Here, have some pants!

Alright, some stuff's going down.

First off, Bradley and I became members of our church on Sunday! Maybe that doesn't strike you as relevant, but it's part of this project. Now comes the donation of time, talent and treasure to my beloved Heritage UU Church.

And today, I gave away some pants! There's some back story, so bear with me.

In early February, there's a big advertising party and the theme is Party in Your Pants. (Yeah yeah yeah.) Most people from my agency are going, and crazy pants are required. This weekend I went to the Salvation Army to find my crazy pants (mission accomplished), and I found another pair of pants that were too crazy to be ignored, but they weren't even close to fitting me.

Well I bought them anyway, and today I found a coworker who I thought might be able to fit into the pants. (They were too small for me, so it wasn't insulting to her, haha...) She tried them on and voila, a match made in heaven. She's excited to have crazy pants (I'll take pictures at the party... for now I'll just say there are fish involved), I'm happy that the pants have a home. Score one for the YoP!

Also, just shopping at the Salvation Army counts, in my opinion. Patronizing thrift stores is something I already love to do, but I'm counting it as philanthropy also, what with it being a good cause and all. (Although lately I've been hearing bad things about the SA-- are they really anti-gay? Maybe I'll Goodwill it up next time.)

Oh! And! WVXU (my NPR member station) is having its fund drive right now. I'm way too strapped to donate much, but in exploring their site I found a form where they can contact me for volunteer opportunities (answering phones, data entry, etc) for their next pledge drive. That would be really fantastic... I hope I can work it into my schedule when it rolls around again! (And it feels like these things are every other week, sooooo...)

Shoutout

This is a quick shout-out to my little brother Ryan, who gave blood today! His donation didn't have anything to do with my project but he is still the Hero of the Day!

Why shy?

A thought I wanted to share:

Sometimes philanthropy can be embarrassing, and I'm not really sure why. For example, earlier this week I bought some soup for a homeless man-- same guy as before. When I reached the place where he was sitting, there were some people headed my way, and I waited for them to pass before handing the soup to the guy.

Why? What sense does that make?

I guess I just wish my first reaction was "if people see me do this, maybe they'll be inspired to help, too." But that wasn't the case... it seemed almost shameful.

Has anyone else ever felt this way?

Dry spell

I'm in a rut... already!

That's not really the case. I have a million ideas for things that I want to do during this year, but I lack the time and money to do many of them right now.

Again, not entirely true. I know that if I tried a little harder I could be making time for things like volunteering, and even going through my closet to find some items for the Salvation Army. But it's a very, very busy time at work... I typically get home, eat some dinner and hit the sack again. My weeks are very self-centered: how am I going to get all this work done? Am I spending enough time with project x versus project y? When is Erica time?

I tried a small gesture yesterday at work, but I feel like talking about it would cheapen it (and it was no big deal anyway). I definitely think about this project every single day, but I feel like at this point I only act on it when it's convenient.

I need a shakeup! Any ideas?

P.S. Tomorrow is Sunday, which means another huge box of paper to recycle at work. Dad says we don't even use a full roll of paper towels in a week now. We have a huge bag of cans to recycle, as soon as we find the facilities. At least something's getting done...

LIFTing spirits?

Oy, am I tired.

I need to do something big soon. I did bake more cookies, though-- I took them to work to spread my philanthropic reach. They were well received... as in, gone within the hour. :)

Oh, and kind of weird this morning... I was waiting for a particularly slow elevator, and when I finally snagged one I saw a woman walking on her way over. Figuring it'd be a good chance for a small deed, I held the elevator... she saw me and did that sheepish half-run half-walk into the 'vator. What was weird was that she started gushing as soon as she was inside... about how no one ever holds the elevator, and people even push the "close doors" button, and how nice it was for me to wait the five seconds it took for her to get there.

I smiled and said that of course it was no problem, and I meant it... these are the little things that we think go unnoticed, but in reality they can really shake up your morning (or someone else's).

So anyway, just some small things that are getting me through the days. I need to make something bigger happen soon. Any ideas (that don't cost a fortune)?

Foodstuffs

It's been a couple of days because my place of employment sent me to New York. For business-- they weren't just sick of me. But I'm back now, and trying to get into the swing of things.

Small act of sweetness: I baked cookies. Now, I am a mess in the kitchen, but I can bake a mean cookie. Also, I use Splenda Blend for Baking and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend and they are absolutely fantastic. So, if Splenda wants to do its own philanthropy and send me some free product for this glowing review, that'd be awesome. ;)

I baked cookies specifically for two purposes: to thank my dad's friend Robert for helping me tow my car (currently out of commission), and to thank my mom for driving me to the airport for the aforementioned business trip. I also had a ton of extra cookies at home... had, because dad and Bradley have already polished them off. I'm counting that as accidental philanthropy. ;)

Today I was thinking about my recent lack-of-philanthropy on the way to work, and I noticed that The Homeless Guy was out. There aren't too many homeless people hanging around the area where I work, because it's not a very trafficked couple of blocks. But there is one guy that I've seen in the area for most of the 2.5 years I've been at the office.

I don't like to give money to homeless people. It's just one of my things. And yes, a lot of it stems from the "I don't know what you'll use it for" mentality. Is that bad? Anyway, I was on my way to pick up my lunch, so I intentionally ordered something that came with a side salad, and I offered it to him on my way back to the office. (I even remembered dressing and a fork.) He took it gratefully, but I still felt a little conflicted.

I'd love your opinion on this matter: is giving food to a homeless person a good idea, or should I have stuck to change? I feel like it might almost be demeaning, to give food... but I don't know. Any thoughts on this?

Tannenbaum, bulb, bulk

I helped take down our church's giant Christmas tree today. Normally I would leave right after service, but I'm looking for small windows of opportunity.

Also, I asked a few members of the church's Green Team about fluorescent bulb disposal. If you haven't been keeping up with the YoP comments, Lewis asked how to properly dispose of a fluorescent bulb, because they have small amounts of mercury in them. I found a guy at church who has some information that he's going to bring next week, so tune in for that. He says there are a few facilities around here that are specifically designed to handle them, but they have very limited hours.

For now, check out:
* Relevant FAQs from General Electric
* Earth911.org, where you can search recycling facilities by zip code
* LampRecycle.org

So I hope that answers your question, and maybe next week I'll have a few more pearls of wisdom for ya. ;) I wonder if I can create a place at Heritage where members can drop off bulbs, and then drive batches of them to the facility myself? The things never die, so it's frustrating to drive one bulb out to some recycling center, but if we collect them at church and periodically drive a batch over... hmm...

Bradley and I also did another paper dump (ew) at church-- the paper dumpster (as in a dumpster for paper, not a dumpster made of paper) was almost full. Such a small, easy thing to do-- and it's great to see our efforts adding up like that. I'm still a little skeptical about recycling things like paper, but I've already noticed that we have less trash at home.

Oh! And I wanted to mention that my friend Alison gave me a belated Christmas present: she sewed me some canvas shopping bags! She knows I'm "off" plastic bags, and has even witnessed me trying to juggle things in my arms as I walk to my car. (I'm horrible about remembering my totes.) The bags are gorgeous (brown and sparkly!) and I love them to death. :D