Recycling at the Mall: Some Tips

A Saturday morning phone conversation with my brother:

Him: What are you doing today. 
Me: Well, I'm going to the mall.
Him: What... Why?
Me: I'm going to go recycle some things.
Him: Oh I knew something had to be up, you wouldn't just go there. What kind of recycling?

I'm so glad he asked. It makes for a perfect setup for this post.  But before I get into what and where to recycle at your mall, let me commend my brother.

He is a very smart man who knows me well.
He knows I would not go to a mall just to shop.
Further he knows I would not use my precious Saturday hours to battle finding a parking spot, looking for pants that just don't fit and spending too much money.

That's not to say I would never go to the mall.  I would and I do. Occasionally.

I would go to the mall to: 

To buy an Auntie Anne's pretzel,
To watch a movie, or
To fix a wardrobe emergency. 


What is a wardrobe emergency?
A wardrobe emergency for instance could be if your strapless bra decides to cease having elasticity in the middle of church, slips around your waist and can't be convinced it is not belt. This is a wardrobe emergency, and it warrants leaving service and driving straight to the mall.

Here I was, instead of the above reasons, taking old things to the mall and leaving them there.

I've been taking bottle caps to the mall for years.
Did you know the plastic used on soda bottles and milk jugs can't be recycled normally?

Aveda collects them and...at this point I have heard 2 different things.  I have been told/ read that
they turn them into new bottle caps for their products. (Now their caps are recyclable so this possibly changed). Saturday I was told they redistribute them to schools to use to make art projects.
Either way, I feel good about it.

Next, is a new one.
Did you know you can recycle old clothes at H&M?  Recently, Julie Johnson photographer/ blogger/ friend from Life Astonished posted about this not so long ago.

I know some of my clothes are so ratty they should not go to Goodwill or any other clothing donation for that matter, and consequently I have held on to them. But no more! H&M wants my old clothes. It wants your old clothes. It wants old clothes.
And if recycling pitted out ripped up clothes and freeing up closet space wasn't enough of an incentive, they also give you an in-store coupon for your effort.

Finally, one you probably know about, is shoe recycling. Look into where you can recycle your old shoes. I typically do a shoe roundup for me and my friends every couple of years and take a trek out to the Nike outlet, but more and more stores want your rubber soles.

See? Malls have something for everyone, even for the wary consumer.

Today's lesson: Do a little research, reduce, reuse and recycle.

How to NOT Wait by the Phone

We've all played the waiting game at one time or another, staring at a land line or cell phone willing it to ring or vibrate. Be it for the doctor calling with test results, the verdict on the job you interviewed for or the fulfillment of the "I'll call you" promise, it's downright uncomfortable.

I've been in each of these scenarios, but the most frequently occurring for me is waiting to see what a guy meant when he said he'd be in touch.

I have come to conclude (without criticism), that often a guy will say "I'll call you"  when he really means "please get out of my car, now." This seems to be the simplest way to get me to go away. I can't say that I fault the men-folk who have promised a call in the past and not honored it. I wonder if they thought I would burst into tears or refused to get out if they had simply said the truth, which is: "Yeah, let's never do this again. Ever." All this translates to is that I never know what will happen after stepping out of the car.

Often I catch myself creating elaborate stories to explain the silence. I try them on one after another like I'm shoe shopping.
Maybe he was caught in a hold up at the bank and is the only hostage still inside.
Perhaps there was a family emergency and he is fine, but grandma? Well...
He's somehow dramatically injured and whispers to a friend that they need to make a call to a girl, but they don't understand his gibberish.
After trying out a few of these scenarios, I know I have gone a bit batty. Perhaps it's a bit romantic to kill off a potential leading man or to put him in harms way, but also it's really morose and twisted.  Essentially this line of thought says, "I like you enough to fantasize your death as a plausible reason for you not contacting me; this collateral damage is superior to thinking you were lying."
Not good.

What I do know is the waiting game is full of wasted time, emotional energy and fantastical deadly stories, and I'd rather just re-channel all of it.

Here's what I've come up to do instead of waiting for technology to beckon me to converse... or not.
You should try some.

1.) Do something you typically put off.

For me that means either painting my nails and or shaving my legs.
How do girls do these things consistently?
Both take way too much time. And wet nails are essentially a prison sentence. I can't not use my hands, so it's always a mess.

2.) Go on a walk and find things.

While on a long ramble, I found this rock. It told me to turn it over,

and I was in a listening mood, so I did,

and I gave it some relief.


3.) Begin a series of hilarious pranks.
This is Yolanda the pregnant (and formally naked) paper mache yogi. I discovered her after she'd been kicked out of her home. Perhaps she was banished for being with child. Since the time I found her, she's been outfitted and passed along from friend to friend.

 

This week she baked cookies for a friend and delivered them in person.

I plan to write Yolanda a genesis story sometime in the near future.


4.) Write a blog post about not waiting by the phone. 

See what I did here? Yeah? Enough said.



5.) Put your phone somewhere where you can't see it and dance.

Really dance. And shoot, sing too. No one will see or hear and you'll feel better because that's how we were wired.

Be who you are, singing and dancing on the earth. When you do that, a phone, ringing or silent is of little importance.

Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” 

― Rumi