cuprite2

while i think the cuprite system would work, i definitely have reservations about it. i think if i were to address take-away coffee shops, it might work best to open my own damn drink shop and implement the following rules:

- no disposable cups, plates, coffee stirrers, etc. minimal disposable anything else
- we have real cups, plates, silverware, etc. for you to use in store
- want it to go? bring your own cups and containers for food
- want it to go but forgot your containers? pay a $2 "deposit" and take something from the "donation" bin
- you bring back something from the donation bin, or you make a flat out donation of stuff, you get $1 back per item up to $5 or $10
- possibly have a public sink for people to wash out their stuff

why don't they get their full deposit back? this will encourage them to bring their own cup. we don't really care if we get that cup back. we want them to bring their own.

cuprite

doing what we do, we meet a lot of people with a lot of different ideas on how to attack plastic pollution. last week we talked to two recent college grads who have an idea on reusable coffee cups and a community rental program: CupRite.

i don't totally understand how it's supposed to work. but based just the video, i have a few suggestions. (honestly, i'm writing this post because I haven't really stopped thinking about it since saturday when we met the girls)

- each store buys a certain number of cups. a 4-digit (or whatever) code is engraved on the inside bottom of each cup (that way cups only empty cups can be returned). that code corresponds to the store so you can track, per store, number returned, and lost and damaged cups. also behavioral things like what distance do people go, how many days does it take to return. 

- lock the drop off box (people will steal cups out of unlocked boxes; who will pay to get new ones?). the box can be unlocked with the same 4-digit code engraved inside the cup (so the lock will have to have multiple unlock codes [not sure if that's possible]).

- this probably works best in a closed environment (college or larger work campus with drop boxes inside each building), that way you might not even need lock boxes or codes. tho, again, you can track behavioral things with the codes.

- you can also make this into an app where people have to enter the location code where they drop off the cup (which can also give them an unlock code to the box, so the engraved number is just a store ID). eventually you'll know who is fake returning cups and charge those people. (you get cc info when they sign up. if they return all their cups, they never get charged. or you can do a deposit system. you can even allow them on lost cup within a time period or number of uses. you can also incorporate this into loyalty program of certain $% off their 11th cup or whatever)

sexy ghosts

a couple months ago while I was putting away clean laundry, I pulled his underwear drawer too far out and the whole thing upended itself on the floor. while I was putting things back I noticed a pair of red plaid underwear I hadn't seen him wear before. turns out they weren't boxers, or even men's clothing. it was a very short sexy schoolgirl skirt. ot mine, obviously.

at that moment, and even still, I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. or how I'm supposed to feel about them even. I struggle to come up with an analogy. I think like if he had found a pegging set of "mine." that's not a good comparison. not that an analogy even matters. I know he likes short skirts. and I had assumed he had previously played that out with others. still it's different to see the actual sex prop he's used with someone else, you know?

I guess what I'm struggling a bit with is why does he still have it? or why does he have it at all? shouldn't it be in her pocession? that he has it suggests that it means something special to him. and I would assume not the skirt itself, but who wore that skirt or a specific memory tied to the skirt (and therefore the girl). so what then? I probably wouldn't be unreasonable to ask him to get rid of it. yet, I don't feel comfortable with that. I mean, it means something to him and i want to be respectful of that. we each have past relationships and I think it's good to acknowledge and even celebrate that some. each person we've chosen to be with before has shaped us and made us into whom the other one now loves. it's crazy to pretend you're the first or best or most. you have them now and you should be satisfied with that.

still, it does make me a little uncomfortable and certainly self conscious. especially since I know he knows he still has it. I still put away his clean laundry every few weeks and I've seen it get moved from the side (where I left it) to the bottom.

I assume he'll see this post in a few weeks and we'll have a discussion about it then but for now I'm hoping to independently come to some conclusion about it. I've just been mentally writing this post since the night I found it so thought I'd finally get it out "on paper."

fleas!!!

wow, i haven't updated in a long time! most important update is that, well, yeah. we moved in together and are now fully moved in and have settled into our new lives and apartment. that's not to say it was easy tho!

i knew we had fleas. i wasn't sure from where but i knew the apartment had them. it wasn't a big deal tho since i was only coming up with a bite or two every couple days. until one day when j woke up and there were hundreds suddenly all over the fucking apartment! thankfully my parents had just left town so we moved into their house for a week. the exterminator came and pretty much got rid of the problem except that we both kind of have ptsd.

one nice thing that came out of this was getting to know one of our downstairs neighbors, a. they were also infested. but they're on the ground floor with a small yard and two dogs whereas we're upstairs with no yard or carpet or even rugs (exlucing two small bath mats)!

weeks later and my legs are so ugly still and we're still constantly checking ourselves for fleas. :( oh, lastly, in talking to a I found out that our landlord is looking to sell the place! oof, we have no idea when but apparently he's been trying for a little while already. annoying because no one told us and while neither of us forever loves this place moving is FUCKING TERRIBLE.

anyway, the rest of it has also been difficult. the first month or was really hard. not gonna lie, I cried a couple times with him in the other room. July has been better. we finally got an AC unit, we've adapted to sleeping by together in a full sized bed together, settled into the apartment and each other. will August be even better? lol, no, probably not but whatever since we're going to Mexico City for a week!

moving [descriptive]

we did it! we moved in together! and what a fucking process it was, sheesh. i don't ever want to move again. you look around and think "i don't have that much stuff" and multiple people tell you the same thing. then you start packing it and realize you need way more boxes than you originally thought. then you have to walk it to the car, drive it across town, and carry it up a flight of stairs, and have to repeat that a few times until you get to the heavy or bulky stuff like mattresses and chairs and bikes and desks and think "i have too much fucking stuff!" then realize you have to help your boyfriend move HIS stuff and for a split second you consider texting him and say that you've changed your mind and that you no longer want to move in together but since my stuff is already here and some of yours also so I'll pay you for your stuff even though i don't want it unless you wanna come get it yourself cause there's no way in bloody hell I'm moving your stuff for you because that was the problem to begin with! of course you do no such thing, and you just help him cause he helped you and you're not a selfish bitch. but you still wonder every 20 minutes or so if he would even notice if you "lost" a box of his until you realize that you'd have to trash it in your work dumpster since both your and his trash cans are full of discarded stuff, which requires you to drive to work which is across town and pick up the box and raise it over your shoulders to tip into the dumpster and you think again about that original scenario but again you don't because you're no bitch. 

at night, even though you're exhausted and unsatisfied from dinner of your 3rd straight day of the pizza from days ago, you can't sleep because you're stressing about the stuff you still haven't moved yet and now you're RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

and so it goes. physically tiring days and mentally tiring nights, until you're FINALLY done moving in! but your, OUR, apartment is a fucking mess and you feel a bit resentful of each other for all the stuff they made you move or throw away and wonder why you ever thought this was a good idea, moving in together.

then you immediately leave to China for a week and a half and are actually a little relieved you can finally decompress and don't have to deal with the settling in. until he tells you he bought a shelf and a clothes rack and you get a little worried he's bought something ugly but it'll be too late to say no to when you're finally home again, but also very guilty you left him to clean and settle in so of course he's entitled to buy things you hate and you wonder how long you have to fake being accommodating and grateful before you can be your petty self and belatedly veto that table or chair or whatever.

shacking up

when I found out my landlord was selling our apartment, I thought "I guess the universe really wants me to move in with j." lol, it's funny cause we had been talking about it anyway, but not really seriously, more of a "if somewhere nice opens up..." he'd been wanting to move out of his place anyway. and I really love my place, even with k as a roommate. then I got the news of the intended sale.

it's funny cause many many months ago i'd actually told him that us moving in together wouldn't be me suddenly wanting to. there would have to be another impetus. my apartment becoming unlivable, him finding us somewhere really awesome, I dunno what, but it wouldn't be me. lol, the universe intervenes in some pretty weird ways sometimes.