sea turtles & steel straws

I revamped the page, did you notice? Probably not, as I'm the only one who's read any of this stuff as of yet, but c'est pas grave. I'm happy. Way to go ShabbyBlogs for making pretty things accessible to everyone. This is going to be short and gloriously sweet because I have yet to do my french or math homework, and really blogging is on the bottom of my rational priority list.

A few things:

1. I bought stainless steel straws today. I am way beyond excited to try them out, and I will report back as soon as I know how they work. I'm a little bit freaked out because of course there's always that possibility that they will give me instantaneous brain freeze, in which case our relationship will be short lived, but if that unfortunate reality can be avoided, then I think they're going to be a life changer. No longer when I say "no straw please" will I actually have to glare enviously at those liquid sucking funnels that everyone else gets to play with, because I'll have my very own. I purchased mine from Heather on Etsy, although doubtless there are lots elsewhere. Or I suppose you could make your own. I just don't happen to be so good at the whole metal work thing. Also, this is a cool movement you might want to look into. It's super easy to make a huge difference in straw use, just say no. 
2. My bottle rescue number (this is a completely unscientific calculation of how many bottles I save from being thrown away, or even more horrendously, littered) over the last two days was about twelve. This includes a totally sketch bottle of diet MountainDew (they make that?...) from the gas station, as well as one three bottles rescued right out of the garbage. I tell you this just as an opening for a story, a moment of minor epiphany for me. I was sitting in my English class yesterday, bashing poetry as is my habit when I'm not smart enough to understand it, and the girl directly across the room from me screwed the cap on nice and tight to her water bottle and then tossed it into the garbage to her left. While it was a nice shot, I was still horrified, and being my strident little self, I prepared for a full on battle. But then I paused (unusual) and just observed for a moment. There was no malice in her toss, in fact the way she threw it implied that she didn't really even know what she was doing with it. Recycling that bottle didn't even cross her mind. So instead of asking her if she was intentionally polluting our oceans, I just picked it out of the trash and recycled it after she had left the room. That gave me hope a little bit; there are certainly pig headed people that are just going to tell me again and again that recycling is pointless and that the world is fine and that if nature can't adapt it isn't worth one iota of effort to save it. But for this particular peer, I think she just needs reminding, and a little bit of motivation. 
3. Is recycling worth the energy? Do our maintenance workers really just throw the plastic bottles back in with the garbage? Is it worse for the environment? I don't know, but I intend to find out before I get into anymore circular arguments about it with any of my friends. Regardless plastic use is an issue - "it's not the bin, it's the bottle". We could cut out the whole middle debate if we just don't use plastic in the first place. 
4. Plastics Are Forever link I promised you yesterday. 
5. We had our senior dinner this evening, and I was extremely excited by the enthusiasm that our headmaster was showing for my project. He seems behind me on this whole fighting the plastic epidemic thing, which is terribly exciting considering that it would be just as easy for him to tell me that it would be too expensive. He even seemed open to talking about ridding our school of vending machines. That would be beyond excellent.   

 

Are they not adorable? It bothered me immensely to hear Dr. J talking about how on some islands that serve as major sea turtle nesting grounds, the mothers have to dig through multiple layers of plastic to finally reach sand to bury their eggs, then when the babies hatch many of them eat plastic as their first meal and parish from it. Yeah, I didn't like that. Sea turtles should be revered. Everyone should be given the opportunity to go snorkeling with a sea turtle at some point - then I bet it wouldn't be too hard not to use that plastic bag. They're powerful, awe inspiring, gentle creatures, and the romantic in me wants to believe they have a lovely, generous spirit, in any case they should be treated with respect. Rant of the day, closed.

I've babbled for long enough, much love to all.