no impact FAIL

just when i was beginning to think this whole thing was too easy (of course most of my food is local! of course i recycle more than i throw away!), yesterday turned into one of those days. and i broke every single rule of no impact week.

1. i completely forgot to bring my re-usable coffee mug. bought coffee and later, a water bottle (!).
2. yes, i drove to school. and i will probably drive again tomorrow. i have a MWF parking permit and it doubles my commute time to ride the shuttle (i do ride it on days that start with T though).
   
3. major lunch disaster (spilled a burrito all over my white shirt) resulted in two more violations. first, i tossed all the napkins i'd used to wipe up straight into the cafeteria garbage. then, i rushed off to the bookstore to buy a $10 UCSD logo tee. yeah, classy, i know. but i had to teach section after lunch and wanted to look decent... if not professional, clean.

today is turning into a fail too. i was supposed to "go off the grid"... heh. i did get to school on a bus powered by biodiesel, so that counts for something, right?

no impact week: day ONE

my one week "carbon cleanse" started today. yeah, it's a gimmicky environmental movement thing, but it's not going to be as easy as i thought -- especially on friday, when i am supposed to replace my 30-minute hot shower with a "sponge bath". ick! (**dear friends who have served in the peace corps, forgive my only-in-america sins).

i signed up for no impact week without really knowing what it was. i thought it was just a commitment to not buy anything for week (except food, and even that is supposed to be non-packaged). seemed like a great money-saving idea for a pathetic grad student swimming in credit card debt. i found out about it because i was searching grist.org for an article about a woman who gave up corn products for a week (the article is actually here). umbra, the stalwart eco-advice columnist, was promoting no impact week, and heck, i had to click on it.

so here i am.
day one was all about stockpiling your garbage (i decided there was no need to stockpile my recycling: a water bottle and some sheets of paper). at the end of the day i only had two items in my garbage bag: a used lint-removal sheet and an empty bag from those delicious snap pea crisps. success? well, i had already cheated, and in a really embarrassing way. i did not stockpile my feminine hygiene-related trash. i'm not going to apologize for this. end of story.

i also failed in the consumption department. after biking to the farmer's market to buy ethical eggs, i stumbled upon a booth full of art by this artist (spenser little) i have been trying to track down for months. i "bought" a relatively expensive piece as a gift for k.'s birthday. i say "bought" because i made him pay for it, with full promise that i would pay him back next week (not so much because of N.I. week as because i didn't bring my wallet).

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