A Must-Read On This Lovely Saturday Afternoon

P.S. Awesome article! Really hits the complexity of the issue (though unfortunately the EU isn't addressing the matter of emissions and resources used in production of food--but it's a step in the right direction). Read UP!

The Environmental Cost of Shipping (NY Times)

Proud Mama

Today I stood up for my right to reasonably priced produce and got myself some plants. That's right, I've got a nano-farm going on my back porch. Until now I've only attempted bamboo, since I seem to have inherited the Black Thumb of Death from my mother (thanks Mom), but I like to think I'm the adventurous type, so I'm going for it. I'm keeping it simple to start (don't want to push my horticultural luck): Porch tomatoes purchased from a local vendor at the organic farmer's market here in Charlotte, organic cilantro, peppermint and basil starters to boot.

I'm pretty excited seeing I spend at least $15-20 a week on tomatoes and herbs (I seriously eat tomatoes at every meal except breakfast). That means within two weeks of "harvest", I'll have paid for my investment. The thought of my little babies bearing too many tomatoes for me to eat all by my lonesome is so lovely. I can't wait to give people baskets full as mid-summer's day presents.

I'm also reading a fascinating, though frightening book to further my education on GM foods--Genetically Modified foods that is. They are more prevalent than we think and the laws governing their use and safety are slack at best. But I digress. The book is called Uncertain Peril (By Claire Hope Cummings) and it's been a really great read so far. I did a lot of research my freshman year in college on this subject, but I was looking at it from an international perspective and only touched on U.S. policy surrounding the matter. Having gorged myself with the illustrious Vandana Shiva and the like, I feel like it's time to learn about how the U.S. currently handles these products (for my own health and well-being) and also how we can create change through our actions (how and where we spend our dollar, who we vote into office, etc.). This is a subject that a lot of people are unaware of (and that's certainly a conscious act by those involved in GM production) and can really affect our nation's economy and consequently our global economy. Not to mention the very obvious risks posed to our health by the inadequate research done on the subject and laughable laws in place to keep our food safe. I urge each and every one of you to look into the matter. You'll be shocked (or maybe
expecting) to find that the government has hardly any measures in place to keep us safe in this regard. Remember Dolly the cloned sheep and the issues she had? Well genetically altered food has the same propensity to fail us, but nobody mentions that on their packaging.

But I digress again. I really must be off! It's been a busy, busy weekend already and it isn't even half over! I'll be sure to post pictures when my babies started producing!!!

Living The Difference--Everyday Earth Day

Earth Day is like Valentine's Day to me--a great time, but shouldn't we be celebrating it everyday? While one day a year is a great way to bring awareness to the issue, it's also quite obvious that we need to be living these values year-round. Saving the earth isn't that hard to do, if we each commit to doing the little things.

My grandpa always said, "don't sweat the small stuff." On the opposite side of that, it's the little things that matter when it comes to the environment. They add up in a big way--for better or for worse. So let's make some real changes this Earth Day. Let's each make a commitment--like a New Year's resolution. It will be a New Earth resolution. Are you with me?!?!

My New Earth resolution is to cut down my shower time to five minutes. It's absolutely amazing how much water we waste in the shower and I am one of the biggest culprits. I love a good long shower with lots and lots of steam, but think about this: In just two minutes an average of 10 gallons of water is used. That's as much as many people around the world use in an ENTIRE DAY!!! And they have walk miles to get it. I read this in "The Green Book" the other day and it really got to me. Yeah, I enjoy a long shower, but shaving off just a few minutes makes such a difference in the long term (the math: 5 less minutes = 25 less gallons per day = 9, 125 gallons in a year--whoa!).

This Earth Day, it's time to enact some more changes for this little girl. If you aren't quite ready to give up shower time, make a commitment to bring your own organic cotton bags to the grocery store instead of taking paper or plastic. Or maybe buy a Sigg bottle and give up bottled water. There are so many things you can do without real sacrifice that it seems silly NOT to manifest a positive change for the health of our world.

I wish you all a magnificent Earth Day--which basically translates to a magnificent everyday. Live the difference people! Live the difference!

Extra! Extra! We've Got Good News!

While the newspapers keep talking of recession for the U.S. economy, the Waggoner family's spiritual economy is still going strong in the growth category. If you're tired of doomsday and depression (or maybe just recession), now hear this: We've got good news to share!

Yesterday was a really great day! I mean REALLY great. My Aunt Beth and Uncle Jan-Willem have been waiting in the adoption lines for a while now--but the stalemate has broken! Around 4:30 p.m., they got the call that a real live little boy is waiting for THEM.

Little Tae-Hun is officially the cutest little thing I've ever seen. I had to cover my squeal of joy when that giggling little human being popped up on my screen at the office. I think you'll all agree! Please see evidence of cuteness below.



I rest my case. So even though both parties have a few more months to wait before being united in Seoul, we are all pretty freakin' pumped about the whole thing!

It's amazing the level of instant positive energy that a baby brings to a family. Their fresh little souls seem to have a purifying effect on us all. They remind us of all the possibilities we have in front of us today--that each day is new and full of exciting things we've never seen before. Plus they are so intuitively loving! And the feeling's mutual. I can't even explain the love that swells up inside me every time I look at the little tyke. It's absolutely amazing and so is he.

BAM! little girl l BIG VOICE Hits The City!

Coming soon to a computer near you! You can now follow your favorite loud-mouthed little girl on yet another forum. As if lg I BG, Studio 1000, Facebook, MySpace, Give It To Me Raw, G Living and Twitter weren't enough, I'll be joining the crew of CLT Blog--an awesome new site run by some inspiring young artists and journalists here in Charlotte--to report on the bad-ass social scene in the Queen City. I'm super pumped to be a part of this group and get in on the positive energy swirling around this creative venture. I have a feeling my social life is going to kick itself up a notch--BAM! So stay tuned! I'm sure I'll much to share about my favorite Southern city and our ever-occurring crazy adventures here!

HAPPY NEW BEER'S EVE!!!

Last Sunday was the celebration of New Beer's Eve, the 75th anniversary of the day when the prohibition tide began to turn and beer went back to a potent 3.2% alcohol content!

Sameer thought I would have something to say about this and I do--mostly that I'm really glad we aren't still in prohibition! Man do I love a good bottle of organic California pinot grigio or an exotic Northwest micro brew. Thank God for April 7, 1933 and FDR's push to re-introduce legal alcohol back into the system. Not only did it give our flagging, depressed economy a boost, but it also ensured that millions of hard working Americans, just like me and you, can kick their feet up on Friday night and enjoy a nice Gin and Tonic (or whatever the drink of your choice may be). A quick story to commemorate the day.

I remember this time, right after I had turned 21 (I'm talking a few weeks here), that I brought home the leftovers of a six-pack of some yummy mirco brew from a night out with my friend Tiffany and our dank Oregon crew. I didn't think twice about putting it out in the fridge. I was 21, right!? Maybe not.

Let me give you some background on my family. Dad is an ordained minister, as is my uncle. Most of my family are elders at their churches or at the very least passionate and committed attendees. It should be pretty obvious that we aren't big drinkers. In fact, a lot of them don't drink at all (my parents do drink, but modestly). So little Bethany--the first child of the generation on both sides of the family--being into any sort of alcoholic beverage would be a little out of the norm. Most likely even frowned upon.

You get the picture. Back to the story.

Well, the next day my dad comes in from the garage, with the six-pack in his hands, asking who the beers belong to.

I wish I had an audio file of the reaction I had inside my head to record my brief panic internal panic attack. It went something like this:

"OMG. WHY AM I SO STUPID!!?? WHAT WAS I THINKING PUTTING BEER IN THE FRIDGE!!?? It's too soon! TOO SOON. WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! Ahhhhh what do I say?"

Meanwhile, though time had slowed enough for this entire conversation to run through my head in 0.2 seconds, Dad was waiting for an answer.

So I said, sheepishly (and yes I realize putting together me and sheepish is a complete oxymoron, but it did in fact happen), "mine..."

"Oh. Cool. I thought it was Tiffany's and I really wanted one," said Dad.

[jaw drops...waves of relief begin crashing over me]

"So can I have one?"

"Uh...yeah of course," croaked my uncharacteristically meek voice.

Whew. That was close. I guess Dad is cooler than I thought.

Now when I go home we go to Trader Joe's and love picking out new brews to try together.

It's like father-daughter bonding for the 21st century.

HAPPY NEW BEER'S EVE DAD!!! MUAH! Can't wait to try some new brews with you this summer!

And P.S. Next week is Charlotte's Creative Loafing's Beer Week. Come out and join us!!!

The Feisty Girl Is Getting Feasty!!!

I've been tossing around the possibility in my head for a while--but today I made the official decision after reading Penni from Tulsa's blog, Real Juice Daily. I'll be doing a juice feast when I come home to Oregon.

Today Penni was talking about metamorphosis and the vast changes she feels her mind l body l spirit undergoing during her feast. Her current experience couldn't be further from what I am personally going through. I've come to realize I'm overloaded, uninspired by work and in desperate need of metamorphosis (and not Kafka style) myself. An intuitive need for "something" led me to find the raw food lifestyle and my intuition seems to again be leading me toward a life changing process--to go further down the rabbit hole. The real person in here is being held down by a great many things and it's high time that I unburden her and allow her to rise to the surface.

I've chosen summer because I know that back in Oregon I will have access to really good, fresh organic/local produce and, perhaps more importantly, a genuinely supportive community. Like many people I spend most of my day at work--but my work community would make it very hard for me to get all the positive things out of the experience. They have a hard enough time grasping the idea of raw. I think they might call a full-fledged intervention on me if I started juice feasting. I mean, it's a huge ordeal when I make a simple salad in the kitchen at lunch!

Like--"What is this?! It's not fried, doesn't come out of a plastic wrapper and doesn't go into the microwave to get toxified before gorging it into my protesting stomach? Why would you want to eat that crap?"

Uh, cause it's healthful, it won't give me cancer or make me obese. It tastes good, is full of nutrients and energy...Oh and did I mention it won't make me obese or give me some crazy disease I can't pronounce?

My family on the other hand-- really, "my Oregon" on the other hand--is always loving, always supportive and even if they don't quite get it--you can bet they will be behind me 100%.

So I'm sitting here at work, sipping a vibrantly green bowl of spicy coconut avocado soup (which got some confused and wary looks from co-workers on their way to Bojangles or Pizza Hut) with mustard greens for dipping and craving the start date for the little girl l BIG VOICE Juice Feast. I'm about to start a countdown on my page.

WAHT A WEEK: MONEY TALKS, WALK SCORE AND CAROLINA CUP

April Updates and Musings...

1) EXTRA EXTRA: I'm adding a subscription button to the STUDIO 1:000 site, so please subscribe and keep up with us!

2) INSPIRATION IN THE WORKS: Pangea Day is May 10 (more to come on this) and I am in the beginning stages of planning an event for the Charlotte area. For those of you here in the Queen City with us, please stay tuned and make plans to spend the day with an inspired group of people ready to change our world for the better!

3) MONEY TALKS: The New York City Council has voted to put in place a Congestion Tax, which will charge drivers going in between boroughs for their choice to commute. A bummer for those already commuting, but a necessary policy in this little girl's opinion. Higher gas prices haven't yet stopped the carbon hemorrhaging in our country and the only way, it would seem, to get people out of fuel inefficient cars and into public transit is to make it less and less affordable to drive. I can't help but wonder if a similar policy in driving-heavy cities like Atlanta and Charlotte would do to improve their resident's quality of life...I know I would definitely be down for some better public transit for my commute. $50 for a unlimited pass? Or $50+ each time I fill up? Doesn't seem like a hard choice when you put it that way!

4) HORSES AT CAROLINA CUP?: I saw no horses this year, but hopefully I'll have pictures to post and stories to tell from last weekend's escapades. Whew, what a doozy! Thank God we had Daddy Doug and Jeannie to feed us and keep us out of the rain. You'd have thought we were in Oregon with the 50 Degree windy drizzle that was entirely UNWELCOME by the crowd.

5) Check out you "walk score" at their nifty website. They calculate how walkable your home is from all the places you'd want to go nearby. Mine was 40, though I proved all the amenities of Uptown are closer than one thinks from our house on the edge of it. Remember, no more driving on the weekend! If I can do it in NASCAR country, so can you!