The Plane as the Plot

Did you realize how many different microcosms there are at the airport? Think back to your last trip and all the different situations you face at the airport. Waiting in line behind a family that is cranky, balancing a bagel on your lap as you try to butter it and your flight is called, the bathrooms.
Now imagine all the stories (or nonfiction articles) you could write based on those situations:
a child's first plane ride
how to eat healthy at the airport

Add to that any "What if..." scenarios you can and you have enough ideas for a year:
What if a dog was flying alone--as a passenger
What if you got on the wrong flight and ended up on the moon

Here's your exercise: Make a list of as many different possible stories you can think of that could happen at an airport or on an airplane. Or, if you're not in the mood for plots, make a list of as many different settings at an airport or character ideas as you can.

At the Airport

On Tuesday I was unable to write as I was at the airport--and what a topic to think about environmentally...
First stop: bag check-in: When you receive your printed ticket, you receive an envelope to "store" it in. How long do you actually need to store it? Until you get on the plane. Then you toss it. My question is whether they need to give the ticket in that envelope. Think of how many they must go through in a day or even an hour! On my return flight home, I will ask not to have one.
Next stop: getting through security: With the new no-liquids-law, people are having to dump their half drunken bottles of water and brand new bottles of shampoo. Okay, it's their fault for not knowing they can't make it through security with these things, but have you seen what you're supposed to do with your containers? Throw them in the trash, liquid and all. To my knowledge, there is not an area to empty liquids and there is not a trash sorter bin for recyclable, which almost 100% of those liquid-containing containers are.
Last stop (for now): on the airplane: cups, cups, and more cups. Yes, I'm back to my lecture on plastic cups. On the airplane, you are offered a drink (about 1 sip) of pop in a cup with ice. Afterward (aka an hour after you've finished your beverage and are sitting there holding it waiting for the flight attendant to come around with a trash bag), your cup gets tossed away with a random assortment of other recyclables as well as banana peels, half eaten sandwiches, and possibly a barf bag or two. Do you think they spend the time to sort through the trash? I will ask on my flight home because, again, there are hundreds of flights a day 365 days a year. That's a lot of those little cups being flown across the world to be dumped in a landfill hundreds of miles away. What I like to do is buy my own beverage from a newspaper store at the airport (yes, it's about $4) and then I have the power both to recycle it once I reach my destination, as well as to take sips from it whenever I'm thirsty and stow it away under my seat when I'm not.
Happy flying!

All About Cups

How do you like your coffee? Personally, my drink of choice is a café mocha, decaf, soy, no whip. Think of all the times you have gone to a Starbucks, Panera, Caribou Coffee, etc.: how often have them given you your hot java in a disposable cup? Out of those times, how many did you intend to have your coffee right there?

After thinking about all the cups that get tossed in the landfill daily, I began to become more proactive. When I go to a coffee house and know I plan to drink it there, I will request my beverage in a reusable mug. They do actually have mugs! Of course, they will have more work of washing the mugs, and washing takes water, but recycling takes tons of water and other resources. Better yet, I believe they will often fill your own take-and-go container. No hassle for them.

To take it a step further, I now also request a plastic (versus paper) cup for my cold drink when I go to chains like Panera and Noodles & Company. Again, if you take a look around any of these places, people are sipping away on their drinks, only to toss the paper cup in a trash can where it will sit for who knows how long. Not all places have plastic cups, as I have learned. But, regardless, I will sit, working away on my novel, while drinking a cold glass of water in a large ceramic mug.

Invasion of the Gremlin Grocery Bags

Which do you think there are more of on this planet: people or plastic grocery bags? The way the baggers at my grocery store use them, I'd think the bags outweigh the people two to one.

Does anyone else absolutely hate the amount of bags used for groceries? By the time I get home and start unpacking, the bags have managed to multiply like gremlins. I know stores have a spot to return your used bags, but who ever really does it? I'm lucky if I remember to bring my shopping list with me.

So I've found a solution. Most stores are now offering reusuable heavier duty plastic bags. In my opinion, the Whole Foods ones are the best. They're made from 80% post-consumer waste and are fairly large--I believe I bought them for a dollar a piece. I keep these bags in my car since I usually go grocery shopping last minute. I throw them in my shopping cart or the underneath section and then just ask the bagger to use them instead of the gremlin ones. (It probably is good for meats to be put in old school bags, though, since sometimes the packages leak.)

Recently, I began to take my anti-gremlin bag lifestyle a step further. I found that I also hated getting plastic bags when I went to Kohls and Walmart and, well, anywhere--even my mom will give me stuff in a plastic bag when I visit her (a ploy to lower her own stash of gremlins). Now I bring my Whole Foods bags in with me to any shopping store. I'm sure the cashiers snicker as I walk away after asking for my new pair of expensive jeans to be thrown into a bag where potatoes and brown rice just were, but I can feel good about myself. And soon, hopefully, I'm not the only one.

Pet Peeves

If you asked me my top ten pet peeves (at the moment), they would probably be:

• the smell and sound of gum (as well as looking at chewed gum, which makes me gag)
• when people don't use turn signals
• when I can't find my cell phone in my purse before it goes to VM
• that my computer gives me an error message whenever I go to shut down
• that every TV show now incorporates a scene where one of the characters is brushing his or her teeth (I hate seeing toothpaste foam and watching people spit)
• getting a bazillion plastic grocery bags when I grocery shop (see my Green Tuesday entry)
• Daylight Savings Time (I'm not a morning person and, for six months, I know I'm getting up an hour earlier than I did from Oct.-March)
• opening an avocado and finding it's either not ripe or spoiled
• snow in March (and April, and May, for that matter)
• noticing my clothes are wrinkled after I've ironed
• that there are no good TV shows on on Sundays

I'm guessing you can learn a lot about me from my list. Looking back at it, I noticed I made two references to TV. Hmmm, am I an avid watcher? I think so. I also revealed my need for technology, that I'm not a morning person, and that I must be over 16, since I drive. (The only thing it doesn't include that it should have is my love of candy. Let me add a number eleven pet peeve: how unrealistic the serving size is on movie candy boxes--has anyone ever really gotten the box to last more than two servings?!)

What's on your list? Does it give a snapshot into your personality? (Send as your comment if you like)

Now it's time for an exercise: think of a character in a book you're writing. What would their top ten (or five) pet peeves be? Are there certain foods they have quirks about? What things about other people bother your character? Don't forget to think about peeves that relate to your character's age: A sixth grader will have different pet peeves than someone that is in high school. For instance, I said that people not using turn signals bothers me--that wouldn't bother a sixth grader, but their mom singing a Britney Spears song along with the car radio probably would.

Do Not Disturb--I'm Green

Happy Green Tuesday! My news of my greenness comes from my weekend trip to Champaign, IL. As many of you may have noticed, hotels are beginning to green-up--displaying signs in the room that unless the sheets are stripped from the bed or the towels left in a pile on the floor, they will not be replaced. At home we don't change the sheets daily or use a new towel every time we shower--do we need to do this when we stay at hotels?

Unfortunately, the hotel where I stayed didn't display these signs in the rooms. So I asked, "Do you replace the sheets and towels daily?" The man behind the counter PROUDLY said they do. I asked "What if you don't want them changed daily?" He looked at me funny. He finally suggested I put a sign on the things I don't want changed.

As I shared this with other conference attendants, it was suggested to just put the "Do Not Disturb" sign up. Genius! Not only would the towels and sheets not be unnecessarily cleaned, but the bathroom wouldn't be cleaned either. Again, at home I don't scrub down my bathroom daily. And...with the "Do Not Disturb" sign on, I wouldn't have to straighten up my hotel room--I could be a slob and no one would know!

Curing Writer's Block

Everybody gets it. It causes people to vacuum their houses or try to find the numerical value of pi. It has caused me to eat two packs of TicTacs in one sitting. But it is curable. The dreaded WRITER'S BLOCK. On Thursdays, I will dish out my medicine--a writing exercise for you to try. Maybe it will get your creative juices going. One writer once compared writing to playing a sport. There aren't too many athletes who don't stretch out or do drills before the game. Writing's no different. Your mind needs to warm up before the brilliance can begin.

Today isn't Thursday, it's Sunday, but I'm very excited about the workshop I just got back from. The speaker was the one and only Newbery-award winning Richard Peck. It was an amazing workshop that made me come back totally refreshed. It also gave me the power to think I MAY be able to cut some scenes from my latest novel.

So, this workshop was down south, way south--yes Champaign, IL. As I hid my computer in the hotel room, I wondered, what kind of conclusions does the maid service make about each of the hotel guests? They must see some weird stuff in the rooms. What do people bring with them on trips? My weirdest item, hmmm...maybe my candy bag: complete with 2 bags of Cadbury's Mini Eggs, a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and Sweettarts. Otherwise, I think I was a pretty normal guest.

So here's your first writing prompt: Pretend you're a hotel maid. Describe the room of a clown (male or female). Does he hang up his clothes? What is her wardrobe like? What does his suitcase look like? Does she have only one pair of clown shoes and actually wear flipflops on her off days? Post your answers if you like.

A Green Dream

Welcome to my personal attempt to green the world. After reading The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers & Thomas M. Kostigen, I realized that I could make changes in what I do to help "save the planet." Since then, I have been finding ways I can do that cut down on the amount of trash I create.

Look for my blog on helping the environment every Tuesday.