Tuesday, June 23, 2009

inquiries, apologies and adieus....

I've decided, as of tomorrow, I most likely will be cranky for a few days. I may be irritable, irrational and some other word that starts with "i". Perhaps I shall be impossible. Ill-tempered, if you will. And what is the cause of this? What could possibly happen that would make me act in such a way, a way that hardly is different from any other day?

I'm giving up one of my 'bad habits'.

Constantly inspecting and re-inspecting life has led me to believe I have room for improvement. I have not yet attained perfection, so I must assess myself regularly. Perhaps too regularly, most likely, not often enough. But auditing my present state of being is habitual. (Not that I will be curbing that proclivity any time soon!)

Where was I? Creating a preemptive apology for being cranky.

So, what possible tendency could I deny myself that would cause me to become so irascible? Is it possible that I could really become so incensed over the loss of one impulsion? And why should I even try to relieve myself of this dependence, if it's only going to cause extreme ire?

So many irritating inquiries!

Perhaps I am choosing to deny myself this impulse because the impulse itself is daily causing me to be infuriated. Constantly I find myself imprisoned in its influence. Irked by its idiosyncrasy. Irate by its irrationality. I... I... I am running out of words that start with the letter 'i'.

All of this to say, I'm sorry if I behave erratically (I really wish that word was spelled 'irratically', that sentence would've been far more fun). I may seem out of sorts, perhaps disconnected, but I will try to behave. And eventually, the fog may clear and I'll have the ability to think for myself again, without the influence of this awful inclination.

So today, I say adieu. Adios. Farewell. So long. Cheerio. Ciao. Hasta la vista. Godspeed. Sayonara. Arrivederci. May the road rise to meet you... I shall miss you, but over time, the separation will not seem so severe. Tomorrow as I ingest my morning coffee quota, I will try to ponder new things. New thoughts, new ideas, have new conversations with my kiddos. And I will not miss my daily newspaper. I will not! And I'll try not to misbehave out of frustration from breaking my insipid routine. Really. You don't believe me? Wanna make something of it?!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Typing with a wrist brace is not practical...

Every store I shop in here in the good ol' Eugene has at least a few shoppers who have their own reusable bags. Walking through the aisles, you'll see them filling their carts with all of their favorite organic goodies (or perhaps several cases of Orange Slice soda), with their eco-friendly bags neatly folded and waiting. These shoppers with their own bags are everywhere. People of all races and ages, the young, old, really old, young but old looking... all waiting to use their neatly folded, pro-environment bags. My favorite in-store site is the new-to-using-earth-friendly-bags person who fills their bags in their cart, only to be emptied and refilled upon checkout. Perhaps it's a way for them to fulfill their secretive desires to shoplift without acting upon it, as they're tucking unpaid items into their own personal bags.

No matter what though, every time I see a shopper walking into a store with those store-branded bags waiting to be filled, I begin to question why I don't use them. Really, I care about our planet. I recycle faithfully, I would never litter and I even let my lawn die yearly to conserve water (or at least I use that excuse for its annual death). Until this point, I have even recycled the plastic (and paper) 'disposable' bags the stores use. But maybe it is time I take it a step further and actually purchase a reusable bag. Maybe I should care that much.

Mostly, there is only one obstacle keeping me from doing such a thing; which store brand bag do I choose? Is it permissible to carry a Trader Joe's bag into Wal-Mart? What about a Target bag into Albertsons? I want to avoid a tragic faux pas, but have yet to find an etiquette guide on this particular subject.

I almost gave up on the idea of trying to be more green, when I finally found the solution to my dilemma. A green bag, with no store brand that portrays the truth of the depth of my caring.