Its my surfer birthday!

I just realized it was three years ago TODAY that I bought my $12 surfboard from Saver's Daly City! I remembered that I bought it the Saturday before Memorial Day because it was a memorial day sale. Somehow though, even though I'd been looking forward to it, and even considered having a party to celebrate, but it somehow slipped my mind today and even though it was a beautiful day, and the surf was good, I didn't even make it out to surf today. I keep having to remind myself I don't have to surf EVERY day to be a surfer. I feel like I wasted the day- although that's crazy talk because I went to the Farmer's Market and a surf swap, which is certainly NOT a waste of a sunny Saturday. I wish I had headed right out to surf right after putting my groceries away instead of going on the internet. That was dumb. It was beautiful and now it's windy and all blown out. How I managed to kill probably over an hour screwing around on the internet and at home I'll never know, although I did take out the compost and have to gerry rig a leaky toilet, both fairly urgent things. Its ok, probably giving my knee another day to heal won't hurt.

Going Plastic Free in the shower!

I get to wash my hair again!

I haven't washed my hair in... a really long time. Its disgusting. like a month, not kidding. I've been looking at ways to reduce my plastic consumption and got the idea from Fake Plastic Fish to use a shampoo bar from Lush. I also entertained the idea of buying shampoo in bulk, but someone neatened up the bathroom and got rid of my empty shampoo and conditioner bottles. And when I happened by the local co op I didn't have my bag on me so I didn't want to buy anything. That's something I've just started doing. I almost always have my bag, but if for whatever reason I don't, I end up with a plastic one. Its always something impulsive I probably didn't need anyway, so I've just stopped buying anything if I don't have a bag.

*I should note that the plastic bags I usually use for my beach clean ups aren't usually mine. If I do find myself accidentally ending up with a single use plastic bag, my penance is to fill it with litter. I steal a lot of them from my room mates (who will never notice) The bulk of them though, I actually find as litter

Beth Terry does have instructions on "Fake Plastic Fish" for washing one's hair without shampoo, but especially trying to consume less, I could not resist an excuse to treat myself to something from Lush. I almost never buy myself nice girly shampoo and stuff, not that I don't want to, I just want to be practical since I don't make a lot of money. But an ecological reason to pamper myself? Sign me up!

The problem: Lush is Downtown. Which is like on the other side of the country from The Sunset. My commute home takes me around it, not through it, and I hate parking downtown. Who doesn't? Now normally this would not be a big deal and I would either take transit or stop after work, park in SOMA and run a bunch of errands at once, but the ACL complicated the matter.

Well, yesterday my friend was spinning at SupperClub so I was downtown and got my shampoo and conditioner! My hair will no longer have more oil in it than the gulf of mexico.

More bags than I started with

So since I've been trying to cut down on plastic I've been annoyed that I've had to put my vegetables in plastic bags to weigh them at the farmer's market, don't know why it didn't occur to me to bring my own mesh bags, but when I saw that idea I wanted to jump on it.

I made a little bit of an error with the bags I ended up with. While I intended to make my own, I realized I wasn't going to get around to it, with so I bought some re-usable (but plastic) ones. I thought if I bought those green bags that are supposed to keep things fresh I could kill two birds with one stone, but it turns out they don't really work that well because moisture builds up inside them and you have to be really vigilant about wiping them out. But still I was bringing my own bags to the Farmer's market, which was still an improvement.

Unfortunately, as I was leaving the farmer's market I encountered a tornado of plastic. It was windy and there was this spot where all these plastic bags that had gotten away were collecting. After being traumatized by having the great pacific garbage patch wash up in my back yard, I couldn't bring myself to just do nothing, so I went to the spot and collected an obscene number of bags. I'm not even sure how many I came home with, but it was a lot. enough to fill two of them, anyway.

Well, since I've been laid up with a sprained ACL its been hard for me to sit in one place and stay off my leg and as soon as I felt well enough to walk on it, I did, and I way over did it. So I've decided to spend the day re-acquainting myself with plastic bag crochet. Right now I'm making the yarn, and hopefully I will have enough to go outside pretty soon and sit in the sun and do it. Making the yarn is boring considering I have to do it inside so it won't blow away.

Excerpt from "$12 Surfboard

I'm working on a book based on my adventures with my $12 surfboard, the one you see me holding in the masthead picture. Its the story of how I started surfing and how our life, or at least my life, takes the course that we choose for it. The book is based on writings from my two other personal blogs, and I plan to occasionally re-post them here. I sprained my ACL skateboarding Thursday night, which gave me three solid days with nothing to do while my leg healed except for read, write, and watch TV. I'm actually pretty stoked that I spent most of the weekend off my feet polishing and fleshing out the introductory chapters. So stoked that I felt like posting a short excerpt that I think starts to represent the book conceptually. here it is:

I had always wanted to be a skateboarder. My first boyfriend even built me one for my sixteenth birthday, but I lived on a steep hill on a gravel road and never learned to ride it. Eventually, my heartless mother sold it at a yard sale when I was in college.

Everyone has things like that, things you always want to do and never get around to. Everyone has owned things that represent dreams that were never realized or goals that were never achieved. Eventually, most of those precious but unused items get sold at yard sales or given to thrift stores by parents or spouses who are tired of tripping over them. We try to console ourselves with the possibility that the toy we outgrew, the instrument we never practiced, or whatever it was that we never really finished or committed to went to someone who would do exactly what we didn't. Thats the hope anyway, that the dream we had gets passed on to someone who can use it and treasure it the way we wanted to, the way we always thought we could.

Or it could just wind up in the next person's closet or garage gathering dust until the next parent or significant other disposes of it.

Green Costs How Much?

Waiting at the vets office today I overheard the receptionist having a conversation with a friend, I'm not normally one to eavesdrop, they were being really loud, so I didn't have much of a choice, but when I heard "being a tree hugger is expensive" they wandered into my territory. I resisted butting in, but perhaps I shouldn't have, I know with this blog I'm preaching to the choir, but I was kind of shocked at what I heard.

They were complaining about the cost of "Eco-Friendly" cat litter. (really!) And practicably in the same breath, the woman was saying how she "Needed" Trees, Parking, and Big Box Stores. Seriously. Those three things. TOGETHER. In ONE sentence. Justification? I am NOT making this up, she said "I buy water in big flats, I buy toilet paper in big flats" Well, why if she is so worried about money, that she "needs" to buy bulk, is she buying water at all?!! Do I butt in at this point? I keep my mouth shut. Her friend continues that they couldn't afford the "Biodegradable plastic bags" for the cat litter (to be fair, we live in San Francisco where these actually work) So she flushes it down the toilet. A VET RECEPTIONIST!!! How does THIS woman not know that doing that spreads diseases to sea otters? ARRRGGG! There's this new biodegradable product they've come out with, its new, its only been around about two thousand years, its called paper, and they make bags out of it now! Some places even give them away for FREE! I hear they might have some of these things in San Francisco, but that's probably just a rumor. Already stressed out about my sick dog, I have to listen to these two numb sculls complain about the perceived cost of being green. I don't know if I should butt in or not. Ms. "I need trees and parking" says she doesn't know how the people who shop on the bus do it, she COULDN'T do it!" OK, OK, then she's talking about how she stayed at her friends house in the city and had to buy: I know it's gross, maxi pads! And how toilet paper and maxi pads cost SOOO much when you live in the city and can't buy them from a big box store!!!!

One thing I gotta say, and I know this grosses some people out, but I think its the coolest thing ever and maybe I should be more vocal about it, I LOVE MY KEEPER! When I thought I lost my Keeper, I ran out and got a Diva Cup. I was overdue for another one anyway. I swear to my higher power of choice that even if I were an SUV driving, Evian guzzling, Suburban big box shopping soccer mom, and I didn't lay awake nights worrying about shoving a product loaded with dioxin up into my reproductive area, I wouldn't give up my cup for anything!! They can pry it from my cold, dead...So I buy something that costs about 30 bucks, and it lasts me (the suggested life span is 3 years, I'm pretty sure mine is twice that age, oops!) I don't even remember what the other things cost, but I remember being annoyed at the cost of them. I'm sure I spent more than $10 a year on them. Sorry I wasn't hard core enough for the reusable pads, I even bought some but then I discovered the wonder that is the Keeper! Imagine never having to go out and buy feminine products again! (Or at least for three years!) Never having your sensitive areas dried out by all the nastiness that they put in those things! I've had my keeper leak on me twice, in half a decade of using the thing! The disposable versions failed on me constantly. HOW DO WOMEN NOT KNOW ABOUT THESE THINGS!?

The reason I bring this all up in my blog, is that recently, I've noticed something, something that seems to have eluded these women:

Living a lower impact life costs less money.

The golden rule "Reduce" means you spend less money. Rags cost less than paper towels, the farmer's market is cheaper than the supermarket. Taking shorter showers, turning off the lights, turning down the heat, all these things save money. Supermarkets give you a discount for bringing your own bags, Starbucks (and other coffee shops) give you a discount for bringing your own mug. And, hey, I CAN afford fancy coffee in my snazzy re-usable mug because I don't waste money on crap like bottled water.

The other thing I noticed about Ms. "I Need Parking" is that she was significantly overweight, now I'm not exactly a stick, and I will be the first to admit that I LOVE junk food and eat a lot of things I shouldn't, and could myself stand to lose a few pounds, I'm bringing this up because:

I've been losing weight, without trying.

Since the plastic washed up on the beach, and forced me to take a good, long hard look at my own consuming habits, actually thinking about what I eat and how it gets to me has forced me to eat healthier and as a result, I've lost a noticeable amount of weight. My cute carpooling buddy (hot blond surfer, WOO CARPOOL! Save the planet, commute with a hottie!) was the first to say anything. And then I bought a scale for weighing my trash, and I'll be damned, I've been consistently losing about half a pound a week. Its not exactly the next Atkins, but stuff like giving up soda and trying to buy less processed food, food that is produced locally, and food with less packaging adds up to a healthier diet. I can't help but wonder if the woman who was complaining about the cost of fancy cat litter also spends money on Weight Watchers or Slim Fast bars or anything like that. If she's anything like most of America, I bet she does.

I'vebeen thanked!

Three different people actually thanked me for picking up trash on the beach today! The more I get connected to other people who care about the oceans the less silly I feel heading out every day to pick up trash.