take some action today!

i only just discovered it, but today is blog action day:
and in honor of the day that is, i share with you some of my favorite causes. i encourage you to check out at least one and consider adding it to your own list of faves. also, i'd love to hear about your favorite causes, cause i might just find i want to participate too!

1. the hunger site (in cahoots with the breast cancer/child health/literacy/rainforest/animal rescue sites): if you look at no other cause today, check out one of these sites. they make it amazingly easy to help out. all you have to do is click a button. that's it. in clicking you help provide food/mammograms/healthcare/books/protection/care. make it a part of your morning check e-mail, facebook, myspace routine. it takes 30 seconds.

2. the hands on network: ever feel like you should volunteer more? here's another organization that's all about making it easy, and it's got LOTS of local affiliates (atlanta, milwaukee, d.c., etc.). organizations that need volunteer manpower go to these networks, which in turn publicize the volunteer opportunities. you can volunteer as much or as little as you want, plus you can find opportunities that suit your causes or your schedule. i first got involved with hands on memphis as a high school student, but it was hands on nashville i turned to when i didn't know many people after moving to my current hometown. as a result, i've become a regular volunteer with the salvation army's soup truck, providing food at area homeless camps. it's been a real eye opener to in regards to poverty, hunger and homelessness (not to mention shattering a few stereotypes). i've also had the chance to continue my longtime volunteer work at the ronald mcdonald house.

3. the one campaign: one is all about fighting the issues that contribute to poverty, including hunger, disease and accessability to clean water and good education.

4. and for those of you who haven't figured it out, i'm an environmental nut. i'm all about going green. thinking about changing some light bulbs, carrying reusable grocery bags, putting an end to the buying prebottled water trend and parking the car to walk. for more tips, check out: environmental defense.

5. and a few that probably don't need explaining:
_ habitat for humanity
_ the red cross
_ united way
_ unicef

i challenge you to do one thing today, be it volunteer, make a donation or learn about a cause. and don't forget to share your causes here!

don't it make my blue bags green

i called in sick to work today, so i'm blogging in hopes of distracting myself from the ills of being cooped up in a house filled with the sounds of the jackhammering going on across the street. you'd think i live in the middle of new york city rather than in the nashville 'burbs.

anyway, i want to brag about a particular purchase of mine yesterday: reusable kroger bags.

yes, i know i look so nerdy carrying them, but i feel so responsible. they were super cheap -- 99 cents for the regular ones and like $2.99 for the special insulated ones.

i've always, always, always hated the plastic bags. environmental unfriendliness aside, it takes like five times as many plastic bags than paper bags to carry your groceries. after two trips to the grocery store, you find your kitchen is drowning in a sea of plastic bags. (although i have to give some of the stores credit for placing recycling bins for the bags at their doors, though i think i'm one of five people who uses the bins for recycling rather than trash.) and they break. they always break. they break because 12-year-old bagger boy has not figured out the laws of physics yet.

i do like the paper bags because you can fit so much stuff into them. and the ones from the organic stores that come with handles rock my face off. i always reuse the paper bags to stuff my used newspapers into for transport to the recycling station. but, i still somehow end up with more paper bags than i need for my newspapers. plus it annoys me that i have to ask the bagger to use them. i always forget to do this until he/she has bagged half of my purchase in the plastic bags.* what happened to the days of "paper or plastic?"

*it doesn't take them long because they don't put a whole lot of thought into it. i always find my flank steak cut in the same bag as my toilet bowl cleaner. yummy.

anyway, so i've got the reusable bags now, which i plan to also use to transport my newspapers for recycling. i'll spare you the preaching about how i'm being so good to the environment by saving it the energy/pollution it takes to produce and recycle grocery bags and just leave you with one thought that so pleases my thrifty-minded self: they (are supposed to) give you 4 cents back on your grocery bill for each reusable bag you bring use with your grocery order. So, by my calculations, I just have to use them on 50 shopping trips to get my money's worth ... hmmm.

Oh, and the reusable bags don't make the baggers any smarter. The bagger yesterday asked me if the insulated bag was for the refridgerated and frozen items. No, there for me to smack you over the head with. And this time I found my flank steak smushed between two boxes of cereal. Thanks, guys.