Ah, Country Living in the Middle of Gas Stations

If I were born in the 1800's, I'd miss it. Then again, I'd miss out on ballpoint pens and their later day successor, the internet keyboard. And Science of Mind magazine. And Harry Potter books. Imagine a Huck Finn/Harry Potter stand off. There is something to be said for simpler times though (and I'm not just saying that because I'm broke!)

A few years ago, I was all about buying every single new eyeshadow, trying out the mineral make ups, and throwing ultra slick lip gloss into my bag. And yes, it had everything to do with the fact that I was dating a guy who was a decade younger than me. My inner Cougar woreth push up bras, hair paraphenalia that normally dealt with Lizzie McGuire and flowery perfume to appease the statement, "Where's that Pretty Girl smell?" after Minus a Decade boy got a whiff of my anti-age stanky cream instead.

If Minus A Decade boy and I got into an argument I had a wonderful friend at work who is in her fifties, who would advise me to go shopping. That's what she does as a hobby, as therapy, as an Olympic sport. His being an a*hole could result in me coming home with orange rugs.

Eventually I would come to find out that Humanling had a form of epilepsy - Petit Mal seizures. This would be the start of a different kind of revamping of myself. Before this, I was all about recycling, throwing the peels outside for the animals (much to the disgust of my neighbors so I would do it at night) and of course, animal & human rights...although probably more animal than human.

Humanling's epilepsy set me on a firm course for research. We learned about food sensitivities and got tested. She showed up highly sensitive to gluten and dairy foods. I scoffed. Pffff....! Obviously she got THIS malady from her dumb father's side of the family. They have problems with everything. Until I got tested and learned that indeed the only thing her dad passed down was looks. I'm the one with the high sensitivities.

Research in everything set me off to find ingredients in household products, all that stuff that we slather on our bodies in the form of soaps, lotions, shampoo's, toothpaste. All the stuff that is in our SAD (which appropriately enough stands for Standard American Diet). And all the stuff that is in our Stuff.

There is TOO MUCH STUFF.

Therefore, over time, we have become gluten and dairy free vegetarians who buy almost everything second hand or lift it off someone else's yard, taking the 'free' sign with it.

I insist that much of our clothing (barring the real personals - no one needs Already There skidmarks) is second hand. I am not pissing out silver dollars (after childbirth it can't be all that bad right?) but I do believe that I make enough to simply donate our clothes when we're done instead of try to sell them.

I used to buy a ton of CDs, DVDs and books. Know what I still have tons of unused or unread? Uh huh. I've whittled down and sold a bunch on Amazon (used is recycling - no supply and demand if people are buying secondhand!!). I now get all our books at the library. They're free!!! And I can take out as many as I want! And the book will enlighten a bunch of people...not just end up on my bookshelf with all my inspired yellow highlights that are forgotten within a week and never looked at again. If I must own a book, which will happen with a lot of energy healing books, then I will go to Amazon and buy it USED. They are much cheaper and again, we are avoiding supply and demand. And when I'm done, I will either resell it, shelve it if it will continue to educate me, or donate it to the library. The same with CDs! I can usually burn them on the computer if I really like it or just borrow it again at another time. You can look at it as stealing I suppose, however, I'm more concerned with the status of the air and planet that we're on - since I haven't figured out what other planet will get good internet service or show CSI (Vegas edition) reruns.

Humanling and I are fortunate to live down the road from our town library. Whatever our library doesn't have, I can request online. They have never disappointed me. I even happily pay my late fines there knowing that the fines have paid for the services that I am of privledge to have. Now if this were Blockbuster, I'd be pissed, wouldn't pay the fine and would have to open a membership at the one on the other side of town instead.

Humanling and I aren't into all these high tech ways to have fun. Yeeeeessssss, we have this computer. We have a Gameboy (it was the door prize from my last marriage). But best of all, we have f*cking 56 Games, people!!!

56 Games is our board game that we found at a craft fair. It was marked down from $1 to 50 cent and then to a quarter before we saw it. Humanling wanted it. I thought it looked boring and hokey. All these happy kids are on the outside of the box with their feathered hair and overbites enjoying a wholesame game of checkers. But sure...its a quarter, why not. The directions inside the box were printed in 1963.

A former serial Cougar like me has had some wild times with some wild people. However, I can usually be found nightly out on the deck or the front stoop with Humanling, dosing on our 56 games. I mean this is nightly!! I sprung that quarter almost a year ago! And maybe its not everyone's deal but I mean I am totally loving the fact that my kid and I are doing something as simple as sitting outside, enjoying the evening and rollin' the die. And yelling. Every time inevitably, the neighbors are blessed with being in close proximity to the accusatory rows that involve someone cheating. We sound like angry manga brothers.

Humanling and I enjoy most of the time, and I mean about 98% of the time, unprocessed foods. That's where the Farmer's Market really came in handy. It's like being closer to our food. I can't stop sounding so gay about this (yes, I said 'gay'. I've used this term for years and I'm sure most of you know it doesn't mean 'homosexual' nor make any sort of derogatory homosexual reference ~ end of disclaimer) but I am so feeling the energy of our fresh food and that its all so delicious and local and Unprocessed! It is the way this planet meant it to be (GMOs aside after we started messing with the seeds - I refuse to buy it if I can avoid it or eat anything that is a huge GMO crop without it being organic).

Here comes the preachy moment ~ it's a beautiful thing to do what you can to avoid putting your pennies into the hands of those products that you don't really need that are running rampant due to supply and demand. Each of us have to choose our battles and decide what we can change in order to bring the "DANGER Will Robinson!" banner down a few rungs. Waste is such sorrow. And I'm not kidding. I'm not trying to be funny or poetic. It really is. Especially waste that will outlive all of us and our very own DNA that we'll never meet. Very uncool. Choose your path - eventually you'll not even know how you could live any other way. And I'm not saying I'm perfect. I have no plans to ditch my internet or cable service. However, there are other things that I can and am doing. I can embrace technology while standing firm on technology that isn't necessary and is downright dangerous.

Summer is introducing putting our hands into the palms of Autumn within a month. That's just so awesome. Humanling and I will be moving our shouting match indoors so that the neighbors can have a new listening experience of who's allegedly cheating.

If this video has no effect for you then we will need to change your battery.