It's not easy being green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Apparently, it's kind of a big deal to some people... on the way home, the parking lot of the Dog & Duck was full of people celebrating in revelry. What I want to know is, how did they get the day off? Also, what's up with St. Patrick? Something about snakes and getting them the hell outta Ireland, maybe? I'm absolutely for getting rid of snakes by any means possible, so maybe I should increase my celebration of this blessed day.

I'm doing my own part for "green" today. It sort of started by accident. I'm sure you've noticed that gas is extraordinarily expensive. After cruising around the great state of Texas last week (and spending a considerable amount of green to do so), Joe Jetta [who's green, incidentally] & I arrived safely, yet completely out of gasoline, back in Austin. I totally need to fill up (and probably have enough gas to get to the gas station), but don't want to spend $50 to do so. So, I did what any starving grad. student might do, and pulled my bike out of storage yesterday [yes, it was in the storage closet... what does that say about my exercise habits?].

I rode to The Tavern for beers and basketball with some girlfriends yesterday, which was lovely (the ride, the conversation, the b.ball for the Badgers--though sadly not for the Horns). This morning as I loaded up for school, however, my ass was sore as anything from yesterday's piddly ride. This is going to take some getting used to.

I did cruise in to the post office on my bike on the way home, where I ran into my uber-Austin-vegan friend Travis (who was there on his bike; check out his website). That was a fun moment.

To be totally honest, this move wasn't motivated by my desires to save the earth or reduce pollution. It was all about saving a few bucks for a few days. Nevertheless, I've realized that it is very "green" and Austin of me to ride my bike and/or use public transit (they're buying gas anyway, I may as well take advantage of that fact), so I'm going to try it for the week... let's see if I can go car-less for a week. I'll also publicly proclaim here my intention to ride my bike to school for the rest of the semester (when I have class; when I teach, I'm still going to be allowed to drive, after this week). I live less than 2 miles from school; it is all uphill on the way there, but flying-fast on the way home. There are lazier people than I who get by car-less in this city. Besides, it will be good practice for when we want to ride into town from the yoga resort we're staying at on Turkey's Mediterranean coast (ok, so that is still in the works).

So, I may not wear green the rest of the day (because my green shirt's all sweaty now), but I'm going to attempt to live it. Beat that.


And in random things I found on the internet today... check out Yahoo's homepage. Please note the tag line of the "lead story:" "One woman's marriage ended over her husband's gaming addiction. Learn how to avoid this scenario." Then the links right below are the following: "Find the most addictive games" and "5 best-selling casual games." Find out how to avoid this scenario, or just say "Screw it," and find awesome games (that may end your marriage!). Hmmm.