Week the Second

Day 1

Food
-Not much has changed since last week, really. Yeah there are certain meat dishes I sometimes looked longingly at today, but each vegetarian meal has ultimately been very satisfying

Trash
-The cloth napkins I brought from home work like a charm. I can just stuff them in my pockets when I walk to the commons and it saves me the trouble of reaching across the table whenever I need a new napkin
-I really wanted coffee this morning after getting very little sleep the night before, but I need my coffee to be sweet and the only sugar I can use are the prepackaged squares, so no coffee for me. I guess I’ll have to find other ways to stay awake
-I also can’t have the awesome Texas-shaped waffles since it requires pouring the pre-made batter into the iron from a plastic cup and throwing the cup away. Oh well.

Day 2

Food
-Well, unfortunately for me, today was chicken fried steak day. It was hard to pass that up, but I prevailed. It can only get easier from here

Trash
-I had bad allergies today and had to bend the rules a bit to use some tissues. I felt guilty throwing those away, but I would have felt guiltier with snot all over my face.
-I’ve been noticing how abstaining from throwing anything away is revealing all of the dumb little things I’ve grown accustomed to. For instance I used to get a straw every meal for my soda/tea/water, and now I find myself getting bothered by the ice blocking the flow of the drink into my mouth. This is followed directly by me being bothered that I’m bothered by something as negligible and stupid as the efficiency of the flow of soda into my mouth. It’s an interesting range of emotions.
-The gum thing is still bothering me, but it’s getting a little bit more manageable. I’ve been thinking about switching to the kind of gum packaging where you just pop the little square from that plastic bubble sheet like Dentyne Ice instead of the individually wrapped stick gum I have now.

Day 3

Food
-Still no huge change or epiphany. I’ve actually noticed that I’ve been complaining less about the commons food than my meat-eating friends.
-They had shrimp etouffe today and I was debating whether shrimp and seafood counted for me under the category of meat. I decided that while fish might not be fed grain, overfishing is still an issue and I turned it down

Trash
-I decided to take the food out today and was able to do it without wasting anything. Instead of using the Styrofoam boxes and cups and plasticware, I used my newly purchased Tupperware container and a used glass Snapple bottle. I might have also stolen some silverware.

Compost
-I asked my friend if I could take her watermelon rinds for the compost after she ate like 5 slices. She thought it was a weird question, but after I explained she had no problem giving them to me.
-I’m doing better with recycling everything possible, but I’m doing a bad job of regularly visiting the compost. My room doesn’t smell yet, surprisingly, but I have a lot of gross moldy fruit above my refrigerator. I’m surprised my roommate hasn’t complained yet.