Dun dun dun. It’s time for me to look back on the goals I set last month to see if I made any progress. Let’s take a gander shall we?

I actually finished 2 and ”some fraction” of them! I know that’s only almost half, seeing I set seven goals, but I’m definitely happy with the ones I did finish. What were they?

1. Drink 8 glasses of water for at least 1 month. – I felt so awesome doing this! It was a pretty big change seeing I went from drinking 1 glass of something per day to 8 glasses of water. You really don’t know what kind of benefits drinking plain ol’ water can have until you actually start getting the recommended servings per day. I was less tired, less hungry, far less irritable, and the headaches I would get everyday stopped completely. It was also fairly easy. I just made sure to fill my Sigg bottle 4 times a day and that was it. Easy peasy. I did it for 30 days, and it’s a habit I plan on trying to stick with.

2. Start the path to being a better vegetarian and eat 5 fruits/veggies a day and vitamins for at least a month. – This was a fun one because it meant spending Saturday mornings at the Alemany Farmers Market with the dreamboat. We could get a whole week worth of fruits and veggies for about 25 bucks. And it’s so nice to strike up conversations with the growers and vendors. We have talked to a woman about her clever idea of combining home made felt and soap together to create a nice little “all in one wash kit” for gardeners and artist, and to another about the love and care she puts into making her produce look amazing come market day (she had the most beautiful blood oranges, all shiny and delicious). You also get the satisfaction of knowing its all local. The fruit and veggies from the farmers market are always a lot more tasty than the ones we get at the grocers too. I could eat my fill of mandarins and blood oranges from there every day for the rest of my life.

Doing both of these goals set me on my way to making progress on (though not completing) the next goal which was…

Lose 5 pounds. – I only made it to four, but it was four with absolutely no effort on my part except for eating more fruits and veggies and drinking more water (and maybe I doubled my candy intake this month…), so I’m happy. When I set a goal to lose weight I tend to start with the easy solutions first; portion control, more fruits and veggies, getting out the house more, simple things that are easy to stick with. For the next five pounds (hopefully!) I plan on adding some weight training to my daily routine and getting out for a leisurely bike ride or stroll 3 times a week. Maybe I can start walking home with the dreamboat after work instead of taking the BART. I still have a bit to lose to get to my goal of 40 pounds lost, but I can do it. I’ve done it before.

And some other percentage. - Create a business card and actually use it – I have it all designed finally! I had to update it a little, but I dig it quite a bit. It’s very simple, a little bit fun, and not way too serious. I have postponed getting them printed because I decided to go with a green printer. The place I was going to get them printed at originally, Print100.com, had wonderful samples, but they were located in China (bad #1), coated in plastic (bad #2) and didn’t use any recycled materials or soy based inks (bad #3). I did a search for green printers in the San Francisco Bay Area and I ran across one located in Berkeley called Green Printer. While I don’t love the look of their stock as much as I did the first one (I adore the “plastic” matte look), they do produce beautiful work. I also like the fact that I can choose a card made from 100% recycled/post consumer materials, they use soy based inks, and I can just go pick them when they’re ready and I happen to be in Berkeley. They are a tad bit more expensive but that’s okay. They’re better for lady Earth. Now I just need a job so I can order them.

I was forced to spend Valentines Day alone because the dreamboat had to be in Los Angeles for work and Virgin America is the crappiest airline I have ever come across (they messed up my flight date).

I was determined to have a great day anyway, so after tasty lunch of Belgian fries and a delicious Framboise Lambic at Frjts on Valencia I headed out for a day of thrifting and doing whatever struck my fancy. A few things I was happy to find on my little trip?

From Valencia Thrift

1. A pair of speakers for the bathroom – Back in a November I mentioned the fact that I play music as a means to keep track of how long I’m in the shower. At first I was using cheap little speakers that I had purchased at Walgreens. Well, in typical cheap goods fashion, they both broke within two weeks. I been looking for speakers that were loud, small, and used ever since. Enter these new babies. They’re much louder than the previous speakers, don’t need batteries, and at only $4.25 for the pair, were less than the money I wasted on the two tiny speakers.

2. A bright pink belt

From Thrift Town

3. A “new” black bag – I go through periods of “big bag” love, and that’s what I was all about last year. Huge bags that could hold everything including the kitchen sink, because I thought I needed to keep everything with me. I have since had a change of mind. Bags with small handles full of everything you don’t need are a pain in the derriere to carry with you on a bike and just irritating when you no longer what to be holding them. This bag is big enough to hold what I need (mainly wallet, keys, camera, a couple makeup things, my sketchbook and travel water colors), and it has a long shoulder strap, keeping my hands free.

4. A foxy spring green wool pencil skirt – For a while I started to give up on colors and go for more neutral tones; black, white, brown, etc., because I thought they would make me seem more “adult.” Well my bizarre thoughts of adulthood be damned! I am going back to wearing colors. Black and white all the time, however classic, was getting boring.

How excited do you think I was to see a package from a mortuary novelty shop addressed to me in the entryway of our apartment building on Valentines Day? As a person who loves dead creepy things, 12 kinds of excited.

The amazing dreamboat surprised me with 1lb anatomically correct chocolate heart for Valentines Day! It’s delicious and oh so me. Thank you love!

Before I moved to San Francisco 80% of my clothing came from second hand sources, mostly thrift stores, vintage shops, and EBay; 20% came from new sources. Lately that ratio has been reversed, and today I decided that I’m just not happy with that.

New clothing has to go through a major process to get to each of our hands. A single article of non organic clothing can travel up to 14,000 miles and produce up to 27 pounds of carbon dioxide, from raw materials to finished product. They’re also jam packed full of pesticides, insecticides, bleaches and dyes at some point during their creation, none of which are good for humans, pets or lady Earth.

In addition to the damage done by the chemicals and travel the EPA Office of Solid Waste states, “Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year, and clothing and other textiles represent about 4% of the municipal solid waste” (information from September 2006 via Environmental Health Perspectives). I know I could have a field day with 68 pounds worth of discarded clothing, and with all the people in the world who can’t afford to clothe themselves, it seems ridiculous that these garments are ending up in landfills across the country. They could easily be donated and re-used.

It’s much more satisfying, for me at least, to put an awesome ensemble together from random “one of a kinds” from here and there, or to find that one amazing piece I was or was not looking for, than it is to shop at a normal retail chain. It’s also an awesome feeling knowing I put together my get up without being part of the problem.

I miss the buzz and the happiness involved in buying second hand. I am going to be applying the 80% thrift rule to all my purchases from here on out.