Maybe this has happened in your community...you go shopping and the cashier asks if you'd like to buy a bag for your goodies for an extra 5 cents? Or maybe you're at Trader Joe's and the cashier asks if you brought your own bags because if you did you'll get a prize?!? Or maybe when you say, "Oh, sorry, I don't have my own bags" the lady behind you tries to stare holes at you with her heat-seeking-missle-eyes and when you ignore her she says out loud, "We should all try to do our part and bring our own bags, I did and it's such an easy thing to do, would you like one of mine?"
I don't mind paying the 5 cents for a bag, and I don't mind being left out of the latest PC grocery store game, but what I do mind is the looks and comments from Birkenstock-wearing-soy-latte-drinking-granola-eating-save-the-spotted-owl-bleeding-hearts who assume because I don't have my own bag that I am not doing my part. (I own Birkenstock, love soy lattes, make and eat my own granola, think the spotted owl is beautiful and my heart bleeds for people who think I'm not doing my part just because I'm forgetful!)
Perhaps to avoid a guilty conscience, or because of one, I ordered some canvas bags from Bagiva...super cheap and light-weight. I thought I would use them for my little jaunts into the PC market-places around me...but then I had another idea. I was hosting my book club and thought I would turn my blank-canvas bags into book bags for the ladies.
They turned out cute, no? I took a bunch of Sharpies and killed an hour by writing quotes about books all over the bags. I used them as placemats for our book club luncheon - they helped liven up my table!
The next time I go to the PC markets or to Issaquah or Seattle, where they charge for bags, I'll make sure to have one of these in my back pocket so I can fend off any environmental-do-gooder's-comments...or maybe I'll write some new quotes on the extra bags I have...I recycle my trash, ride my bike to work, take 3 minute showers, relocate bugs and spiders in my home to the great outdoors, use cloth napkins, turn hair from my brush into clothing for preemies, drive a Prius but only on odd-numbered days, pick up roadside trash as a hobby, will only eat dolphin safe candy, I USE MY OWN GROCERY BAGS! Of course most of those are PC lies...who has ever heard of a 3 minute shower?!?
