Diary of an adult runaway

Blog Action Day

It's here, lovelies:

The issue: the environment! I'm really, really excited that more people are thinking green these days, and more resources are becoming available to help with this shift. Overwhelmed? You don't need to do anything radical, just take on a few practices that will soon become second nature. I'm sharing a few of the things I do:

1. Make my own cleaner. It's dead simple--vinegar, water and lavender oil--effective, and it's not toxic for kitty paws, bare feet, and drains. Oh, plus, it's CHEAP! Find out more about vinegar here.

2. Subscribe to Ideal Bite, a daily email with tips for green living.

3. Drink tap water. Really. It's not bad for you, plus it saves the (environmental and economical) costs associated with bottled water. Buy a water filter if you feel the need. Add a squirt of lime or lemon juice if you don't really like the flavor.

4. Subscribe to magazines such as Body & Soul, Utne Reader, Natural Home and Verdant, for more information on thoughtful, sustainable living.

5. Here in France we weigh the fruit and veggies ourselves. Whenever possible, I slap the price sticker directly on the produce, rather than using a plastic bag.

6. Avoid plastics wherever possible. Hard for me, a Rubbermaid junkie, but when you think of the nasty chemicals constantly leaking from plastic products, polluting our living air, which is on average 5 times more polluted than the air outside, then...

7. Encourage your mayor to become a cool mayor. Who knows, s/he might get to hang out with Redford at the next Sundance Summit for climate protection. (Or maybe run for mayor on a green platform yourself, so you get to go ;-) )

8. When in doubt about what to do, check out Treehugger's How To Go Green guides.

9. Before you throw anything away, check to see if it can be sold, recycled or gifted, either to friends, charities or via Freecycle.

Peace out!

School's out!

I'm on vacation for a week and I'm probably not going to blog during that time, so here's a few pics until I get back:

The place below, with cherry trees in bloom and tourists enjoying the very mild weather. (The cats spent all weekend on the balcony, enjoying the sun.)

She's done!

Before I go, my assessment of the mid-season series:

Notes from the Underbelly~looks pretty, but that's about it
Painkiller Jane~meh

Thank God You're Here~Overall, not as funny as the Australian (original) version, though at least they kept the Hoodoo Gurus track as the theme song
Drive~apart from the fact that you can't film in California and call it Florida (no chaparral or mountains down on Cape Canavarel, folks!) this was an excellent pilot. Looking forward to next week's episode.

Bye!

Woohoo!

You know what today is? Yes, okay, March 1st, great. Today, according to weather.com, is 11 FULL HOURS OF SUNSHINE!!!!!! Except, of course, it's rainy and overcast, so... but at least we know there's the potential. Of course, some cerisiers (cherry trees) have been in blossom since late January, which is pretty but somewhat worrisome. (And here would be a good time to say "Congrats, Al Gore!")

Can I just say how much I'm hearting Rob Lowe in Brothers & Sisters? (I'm really glad he turned down the role of McDreamy, because this is a far more interesting character.) So much so that I went on a nostalgia trip, and came back with this (just for you, Keris!):

OMG! I remember swooning over this when I was 16. I think I'm going to have to go back and watch* The Outsiders and Class and Youngblood. Oh, and Square Dance.

*I think it's probably also high time that I reread S.E. Hinton's magnificent books, even though it breaks my heart to know Sodapop died. I loved that character long before Rob played him. It's also high time to read something that actually captures my imagination~none of the new releases I've tried to get into in the past few weeks have done that. And vale, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who wrote one of my all-time favorites, Robert Kennedy And His Times.

I read something in his obituary, that's resonating with me because I've been thinking a lot about this subject lately:

In a 2000 Los Angeles Times story, Schlesinger, then 83, said his "only regret is the amount of time I spent addressing small — though they seemed large at the time — controversies, when I should have been writing books. "I got diverted from writing by the compulsion to respond to passing circumstances. I've written hundreds of thousands of words for newspapers and magazines that I could have poured into books, and I would have been more satisfied with my life. I feel a great frustration. I should have written more books."

Thank you for what you did write, Mr. Schlesinger, and how you made history so real and personal for me. The last page of Robert Kennedy and His Times never fails to make me cry. Okay, let's be honest: sob.

The train arrived in Washington. Night had fallen. Mourners with twinkling candles followed the coffin into Arlington Cemetery. "There was," wrote a grieving Lady Bird Johnson, "a great white moon riding high in the sky." But the cemetery itself was dark and shadowed. The pallbearers, not sure where to place the coffin, walked on uncertainly in the night. Averill Harriman finally said to Stephen Smith, "Steve, do you know where you're going?" Smith said, "Well, I'm not sure." Then Smith said, "I distinctly heard a voice coming out of the coffin saying, "Damn it. If you fellows put me down, I'll show you the way."

I have some Paris photos to upload, I really do, but I keep remembering that I need to do it just as I'm walking out the door each morning. I even have a video of my daily trip around the Arc de Triomphe and as soon as I work out how to upload it, I'll post it. In the meantime, here's something that gave me a giggle this morning:

Labels: Arthur Schlesinger, global warming, Rob Lowe, Robert Kennedy and His Times, spring is on its way, The Daily Show