gunky

shopsin's

when i was in third grade i won some sort of prize for a story i wrote about a magical chair. i was really in to writing stories.

my bachelor's degree (aztecs, rah) is in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. during my senior year i read an average of one thousand pages of fiction a week. i fell asleep a lot while i was reading. and i wrote a lot of essays.

when i met my husband (who wasn't my husband at the time) i was a graduate student, majoring in literature. i read fiction. lots and lots of fiction. then we (my peers, professors, and i) analyzed the meaning of the fiction. what it meant about life and the world as a whole, what it was really saying while saying something else, and how that reflects reality. and i wrote essays about what i read. long, long essays.

when i watched movies, i analyzed the story. the motivation of the characters. the meaning. the meaning of the motivation of the symbols of the metaphors of the shadows of the camera angles.

my life was about trying to find meaning in the story.

darin was into non-fiction. news! truth! what? how? i didn't get it.

[cut to eight years later]

hi. i'm christina moran. the last novel i read was the seventh Harry Potter. a year ago.
oh, i read every day. The New Yorker. but i rarely read the fiction in there. and the television i watch consists entirely of netflixed episodes of The Dog Whisperer, Kitchen Confidential, and Heroes. all completely non-fiction. and i don't watch movies, i watch documentaries.

on a fluke i briefly read the synopsis of I Like Killing Flies, netflixed it, watched it, and haven't been so thrilled in a long time.
but i can't tell you more than that except: go rent it. so excellent. so funny and smart and entertaining.

and i'm still analyzing the meaning of it.

diapers II

i warned you that there was more.

as i searched to find what is best for me, my baby, and the planet, i read reviews of different kinds of disposable diapers. the most surprising and alarming complaint i found was in regards to seventh generation's chlorine and chemical free diapers.

people actually reported that these diapers are ugly.

this is a perfect instance where i feel like i do not fit in in this society, because ugly? UGLY?!
ugly, to me, is the diaper on the right (below), the most common diaper known.

it is so very hard for me to understand how garish cartoons advertising a tv show on a baby's bottom is not ugly and plain is. anyway.

i found that chlorine&chemical free diapers are better for the baby and for the planet. ok, duh.
and they have way less plastic and are partially biodegrade.
i tried three different brands: whole foods', seventh generation, and nature baby (L to R, below), all equally attractive.

i also ordered the starter kit of gdiapers, which have a flushable-if-you-have-good-plumbing (i don't) insert (inside a cloth cover with a snap-in plastic liner), which also can be composted or trashed, as it decomposes in a few months. here is a gdiaper next to the seventh generation model:

get to the point, you say?

well. the gdiaper inserts cost twice as much as pampers, and the c&c free dipes are in the middle of the two extremes. the gdiaper is bulky and hard to travel with because of all the parts that have to go together. they are the next best thing, environmentally, to cloth (if you don't wash the cloths 3 times per use, as recommended), though.

as for the c&c free sposies (i do love the nicknames, and i didn't make them up), when considering bulk, cost, tabs, rise, and of course couture, seventh generation wins easily.

in conclusion, i am using the gdiapers at home some, and the sevgen the most. and that's that.

tune in next time for gunky's exciting views on babyfood . . .

diapers I

after the birth of our second child, the dirty diaper pile in our home grew exponentially.
i'm not sure if this just happened to coincide with my natural evolvement or if it prompted it, but i could no longer explain away this non-biodegradable mess that i, basically, was producing.
one essential, whether he liked it or not (and i wanted him to like it, i was waiting for him to like it), was to potty train The Three Year Old.
okay.
the other thing was to research the diaper choices out there for The Baby.

are you bored yet, internet? you must not have children in diapers, or/and you're not going to.

so i spent a lot of time looking into the cloth diapering systems.
SAVE THE PLANET! i said.
NO MORE PLASTIC! i said.
and i ordered, online, a starter set. a STARTER set: FOUR cloth diaper wrap thingies, some liners, and accoutrements, for just under one hundred dollars.

simultaneously, spring break happened, and i was at home with The Boy and i thought, HEY! you're getting potty trained.
and we tackled this milestone.
and there were "accidents".
that i had to wash.
which led me to looking up the directions for doing so, on the cloth diapering site, where i learned that you don't just wash your cloth diapers, but you pre-rinse, wash, wash, and rinse your cloth diapers each time they are soiled, and i quote:

Basic Washing Routine:
0) pre-rinse the yuck out in the toilet.
1) Wash the entire load on cold with detergent. Washing once on cold water is
important to remove leftover "yuck" from your diapers.
2) Wash the entire load again on warm or hot - also with detergent.
3) Do a second rinse.
4) You can dry almost everything in the dryer.

If you're having problems with diapers that stink after washing:

Try an extra, extra rinse. Sometimes detergent residue can cause diapers to smell.
Wash once with a small squirt of liquid Dawn. Rinse well.
If the previous solutions don't work, try 1/4 cup of bleach in the warm/hot wash cycle.

this information coupled with the effed up underpants that were mounting convinced me that i did not, indeed, want to cloth diaper my baby.
i couldn't do it.
not only could i not stomach it, but i think i could be fined for using that kind of water in this drought. i mean, by law, we are only allowed to run our sprinklers on mondays, thursdays, and saturdays after 4pm or before 9am.

so i tried to return my order of cloth diapers, before it arrived, because even though they weren't going to load up the landfill, they were going to deplete our reservoirs.
i ask you. internet. (i know you won't post your comments, but you'll email me.) how are cloth diapers greener than pampers?

[TO BE CONTINUED . . . (fair warning) . . . ]

the race

i have had an "Obama '08" sticker on my car since before he knew he was running. just saying . . .

a few weeks ago i purchased these little buttons on cafepress to give to some of my friends.

when one pal passed on the offer, i gasped.
"i'm not sure who i'm for," she said. "remember? i liked edwards . . . "
"well whaddaya gonna do, vote for McCAIN?!" i croaked.

it wasn't until several days later that it occurred to me hillary clinton is still running, too.
i'm SO into politics.

green flips

i have flat feet. additionally, i can't wear shoes with backs. they annoy me. last year, a nice employee at whole earth provision in austin, texas, alerted me to the chaco brand that miraculously do good podiatric things to my feet, and i bought my first pair.

since then, i have become even more granola (more on that later), and this year i sought out a non-leather pair, and i'm pleased to announce they are even more pleasant to wear. that animal hide was just too slidey and my foot slipped around a lot in the footbed. these ones are grippy.

but the best part? they didn't come in a box, just in a UPS bag and on this hanger.

now i just have to deal with my guilt for those innocent boxes.

collars

i ordered the coolest dog collars on etsy, my favorite place to shop. my dogs can keep on a tag for about a week, but now! the info is right on the collar, and not written in sharpie. i got to pick the fabric that covers each super-strong collar, and they have snap clasps as required by doggie daycare. all this for only $14 each. click here to order your own. tell her that mochi and mòle sent you.

i can't get mòle to hold still for a photo, so here it is before he wore it: