Trying my best to live a low-waste and plastic-free life in PDX

​Hiya! Since you're over here following along on my less-than-perfect and snark-filled journey to reduce plastic waste and shame a few corporate offenders along the way, here's my big, fat introduction.

I'm a writer, and a mom, and a wife, and a middle-aged cranky woman living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I have a lot of tattoos and dabble in makery things like knitting, sewing and gardening. But I don't do any of those things very well. I jog sometimes, but it's more like a lumbering walk. I used to be an opera singer. Pretty typical of women you'd meet in Portland, I guess. Very Portlandia. People have always told me "You should write your own thing." To which I've always responded, "Nah, I don't have anything to say for myself - I'm not really that interesting." You see, I write other people's stories. I write for small and medium sized businesses - usually family-owned ones - ones where poeple have passion, and vision, and they want to SAY something about whatever product or service they are trying to get out there. I help them find their voice. But my voice. Meh. 

Then, it hit me. I did have something to say. I was saying it all the time when I was bitching to my husband about all the effing plastic I felt forced to consume every time I went to the grocery store. I was saying it when I was complaining about how the take-out food was still put in clamshell or worse, styrofoam. I had a big fat voice about the excessive packaging that people were blindly accepting when they signed up for this meal kit programs like Blue Apron. I went on a seething monologue about environmental advocates who blythly purchased their milk in plastic gallons. I realized, I DID have something to say after all.

Then, I realized, I wasn't new to the game. Lot's of people were out there saying it, so maybe it wasn't worth my time. But then I realized, it's worth EVERYONE's time. Everyone. Even busy people like you and me. Busy, regular moms who have to decide to buy two half gallons of milk in cardboard rather than one gallon in plastic. I'm not a perfect yoga-pants-wearing eco-traveler with a trust fund. I'm just a gal. If we all think twice, we can make a difference together. Thanks for joining me here for the long-form stuff. Mostly I'm over on Instagram at @plasticfreemamma kevetching about plastic and related topics everyday. My pictures are pretty decent, too. See you there?