Spreading good cheer and environmentalism

This mug not only saves a paper coffee cup, it's also biodegradable!

I had to wait to write this post because it's about giving environmentally- friendly Christmas gifts. Now that I've given the gift, I can write about it.

The good thing about environmentalism having become so hip is that the things you do to create less waste don't get a strange look anymore. The checkout people at the grocery store just grab my reusable bags and start filling them up without as much as a second glance, then swipe the bar code that gives me a whopping 5 cent discount for bringing my own bags. I remember just two years ago how I felt embarrassed to bring my cotton West Palm Beach Farmer's Market bag to Trader Joe's, not wanting the cashiers to think I was, god forbid, uncool. Another coworker, who didn't care about things like that, had been taking a bag when she walked down to Trader Joe's, so now that I look back on it she was ahead of the trends.

But I digress. For my Secret Santa gift at work, I got my co-worker (hi Mike!) a coffee travel mug. He doesn't need one for his car since he doesn't make coffee at home. But he does occassionally (like all of us) get coffee from the Coffee Bean conventiently (or dangerously) located next door to our office. I figured he could bring the travel mug and have his caramel lattes put in that instead of wasting a cup that can't be recycled. I've sometimes had them put my drink in a big coffee cup I grabbed from the office but it's not ideal for walking back to the office. I haven't spilled coffee all down the front of me yet but I have dripped a cocoa-colored trail up three flights of stairs. I've since realized that it's easier to bring a travel mug so that is what inspired his gift. And I knew he wouldn't get weird looks because, as with bringing your own bag, bringing your own container is cool now.

(PS-After Christmas I can write about more of my eco-friendly gift giving -- hi family!)

Do you have a sandwich container?

I've been remiss in posting because I knew I wanted to mention my new way of cutting back on using plastic sandwich bags, but it's a fairly minor thing so I kept putting it off. So finally, here it is. A few weeks ago I was at Ralph's and they had plastic sandwich containers made by Wonder Bread hanging in one of the aisles. OK, I haven't eaten Wonder Bread since I was still losing baby teeth, but this was kinda cute. I bought one for about $4. So now when I bring a sandwich to work, or just some bread to eat with a salad, etc., I'm not wasting a plastic bag. Woo-hoo!

I thought these were pretty common but when my coworker saw it he was jealous. He subsequently bought ones from Target made by Rubbermaid (he humored me and modeled it for me). He reported later that he had seen the Wonder Bread sandwich containers in the chips aisle at Albertson's. So now two out of three editors in my office own one of these handy containers. That's two-thirds of the editorial staff in one office. Wow! They're taking over the world!

Cruising along at 65 mph

My younger sister noted recently that I’m a slow driver. Me? No. Slow drivers are boring follow-the-rules, over-the-hill types. Yet it was true. I hadn’t felt like I was driving slow because I was used to driving 65 mph but to her it felt like she was driving with our mother, who I would silently will to drive faster when I was late for soccer practice as a teen (sorry mom, I see your wisdom now).

I had picked up my sister from the Ontario airport and we were driving 50 miles to my older sister’s house. I had set the cruise control to 65 to get better fuel efficiency, which I’ve been doing since the spring when gas prices shot through the roof and I was trying to save on gas and do something good for the environment. She hadn’t heard that the slower you go, the better gas mileage you get so realizing I had an engaged (or trapped, depending on how you look at it) audience, I told her about my efforts to drive 65 mph and how it had increased my fuel efficiency. Instead of filling up after four 60-mile round-trip work days, I could get through the five-day work week without filling up. And if I didn’t drive a lot on the weekend I could go a whole week on one tank of gas.

I wrote about this when I first made the discovery but hadn’t returned to it since. Then I read an article from Saturday’s LA Times Business section, "Memories of a road trip, driven by the price of gas," about how the writer saved on gas during a cross-country trip in his minivan. He got 26 mpg instead of the 19 mpg it should get according to the EPA. He and his wife swore by the "under 65" strategy and only used AC when it was completely necessary. His main point: "... on my road trip I discovered there’s more to fuel economy than the numbers on a window sticker might imply, that even with gas prices creeping steadily downward, saving gas is a good idea, and that there are more rational ways to deal with volatile fuel costs than borrowing from your 401(k) to buy a Prius."

For those of us (myself included) who can’t justify the extra costs of a Prius, we can still do good for the environment by changing our habits, which doesn’t cost a dime (and even saves money), and is a simple and effective way to decrease our impact on the environment. Instead of saying "Well I’m not installing solar panels or buying a hybrid so oh well," it’s a reminder that small changes add up.

I liked the statistics the writer, Ken Bensinger, included in his article:
–Driving at 65 mph burns up 10% more gas than at 55. That jumps to 25% at 75 mph. Also, reaching 65 mph from a standstill requires 40% more energy than getting to 5 mph, so driving at a constant speed is much more efficient than starting and stopping.
– We’ve all heard of rolling down windows on surface streets and using the AC on the highway but the AC isn’t as much of a gas guzzler as you’d think. With the AC on, their fuel economy dropped by only slightly more than 1 mpg. "On particularly aerodynamic cars, opening windows can result in as much as a 20% drop in fuel efficiency, compared with only a 5% to 10% penalty for using the AC."
–Most interestingly, gas containing ethanol gets worse fuel economy than regular unleaded, another drawback to ethanol. Gas with 10% ethanol decreased his fuel efficiency by 9%.

Sure, it’s not possible to drive a slow 65 mph or less all the time but I’ve found that I can use cruise control for at least half my commute to work, after a get on the freeway and before traffic tightens near downtown. It may feel like you’re driving slowly at first, but once you start noticing that it does save gas, maybe more people will do it.

This is what my co-worker suggested in response to my last post about families taking living green to the extreme, including a family that has allegedly reused the same Ziploc plastic bag for a year (she's the one who forwarded the article to me):

"I think it would be an awesome New Year's resolution to use one box of plastic bags for the year. That way, you're not committed to using just one bag for the year, instead you'd have an entire box to wash out and reuse. What do you think?"

What do I think? I'm in. Anyone else with me? You can pick the size of your box, as long as it isn't one of those jumbo zillion-count boxes from Costco.

Taking green dieting to the "energy anorexic" extreme

A day after I replaced a whopping two lightbulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, I read an article in the New York Times that basically scoffed at my feeble attempts at reducing my carbon footprint. My co-worker forwarded it to me. It starts with a family in New York determined to reduce their energy use to 10% of the national average. They've unplugged their fridge and use frozen water to cool food in the summer and store food outside in the winter. I'm not sure what their homemade composting toilet is, but I don't think I want to know. At least the mother acknowledges that her neighbors think she's cooky.

It's a fun article that briefly made me want to have chickens running around my apartment so I could harvest my own eggs but once I got over that fantasy it didn't make me feel guilty. There have gotta be better and easier changes than following the lead of the guy in Culver City who sometimes relieves himself on his lawn to save a flush.

According to the article, Al Gore is on my side. His We Campaign encourages simpler steps like washing clothes in cold water (which I'm doing as I type). But I did take away one tip from the article. Green extreme, the Seattle version, has been washing and reusing the same plastic Ziploc bag for a year. That reassured me that I can reuse my plastic bags longer than the week I give them before I figure they're unsanitary or gross. The trick is giving the bag a good washing. All right, I'll try that. Not for a year, I'm not that crazy. At least not yet.

Giving carbon offsets a try

On the checkout page at gaiam.com, where I was buying insulated curtains for my bedroom (they're supposed to reduce energy costs by keeping your room cool in the summer and warm in the winter), I had the choice to contribute $2 to plant trees that will offset the carbon impact from shipping the curtains. Now I have to say that I'm skeptical of carbon offsets. I wonder if trees would be planted anyway, so is it really a ruse to alleviate consumer guilt? And could we possibly plant enough trees to make a difference? The program is run through The Conservation Fund, which the website said keeps its administrative costs low so more of your donation goes toward actually planting trees.

So I went ahead and added a $2 Go Zero donation, swayed by a short video showing the Fund planting trees in an area of Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It was just $2 and since I was buying the curtains to make my apartment more "eco-friendly," it felt hypocritical to not donate. Regardless of whether it really reduces my carbon impact, it's never a bad idea to plant trees.

Good LA Times editorial on the candidates and energy

First, a disclaimer: I had hoped to take the train to work today but when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. I didn't have the will to get up. So I accept my own hypocrisy when I point out today's Los Angeles Times editorial, which calls on the next president to have the will to enact an energy policy that is good for the environment. I like the facts in this editorial about things I knew loosely but not concretely (like that it will take 20 years for offshore drilling to lower the cost of gas significantly).

The editorial points out that "clean coal" is just a disguise for more of the same in coal-producing states, and that McCain's zealousness to build 45 new nuclear plants is ludicrous (being from Las Vegas, which for as long as I can remember has been fighting the government's proposal to store nuclear waste at nearby Yucca Mountain, I'm obviously 100% against nuclear power).

But the editorial ends with some hope. Perhaps, it says, once elected Candidate X will stop pandering and become President X, demanding real change and even sacrifice. I read between the lines on that one and assume they think there's only one candidate who can and will do that. It's the only one who mentioned sacrifice in the last presidential debate, as I pointed out in my previous post.

Here's the text of the editorial:

Editorial
A president with an energy plan: Neither nuclear nor 'clean coal' will solve the crisis.
October 15, 2008

Before most people had ever heard of commercial paper, they knew that high oil prices were squeezing both their wallets and the nation's economy, and the presidential candidates spent more time talking about gas tanks than banks. The financial meltdown of recent weeks hasn't just overshadowed the energy crisis, it has eased it in the short term -- gasoline prices have fallen because oil traders fear that demand will shrink in a global recession. Yet meeting our energy challenges will remain among the most important concerns of the next president.

That's why it's doubly disappointing that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has a responsible energy plan. In pandering to voters in swing states, both have backed dangerous, dirty energy sources in contradiction of their own principles.

The United States gets nearly half of its electricity from coal-fired plants. These plants account for about a third of the nation's emissions of carbon dioxide, the prime contributor to global warming. They are also a top source of other air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, and worldwide they are the No. 1 source of deadly mercury pollution. You can't pretend to be a crusader against climate change and pollution, as both candidates do, while favoring expanded coal use -- yet Obama and McCain waste few opportunities to declare their support for “clean coal.” If by this they mean they want more research into pumping coal emissions underground, good for them. But the voters in coal-producing states such as West Virginia interpret the candidates' rhetoric as an endorsement of increased mining and burning of coal using existing processes that are anything but clean, and Obama and McCain have done nothing to disabuse them of that notion.

"Drill, baby, drill" has become one of the McCain campaign's catchphrases, yet the pursuit of increased offshore drilling is a purely political maneuver that government energy officials say won't lower prices significantly within 20 years. To his credit, Obama frequently points out that the United States sits on 3% of the world's oil supplies but uses 25% of the world's oil, so ending our reliance on foreign sources can be achieved only by cutting consumption and developing environmentally responsible biofuels -- yet he too agreed to end a federal ban on new offshore drilling projects.

And then there's "safe nuclear," a phrase as oxymoronic as "clean coal" that both candidates like to toss around. Nuclear waste remains toxic for millenniums, and no one has figured out a sufficiently permanent way of storing it. McCain's plan to build 45 nuclear plants by 2030 is either disingenuous or naive. Because the nation's existing plants are crumbling, they will have to be decommissioned as fast as new ones can be built, making it unlikely that there would be a net increase in nuclear power even if McCain's goal could be met. Moreover, private investors have no interest in building nuclear plants unless they receive generous subsidies and taxpayer-backed loans, yet the Congressional Budget Office considers such loans so risky that "well above 50%" of them would default. Nuclear power isn't just environmentally irresponsible, it's fiscally irresponsible.

Conservatives argue that it would be impossible to get all of our power from renewable sources such as the sun and wind, so we might as well get used to fossil fuels. This is a cynical excuse for continuing our reliance on dirty and climate-altering, but cheap, energy sources. Our power supply might never be completely clean, but we've barely scratched the surface of what could be done to improve energy efficiency and raise the share of renewable power. Clean power would create jobs for American workers and innovations that could be sold around the world, while greater efficiency would lower consumers' energy bills by cutting demand.

Early in the campaign, Obama and McCain were both unafraid to make such precepts the centerpiece of their energy plans. We can only hope that when one of these men finds himself in the White House, his brighter angels will win out, but the candidates' quick embrace of wrongheaded policies in reaction to an uptick in oil prices isn't encouraging.

Environmental policy is closely connected to energy policy, because energy generation is a source of many of the world's most pressing environmental woes. Obama and McCain both understand that global warming is a serious problem, and both have proposed capping carbon emissions to solve it, though Obama would impose stricter controls. On other environmental issues, there is a similar dynamic: McCain is greener than the GOP mainstream, but still not as green as Obama and the Democratic mainstream. A good example is the "roadless rule," a Clinton administration ban on road building in national forests that was overturned by President Bush. Obama co-sponsored a bill that would codify the ban in federal law; during his time in the Senate, McCain has voted for and against giving subsidies to timber companies for building forest roads. Advantage: Obama.

The roadless rule is only one of dozens of environmental protections that have been undermined or simply eliminated under Bush -- a big part of the next president's job will be trying to reseed the scorched earth left behind by the current one. Near the top of his list should be granting the Clean Air Act waiver allowing California to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles, which was denied in December by the Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling was so blatantly political that it would be surprising if either McCain or Obama allowed it to stand, though Obama is likely to make overturning it a higher priority.

Obama and McCain are both well informed about environmental matters, and either would be a vast improvement over Bush. But the next president needs to be more than knowledgeable. He needs to have the political courage to demand change -- and possibly even sacrifice. Obama has shown little of this kind of courage so far, but McCain has shown still less.

Finally, a call for sacrifice

"What sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream?"

That was my favorite question in Tuesday's presidential debate. How can a country that's at war, trillions of dollars in debt and partly responsible for problems like global warming NOT be asking more of its citizens? It also gets to the philosophy of the candidates and how they would inspire the country if they became president. That's what I want. With all the bad news in the newspaper every day, I want to be inspired to act. And I want to feel like America is helping to make the world better, not worse. We need to be focusing on global warming and renewable energy, not spewing rhetoric like "drill baby drill" and "reduce our dependence on foreign oil," which miss the big picture.

That's why not only was that my favorite question, but also my favorite answer. The question seemed to be about sacrifices Americans can make to get the economy back on track. And sure enough, McCain talked about economic stuff -- cutting government programs and earmarks. That was a slick answer because it doesn't require you and I, the "Americans" in the question, to take action. And it surely didn't inspire.

When Obama spoke, I sat up and listened (literally, because I had been flopped on the ground tiredly watching the reairing of the debate at 11 p.m.). He said Bush missed an opportunity after 9/11 when he called on Americans to go out and shop. "That wasn't the kind of call to service that I think the American people were looking for." I agreed and thought it was noteworthy because you rarely hear politicians talk about that anymore. Then he used energy as an example of how Americans can make sacrifices for the greater good. "There is going to be the need for each and every one of us to start thinking about how we use energy." YES, that's it!!! Going green has become part of our culture but is action really happening? How many people have replaced their traditional lights bults with compact fluorescent light bulbs, shop with reusable grocery bags and drive hybrids or take the bus? And even if everyone did that, would it still be enough? I think people would do more and demand more from the auto and energy industries if they had a leader on the issue. Someone who says, "Each and every one of us can start thinking about, how can we save energy in our homes and our buildings?"

In all, I felt Obama's response was muddled. He threw out the same old call for increased oil production, clean coal and nuclear energy. OK, fine, he had to say that to win votes in key states and not seem too quote -- liberal. And he got specific only when it came to government action, like incentives for buying fuel-efficient cars. But I'm not completely cynical. I feel hopeful that if he's elected, he will bring attention to the real energy issue: global warming and what America, the world's biggest polluter, is going to do about it. I hope he will get more specific about the sacrifices Americans need to make and frame global warming as the most important issue of our generation. We need a call to action like Kennedy's resolve to get us to the moon.

After eight years of Bush, it's rare that I hear a politician echoing my thoughts and view of the world. Maybe that's what excited me the most. I feel like Obama gets it and isn't afraid to say so.

You can watch that part of the debate on the CNN website, by typing in "sacrifice" in the search field at http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/video.transcript/index.html

Who needs bleach?

Are you sitting down? You're about to read the most exciting blog post EVER!! Yes, really. It's about ... my dishwasher.

Actually, you might (stress 'might') be interested in this. I know one person who is, so in his honor I'm writing about the joy that clean dishes bring.

So one of the small being-green changes I made when I moved into my apartment was not rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, which is a waste of water if they come out clean anyway. And they did! These are dishes that sat in the dishwasher for a week, some with chocolate cake crumbs, others with ring-around-the-coffee-mug stains. And they came out spotless. I'll give partial credit to the new dishwasher in my apartment, which doesn't seem expensive but is clearly not the same caliber as the cheapo dishwasher my old landlord bought that left our glasses foggy.

Now on to credit #2: Trader Joe's dishwashing powder. I told my coworker Mike that I'd bought that instead of conventional powder because it has no bleach and phosphates (which I guess are bad for the environment and "toxic" for our bodies. I haven't bothered to look into what exactly phosphates are and why they're bad, but for now I'll take TJ's word for it). My coworker wanted to know if the environmentally friendly brand would actually work, and I'm happy to report it's solid. In fact, better than solid. I inspected my glasses and there was no grimy film or residual fingerprints. Just sparkling goodness!

If happiness is appreciating the small things in life, then I'm a happy camper (and only partially embarrassed I've taken the time to share this with the world)!

Moving time ... the follow up

I've been in my new apartment for almost a week. Before I moved in, I envisioned myself treading so lightly on the environment that it would hardly know I was there ... using less water in general and especially less hot water, not keeping lights on. But ya, I'm no Green Superwoman. I'm still enjoying my hot showers and keep several lights on at once because otherwise I'd be straining to read or feeling like I was trespassing in my own place. What can I say, bright lights make a home feel cheery. But I have made small adjustments. I've been scraping the food off my plates instead of rinsing them under the sink before I put them in the dishwasher so I don't waste water. I haven't run a load yet so I'm waiting to see if they come out clean. I read that tip in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine and it kind of hit me over the head with how obvious it was. Another tip I got from that mag is using a French press instead of a plug-in coffee maker, which I like doing because the coffee from my French press tastes better and keeps the coffee hotter (one of my major peeves with my crappy coffee maker). But then I got thinking, does it use more energy to boil the water on the stove for the French press, or to use the coffee maker? This is what buying "here are a million and one ways to go green" magazines does to a person. I bought the magazine at the grocery store before my move. I almost jumped I was so giddy with excitement. Ooh, the possibilities and things to learn.

I've read it cover to cover, even the article on how to make schools more green (no I don't have children but I also don't have cable or Internet yet so I've reading everything in sight. In my defense I did skip the article on carpets). The most interesting article was on kitchen storage. It recommended using glass and stainless steel containers and said to throw away old plastic containers because they leech chemicals and bacteria can form in small scratches. It also said if you are going to use plastic containers, #5 is safe but don't heat them or put hot food in them because they will start to deteriorate (#5 includes yogurt containers but also the Ziploc and Glad storage containers you can buy at Target). I didn't have anything too egregious in my kitchen, although it did make me wish I'd read it before I bought my cutting boards since it featured cool cutting boards made from recycled material.

The other big "green" effort I want to make is to buy used furniture. I need a few items but haven't bought anything yet, besides a small table I put by the door to hold my keys ($10 from a nameless store on 4th Street, Long Beach's thrift store row). Once I get Internet I'll be checking out Craigslist a lot I'm sure. Keeping my promise to buy used furniture has been helpful because otherwise I'd be flipping wistfully through every catalog that comes in the mail and feeling the need to hit the malls. Instead, I'm flipping wistfully through the Green Guide!

Moving time

Oh man, it's been two weeks since my last post. But I have an excuse. Really, it's a good one. I've been busy looking for a new place to live. Now that I've found a place, it's time for the move, which offers up an interesting eco-challenge. How can I reduce my impact on the environment during one of life’s big changes? My coworker said he’d heard that moving is one of the most traumatic events in a person’s life. Which means it’s probably not so great on little ol’ Mother Earth either. Think moving boxes, moving vans traveling across the country and all the stuff you send to the landfill and new stuff imported from China that you buy.

I’ve got a few things going in my favor. First off, I’m moving a whoppin’ half mile away. (And I’ll try to find a local moving company so they don’t have to waste gas getting to my place.) I’ve got boxes from my last move and my office so I don’t need to buy new boxes. And I’m frugal, so I’m down with buying quality used furniture once I move in and figure out what I need.

But there are challenges.

1) I can’t buy everything used. I’m moving from a house with roommates into a one-bedroom apartment so I need basic things like trash cans, bathroom mats, cleaners, oh my!
My solution: I’ll try to buy eco-friendly, local and organic products when I can and when the green alternative isn't ridiculously expensive. I've had one success so far. This weekend I bought the all-natural Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner after reading a list of earth friendly cleaning products on the website for Real Simple magazine (my OCD cleaning bible). At $8 it's more expensive than a cleaner from Target but it’s concentrated so it’ll last a long time and I can use it in all my rooms, which means no need to buy a bunch of different cleaners.

2) I’m renting, which means I don’t have as much control as I would if I was buying a home. There’s a laundry room that I haven’t checked out yet, but I’m guessing the washer isn’t Energy Star. There’s a new dishwasher but I don’t think it’s Energy Star either (not that I’m complaining about new appliances).
My solution: Change what I can, like installing a low-pressure shower head. And I'll try to be energy efficient on my own, like not running the dishwasher until it’s full. That one will be easy since I have a crap load of dishes for one person. Another article on the Real Simple website (which has so much info, I was out of control clicking here, there and everywhere) said that dryers are horribly inefficient. I guess I could try air drying my clothes with a drying rack. OK, I agree to try that but I’ll have to see. If I end up a wet soggy mess at work because my clothes aren't dry, that may be a problem.

So far as I pack, I’ve been taking stuff I don’t want anymore to Goodwill so I haven’t had to throw much away. I even added an old eyeglass cleaning cloth to my donation bag. Hey, why not. Someone could use it. But going green can sometimes be expensive so I have to balance it with staying within my budget. Once I've moved I'll update my blog with how my green move is going. Now, I've gotta go do some more packing!

Train dreams and bus wishes

My mass transit life is on a downward spiral.

In May I started taking public transporation to work when I could. And back then I could fairly often -- two to three days a week. It was our "quiet" time when it's possible to leave right on time, or even a few minutes early, to catch the bus. I was leaving traffic and congestion behind and living the life.

But lately my public transporation commitment has been tested. We've gotten busier at work and I've started twice-weekly rugby practices, which I need to drive to. So now I'm down to taking public transportation just one day a week.

It would be more convenient to drive every day but I'm trying to stick to one day a week. For one, I want to save on gas. Even with prices back to what I was paying in May, it still ain't cheap. But my real motivation is to do more than just talk the talk of an environmentalist. It'll get harder again as summer fades and it gets darker sooner. I think it should still be safe but I have a feeling I won't be quite as carefree (and by that I mean zoned out reading the paper or listening to the shows I've podcasted) going through Watts and Compton on my way home.

The other day at the bar after rugby practice, one of my teammates mentioned that she carpools to work in Glendale. She lives in Long Beach too and I know she's been carpooling for years, way before it became cool because of global warming/high gas prices. She said she could take the train but it would take way too long. How long, I asked. Two hours. Man I felt like the uncool kid -- why was I putting up with these long trips? And this was a day after I'd worked late with a student and then ended up taking the train with her and giving her a ride home to San Pedro from where my car was parked at a Blue Line station. That meant I wasn't home to Long Beach until 9 p.m. My teammate is probably right that carpooling is better, but I don't think I can carpool since I wouldn't have as much flexibiltiy. But maybe I should keep an open mind. I used to say that taking public transporation wasn't an option because my office isn't near a rail line stop, but I've proven myself wrong. Well, kind of.

I wish LA had a better public transportation system so it was faster and easier to get around. Having to transfer from a fairly fast rail line to a bus really slows things down. And even with my office moving later this year to a slightly closer location, it'll still take just as long (and require two stinkin' transfers). I was asked today by someone why I lived so far from where I work. I told him I loved living in Long Beach. I've said that for four years and it's still true, but I'm definitely tired of driving to work and, at the moment, of my alternative.

One less paper cup on the way to the landfill ... almost

What inspired me to start this blog was coming back from Coffee Bean with a funny story about environmentalism gone awry.

At Christmas one of the former students at my work gave the editors Thomas Kinkade gift baskets with a mug, tea and sugar swizzle stick. Say what you will about whether mass produced art is really art, these mugs were great. Tall and thin, they were the perfect size for an experiment I'd been wanting to try.

One day I took my mug and walked next door to The Coffee Bean, where I treat myself to a latte about once a week. At the counter I told the girl, "Small mocha latte, half powder. And can you put it in my mug?" The young girl behind the counter looked a little confused, but said OK. My chest was bursting with pride. "I'm doing good for the environment," I thought. Then I watched in horror as they made my latte in a paper cup and then proceeded to pour the drink into my mug and THROW THE CUP AWAY. When I explained to them that I had wanted to save them from having to use a paper cup (which isn't recyclable), they claimed that the mug was too big to fit under their machine (hogwash! It's shorter than the commuter mugs they sell). I couldn't wait to run back upstairs to my office and tell my coworkers about my failed attempt and laugh at the idiocy of these alleged baristas. (And on top of it all, the commuter cup discount is only 10 cents. I'd been all ready for my green plan to be a bargain to boot.)

I'm happy to report that things are better now. The second time I tried, I held up my mug and said in a slow and clear voice, "I'd like you to make it IN my mug." And then the barista, one of the competent ones, made it in my mug just fine. Since then I've had no mix-ups. And last time I was there I discovered BYOM had gone from "secret" menu to mainstream. There on the drink blackboard was a note saying drinks made in commuter mugs get .10 cents off.

Half the time I forget to grab the mug when I go on my coffee run, but when I do remember I feel good about not killing a tree for a cup with a life span of a few hours. I just have to walk slowly so I don't spill coffee all over myself on the way back to my office.

The 720

Sometimes when I'm on the bus and the minutes are ticking ever more quickly toward 9 a.m., I wonder if there's a faster way to get to work using mass transit than my current route of the Blue Line and 16 bus. I chose the route because of it's simplicity (hey, just one transfer!). The rail portion isn't so bad but the mere seven-mile bus ride that takes 35 minutes slows things down. I also wouldn't mind incorporating more walking since that's one of the benefits to using public transportation, but with 30 miles to go morning and evening, that has the potential to really slow things down.

One alternative route is taking the 720, the Rapid bus that runs along Wilshire. On a bit of a lark, I decided to try it yesterday after work. I left the office and didn't feel a bit of remorse as I headed off to Wilshire and La Brea, even when two 16 buses passed me. I was enjoying my .8-mile walk through the neighborhood just south of my office.

Google maps, with it's awesome new feature of showing walking routes, said it would take me 17 minutes. I got to the Rapid stop in 15 -- take that Google maps! There were about a dozen people waiting in the hot sun. A fancy schmancy electronic sign told me a bus was coming in three minutes. The bus came but then, in classic bus horror-story fashion, it passed right on by. I looked at the sign again and saw I had five more minutes to kill until the next bus. It was about this time that my walking high wore off. I stared across the street at a building with a pilates studio, thinking I could be there instead of wasting time on this street corner, one more missed bus away from becoming one of those sweaty bus people.

The next bus stopped and we all piled on. Some people jumped on through the rear doors. I used the front door since it was my first time on a Rapid bus and didn't know if that was against the rules.

That worked out because I had the best view on the bus. I stood next to the bus driver and got to watch the street ahead through the giant windshield. I felt like a passenger in a car since we barely made stops (just one at Crenshaw). It was the closest feeling to driving I've had on a bus, even with standing, my foot touching someone else's foot and my back lightly caressing the person behind me (but he was cute so that was OK).

I got off at Western and Wilshire, bolted for the Red Line station and waited just a few minutes before the train pulled away. Eight minutes later I was back on familiar ground, the downtown 7th Street Metro Station. I got off the train and looked at my watch. I had missed the 6:46 p.m. Blue Line train by a minute. One damn minute! If only that first 720 had stopped.

I got back to Long Beach at 7:33, pretty much the same arrival time as my old route. So in theory this walk-bus-train-train route would be faster if I could catch the 720 right away and didn't have to wait much for the trains, but lets get real folks.

I might take this route again on a day I feel like walking. Maybe I'll take the 720 all the way downtown. That's one less transfer. Ooh, maybe that's my "miracle" route. I can keep dreaming, can't I?

Bus woes

Last Friday was not a good day for the bus.

I planned to see a movie (yes of course Batman) after work with a friend. I drove to work since I didn't want to take the train home late at night. But impressively, my friend took the train, knowing he'd be taking it back late at night after the movies. He's taken the train to work before but this time he was boasting of his "zero carbon emissions" since he biked instead of driving to the Red Line station near his house. Yet when he asked how to get to my office, which is near the Grove where we'd be seeing the movie, this is what I ran up against (recreated as best I remember):

"Is there a train station near your office?"

"No, it's three miles away. The easiest way is to take the bus."

"No way."

"No it's not bad, really. I take the bus. You can get on the 16 downtown. It'll drop you off right in front of my office or the Grove."

I wasn't able to sway him so the discussion ended with me agreeing to pick him up from the Red Line station three miles from my office and then drive us three miles back to the movie theater. For anyone counting, yes that's a total of six miles that I hadn't planned on driving.

"These are your six miles," I told him. He was a good sport and accepted them.

So he didn't have a zero carbon footprint day but he could have if riding the bus was more accepted.

Which brings me to problem #2. As I was driving to pick up my friend, blocks away my coworker was stuck waiting 30 minutes for her bus to come. She arrived five minutes early but the 6:12 p.m. bus just didn't come. And this was a busy bus stop on a major street during a peak commuting time. She said she could have been home in 20 minutes, so she was making a sacrifice by taking the bus since she after her bus finally arrived she still needed to transfer to another one. Since she doesn't live too far away from work she's not saving money by taking the bus, she's doing it for the environment. But I'm sure stuff like this will make her think twice next Friday morning when she's thinking of taking the bus again.

So, if I had someone from the MTA in front of me, this is what I'd say. You need a new marketing campaign to attract professionals to want to get out of their cars and take the bus. You need a better website. Mta.net is a mess, especially for first-time visitors. It's enough to put you back in your car. And finally (and perhaps firstly), you need to make a bigger commitment to having your buses run on time. I know, you can't add more buses overnight but there must be something you can do now (more supervisors and oversight?). Taking the bus won't become more popular if it takes twice as long to get home.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on taking the train and bus to work tomorrow. Pray for me!

My 15 seconds of fame?

I have a confession. I want my blog to get noticed by Steve Hymon, the Los Angeles Times transportation writer. I'm not sure why, besides the obvious narcissism. He wrote a weekly column in the California section that was near and dear to my heart, Rode Sage (always liked that name). Then the Times kicked him to the blogosphere where he writes the Bottleneck Blog, which I can relate to more often than I care to admit. He's blogging about traffic, mass transit, gas prices ... I'm blogging about traffic, mass transit, gas prices. OK, so he's a veteran Times reporter and I'm, well, new to this whole blogging thing (but hey Steve, I am a former reporter). I feel a synergy in our missions so I just want him to know I'm out there, like I know he's out there, writing posts with the word "dude" in them. Maybe it's that casual tone that he gets to use on his blog that makes me feel like I know him and, by extension, makes me think he'd like to read my blog.

But don't you worry, I'm not sitting on my laurels waiting for him to find me at urbandieter.blogspot.com (need that repeated Steve? That was ur-ban-diet-er-dot-blog-spot-dot-com). Yesterday I commented on his post, which was about the most random and trivial of things: the loud gum chewer behind him on the train (the "dude"). "This happened to me too" I began. He had no comments yet, so being one of the first ones to comment will surely help me get his attention, right? When I filled out the form it asked for my name, e-mail address and URL. URL? Uh, not sure what that means since most people don't have URLs but what the heck, I'll just type in my little ol' blog address. And voilà, one step closer to being discovered.

I wish I were this cool

So as noted in my previous posts, I spend a lot of time in my car. And my favorite in-car activity is listening to NPR talk shows. Coming home from the gym last week I caught Talk of the Nation and the topic was about two things I care about: the green movement and the youth voice. Halfway through the show, which had as a guest Robert Redford, a teenager performed a slam poem she wrote about global warming. It was amazing! I couldn't believe she wrote that as a teen, and this coming from someone who has a lot of faith in teenagers' abilities since I work with teens in my job. She didn't rattle off boring statistics but told a story about this little girl she babysits (and being scared by the "global warming" game the girl played). I don't want to give any more away, I just highly recommend you listen. It's an example of great storytelling and of how the younger generation is growing up with the fear of global warming as part of their everyday life. But unlike the hole in the ozone layer that was the crisis of my teenage years, this problem doesn't have a simple and manageable fix. Scary stuff indeed.

To listen, go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92584973 and click on Listen Now. It starts at 12:30 into the broadcast.

Dear Bus Driver: Thank you

Maybe I'm a sucker, but if a stranger says good evening to me, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Good evening." That's what my bus driver said today when I got off the bus. That was a first. Most bus drivers don't speak to you at all, and then there are the ones who aren't very nice or drive so aggressive it's scary. She was the nicest bus driver I've come across, by far. She was even nice to the people causing her trouble.

This was the 316 fast bus, which skips some stops that the 16 makes. We stopped at a red light and some people tried to get off the bus at a 16 stop. "This isn't a stop," she said. "You can't get off here. You need to read the signs when you get on." Then she let them off or they pushed the door open anyway, and she still ended her lecture with "thank you."

She elicited thank yous from almost everyone who got off the bus. Some had a specific reason to be courteous, like the guy who has asked what stop was closest to the 16 stop he usually gets off at, but others hadn't said a word to her but still said thank you when they got off the bus. All I can figure is that it was an unspoken acknowledgment for making their bus ride a pleasant experience, for infusing the bus with a "lets all get along" vibe. Well, she had me at hello (actually she said good afternoon when I got on the bus). So when I got off downtown with only a few passengers remaining on the bus, I felt bold and yelled "thank you" from the rear exit.

I e-mailed MTA customer service tonight to let them know how pleasant and respectful she was. I didn't get her name but I told them the route and time so hopefully they can look up who was driving. She deserves some recognition because Metro needs more drivers like that. It would be great to have that kind of experience all the time because it really did put me in a better mood.

Who's in charge of this nut house?

The danger (or benefit, depending on how you look at it) of people knowing I have an environmental blog is that whenever I tell a story I get asked, "Are you going to blog about it?", which just reminds me that I should and if I don't, it's because I'm being lazy. So, to clear my conscious, here's a story about today's commute, with the theme: who's in charge of this nut house?

Things started off great. I left work early with a four-day holiday weekend ahead of me. After waiting seven minutes or so, the bus approaches, and it's the fast 316. I pull out my day pass, stand near the curb and "hail" the bus in the way I've seen others do it -- not raising my arm like I'm hailing a taxi, but subtly pointing my arm out toward the ground. Well, apparently I should have been more obvious. The bus zoomed right on by. I understand when buses don't stop because they literally don't have room for one more passenger, but I saw standing room. There was room for me. I text a friend in anger. Then after five minutes or so, the slow 16 comes by and picks me up. This bus is full too and it's the usual rush hour dance -- I hold the strap and sway to the rhythm of the road, then more space opens up farther back and I move, only to be in the way of a woman exiting the bus. Then I'm in the way again and keep moving back. It lightens up after Western and I finally sit.

But the first half of my commute was just the appetizer. Things got more fun when I got downtown. At the 7th Street Metro Station, I turned the corner to go down the stairs to the Blue Line platform and saw a mass of people on my platform. What are they all doing here? Now that's a photo for people who think no one takes the train. Before I felt the need to ask a stranger what was going on, they announce that a train is coming. Oh god, I thought, there's going to be a riot. They made another announcement, this time saying that three trains were coming within minutes of each other and not everyone was going to fit on the first train. I don't have much faith in people (individual people yes, but in a group they turn tribal), and sure enough, tons of people squeezed onto the first train like sardines, leaving those of us still on the platform to haughtily laugh at their shortsightedness.

The next train came a few minutes later and I got on. I spent most of the ride standing in the corner behind a guy with a bike with nowhere to grip. Inevitably, at a big lurch he fell back into me and I put my hand on his back to stop him (thankfully he wasn't sweaty or smelly, which is quite common on the train). He apologized but I said it was OK because I saw it as me helping him not fall over. We all have to work together here, people. Which leads me to the most interesting part of the ride. At the Florence stop a guy jumped on as soon as the doors opened and blocked the people who wanted to get off. Bike Guy yelled at him but he acted like nothing was wrong. So there I was squished against the wall, with Bike Guy in front of me and now Rude Guy pushing up against us as a dozen people squeezed past to get off the train. Oh hey, did I mention taking public transportation is just swell. Everyone should do it!

I can laugh about this because I was in a good mood. But if this had been a normal Thursday, I might have given Rude Guy a piece of my mind. OK, I'm totally not that person. I probably would have been crying on the inside by the time I got home, then washed away the pain with some chocolate. What I did do was tell my friend, to which she replied, "Are you going to blog about it?"

David Lazarus takes the bus

First it was reusable grocery bags that went from eccentric hippie status to cool. Now it's taking the bus. I keep reading stories by reporters about their experience with taking public transportation. The latest is today's column by Los Angeles Times business columnist David Lazarus (who does great work), about his week of taking public transporation to work, experimenting each day with different bus lines and the subway to find out which is quickest and easiest. (As a sidenote: Sadly, each article I read has a higher gas price. His begins, "With the price of gas creeping toward $5 a gallon ...")

I agree with most of his observations, except when he says he arrived home exhausted on the first day. Sure, it's tricky at first when you don't know the routes, but I think he should have mentioned that after you get the hang of it, it's actually more relaxing than driving. Maybe that wasn't his experience, but it's been mine. But I'm glad he wrote it as a way to get more Angelenos thinking about taking public transportation, at least one day a week as he suggests. To quote: "Baby steps."

A landfill of energy bar wrappers

Have you ever wondered if you could recycle the wrappers from energy bars? I have, and I know I'm not alone because it's a topic among my coworkers whenever someone eats an energy bar (which is often). Considering how popular these bars have become (remember when the chewy Power Bars in misleading chocolate and funky banana were all we had to choice from), I'd feel better knowing all those wrappers -- 20 billion according to one statistic I read -- don't have to go to a landfill.

While on vacation I've decided to make it my mission to find out if these wrappers are recyclable. A few weeks ago my coworker gave it her best shot by e-mailing the makers of Luna Bar, but alas, they never responded. Yesterday I called the Long Beach recycling department and the woman on the other end answered my question by reading from a list I had already seen on their website. Yes, I know you can recycle bottles and cans, but what about the trickier stuff that isn't mentioned? So she guessed. She said that since the wrappers have foil, they aren't recyclable. I also asked about egg cartons (since I had her on the phone) and she thought they are recyclable since they're made of cardboard. I'm glad I went to an "expert" source.

Oh I know, just Google it, right? But that's so easy. I wanted to do it the official way. OK fine. A Google search for "Can I recycle energy bar wrappers?" turns up this sentence: "Every year millions of non-recyclable energy bar wrappers end up in our landfills." Damn. But wait, I click on a link to a program for recycling wrappers. Aha. I've found the Holy Grail!

The website http://www.terracycle.net/cbb/cbb.htm explains that TerraCycle, Clif Bar and Balance Bar have started a program to "upcycle" wrappers by making them into other things, like purses. They'll send you bags to put your wrappers in and after you've collected 200, you send them back. And the program is FREE. Where do I sign up? Screech ... my excitement grinds to a halt. After I sign up to be part of the Energy Bar Brigade (ain't that catchy) I get sent an e-mail saying I've been put on a waiting list. Despite the plethora of press they've received, it's a trial program with only 500 spots. (Although later I got an e-mail saying they're in the process of expanding.)

My search continues, while energy bar wrappers collect in my room ...

Today I returned to my Internet search. The website http://www.lime.com/blog/greenlagirl/2008/06/09/oh_things_you_can_upcycle%20says provides addresses where you can send wine corks and used Brita filters. But that's all I find. It appears the answer to my question is a big fat NO.

I know that the best solution is to eat less energy bars. I'm opposed to them for dietary reasons too. Every time I buy one I hear Michael Pollan's voice saying, "eat what your grandmother would eat," meaning simple, whole foods. But it's too hard to always have a whole food snack on hand when you're gone all day at work and exercising after work. Sometimes I just gotta have an energy bar.

So until I get my TerraCycle bags in the mail, I will try to buy fewer energy bars and eat more whole food snacks instead. That'll be easy while I'm on vacation. It'll get trickier when I go back to work.

But global warming doesn't take vacation

I'm writing this while on vacation. For two weeks I can sleep in, be carefree, see family and friends and make a long list of things I will only partially accomplish. As I've been deciding how to spend my time, I've also been wondering how far I should go to have a "green" vacation. I'd only give myself a C.

The thing is, some changes are easy and don't require much sacrifice, like toting around reusable bags and recycling. Even taking public transportation to work is only a slight inconvenience. I'm still going to work -- that part hasn't changed -- I'm just leaving earlier (while arriving more relaxed and spending less money, so maybe it's actually slightly convenient). But what about changes that require a sacrifice? Should I be using public transportation while on vacation, instead of driving places? Should I even be going on a road trip to Palm Springs and Las Vegas (but of course I will)? Should I be using my bike more, since I have more time to get places?

On Monday a friend and I drove 40 miles to the Getty Villa, but how the heck would we have gotten there without driving? The bus would have taken ages. That's the frustration with ditching your car in sprawling LA -- it really limits you to what you can do. And even if getting there using public transportation is doable, I'm not yet comfortable with taking the train back to Long Beach at night.

Today during my leisurely breakfast, I read an article in the Times that said the effects of global warming from developed nations, including the U.S. (the largest producer of greenhouse gases), will be felt in Africa, which doesn't produce nearly as much pollution. I knew that already, but it was a reminder that global warming will hurt others before it hurts us. And yet here I am, resisting change because it might cause a little pain to my lifestyle. (I'd also recommend the Times' series on congestion. Yesterday's article featured a woman whose commute is five hours a day!)

I'll report back after my vacation with how I feel I did overall. As for today, I'm still average. I've driven a little bit around Long Beach, but later I'm going to bike to the gym, which I don't have time to do when I'm working. After a spinning class, biking back I'm sure I will be feeling a little pain ... literally.

The farmers market

My recent bounty from the farmers market. Aren't those mini tomatoes adorable?

When the Los Angeles Times recently devoted its Food section to the topic of farmers markets, I can't say I was surprised that it left out Long Beach. It may not be as big and well-known as Santa Monica's farmers market, but I consider the Sunday farmers market in Long Beach to be solid, with its mix of fruit and vegetable stands, along with sellers of grass-fed beef, seafood, nuts, bread, dates and herbs, along with a crafts fair in the same parking lot. All it needs is a table of cheese and it could rival the wonderful farmers markets in Geneva where my sister lived for two years (that and an espresso cart!).

As part of my effort to be more conscientious of my consumer habits and how they impact the environment, I've tried to shop more at the farmers market because the produce is grown locally, or at least in the state, which means less pollution in shipping it here. A lot of the produce is organic, and even if not, it's grown on small farms I'd prefer to support over mega agriculture. And it's a blast. It turns the boredom of the weekly trip to the grocery store upside down -- the selection is more diverse (sweet oranges, giant Pomelo grapefruits, a colorful assortment of mini potatoes, bulbous eggplant) and the samples abound (by the time I left on Sunday my stomach hurt a little from all the natural sugars in the oranges, apples, cherries, strawberries and date I sampled).

I was surprised the other day when a friend had never heard of it. Still, the market is doing well, if my visit this Sunday was any indication. At noon the parking lot was full of cars from shoppers, bicyclists and boaters. It runs on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Alamitos Bay Marina off Second Street near PCH, across from the Whole Foods.

It's small enough that just a few trips makes you feel like a regular. I've gone enough times that I recognize the regular vendors, like the woman who is more aggressive about inviting you to taste-test her strawberries. A few weeks ago I overheard someone asking where the "spice guy" was and actually knew the answer. I told her he had shut down his stand and moved inland.

My strategy is to buy what I see, making a mental shopping list on the fly and putting together a meal depending on what's in season. So this week when I spotted a bag of three zucchini for $1 and then a $1 bag of yellow squash, a tofu stir-fry seemed an obvious choice. In the same bargain-hunter's paradise, I picked up a bag of three onions and a small head of cabbage, each $1. I added sugar snap peas from another stand to the mix (a pricier addition at $2 for a small green basket). Earlier at the herbs stand when I smelled the mint, contemplating making a fruit salad, the seller handed me another kind of mint to smell. It was a sweeter version called chocolate mint. I don't turn down chocolate, even in mint form, so that went into my bag too. I didn't feel like buying a lot of fruit so once I decided on stir-fry I figured I could add the mint to it, making it Thai-style with low-fat coconut milk. It sounded like a plan. After buying broccoli (which I cooked that night and I'll be damned, it tasted much fresher than broccoli from the grocery store), a tomato, adorable mini tomatoes on the vine, sweet oranges and adorable mini plums -- I was ready to head out, having spent a mere $16.

Now that I've gotten used to shopping at the farmers market, my next goal is to ride my bike there (it's about three miles).

Here's a link to the Times story on shopping at farmers markets: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-cooking7-2008may07,0,6612313.story

A statistic I can be proud to be part of

With gas prices above $4 a gallon, I'm not the only person in LA exploring the web of train and bus routes for the first time. According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of people riding the train is up 15 percent so far this year (wow!) and bus ridership has risen 8 percent. I'm used to opening up the newspaper and reading about what other people are doing. This time, I'm a part of that statistic and it feels good because I'm not contributing as much car pollution and I'm helping to support a mostly ignored public transportation system. The miles I'm not putting on my car aren't bad either.

And of course, I'm not the only one writing about using public transportation, since the concept is still new enough to be a novelty in this city of freeways. Although snarky, I liked this story by a BBC reporter about his first time taking the subway in LA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7413056.stm

Karma is a b****

This is just a quick follow-up to my last post. My "steady" -- aka public transportation -- must have gotten word of my complaint about his lateness yesterday because today was payback time. This morning I was tricked into getting on a train going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! I went one stop south, then had to get off and wait for the next train heading to LA. I know that sounds ridiculous, but here's a little secret about the Blue Line's Willow station: the 7:35 a.m. bus arrives on the southbound tracks from LA because it stops at Willow and then returns to LA instead of continuing south through Long Beach. At least, that's what it normally does. This morning was like the Twilight Zone. The train arrived two minutes early and then continued south instead of returning to LA. I had to laugh, even as I was unjustifiably embarrassed getting off the bus a mere stop after I'd gotten on (because really, who cared or was even paying attention to what I was doing).

Oh, and during my "dead zone" wait after work again, I snapped a photo of my new commuting shoes, taken in front of the poster at the bus stop for the Sex and the City movie. Fitting, since I'm probably as excited about my very comfortable brown suede Ahnu's from REI as Carrie Bradshaw was about a new pair of Manolo Blahniks!

He had me at hello, then reality set in

Public transportation kicked my butt today. I'm writing this so my blog is realistic about what it's like to ditch your car in sprawling LA. I don't want my first post to be my only record of the minutiae of taking public transportation since my mood at the time was that of a new crush, nervous but also excited about the littlest details. Now that I'm past the first few weeks and my heart is no longer all a flutter, I've settled into a steady relationship with the Blue Line and the 16/316 bus. We have good days and bad days, just like any couple.

Today I left work at 6:03 p.m. not too worried about what time I was catching the bus since I didn't have anywhere to be. But I got to the bus stop across from my office during what I discovered is a dead zone: too late to catch the 6:04 fast 316 and stuck waiting for the next 316 at 6:11, which didn't actually arrive until 6:15 (I've found that the 316 is horribly unreliable). In the meantime I brushed my hair, reviewed my timetables, took a picture of the bus stop sign, checked the time, then waited some more. I know, 10 minutes doesn't sound long, except it is when you're on a street corner waiting to start your commute home.

I was initially excited to have been able to grab the 316 instead of the 16 (because in theory it's the "fast" version of the 16) but it showed up five minutes late and dropped me off at my downtown stop five minutes late. I "wan" or "ralked" (anyone have a better way to combine the verbs ran and walked?) and got to the train station just in time to see my 7:46 p.m. train pulling out of the station. Damn. So I got on the next train and waited some more until it left the station, and finally arrived at my stop in Long Beach at 7:45, which got my home around 8 p.m., a half hour later than I could do on a good day. But like I said, this was a bad day. I was slightly annoyed and yes, I could take partial responsibility for not leaving work at 6 on the dot, but what fun would that be? I'd rather pout and see if I can get my way tomorrow. Or maybe some flowers!

Cruise control rules

Yikes, it's been over two weeks since my last post. I'm still getting a hang of this blogging thing, but I'll try to be better about updating on a regular basis from now on.

Today I'm writing about something I never cared about before except in the general sense of knowing I drive a car with good gas mileage: fuel efficiency. I've started to do several things to get better gas mileage, and it's actually worked.

First let me say that driving on I-15 in the Inland Empire is not the best place to test the benefits of driving 60 mph. I had my cruise control on and my speed set to 62 on Sunday driving out to Temecula to visit my sister. Granted, the speed limit is 70 so I was definitely at grandma speed, but I stayed in the far right lane and very happily didn't have to touch my brakes or accelerator the whole way from the 91 interchange to her exit, which is about 35 miles. I was amused by all the SUVs and trucks approaching me in waves and then speeding past, but the best moment was when a BMW passed me on the right, in the shoulder area that isn't even a lane. How big of a rush could you be in on a Sunday evening? (Wow, that was a "grandma moment") When I first started using cruise control a few weeks ago to maintain a consistent 60-65 mph on the freeway I was constantly looking out my rear view mirror because the cars coming up on me made me nervous. But now that I've realized that this does really save gas, as long as I'm in the slow lane, I figure whatever, let them zoom past me and waste their gas.

By the way, I finally had to fill up today (gasp, SIX days after my last fillup. That is AMAZING for me, since I usually have to fill up every four days) and the cheapest gas I found was $3.86 at an Arco. But instead of being angry at these weekly increases, I feel like I've found a way to beat the system: public transportation and cruise control! (Oh, and walking. I walked to the grocery store today. Although yes, I did later get in my car and drive to Huntington Beach, but it was for a bike maintenance class at REI, since I want to use my bike more. This is still SoCal after all, and cars still rule).

"The idle mind knows not what it wants"

Drinking this tea makes me happy, but thinking about its environmental impact does not.

I’m not a practicing Catholic, yet I have IT. Guilt. It’s genetic, I’m sure. My grandmother was so generous that her nickname was Martyr Mary. And my mother left me a voicemail the other day saying she hoped I wasn’t upset that she got off the phone with me to take a call from my pregnant sister (she actually felt the need to reassure me that she loves us equally). I don’t have children so the focus of my guilt is the environment. I berate myself when I forget my reusable grocery bags in the car when I’m shopping, inevitably not realizing I don’t have them until I’m standing in line with my bread and broccoli on the conveyer belt.

Another case in point: that hard-working sandwich bag with the tiny smear of residual peanut butter that I keep in my lunch sack to reuse, day after day. When should I finally recycle it and get a new one? At the start of the new week, or is that arbitrary? When does it become unsanitary, or just socially gross?

I’m concerned about my obsession over these trivial questions, although I can justify it too. I’m single, so I don’t have a spouse and children to distract me, and I spend a fair amount of time by myself commuting to work, which leaves time to reflect, ponder ... and berate.

It’s like the more I learn, the worse I get. I’ve started keeping my phone charger unplugged; that one’s easy. I’m turning off my computer more, but on the nights I don’t the whirling fan taunts me from across the room after I’ve turned the light off, like when Monica can’t stop thinking about the shoes she left in the living room on that one episode of Friends.

I can joke and say I have Environmental OCD, but sometimes I get annoyed at myself for feeling guilty. I know these fixations aren’t rational because the amount of energy I’m saving is infinitesimal. Yet it’s like I want to be perfect. But of course the idea of creating no waste doesn’t exist because I exist. I live, breathe, eat, consume, and everything I do leaves a trail. But how close can you get to perfect? Should I have recycled my 4-inch-by-2-inch Metro ticket? Can I recycle the thin plastic that my box of Twinings tea was wrapped in? I ask this as my hand hovers over the trash and recycle cans, paralyzed with indecision. And come to think of it, should I have bought tea imported from England? Think of the petroleum used to get it here.

Part of my purpose in starting this blog is to try to answer these questions, and the larger question of what is my personal responsibility for helping stop global warming. I hope to educate myself (like how does composting work?) and figure out what more I can do to enrich our world, and while doing so, my life.

Standing on the corner, waiting for the bus ...

I’m that person. You know the one, the one you make fun of for commuting in LA, for spending hours on the freeway alone in her car taunted by the car pool lane. The one who admits her commute can take up to an hour and a half. And that’s one way. I’m telling you this to explain why it was such a big deal to realize it’s not as hard as I had thought to take public transportation to work (a 30-mile trip from Long Beach to Los Angeles's mid-Wilshire area).

I wasn’t exactly a neophyte. I once participated in Bike to Work Day (bike/train) and more recently I took the train because I was meeting someone after work who could drive me home. But both seemed like special occasions. I wanted to find out whether I could do this on a regular basis.

I wake up at 6:30 a.m., a half hour earlier than usual. I leave my house at 7:27, two minutes late. Driving north on Long Beach Boulevard I'm right next to a train. Is that mine? No, it must be an earlier one because I’m still doing good for time.

After another brief panic that all the parking spots are full, I find more and get on the train. Relief. As soon as we leave the station, out the window I see an entrance to the 405 freeway. Thank god I’m not getting on that.

I eat breakfast (against the rules), read the newspaper, drink coffee (also against the rules). Truth be told, these are all things I do while driving (glancing at the newspaper at stop lights; I’m not that dangerous). But now it's safer and more relaxing. After the Wilmington stop I notice a Middle Eastern man reading a large book called the Holy Pascha. Is that fiction or some sort of religious text? I want to look it up when I get home. This is kinda fun.

I used to bemoan the idiocy of ending the Red Line at Western and not extending it further west, because then I (and countless others) could take the train to work. I dreamed of the Subway to the Sea as soon as I heard about the proposal. Because I had to take the Blue Line and then a bus to get to work (or the Blue Line to the Red Line and then TWO buses), I said it took too long so it wasn’t a viable option for me. And I liked my car. But necessity isn’t just the mother of invention, it’s also the mother of change. I realize that all along I could have been taking public transportation but I didn’t until the extra motivation of high gas prices (it cost $48 to fill up the tank of my coupe the other day, which means I’m now spending about $12 a day just driving to work).

8:33 a.m. The train arrives at the 7th Street/Metro Station a few minutes late. Huh, I thought trains ran like clockwork. After taking the wrong exit out of the station, I eventually get to my bus stop, but too late to catch the 316 fast bus that would have gotten me to work at the glorious (angels singing) hour of 8:56 a.m. So I wait.

8:51. I get on the 16, which will take 35 minutes. Gone are my hopes of getting to work on time, along with my naive belief that public transportation is highly efficient. There’s a sour taste in my mouth. What is it? Ah, bitterness.

9:05. Am I there yet? I miss the smooth ride of the train. This bus lurches and heaves over potholes. And I don’t have a row to myself anymore. I get to work at 9:24. Late but not too late so overall I’m in a good mood.

On the train going home, I make a list. "Likes: No NPR for a change in routine. Dislikes: accidental eye contact, no NPR." Then I add "body odor."

Still looking at my notebook, I think about how my perfectly plotted timetables became irrelevant as soon as I was actually using them. Trains and buses are late, you miss your transfer and have to take the slower bus. I’d no longer call this fun, but I realize that I like the feeling of not being in control. It actually makes me feel more in control than driving when I’m faced with a million little decisions that seem so important. Should I change lanes? Should I get over now or wait until the lanes to my right have merged? Should I get off at the Manchester exit and take surface streets or risk staying on the freeway into downtown? Could I get to work in time to stop at Coffee Bean? Agh ...

Half an hour later: I’m bored (just finished some editing for work), then I'm uncomfortable listening to a shouting homeless man ask for money (he begins with "Excuse me" and he's on my train a few days later making the same speech). I want to be home already. But at least I’m having different emotions. In my car it’s the same thing every day. I never get to sit back and look out the window or read. Encased in my car, I feel like a robot. Taking public transportation makes me feel more alive. I’m traveling through Los Angeles instead of above it. I’m sitting next to other Angelenos, smelling their fast food, making that accidental eye contact. I even get to be outside when I walk three blocks from the bus stop to the train station. This may seem like no big deal, but my parking spot is underground so I can literally travel 30 miles without experiencing weather (and I don’t dare roll down my window on the polluted highways). Walking downtown I passed a bar advertising $4 Stellas. It was filled with hip-looking people my age. Oh ya, I realized, it’s Friday. Life versus my car the black hole.

Going home the train was on time and I got to my car at 7:23 p.m., which is about the time I usually get home. It feels strange that after all this, I still have to drive four miles to get home (half the distance of my co-worker’s entire commute). But I feel accomplished and less rushed, since I’ve already read the paper, which means one less thing to do.

I’m going to ditch my car more often, even though I have to get up earlier. A big motivation is gas prices. But I also like knowing it’s better for the environment. I’ve always felt like a hypocritical environmentalist who uses reusable nylon grocery bags and reuses sandwich bags but pollutes the air with my commute. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thanks Metro. Oh, and a poster on the train told me to tell me friends. So hey you, "Go Metro."