Yellow Wallpaper

The other day at the grocery store I bought two containers of strawberries. I always check the label to see if they are from Oxnard, CA; this time there were two options, and I chose the Oxnard berries. Purely sentimental reasons. We moved to little Port Hueneme , CA (which is surrounded by Oxnard) when I was in fifth grade and stayed through the summer before my final year of high school. The smell of strawberries reminds me of the fields surrounding town, not just of strawberries, but onions, broccoli, lettuce, celery, and other vegetables. The drive to the stake center in a neighboring town was perfumed by farm smells. I'm sure that many of those fields have been covered in houses now, but Oxnard continues to produce a lot of vegetables. When I think of Oxnard I also think of the smells of eucalyptus trees, the feel of the ocean breeze on my face, the smell of rotting fish at the pier, hot Santa Ana winds, and the smell of wet earth from spring rain. My childhood memories are fu...

When I was about 12 or 13, I spent a lot of time at the library reading magazines. I would go to the library at least once a week, and my routine never varied. First I'd stop off at the young adult fiction shelf and grab four or five books. Then I'd look at the new books shelf to see if anything looked good. After that I'd browse my favorite areas of non-fiction: marine biology, art history, paranormal phenomena, or cookbooks. Finally I'd sit in the back and read a few magazines. For some reason one day I was reading a parenting magazine and there was an article about teenagers becoming vegetarians. I'm easily persuaded, so I decided to become a vegetarian. My desire only lasted a few weeks; I do remember checking this book out from the library and feeling really lost by all of the technical jargon. I've never really considering being a vegetarian since that point. I did grow up in a house where we ate meat somewhat sparingly and ate lots of fresh vegetables, w...

This is a giant plastic bag full of dirty diapers. It smells pretty bad. Every week when I haul the giant bag of plastic diapers wrapped in more plastic out to the trash can I feel terrible. I was blessed to grow up with a mother who was very environmentally conscious. Some of my earliest memories include gathering newspapers to take to the recycling center. Mr. Fob and I also make a big effort to be environmentally friendly. I walk to the grocery store; he walks to school and often takes the bus to run other errands. I probably could take the bus more often but I tend to wimp out when trips involve the kids. I also feel guilty each night as I drive back and forth to work by myself. But we do recycle everything we can and I almost always remember to bring my own grocery bags to the store. So the plastic diapers are one of the major things contributing to my environmental responsibility right now. The truth is, at this point in Little Dude's life it really wouldn't be too hard ...