Also, I have a Conviction that LOST is the greatest TV show ever. Yes, better than The Office or Arrested Development or even The Hills. Again, I'm not going to be able to explain this belief in such a way that you will be convinced...I just know in my heart of hearts that LOST really is the best show ever.
So, you get the idea about convictions, right? You just believe them and would feel like a soul-liar if you acted to the contrary.
Well, another one of my Convictions is recycling. Brandon doesn't buy that it is important and always brings up a few annoying facts that I don't really know how to dispute...and to be honest, since recycling is a Conviction and I know I'm right, I no longer argue the issue. We just recycle and that's how it goes. Plus Brandon knows I'll fish the cereal box out of the garbage and he takes pity on me.
Unfortunately, our apartment complex doesn't have city recycling so this means that I have to do it all by myself. And I promise, I'm not writing this so I sound all noble and like I am the Green Queen...I'm not. I have never seen An Inconvenient Truth and I pretty much hate Whole Foods.
I am writing about this because even though I have a really strong Recycling Conviction, I am really bad at it. Here is my case in point:
The reusable junk just piles up and I do NOTHING about it. I'm paralyzed, see. I let it accumulate in the little recycling niche I created and then don't want to do anything about it because it will take two trips to bring it all down to my car and who wants to take that sort of time out of their day when they could be selling their soul to Facebutt? And, I can't ask for help because that just begs for a debate on recycling which I'm not going to get into--Conviction, remember??Even when I get all industrious and take it out to my car, I still have to find a place to drop it off. Usually I just sneak it into someone else's recycling bin in some alley way, but I get nervous about being caught. I hope that if I ever do get caught, I'll be praised for going through such great lengths to recyle, but people can be lame like that. Plus, let's be honest. I'm always in a hurry to be somewhere and forget about stuff that isn't pressing pretty much as soon as possible.
What actually ends up happening is that I let the pile grow until it essentially spreads across our whole existence and then I take it down to my car and drive around for about two weeks with a trunk of newspaper and salsa containers until I spot a place that will safely get my recyclables to the Magic Place that makes sour cream containers and diet coke twelve packs into something pretty, preferably ponies with pink bows.
Poor Brandon just puts up with it. He has never said anything except this one ever-so-gentle comment like "Maybe we should just always keep the recyling on the balcony?" And while that was a great idea and we might just do that in the future, the pile was too massive at the time to want to move it to the balcony. And so it sat, accumlating more and more jelly jars and bean cans. In fact, that is where we are at this very moment. Except that picture was taken a few weeks so that pile has grown substantially (I did take *one* load down to my car).
One day we'll move into a real house and I'll have that purple bin with the lovely arrows on it to put my objects that need to go to the Magic Place and I'll be able to live my Convictions with grace and cleanliness. You just wait. In the mean time, pat Brandon on the back and tell him that he does a great job putting up with his wife's Convictions. And then maybe give him something with ground beef in it for dinner.
5 comments:
You can use my purple bin anytime! I even think I've heard that the pools in Stapleton have recycling bins they encourage people to bring things to-maybe somewhere closer to you like Lowry has that too? Good luck. It takes a strong person to stick to their convictions, especially when giving in is So much easier!
high five for recylcing. we recycle our soda cans. we can accumulate a garbage bag of cans in a couple months. danny's the one that would bring it to the recycling place bc we also do not have a pick up recyler city. we did it at first to get the couple bucks. it'd be like 4 bucks for like 3 bags or soemthing...not worth it. but we still wanted to recycle. so then this family in the ward found out we recycle and they pick up our cans! no joke! we live in a 4-plex that is not visible from teh road bc it's turn sideways. they come and pick them up! it's the best! i guess they want the 4 bucks more than us but at least we dont have to accumulate 5 bags of cans before sending them off! anyway i wanted to share. again high five for recycling.
you do have conviction! chase and i recycle only because we have a whole recycling trash can to fill up, and honestly when I don't want to go out to the garage, sometimes I put paper in the normal trashcan. thats right in our kitchen. I guess we're non-commital.
Alison, you are such a fun and clever writer!
you make me laugh...can we be friends forever?!
p.s. don't ever look in our downstairs "officey room" not that you could even open the door as it is a depiction of my conviction that things should not be just thrown away but sold at a yard sale or at least given to goodwill.
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