travel broadens the mind

I am awake at 3am local time, which is a little annoying. If I could, I might poke my internal clock in the eye.

This is the thought I woke up with: when did I stop using plastic baggies? My home airport keeps an enormous box of them just outside the security line, and I picked up the second plastic baggie I’ve acquired in a year as I left on this trip. I think at some point I decided that, whatever I was doing with regard to plastics, at least I wouldn’t willfully buy small plastic bags to transfer things out of larger plastic containers. As for the small plastic containers used to transport toiletries in carryon luggage… well, those are pretty easy to reuse, at least. Except for toothpaste. [Well, people have suggestions, but how many pairs of scissors does one household have?] Yet another argument for finding a toothpaste recipe that doesn’t taste awful, or like dessert.

There are other ways traveling shows – and perhaps creates; cause and effect are pretty subtle sometimes – the changes I’ve wanted for myself over the past mumble mumble years. I packed – as I’ve been telling everyone – one large carryon bag & a laptop (in a bag that will also be my purse and walking bag) for a week. This is going to be my new standard for work travel, so it may as well be my standard everywhere. One Bag is right, though: if you’re doing a single bag, wheels are a bit stupid – they’re heavier, and a bit unwieldy even in airports. Noted.

Bag logistics aside: I forget sometimes that I was once given to impressive meltdowns when forced to travel. The first time I went to Hawai’i, I cried at a Starbucks in LAX – before we even got there. And possibly again at a rental car counter in Honolulu? My poor travel companion! I finally left the US for a bit this year, in part because I gained a sense of humor and let go of that overwhelming need to have things happen according to plan. Nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. Which is great! That’s where the real fun starts.

Partly, also, I think I used to be afraid of… well, anything that wasn’t familiar or comfortable. Forcing myself to deal with new degrees of discomfort helped get me over that. In fact, as I try to list examples, none of the things that should sound uncomfortable actually are – I mean, sure I’ve camped in 100 degree heat, but there was a shower and a swimming hole; or there were those there-and-back-in-a-day job interview flights, but the tacos were fantastic; getting up to the tip of that mountain was hard, but it was amazing and only took like an hour and a half anyhow. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I need to do scarier stuff. My stuff just isn’t that scary. But. It sure would’ve seemed that way to the version of myself who melted down at LAX that one time.

And the tacos really were fantastic.

no (or, well – less) impact

In another… hrm, six weeks… I’ll be starting a job that means I’ll travel constantly. That’s an impact on the environment I’m not used to having – though I do drive a 20 mile commute to and from work most days now, so it’s not like my business travel is zero impact to begin with. Anyhow. Air travel is generally considered supremely lousy for the environment, in case you haven’t heard.

I suppose I could buy carbon offsets, but do those actually work? I have no idea. Their main selling point seems to be education, and I already know that flying around isn’t great for the environment. And of course, I’ve ruled out the things that are unreasonable for me (that is, not taking the job or selling my house and moving to each place I work).

So. I’ve been reading about ways to reduce my footprint further (beyond the small things I’ve talked about here before). The No Impact Project has some interesting ideas. And some major liberal guilt. It’s pretty cool, though, to see people suggesting – and then going and enacting – changes that sound pretty extreme to me. I like shampoo, okay! Hair washing is awesome. Let’s do it all the time. [Sidenote: I continue to debate with myself whether it's better to have shampoo in bar form shipped to me or to buy it in plastic bottles closer to home. Currently the shipping solution is winning, because the volume of plastic in my life disturbs me.]

My thought here is that, in exchange for the travel, I need to step it up from what I do now (which, honestly, is what all caring people with money should be doing – none of my habits inconvenience me). Use my shampoo thing as an example: make bars of the stuff myself. I’ll try some of this stuff out and see what sticks. I figure the concern at least is a step in the right direction.

at least they’re trying

On a lighter note: big box stores are not quite ready for the bring-your-own-bag phenomenon. At least not in Virginia. Target, for instance, sells reusable shopping bags, but the cashiers eye me suspiciously when I bag my stuff without their plastic.

Plus, there seems to be a rote physical behavior of scan, then stick in plastic bag. It’s becoming a game: can I interrupt the routine without getting the person flustered? Harder than it looks.