Monday, September 21, 2009

Impractical and Rambling

Today I accompanied my mother to her organic food co-op pick up. Earlier this year my parents had considered putting in a vegetable garden in order to be more green and maybe save some money. However, after calculating how many trees they'd have to clear and how much deer fencing would cost it was the case of the $300 tomato. My Dad went down and signed up with the Hamlet Organic Garden or HOG for short. I am really proud of my parents, aside from the fact that the vegetables taste incredible it really makes a difference in your carbon footprint to buy locally. Forget the chemicals used to grown vegetables and the health or environmental side effects--just think of the fact that those California strawberries have to travel 3,000 miles to get to you and how much gas and emissions that is costing the world. Sure it's great to have out of season fruit in the winter but the rest of time it's ludicrous how much energy is expended to get that fruit to you. Anyways, this is besides the point I wanted to make. My mother and I showed up wearing cute shoes, her in gorgeous yellow leather sandals and I was rocking a pair of suede turquoise ballet flats with beaded ankles straps. The woman who checked our name off of the list was poking fun out how they weren't really practical farm wear, let alone for someone with a broken toe (my Mom broke hers a few days ago). Excuse me, first of all they were the only shoes that didn't hurt her toe and second of all, WHO CARES?! We not only picked out our vegetables but went and cut fresh flowers from the gardens in those 'impractical' shoes. The worst thing that either of us suffered from was a couple of mosquito bites.

Tomorrow I have my very first meeting with a broker to discuss my investment plans. I want to start with some form of an IRA and plan out potential types of investments for my 20s and 30s. Is it weird that I'm super excited? Of course I already have a professional outfit planned. I'm just wishing I had something more chic to take notes in than my slightly beat up journal. I'd bring a legal pad but it doesn't fit in the purse I brought home. Whatever, I'm a 23 year old English teacher, I suspect that a beat up notebook sort of fits the image. My Dad's broker doesn't handle people with as little money as me BUT recommended another guy in his office who was very friendly on the phone.

This meeting promises to be much more interesting than how I plan on spending the rest of my afternoon: organizing and labeling my Mom's pantry. It's not that I don't love obsessively organizing things (and god knows my library really doesn't need yet another session of this neurosis) but food isn't really my thing. It's harder to come up with perfect categories and strategies for something that doesn't really appeal to me. I love doing closets, studios, offices and books (obviously) but pantries? Not so much. I told my Mom that this warranted more than hemming my jeans in payment when I realized how big of a project it was going to be. I might actually get my suit jacket finished before I return to Korea. If I'm very lucky.

7 comments:

Josh said...

you go girl! get something more than hemmed pants from her!!!! anyone who has EVER eaten in that house knows the sheer quantity of staples dear ole' mom stocks on any given Tuesday

:-p

Alex said...

OMG I KNOW. And it's not just the staples it's like who keeps 3 different types of hot chocolate??? Stuff like that.

Rachel S said...

Can I hire you to come and organize my home office? My Books? And...my pantry closest? I promise trips to bookstores and good food -- but I don't hem pants.

For the first year ever I got hooked on farmer's markets, and have signed up to do a share with a local farmer for next year. Who cares what we wear as long as we shop and eat locally grown food.

See you Friday!! After 15 phone calls, found a hotel in Roanoke that was not full to the brim with people coming to the VA Tech Football game.

Alex said...

I did at one point consider starting an organizing business. :-p.

I can't believe you had to call FIFTEEN hotels. Good thing you found something!

Anonymous said...

In order to reduce the your carbon footprint for your trip back tothe Far East, we assume that you will be riding a bicycle to the Pacific Coast and then take a sailing ship to Korea (LOL). You could always teach English locally, but hten what fun would that be.

Alex said...

Hee hee. I agree, when people were asking me why I didn't just do the Teach for America program I was like...or I could do the same thing and see a new part of the world.

Anonymous said...

I',m in favor of locally grown produce, only if it really grows locally. Like my front and back yards. My front yard is basically a wild herbiage and the back is raspberries and sometimes veggies. Also In specenrtown where the farms are then that;s a good idea. BUT please read the article/interview in the online version of Newsweek today on locavores, it makes a lot of sense in the carbon footprint sense.