Learning Curve

I don’t know why I have such a hard time with this, but I never remember my re-usable cloth grocery bags until I’m standing in line to pay for my groceries. (Any tips on helping me remember are gladly accepted.) And this again was the case as Jamie and I stood in line at our local Albertson’s yesterday afternoon. So, in my attempt to be a good global citizen I requested paper as my best second choice over plastic (our disposal company doesn’t recycle plastic bags) and my checker was happy to comply. The next few minutes included my flirting with Jamie sitting in the cart behind the checker and the checker’s incessant, one-sided conversation about the great deal her daughter got on diapers at a competing store. Mmm. Uh-huh. Oh yes. Of course. Uh-huh. So I didn’t notice until I was walking back to my car that she had bagged the first sack of groceries in paper and then proceeded to bag the rest in plastic. Not only were they in plastic, but three of my items (sliced swiss cheese, Swiffer mop pads and eggs) were in their own, individual plastic bags. Was I supposed to specify paper for each bag of groceries? Or that I would like more than one item to be placed in each bag?

I’m quite aware how this story makes me sound – Something akin the to the “uppities” that would come into Abby’s Pizza where I worked in Roseburg for their $1.25 glass of box wine and swap stories in positively horrific tones about how last weekend they cut loose and drank wine out of a beer glass! Oh, the impropriety of such a crime! She actually had the audacity to use PLASTIC for her groceries! Ah-gad! Can you imagine being so grotesque? But I’m trying to be aware. I’m trying to do my best as an individual and using non-biodegradable plastic bags for each one of my grocery items seems a pretty obvious thing to avoid. I say, as I jot down a note to pick up more non-biodegradable mop pads.

We’re all still learning.