Helping Hands

Walking out of a club the other night it became apparent that even the mighty trolleys of San Francisco can use a little help. The driver and a few passengers were trying to push the car to a rolling start. Was I any help? Nah, I was busy snapping pix.

Travel in Style

I'm sick of those ugly black rollerbags everyone has. I finally found a super cute alternative, but then decided that it didn't fit my budget. I just put it up on on ebay (sobbing noise). But my budget goals could be your style gain.
Anyone got some budget alternatives?

Earth Day meets Spring Cleaning

Recycling is good for you, me, and the earth. The problem I sometimes face is that I truly love a lot of the cool stuff I have, and fear that if I donate it, it may not be as beloved in someone else's home. This fear, as you might imagine, means I have more treasures than a small, shared apartment can hold. Solution? Swap time!

Spring cleaning swap: The idea is that you need to free up some space, but which cool treasure to get rid of? Hopefully sending it off to the loving embrace of a fellow swapper will ease the pain, create some extra space, and let you anticipate getting mail from a stranger. Even better is the fact that swapping that stuff is a form of recycling.

The nitty gritty:
1- Select a treasure to be treasured by someone else.
2- shoot me an email at emilycox at gmail dot com with the subject line: Spring Cleaning Swap and please include
a) your name
b) your mailing address
c) your email
d) something about treasures you could make room for
e) what you hate to clean the very most
f) indicate if you are ok with an international partner
e) your blog or flickr url (not required but nice)
3- do this by may 3
4- you'll get your swap assignment
5- send off your treasure and eagerly await yours by the may 12

Who says you can't kill 5 birds with one stone?

Picture from Real Simple

Earth Day: Giving to your Mom

For Mother's day this year I've decided to give my mom something that will help Mother Earth. I've settled on reusable shopping bags-- something I've been working on being better about myself. After hearing my idea my friend Amanda hunted down all these great options. I actually think the best strategy is to get a couple of different kinds of bags-- some really sturdy ones for things like milk and detergent, and a couple of small portable ones, to keep in her purse for smaller purchases.

If any of you have sources for great reusable shopping bags, I'd love to hear them. Any other great earth friendly Mother's day gifts? I think my Earth day gift to myself will be one of these bottles-- bottled water is so bourgeoise, and bad for the environment.

Earth Day: Get Involved

The most innovative environmental organization I know of is Seacology, based in Berkeley, CA. It was started by my father in order to provide a way for indigenous people to build things like schools, hospitals and water supplies without resorting to destroying their environment to raise the money. Seacology has won all kinds of awards for the creative way in which it respects the ability of indigenous cultures to take care of the environment, while at the same time improving their opportunities for and access to health care and education. The business model for Seacology is also unique in that every cent of every dollar you donate will to a project-- not to any kind of administrative overhead.

If you're looking into a way to celebrate Earth Day, take a look at Seacology's projects. Maybe even donate a little money-- it's one way in which even the smallest donation make a big difference.

Happy Earth Day!

Go Green! The environment is something that I care about deeply-- it's a family thing, since I come from a long line of biologists and park rangers. There's a lot of little things we each can do to make the world a better place-- and I hope we each choose a small thing or two and work on improving our own behavior.