Thank you John Hughes

If we are the sum of our experiences, then a lot of what adds up to make me me has to do with John Hughes movies. 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, even Weird Science - these are the movies I came of age with. There have been no movies like them since.

I remember I was crushed when the boy who took me to see The Breakfast Club told me that I reminded him of the Ally Sheedy character. Even though I knew he was right, I didn't want him to be. I so wanted him to see me as the Molly Ringwald character - pretty and together.

That was one of the things about John Hughes' movies. We all saw ourselves in his characters - we saw who we were, who we weren't, and who we wanted to be.

Those of us who grew up in the '80's look back and make fun of a lot of the pop culture of the time. The clothes, the hair, the music. But I don't know anyone who makes fun of the John Hughes films. They might contain the clothes, the hair and the music, but the characters and their conflicts are timeless.

Thank you, John Hughes. May you rest in peace.

Some of My Favorite Green(ish) Blogs

I'm taking a couple of days off and doing some fun stuff with my boys the next couple of days. So instead of actually thinking about something and then posting (I feel like some of my posts have been rather thought intensive lately), I'm going to point you to some of the blogs that I like to read daily. Here's a list of blogs that I have in my RSS feeder.

5 Minutes for Going Green
Green Bean Dreams
It's the Little Thinks
Tomato Casual

and one non-green blog for good measure
Inky Girl: Daily Diversions for Writers

Go ahead and check these out while I'm checked out for the next few days. Just promise me you'll come back on Monday morning.

Your Proudest Green Accomplishment

First of all, I want to thank everyone for chiming in with support about my drinking problem yesterday. I'm taking Allison up on her challenge and committing to one week without diet soda. Actually, any soda. If I sound a bit grumpy around here, you'll know why.

So I've been noticing some new commenters here and there lately, and according to Google Analytics, my readership has been increasing nicely lately. So I thought today, I'd ask everyone to chime in. I'd like to know who you all are. So here's what we're talking about today.

My proudest green accomplishment up to now is my garden. Having an organic, thriving vegetable garden is really exciting for me. Amazing what gets me excited these days. It's not just the garden itself, but it's the conversations that creating and taking care of the garden has allowed me to start with my boys that make me see how important the garden is.

I want to know what your proudest green accomplishment is. Introduce yourself in the comments and toot your own horn. 

A Question for My Readers

I know I've got some faithful readers out there. Thank you. I've got a question for you and anyone else reading this blog. I'm going on vacation next week. Our niece is getting married and there will be a mass migration of family members from the east coast out to Arizona for the big event.

Now, I've read comments from bloggers and writers about how they can never really take a vacation. They always have to be writing - especially bloggers. Some are able to write ahead of time and post date. But many say they still need to write everyday or they are going to loose readership.

I was just out to lunch with my husband, and we were talking about this. Should I write posts ahead of time and let them post every morning. Or should I truly take the week off. I've arranged it so I don't have any paying jobs that will be hanging over my head that week. 

Lately, I've been trying to live a lifestyle of NOT keeping up with the Joneses. So I'm wondering, just because all the other bloggers blog while on vacation, does that mean I have to? Just because they say it's impossible to leave work behind, do I have to believe them? Can I risk loosing a few readers if I don't post for a week? Will I actually really loose readers?

Will you forget about me if I go on vacation?

Please let me know your thoughts.

Couple Married 83 Years

I know this has nothing to do with being green, but everyone needs to take a minute and read the story, here, of the couple that just made it in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest marriage. 

Clarence and Mayme Vail got married in 1925 and are both still alive and glad to be married to each other. This morning on the radio all I heard was bad news. This should be the lead story of all news shows today. This is the kind of stuff we need to know about.

Read a Banned Book

I'm veering from the green today to let everyone know that we are in the middle of Banned Books Week (Sept 29-Oct 6). The purpose of BBW is to celebrate our freedom to read and write whatever we want even if others find it undesirable.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for parental censorship of what my children read, watch and listen to. I believe it is my responsibiity to do so. But parental censorship is different from banning books altogether. I have an 8 year old whose reading level is really high, but I wouldn't let him read The Catcher in the Rye (yet). But there are other books that are on the top 100 challenged books list that I think my 8 year old should be reading including Madeliene Lengle's A Wrinkle in Time. It's the book that changed my life when I was a kid, and I have always been dumbfounded by the fact that there are people who want it taken out of school and public libraries.

Ms. L'engle died early last month, and I can think of no better way that I can honor her than to encourage everyone to read banned books and to cherish the freedom we have in our country to read and write whatever we want.

Here is a link to the 100 top challenged books:

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=85714

It's an eye opening list, isn't it?