally purposeful about what I buy other people.  I don’t want to be accused of giving anyone clutter.  I try to give consumables when I can.   holidays-2009-early-2010-119

So what’s your take?  Does participating in Christmas in the traditional American sense mean that you’re a mindless consumer?  Does it spoil children?  And does it increase what goes into landfills, or just make it happen all at once rather than over time?

And by the way, yes, I know Boxing Day has nothing to do with boxes.  It’s about pugilism, of course.

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Clothes Swap–a Roaring Success!

June 21st, 2009

As you know, I recently participated in a clothing swap at the Black Box Collective, which is in the West Central neighborhood, near the Parramore community, which also happens to be where I work.

I went to the clothes swap with the following:  Three pairs of jeans, a leather Kenneth Cole jacket that was a weird color and boxy and I never wore it, a polyester suit, two skirts, a tank top, and a dress.  I didn’t put all of it out on the pile, I don’t know why.  I wasn’t really ready to part with the dress and there wasn’t anyone else there that it would have suited, and I guess I jsut wasn’t ready to let it go.  One of the skirts in my bag I kept because I keep hoping I will find a top to wear with it, but I’ve had it fifteen years and worn it only once, so I probably should have passed it on.

I went there by myself, though, and I didn’t know anyone, so I felt conspicuous and didn’t want to be rifling around in my bag and then not putting stuff out on the tables, so I just put some stuff out and then didn’t go back into my bag.  Dumb, I know.  Anyhow, all told, I gave the leather jacket, the suit, and three pairs of pants.  I should have also put out one of the skirts and the tank top, but oh well.

It was a rally nice vibe they had going, there was an acoustic guitarist playing her own original music and singing, and I really liked both her voice and her music.  I don’t remember her name, so if anyone reading this knows her name, I’ll gladly give credit.  I’d make a crummy reporter, I guess.  Here’s a picture of her:

"All in favor of a new world, say I"

"All in favor of a new world, say I"

Yes, I know there is a lot of uninteresting background in the picture.  I need to learn more about cropping and editing photos, but I usually do it in Paint and I just can’t seem to make it happen this morning.  It’s like, rilly rilly giant, and I can’t crop out the part I want because even that doesn’t fit on the screen, and it won’t let me zoom out.  I might be retarded.  Nonetheless,  there was music and camaraderie.  I learned that they were planning on sending the leftover clothes to India, and since you know and I know that dumping excess textiles in poverty stricken areas is not always as helpful over the long term as we think it might be, I started asking around about who was in charge and had made this decision.  I got to meet a few nice people that way, including Sheena, who gave me props because my Daddy is a Union man.  While Sheena and I talked about how the problem of workers not being able to afford the products of their labor exists right here in this neighborhood (moreso even than the textile industry in India, for comparison), an apparently homeless man walked in off the street.  He rather nervously approached where we were standing and asked if all the clothes were girl clothes.  It felt good to direct him to where some men’s clothes were and convey a feeling of welcome.

I did some of my own browsing and scored a yellow message tee with a bird

embroidered on it that goes with my picnic shoes, a J Crew skirt for work, a short demin skit for kicking around in (that just so happens to be from Abercrombie and Fitch, no less), and this crazy plaid dress thing.  It will look awesome with tights and ankle boots this fall.yearwithoutshopping-0171

When I did get to talk to one of the organizers, Alex, she heard me out about how our overconsumption of textiles leads to the depression of prices for all textile related trades and industries, if not their outright destruction, in the places where our excess ends up.  She informed me that they had a specific contact in India to whom they were sending the clothes, but that shipping was pretty pricey and they only planned to ship a few boxes.  This is where I piped up with the needs of families right in that very community, some of whom I work with, that can’t always clothe their children the way they would like to.  The school I work in has a free clothes closet for kids to shop in, no questions asked, and I asked Alex if maybe I could have some of the leftovers.  She was super pleased because the Black Box Collective wants to participate in and be part of the community it’s housed in, and this is one way they can do that.

I agreed to meet Sheena the following day to bag up what I thought the kids could use and would like, and one of my co-workers met me there.  We spent an hour helping ourselves to the goods and also folding, bagging, and moving all the rest of it.  That day, I found a pair of grey skinny jeans with ankle zips, which was super awesome because I’d wanted some last fall and had been browsing the internet in search of the right ones.  So it was cool that I found some for FREE–well, I paid in labor.

All told, it was a super positive experience.  I met some great people, got some “new” clothes, and did a good deed for my kids.  I also talked to some activists about the effects of our voracious appetite for clothes and, in a sense, educated them a little about something they hadn’t considered.

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There’s Nothing Wrong With Your Nose, But…

June 15th, 2009

I went to the Otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor) today because some time ago, I realized that other people can actually breathe effectively using only their proboscis.  I, on the other hand, am a mouth-breather.  Even when I am not congested, I can’t move enough air through my nose to keep from passing out.  My own morning breath wakes me up each morning, since I breathe through my open mouth all night, even though I am fastidious about oral health and I have never even had a cavity.  In the winter, my top lip splits and bleeds from the dry heat of my home.  If I am talking on the phone and climbing a flight of stairs at the same time, I get winded from trying to talk and breathe from the same orifice.

It did not occur to me that this is not how other people function until fairly recently, maybe a year ago.  I remember laying down to go to bed and I observed that my boyfriend could sleep with his mouth closed.  Upon inquiry, a friend told me what a deviated septum was.  Aha! 

Fast forward to my second visit with Dr. B.  I explained that I wasn’t interested in nasal sprays and wanted the facts on surgery.  He described my condition to another doctor in the room as extremely deviated, and I guess he showed her this by shining the light from his silly hat into my nose and poking a magnifying doohickey up there.  He explained how they would fix the septum and the turbinates with surgery, and that this would not change the appearance of my nose.  Here is what I have:

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The next thing he said was that if I wanted to have a nose job, they could do it at that time.  He went on to say, “There’s nothing wrong with your nose.  But you do have a bit of a hump here.  And also this part is rather narrow.  We could also reduce the size of the tip…”

Okay, so I thought you said there was nothing wrong with my nose?  That doesn’t sound like $5000 worth of problems to me.  Then again, I am single.  Maybe it’s because my nose has a bump…and a narrow spot…and also, a tip that is too large.  Yes, yes, that must be it.  If only my nose were slightly improved, everyone would love me and I would be rich and talented and accomplished and well traveled and fit and interesting….

ugly-nose  I don’t know, I don’t think it’s that bad, do you?  This is a recent photo, so let me know what you think.

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The Story of “The Story of Stuff”

May 11th, 2009

I was info-snacking at work today and came upon ths article in the New York Times about a video that’s making its way through classrooms in the US via the infamous intertubes.  The video is called “The Story of Stuff”.  I’ve added the link to the Times article, but if you want to see the video, google that thar title.  Millions of people have seen it via its own website and youtube, and Annie Leonard, the party responsible, is a former Greenpeace employee.  If you haven’t gathered by now that it isn’t a romantic ode to the beauty, utility, and absolute necessity of Stuff, then consider yourself informed.  

The animation paints a stark and accusatory picture of what effect our consumer culture has on the planet’s environmental resources and the economies of the third world countries where many raw materials for all kinds of products are extracted at a fraction of the real cost of doing so.  One teacher in the article pointed out that it might not be effective to show this video to rich kids, because they might see it as a condemnation of their lifestyle, since “it shows students how their own behavior is linked to what is happening across the globe” and that that  ”could also raise sensitive issues.”  Um, yeah, lady, I think that’s kind of the point.  To be fair, she’s speaking as an educator and suggesting that doing that may cause kids to tune out, but I’d like to be the first to say that maybe young people, yes, even privileged ones, deserve a little more credit than that.

Maybe you have heard the Wal-Mart radio commercials about reducing the amount of trash we put into landfills.  I don’t remember the exact tonnage of garbage potentially saved by each Wal-Mart shopper making the hypothetical changes, but the numbers are astronomical.  I don’t shop there and I don’t buy very many processed food products to begin with, and I think that was there example.  That is my excuse for not knowing what the hell I am talking about there.  Oprah had a show some time ago that focused on garbage reduction, and the catchphrase that stuck with me was, in reference to what we throw out, “it goes to a place.”  Doesn’t seem all that catchy in Times New Roman, but say it out loud.  The idea is that what we discard doesn’t cease to exist just because it leaves our sight.  Elementary, I know, but how many of you who are going, “I know that, duh,” still buy water in bottles, use plastic or styrofoam for take out, and buy yogurt in individual cups?  How many of you don’t reliably recycle?  (I’m guilty too, just trying to be less so).

The thing that struck me most from the video was the dubious factoid that 1% of what American’s buy is still in use 6 months later.  I find that very, very hard to believe.  Is she including food?  (’Cause I’m pretty sure I”m still “using” the last piece of cheesecake I ate as a cushion to sit on.  And there’s a package of hamburgers in my freezer from my four year old’s first birthday party)  Clothes?  (I mean, ladies, we’re fickle, but not that fickle, are we?  At least not on average, I don’t think)  Cell phones and computers?  (Three and a half year old Dell laptop, new cell phone after just under three years)  What exactly makes up for the 99% of all the stuff we buy that’s in a landfill less than six months later?

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