Non retro video of the week

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Squeeze Me by Kraak & Smaak:

I think I'm gonna go for it

I am scaling down. Seriously.

I have lived in my apartment for 6 years. Before I lived there I had a small 1 bedroom apartment that was perfect for a single girl. Now I live in a large 3 bedroom. There are only 2 of us and I have managed to accumulate a lot of stuff in a relatively short amount of time.

I am a collector: dishes, furniture, linen., the list goes on. For example; I have 6 different sets of china. I've been collecting depression glass for about 10 years and I use it (maybe) once a year. I just feel like it is a big waste.

It's weird, but I have slowly, but very surely, started to feel extremely wasteful. I walk around my apartment and I see the amount of stuff that Mr. Little Man has and I realize that I am going completely overboard. Plain and simple, I am giving him more that any 5 year old should own. Moderation is a word that simply doesn't exist in our apartment. And it is my fault.

I don't want my son growing up not knowing what it is like to yearn for something so badly that you aren't willing to mow a few lawns in the summer to earn it yourself. He is used to getting things (and so am I). And I don't want him to feel a sense of entitlement because everyone hands him everything. In order for that to happen I have to scale down as well; I don't want him to look around and tell me that I always buy myself whatever I want.

Things are going to change. We are going to do a major purge and scale down. We're going to get the grandparents on board. And hopefully, we'll move to a 2 bedroom apartment.


What I am reading: Still no library card. On a brighter note it's been nice and warm here so we've been spending lots of time outside...I don't miss reading everyday.
What I am listening to: Squeeze Me - Kraak & Smaak (Gue: go and download it....prepare to do a little dance in front of your computer)

Goin' Green

Over the last couple of years I've slowly started to become an environmentalist. I do live in one of America's 50 Greenest City (just ask Popular Science....we were the only city in New Jersey that was selected for the list. No, really.) A couple of compact fluorescent light bulbs here and there, a well placed recycling station in my kitchen, eating more organic food, re-using my grocery bags and taking public transport whenever I could (which is not nearly as often as I'd like); you know, the usual.

And then I started reading sites like Danny Seo's blog and No Impact Man. Holy crap, I am not an environmentalist AT ALL. I am a slacker; a spoiler first world-er. Because, unlike No Impact Man, I have absolutely no desire to rid my life of toilet paper (dude, don't even ask).

Relatively speaking, my carbon footprint is low, but there is so much more that I could be doing. So, I am going to list the things I need to do to step up my game. But only because I'll feel like a hypocrite if I don't do them after posting them here for the entire world to read:

1. I do use environmental cleaning products for the most part (I do have an unnatural love affair with bleach because for some reason I don't feel like my bathroom is really clean if I don't use it), however, I have not given up on paper towels. And honestly, I don't buy the recycled paper towels either. I need to make a bigger effort to use cloth.

2. Stop letting the water run when I brush my teeth. Or wash dishes. My next house will have an energy efficient dishwasher, but until then I just have to make a bigger effort.

3. Stop buying bottled water. I do try to reuse the bottles because not only do you have to recycle the plastic, you also have to think about the impact that the packaging and transport make. Mr. Little Man just got a new SIGG bottle, but getting him to use is a whole other matter.

4. Buy local food (things that have been grown...or raised within 250 miles). This is so much harder than I thought. I eat a lot of citrus in the winter and the last time I checked New Jersey didn't have any citrus groves. We don't eat a lot of processed food, so that isn't really a huge concern for me. I just don't know how to guess what is local and what isn't. My grocery store could really help me out if they posted a sign that pointed out which eggs come from nearby. If I still lived in Arkansas I could easily establish relationships with people that raise livestock and have (organic) farms. New Jersey? Not so much. I thought I could at least buy locally grown produce at the farmer's market, but even that has proven problematic.

5. Using an organic dry cleaner. Most of the clothes that I own that say "dry clean" only I stick in the gentle cycle with Woolite, but I do have my winter coats drycleaned once a year.

6. If I need a gallon of milk I need to walk to the corner store and not drive. It's better for my health and by the time I find a parking spot I might as well just walk. Plus, it encourages me to mingle with the neighbors.

7. This will be the hardest thing on my list: giving up Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I do it everyday; I buy a cup of coffee on my way to work (even though by then I've already consumed a pot at home). My options are to either buy their re-usable cup and actually have it clean and ready everyday or to give up the habit entirely.

8. Buy only things I need. Again, I was brought up in the first world and I have a lot of stuff. Most of which I do not need, or even use, for that matter. I have 11 cake plates. Even I (with my sugar habit) will not simultaneously use 11 cake plates. I am seriously considering purging my apartment of things I don't use.

Clearly, this will be an ongoing experiment. Wish me luck. And if you know how that whole buy local thing works, for pete's sake,, email me!

What I am reading: A trade magazine. Thats just a nice way to tell you that I am out of stuff to read. I can't buy anymore books (see #8 above) and I have yet to get a library card.
What I am listening to: Give A Little Love - Rilo Kiley

No, really, it's true.

To every single cop show that has been on in the air in the last 10 years,

I do not, for a single second, believe that female cops wear 4" stilettos when doing any of the following:

1. Kicking in a door
2. Taking part in a midnight raid on a meth lab
3. Collecting any kind of blood evidence
4. Going out on a manhunt for a serial killer
5. A 3 day stake out

Since stilettos are expensive I'm going to go out on a limb and say that woman also aren't going to wear them to chase a criminal down the street. We would never risk breaking a heel, or even scuffing a tip. I also happen to know that bullet proof vests are not an ideal accessory to high heels.

Please correct your shows accordingly.

Also, BREAKING NEWS!! TOP PRIORITY!! The most exciting thing to happen in 2008!!
New Kids on the Block are getting back together for a tour. No, really. They were on Good Morning America earlier today and I've already gotten 2 phone calls asking if I wanted to get concert tickets.

I do not.

Lastly, I've been a wee bit sad the last couple of days (still trying to balance the hormones), so I got a text from a friend this morning asking how I was doing. I told him I was still sad but that today would be an AWESOME day because BATTLESTAR GALACTICA season 4 begins at 10 pm. T minus.....

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month. I really have to say that in the last couple of years our community has really stepped up its game as far as advocacy is concerned. I see ads in newspapers, magazines, I see billboards, I see commercials and I get a lot of questions from people who want to know more.

I love this. It means the public is educating itself.

Another thing I love? That parents of autistic children are not taking crap from: the medical community who think we're (largely) crazy, our insurance companies (who don't want to pay for treatment), our school districts (again, who don't want to pay for educational treatment), our government (one more time...who don't want to pay for any kind of treatment) and generally anyone who doesn't want to listen to our proclamations that something has to be done to stop the epidemic.

Most of all I love it when parents go on TV and aren't afraid to fight for what they know to be true.



Jenny McCarthy, you go girl.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...if you don't know someone with autism it's just a matter of time.

EXTRA: I was just emailed a link to the following article. Also by Jenny McCarthy. I'm suddenly loving her.