Andrea the Republican Is Saving the World

I don’t get political on this blog and it is going to stay that way, but anyone that knows me even a little, knows I am a Republican. Not to go into the minutiae of my political beliefs, I will just share what is important to this post. I think that Al Gore is much more in love with the sound of his own voice than the earth. If there is climate change, I don’t believe that we are responsible for it or can do a stinking thing about it. Last year when the global warming marches kept getting cancelled because of snow, my heart leapt with joy. I also can’t see anything changing those beliefs. However, just because we aren’t on the eco bandwagon doesn’t mean we totally agree with the disposable culture that we live in. Now that we are in London, I have noticed a green tint to my behavior. And I don’t even mean to. We have really been trying to simplify our lives here. Our situation has changed from Dallas, we have less space and everything here is so dang expensive! I take my own bag to the grocery store not because I stay up at night wondering if my plastic ones killed a polar bear, but because it is easier to carry groceries home when those plastic handles aren’t digging into your fingers. Mine is just simple pink mesh bag and the people that carry eco-snob bags that say stuff like “My grocery bag is better than yours” and “WWJCHGHI: What Would Jesus Carry His Groceries Home In?” can kiss my carbon footprint. We haven’t used many paper towels at all, dishrags do everything that we need for free! We have even been using cloth napkins every night at dinner. We don’t have any room for lots of pre-packaged food so I make most of it, and it tastes better and is better for us. We eat at home about 6 nights a week, which makes the nights we do go out to eat a treat and not a Tuesday. I set our menu at the beginning of the week so I don’t buy lots of extra food that we don’t have room for. We do so much at home that we just use less stuff, and I really like it. I like having my dinners on a plate and not in a to-go container. We get lots of our vegetables and fruits at a little stand that is always set up outside our tube station. Obviously we don’t use much gas because we walk and take the tube- both a blessing and a curse.  Sometimes when I grab my pink bag to run to the store I think, “what are you doing Andrea? You are a Republican. Someone could see you and think you are voting for Obama!” But on my way home I rejoice that my bag decision was practical solution, and that I am not harboring delusions that it is a magic bag, saving the world one polar bear at a time.