41: (February 17)  Given that the little independent restaurant we went to was very slow (and it’s never busy), I gave the waitress an extra big tip.

40: (February 17)  I went out to dinner tonight, to a little independent Mexican restaurant.  There were hardly any people there, as it was a random snowy Wednesday.  Before we left, I went to the bathroom and used the last of the toilet paper.  I could have just left the restaurant and let the next person to go in fend for herself, but I went out of my way to let the waitress know so no one would be left high and dry (or wet).

39: (February 18)  I made a donation to a political campaign (small).

38: (February 13)  I saw the comedian Tom Green today.  He was doing a show at the Improv.  It’s so rare that one gets the opportunity to meet someone they admire and thank them for the work they do.  I know it sounds very strange that this person would be someone I admire, but his show was on MTV during a very difficult time in my life.  As sad as it is, his show was the only thing that made me laugh, the only thing that got me through a very very bad time.  Today, I had the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him.  I didn’t get into the whole story of what he means to me, of course, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet him in person.  I consider my “thank you” to him a good deed.  (I also bought a T-shirt from him, which he signed).

36: (February 16) I made a donation to the ARL’s Wildlife Center, to help repair a bird cage that was destroyed in the snow storm.

35: (February 5) I made a donation to one of the organizations I support.

34: (February all) I am counting all of my petitions for this month as another (1) good deed.

33: (February 4) I went out to lunch today, and there was a US Army rep collecting money for soldiers. I gave him the few dollars I had in my pocket.

32: (February 3) I joined the organization oceana.org, which works to save the oceans, and made a donation.

29: (January 27)  A few weeks ago, I ordered a “go-green” kit from www.tonic.com.  The kit finally came last night.  In it were two fluorescent lightbulbs (low mercury), a reusable bag, and a stop junk-mail kit.  The stop junk-mail kit is a set of postcards, addressed to four mailing-list companies.  The post-cards request that these companies take my name off of their mailing lists, and cease sending me crap.  Of course I recycle all of my junk mail, but better than recycling is not using/buying/getting crap in the first place.  (I just hope that taking my name off the list means they’ll print one less copy of the stuff… not print the same number of things and then NOT recycle it.)

28: (January 27)  I’ve been working at reducing my rate of consumption, and reducing the amount of packaging and waste associated with the things I have to buy (like food).  I used to buy my lunch every day.  Every day, I’d get a cup of soup, and a sandwich or a salad or something, and it would all come wrapped in plastic or styrofoam with plastic utensils and paper napkins, etc, and then I’d buy a can of pop or two.  I’m not perfect at it yet, and I haven’t gotten super great at planning ahead and packing my lunch every day, but I have been doing a lot better at it.  One of the things I bought to help with this is a set of reuseable sandwich bags.  It sounds weird if you haven’t seen them, but they’re like ziploc baggies, only made of fabric, and you can use and reuse them indefinitely.  I also bring a cloth napkin from home, and other food in reusable containers.  I bring leftovers a lot, which is something I never used to do.  Leftovers usually got left in the refrigerator for weeks and then finally thrown away when mold started to grow.  Now, leftovers get eaten.  If I don’t take them, Alex takes them.  This is also a new development:  I’ve convinced Alex to start bringing his lunch to work.  So, we are both preventing the waste of food, we’re bringing our food in reuseable containers, and using cloth napkins.  I’m doing it for the sake of the planet.  That I’m consuming way fewer calories than I do when I buy lunch, and saving a ton of money in the process are just bonuses.

23: (January 20) I made a donation to AmeriCares for Haiti Earthquake relief.

22: (January 18)  I made a donation to Soles4Souls.org, for Haiti Earthquake relief.

For the record, for anyone reading this (why would anyone be reading this?), but I’m not putting the actual dollar amount of my donations, because 1) it’s private 2) It’s not the dollar amount that’s important, it’s the action.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am not rich.  I’m doing OK, but there are lots of people way worse off than I am.  My point is, pretty much anyone can give something.  Give a dollar.  Give 5 dollars.  Give 50, if you can afford it.  If a dollar is all you’ve got, give it.  Every dollar makes a difference. Really.  As someone who has actually studied nonprofit fundraising, and nonprofit financial management, I guarantee you, every dollar makes a difference.

21:  (January 18)  I made a donation to Yele.org, for Haiti Earthquake relief.

20:  (January 17)  I did a little shopping today, and at a few of the stores, when you checked out, they asked if you wanted to donate a dollar to the Red Cross for Haiti earthquake relief.  Anytime I was asked, I said yes.  How can you not say yes?

17: (January 14) I made a donation to Doctor’s Without Borders, for Haiti Earthquake relief.

16: (January 13)  I made another donation to the Red Cross for the Haiti Earthquake.

15: (January 13)  There was a terrible earthquake in Haiti last night.  I made a donation to Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

13: (January 12) Today, I did two related things that I’m very excited about.  First) I joined the Penn’s Corner CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  CSA’s are groups of farms that band together to provide fresh, local items to the people who buy into the organization.  Meaning, people like me pay into the system, and buy a “share” of the harvest of these farms.  Once a week or so, these farms gather what they’ve grown (or made) and give the members a box of food.

So, not only are Alex and I going to be getting really good healthy food delivered practically to our doorstep (we have to pick it up about five minutes away), but small, local farmers, who are growing/producing their items the right way (pasture-grazed animals, organic farming, etc), are getting the money directly.  My money isn’t going to pay a big grocery store, and all the people in the store, and all the people who shipped the product to the store, and the packaging company, and the marketing company, and the oil company for the transportation, etc. Think about it:  When you buy a typical, boxed, processed food item in the store, think about how many people were involved in getting that food from the farm to the store.   The conventional farmer, who used conventional pesticides, and probably poorly-treated illegal labor (the farm workers, the farm owners, the pesticide companies – they all have to be paid), then that food from the farm is transported to a processing plant (the driver who took it there, the company that hires the driver, the people at the processing plant – they all have to be paid), then that food is processed and packaged (the packaging company has to be paid, and the people who provided the raw materials for the packaging have to be paid), then that food moves to the grocery stores (and the drivers have to be paid), and then that food is put out on the shelves, and the stockers and the cashiers have to be paid, and the grocery store owners have to be paid – not to mention all the chemicals and additives and preservatives that got put into the food so that it can be a shelf-stable item (all those chemicals), (and the people who make those chemicals and get them from the chemical plant to the food processing plant – they all have to be paid), etc., etc., etc.  I’m sure there’s dozens of steps I’m missing, but you get the idea.  You end up paying for ALL that extra crap, for a few cents worth of actual food.  At every single one of those steps, not only did someone have to be paid, but someone made a profit!  And processed food is usually really cheap.  How is it possible that you can buy something for $2.00, and yet still, someone at every step of the way made money on it?  It’s possible because they cut corners wherever possible.  It’s possible because Americans would rather pay the absolute dirt-bottom price for something than pay a “fair” price for a quality product.  I have no problem paying a fair price for something.  When something’s so cheap it seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true.  Someone suffered.  Very assuredly, animals suffered, and more likely than not, people suffered too.  The planet DEFINITELY suffered.

With a CSA, it’s you and the farmer.  That’s it.  No chemicals, no processing, no marketing, no packaging, no stores, nothing.  Just you and the farmer.  (Yes, I know there’s a few other people involved – an administrator or two, but you know what I mean).

12: (January 11)  I often find myself disturbed by something a big corporation does.  Sometimes it’s an environmental issue, sometimes it’s a human-rights issue.  Whether or not this is a “good deed” depends upon who’s on what side of the given issue you’re on, but I often write complaint letters and emails to these companies, letting them know what I think of their practices.  Sometimes I offer suggestions, like “I’d love to see more organic cotton or sustainably-sourced bamboo products in your stores,” sometimes it’s an outright complaint, like “I refuse to purchase anything from you, because of your practice of… “  I don’t know if these letters make a difference or not, but sometimes I do see my suggestions being implemented.  Whether or not it was because of MY email is very debateable, but maybe lots of other people had the same ideas and voiced them, and these suggestions were enough to make the company re-think their harmful practices.

Today, I wrote to the author of www.hungrygirl.com.  This website offers recipes for meals and snacks under 200 calories per serving.  This is great, however, the author advocates the use of tons of chemical-laden processed crap.  It may be low-cal, but it’ll kill you (and the planet).  I wrote to her asking her to think about using organic products in her recipes, and encouraging her readers to use locally-grown produce and products.  I don’t know if she’ll get the email, I don’t know if she’ll read it, I don’t know if she’ll just hit “delete” and call me a bitch.  But, I know I’m not the first person to complain about her use of processed crap.  Maybe if enough people complain, she’ll reconsider. Hell, it could be a whole other book (she already has two or three out), of recipes using organic and fresh ingredients.  Maybe I just made her a millionaire!

As a side note, I also recently wrote to the owners of the Mitchell’s Fish Market restaurant chain.  We dined there recently, and I was disturbed to see Chilean Sea Bass on the menu.  Chilean Sea Bass is an over-fished item, rapidly approaching the endangered species list.  People in the “the know” know not to eat it, and a restaurant like that should not be serving it.  I wrote to them, and they wrote back right away.  They said they were aware of the overfishing problem and assured me that THEIR fish was bought from reputable sources (this does not solve the problem, however, as illegal poachers are still encouraged to catch it, as long as the demand exists. So no matter where they buy the fish from, they’re still creating a demand, thus encouraging illegal poaching).  But, nonetheless, my little email reminds them that there are people out there, paying attention to what they do.  And we, the people, can create quite a shit-storm if they screw up.  Sometimes a little threat can’t hurt (“I will not return to your store/restaurant, and I will encourage all of my friends/family to boycott your store/restaurant as well, until you change… “).

UPDATE: (January 27) A while ago, I wrote to Whole Foods headquarters, complaining about their CEO.  He’s said some pretty stupid things in the past, he’s against healthcare reform, doesn’t believe in global warming, etc., and he’s voiced these stupid opinions in public.  Basically, I hate this guy, and wrote to W.F. to tell them that as long as he’s in charge, I’m not going to be a customer.  Today, I read in an article that the CEO of Whole Foods is stepping down, due to pressure from the rest of the board, because of all the complaints they got about him.  My complaints might have been a part of that!

11: (January 10) Yesterday we gathered up a load of boxes from our recent move, as well as all the paper and other recycling items we’ve been saving for the past few months and took them to Construction Junction, where they have bins to collect these items that aren’t picked up by the bi-weekly roadside recyclers.  We save everything that can be recycled, no matter how much room it takes up, or how inconvenient it is.  If it can be used or recycled, it does not go in the trash.  We had so much to take, we had to break it up into several loads.  We did one load yesterday.  Even though the temperature was in the teens, and there were a lot of other things I’d have rather done on my Sunday, we loaded up the car, drove to CJ, and properly disposed of everything in its proper bins (cardboard, paperboard, junk mail, office paper, etc., all have to be in separate bins).  It’s inconvenient, and not fun, but it has to be done.  We have to be more conscious about what we throw away.