A Rare Lucid Moment

Lately, I’ve found myself obssessing about whether or not I’m obssessed with food. It doesn’t help that the man in my life has a different blood type (see the April post Is He My Type?) or that I recently read Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food, and I’m once again tinkering with my diet.

But how can we not think about food? We eat every day. The subject has a way of coming up. Whatever.

On that note, I thought I’d share a poem I was working on not too long ago, which meditates on the allure of junk food and bingeing (something I don’t really do, I swear!). Read the rest of this entry →

It is now May, which means we are one third of the way through the year. It seems like a good time to reflect on my resolution. In these past four months, has my life changed in any way as a result of not buying new stuff? And have I actually been successful in not buying new stuff? Here’s a run-down of how the resolution has played out so far: Read the rest of this entry →

One of the great things about freelance work is that my schedule is flexible enough to allow me to volunteer, which I’ve been doing since last fall. I spend two hours every week in an office in mid-town Manhattan that has eight little booths where we record books. The name of the non-profit is nicely self-explanatory: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D). Read the rest of this entry →

Last week, I went into a brief panic because I found out my partner has type B blood. Upon reading the results of the home blood test I administered to him, I found myself worrying that we aren’t actually meant to be together. Like being a Montague and a Capulet in old Verona, or a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl in modern India, or a Democrat and a Republican in a swing state, it seemed like doomed, forbidden love to be a type A with a type B. Read the rest of this entry →

First confession: I’m a wino. Every Wednesday, I go to my favorite wine shop and stock up for the week. Lately, I’ve been buying a lot more bottles, as my new boyfriend drinks with possibly more enthusiasm than even me (and my apologies to my ex-fiance for not being adequately sympathetic when my bacchanalian wine drinking made him anxious). Anyway, the point being: bringing all that wine home can lead to the accrual of a lot of plastic bags. The remedy, part one: I have a special fabric wine carrier that holds two bottles. I take it with me every time I head out to the shop. Now, I’m also bringing my backpack (which carries two bottles) and another fabric shoulder bag (to hold another two or three).

So here’s my point: even though we drink a lot, at least I’m environmentally conscious. Balances the positive and the negative.

At my last trip to the wine shop, the cashier became very excited when I took out my reusable cloth bags.  She said she thought it was good that I wasn’t using the store bags. “In my home country of Bangladesh, it is very poor, but even there we have made it law that people cannot use paper or plastic bags.” What an anti-surprise to learn that an aptly-dubbed “developing country” is more environmentally progressive than the United States of Consumption (which doesn’t seem motivated to develop much at all any more, except in the national midriff, expanding to make room for more cheeseburgers).

However, I recently read that city politicians in Seattle have proposed a twenty-cent per bag Green Fee and other measures to outlaw disposable containers [read about it here]. Wouldn’t it be lovely if other American cities caught on? Maybe we could catch up with Bangladesh.

Until then, we have to make these changes one person at a time. I hope you’ll join me in bringing your own bags to the store. Be the solution.

Last night I had a painful fight with my boyfriend. In recent weeks, my relationships with others have been difficult and my point of view, no matter how often or how eloquently I communicate it, doesn’t make much difference to the people I’ve tried so hard to get through to. It appears that my perspective is just irrelevant to anyone besides myself. Perhaps knowing this is what makes a person a grown-up. I wish I understood more.

Needing a rest from my own messages, I finally sat down and watched An Inconvenient Truth. Read the rest of this entry →

 Several months ago, I read a satirical opinion article in the Onion called “I’m Quite Eccentric Within Accepted Societal Norms.” The article’s persona, named Martin Grossman, gleefully relates to the readers that he’s a quirky personality, though not a threatening one. He says: Read the rest of this entry →

 Recently, my son got in trouble with his dad and was barred from video game playing indefinitely. When I learned that this was the policy when at Dad’s house, I quickly elected to enforce the same policy at our home. I’d been looking for a way to rehabilitate him from his video obsession for months, and although I admit the punishment seems harsh, it’s better for his brain to have to learn how to entertain itself. Read the rest of this entry →