That's good and all, but EVERY day is Earth Day

I just got back from a refreshing rollerblade along the flat, treeless, refuse-dappled landscape that is my immediate surrounding area here at The Summit. I was cooling down on the porch with a half glass of Crystal Light when a blue-shirted brigade came out of the door underneath me: four girls and one guy dressed in matching light-blue tie-die t-shirts, toting garbage bags and pick-up sticks. (my apologies for all the hyphenation.) They are picking up all the trash around the pond, which is no small feat. The "nice view" I had off my porch when I moved in has turned from quaint patch of nature just beyond the parking lot to booze/cigarette paraphenallia catch-all. (I can't help it. I love hyphenated words.) I commend them for getting out there and doing their part, even though it is Earth Day and they might not be out there otherwise. It's a lot more than most people do.

And now, for a moment of self-congratulatory reflection: I feel good about my conservation efforts over my time at The Summit. I can count the number of times I've driven to campus on one hand, and that's including sub-zero, severe wind chill weather. I have walked or ridden my bike as much as humanly possible, risking tardiness(okay, sometimes causing tardiness), illness, sunburn, sweaty pits in class, and blisters on feet from new footwear. I carpool. I keep my tires full and the car light to save on mileage. What else, what else...I take short showers, don't leave the water running while I brush my teeth (you can save up to two gallons a day!), and I've stopped buying individually packaged foods to eliminate waste. (Some items are just ridiculous - break through the shrink-wrap to get to the individual box and then open that to a plastic bag that holds the goods.) I do more and need to do even more than that.

In elementary school I was in a play called "Every Day is Earth Day." I was a bird. One of the songs was a rap called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Awesome. The melody is going through my head right now. Here's a little taste of the lyrics:
Recycle, recycle, recycle now/
I can teach ya if you don't know how/
So get your mama and your daddy and your sista too/
'Cuz recyclin' is the thing to do/
I didn't have any lines, but I had a kick-ass costume thanks to Pa and his infinite creativity. White leggings and a long sleeve-shirt underneath a body suite made of bright orange, yellow, and red feathers. But the kicker was the headdress. A Styrofoam halo of feathers, bobby-pinned into my permed, red hair. I stood in the back next to KT (a trash bag) and Andrea (a tree). We have it on tape somewhere.

Anyway, thanks light-blue-tie-died-shirt people for reminding me that it's Earth Day. I'll be thinking of you tonight at Carrie's bonfire when I'm roasting mallows over the fire and dreaming of summer nights under the stars in my relativley unaffected-by-pollution-so-that-the-nights-are-still-clear-city.