Yes I'm alive. It's been a long time since I've blogged, so long that I'm too ashamed to look at the date of my last post to know just how long it's been. Let's just say it's been "a while" and leave it at that.
I'm writing tonight partly to get back in the habit, and partly to share that I dropped some old running shoes off at the Nike store to be recycled. I wrote about Nike's shoe recycling program when I first learned about it (so for all my "regular readers," this may be old news). But I figured it was worth mentioning again because it's such a cool thing. It's hard to know what to do with old running shoes because they're too worn down to be donated. I always felt bad throwing them in the trash. Nike's program is the biggest one I know of, and they take any brand, not just Nike. Their website says the rubber, fabric and foam is used to make running tracks, basketball courts and tennis courts. If you want to recycle your shoes, go to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe website to find a recycling location.
When I dropped off my shoes the first time I told my rugby team about it since I figured they might have some old running shoes lying around. One of my teammates gave me two pairs of shoes, and then a few months ago I bought a new pair of my favorite Adidas Supernovas so I now had three pairs of shoes to recycle. Except that even though the Nike store is about a half mile from my office, I never got around to going. It's kind of a pain to go because it's at the Grove, a busy outdoor shopping mall near my office with parking you have to pay for. So I was only going to go if I could walk there and I always seemed to be too busy running after work (ah, the irony) or too tired and just wanted to go home. So the shoes have been languishing in my trunk for months. But tonight I decided to do some sprints after work at the park across from the Grove, so I brought the shoes with me and went to the Grove afterward. Finally, they were out of my car.
I'd been feeling bad lately about my lack of environmentalism (hence, the lack of blogging). I've been driving to work even though it's summer and the longer days make it easier to take the train. So this felt good. And tomorrow I'll be taking the train to work since I'm meeting my dad after work to go to the Hollywood Bowl. Maybe that will kick-start my public transportation habit again.
But taking the train means waking up early so now I've gotta go to bed. At least I can fall asleep feeling satisfied that I've crossed something off my to-do list!
