In Honor of Earth Day

I went to the Whole Foods-sponsored showing of the documentary, Food, inc.
It may very well have inspired me to rekindle my vegetarian ways, for multiple reasons. At the very least I will only be buying organic or free-range chicken and beef. If you haven't seen this movie, I highly suggest it. It will open your eyes in huge ways to the astounding practices of the American food industry. If you haven't seen it, take a look at this trailer and decide for yourself if it's worth watching.

Now, before you go thinking I was completely swayed by this movie and I'm going to become an organic-food junkie based off the facts presented in this movie alone, let me tell you that is not the case. I actually went into this movie pretty well educated in organic food production practices as I did a huge research project last year comparing organic food production vs. conventional food production. And I'll be honest with you, in terms of health, organic food isn't that much better for you; but in terms of sustainability and helping our planet, organic food production is the only way. And if animal cruelty is anything you're concerned about, organic food production is the only way in that regard too. Only today did I truly come to understand the immensely cruel practices in conventional beef, pork, and chicken production (for the employees as well as the animals). It is unbelievable and sincerely heart breaking. I could go on and on about this movie and the many important topics that are discussed throughout - food safety, obesity and health, sustainability, the control and manipulation certain companies impose on the entire food industry, policy, the global food crisis, etc. - but I won't. Today I just want to promote green living. So, even if you don't want to completely change the way you eat, you can help make the world a better place.

Try one, two, or all of the ideas below:
- Ride your bike, walk, or carpool when able
- Recycle (reduce and reuse also!)
- Plant a small garden
- Buy locally grown and produced goods (farmers markets are amazing!)
- Buy foods in season
- Minimize paper waste and any other unnecessary waste
- Use reusable shopping bags
- Use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs
- Use solar energy (if possible)
- And my favorite, save water...shower with a friend :o)

There are hundreds and thousands more ways to be green and save our planet.
So what are you doing to make the world a more beautiful and sustainable place?

The Daily Grind

- Get up no later than 6:10am.
- Spend 45 minutes driving to work in traffic, feeling annoyed.
-Work for 8 hours with a 1 hour lunch break that usually involves a 30 minute walk (much needed!)
- Spend an hour driving home in traffic, feeling more annoyed than I do in the morning (because it's more crowded).
- Go to they gym for at least an hour, sometimes more.
- Shower, cook and eat dinner, pack lunch and clothes for the next day, chat with my roommate (in any order).
- Check email, watch TV, surf the net, read...for usually no more than 30 minutes, if at all.
- Go to bed and do it again the next day.

Possible variations:
1. Get up at 5:00-5:15am and work out before work so my evening is free. (What I would do with it, hard to say, but maybe grocery shop or do laundry. Fun fun.)
2. On Tuesdays I go to Donnie's and we eat dinner together and watch The Biggest Loser, usually while enjoying some sort of sweet treat (ironic, right?).
3. Thursdays I generally do something different in the evening: hang out with Donnie, get a drink with the girls, watch a video on where our food comes from (an event sponsored by Whole Foods, which I'm doing this Thursday)...you know, something different.
4. Sadly, I think that's about it.

This is not to say that I don't like my job, because I do; I really do. It's interesting, engaging, and different every day. Plus I get to interact with people constantly, counsel people in optimal nutrition practices, and work with people from the low-income population and from various cultures. I just feel like I hardly have a life outside of work anymore because between my commutes, work, exercising, showering, and eating, I have about an hour of time before I need to sleep to have energy to do it the next day. I only have time for work and taking care of my most basic needs in the day. That is not how a life should be lived abundantly. I think I need to re-evaluate my situation and change something (most likely my location of residence) to better satisfy myself. But then that presents the problem of finding a new roommate (always a tricky situation), which I don't want to do anyway because I really like my current roommate. Ah, such the conundrum. I'll deal with it another day though; I need to get to bed to start the grind again.

My Daily Battle...

...And a pain in my butt!

Traffic.

Although really, that picture isn't very accurate of my daily commutes. I've managed to find multiple routes of all city roads that get me to and from work so I can avoid the madness that is the highway/interstate system in the Denver-metro area. The following picture is more of what I see.

Going through the city I get to and from work much quicker (45 minutes in the morning and an hour in the evening), and I usually avoid most of the crashes; however, there are still plenty on busy city streets as well (listening to traffic reports on the radio is always interesting). Going through the city isn't all it's cracked up to be though. It's still very stop-and-go due to traffic lights and horrible drivers who switch lanes at the last second or a moments notice causing others to slam on their brakes in order to avoid hitting them. This is both A) very annoying, and B) not so great for the car. I can't say it's any less stop-and-go on the interstates though. There you are just barely moving and stopping-and-going. This kind of flow in traffic is very frustrating to me. Needless to say, I often feel stressed, frazzled, and anxious about 2 minutes into the drive. Almost every day I worry about making it to work on time because I never know what I'll run into on the road (Colorado has some impressively bad drivers). I don't at all like that this is the start to my day 5 out of 7 days of the week, nor do I like the fact that I spend 2 hours of each day in the car. I do find ways to make it useful every now and then, such as calling people to catch up on life or practicing Spanish with my learning CDs. But in general, I wish I could say it wasn't part of my daily life. I definitely took less traffic for granted when I lived in Springfield, IL, but I never will again, no matter where I live.

You Know What Today Is!

April Fool's Day!!!

Did you play any tricks on anyone?!

I'd love to hear them.

I got one harmless joke played on me, but my all-time favorite has to be when I was skiing in Colorado and the lifties (slang for the people who operate and monitor the ski lifts) were writing fake information on the message boards. A lot of ski resorts have message boards at each lift that people can leave notes on if necessary. For instance, if a group gets separated they can leave a note for the "lost" person to call them or meet them at a certain place (back when cell phones weren't the norm). Some resorts put trivia questions on these boards to entertain people in line when there are no other pertinent messages. But I'm getting off track. This particular April 1st my family and I were skiing, and as we were waiting in line we saw the message board read, "Elk Migration - watch for elk!" We were sooo excited that we might see some elk!! After a couple of runs without seeing any elk we were getting pretty bummed that we were missing them all. ... But then we realized that elk don't migrate. And then we realized that it was April Fool's Day. Joke's on us! A few runs later when we came back to this same lift a different message was on the board. This time it read, "Bikini contest at so-and-so Lodge - 2 pm!" (I don't remember the name of the location. This was a while ago...just work with me.) Of course by this time we knew all of these messages were April Fool's Day jokes, so we just continued to ski. But man - that place cleared out quick!! The rest of the afternoon we had that whole side of the mountain to ourselves. It was great!

Hope you had a fun day!