So I googled shelters in Berkeley. I found the Berkeley Women’s Shelter, and I called. I asked the director if my list of items would be useful (Yes, she said, and added a couple of items). Then I sent an e-mail out to friends asking for donations. Many of them dropped bags of toothbrushes and shampoo and wash cloths on my porch over the following week. One friend enlisted her other friends to make donations, and we quickly had two toys for each child at the shelter. Then Sunday of this week I spent the day making soaps (our latest family craft project obsession) and English Toffee. My son helped put twisty ties on the snack bags and dropped one in each gift bag. He was more excited about this project than I expected. He asked me to “give him another job,” so I handed him a bag of travel-sized conditioners and shampoos and asked him to put one of each in every one of 28 gift bags. He was very proud that he could tell the two apart (“The conditioner has the black top and the shampoo has the white top”). He took his job very seriously and asked for another as soon as he had finished. He was disappointed that one of the kids was going to get Transformer toothpaste when he is stuck with Sponge Bob, but he was excited to donate four of his (least favorite) spaceship soaps to the kids.

Thursday we will deliver the bags. I plan to take the kids with me (or at least my son because my two-year-old daughter has no idea what’s going on and will probably drop half-eaten oranges into the bags before we drop them off). Dropping them at the office won’t be as gratifying as hand-delivering them, but I don’t think we’ll be allowed access to the residents. And that’s what charity is all about—giving without receiving anything back. It’s more fun to see the smile on your daughter’s face when you give her that doll house, or the excitement of your son when he rides his new bike for the first time, but we have to imagine what it means to people who get nothing on Christmas Day (or for Hanukkah, or whatever holiday they celebrate), who can’t just go out and buy whatever food they feel like eating for dinner every night, who don’t have a room of their own let alone a house or a car or a computer.

Here are a few ways you can help someone in need this holiday season:

1. Like I mentioned above, Heifer International is a fantastic organization. Their website seems to be down at the moment, but last year $60 bought half a goat, and lesser donations bought chickens.

2. Donate a new, unwrapped toy to Toys for Tots. Our local YMCA has donation barrels as do all Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores around the nation. But hurry, our local Toys for Tots campaign ends tomorrow, December 21, and doesn’t begin again until next October.

3. Your local supermarket. Our local supermarket has $10 bags of food we can purchase at checkout to be donated to the county food program as well as people out front collecting food and toys for another organization. Check your local supermarket. There are likely people collecting food or cash donations this time of year.

4. To donate used children’s books in Northern California, check out Books for the Barrios. They ship thousands of books, school supplies, puzzles, athletic gear, computers, and more to the Philippines every year. If you’re not in Northern California, you can donate money.

5. The Red Cross is always in need of donations. Check out their Holiday Gift Buying Catalog.

6. Habitat For Humanity is a great cause. For $10 you can donate a box of nails to help build a house for someone. For $50, you can buy a low-flow toilet.

7. Kiva has $25 gift cards you can give to a friend or family member that allows them to choose an entrepreneur to support through a microloan. Or you can support someone yourself.

8. Call your local homeless shelter and ask what is on their donation list. Most shelters have a list of specific items they need. Find out what yours needs and make a donation.

There are many ways to give! What is your favorite?

You’re undoubtedly wondering how we survived the onslaught of Hurricane Irene, so I wanted to give you an update.

First and most important—we made it, bowed, perhaps but not broken. The experience was, however, horrific.

Once the storm had passed this morning, we emerged, blinking at the unfamiliar sunlight, to survey the damage. The destruction we witnessed was, well, devastating. In our yard alone, I counted at least three—maybe four, it was hard to tell—twigs lying on the lawn. As I looked down the street, there was literally not a single house that didn’t have dozens of leaves scattered across the lawn. The leaves were literally ripped from the trees by the terrible winds that bore down on us. Everywhere, flowers were bent over in their pots, a few having even lost some petals to the merciless rain.

The water damage was on a whole different level. Grass was matted down where the downspouts emptied their torrents onto the lawn. Low spots where during normal storms small puddles would form instead sported large puddles. And everywhere—everywhere—the ground was wet. If you were to walk anywhere on the lawn in your socks, they would literally be very wet.

But the crushing aftermath was a relief compared to what we endured throughout the course of the storm. The rain lashing at the windows, combined with the howling of the wind, produced such a noise that we literally had to turn the TV volume up somewhat to hear the show clearly. With Twitter, non-stop coverage on all channels, internet-based weather services, and iPad apps our only links to the outside world, it was difficult to tell what was happening with the storm, and the anxiety was unbearable. Then the ultimate, crushing blow—the power went out. We had been watching a movie and as we sat there in the dark, the panicked questions raced through our minds: How long until our frozen food melted? Are our iPods charged? What shows will the DVR miss recording? Mercifully, the interminable waiting ended, and power was restored, a full 50—maybe even 60—seconds after it went out. Of course, it took probably four times that long before the projector was able to recycle and start, but so relieved were we to finally have the electricity back on that we didn’t mind the wait.

Of course, there have been other natural disasters that also have been tough for some—Katrina, the tsunami, the Northridge and Loma Prieta earthquakes—but as we all know, this one happened on the East Coast and so dwarfs all those in importance. We’re just grateful we survived and while it’s not an experience we’d wish on anyone, we know our children will long remember it and will have grown stronger for having lived through it.

Now we turn to picking up the shattered pieces of our lives, which we hope we can do with the grace of God and substantial FEMA grants.

Thank you for your concern and prayers.

RJ and Family

* * *
R. J. Squirrel is overeducated, underemployed, and jealous of his little sister’s writing career. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, son and daughter, six freeloading feral cats, and three regular cats.

However, plastics are also doing a lot of bad things both to our bodies and to the environment. Although plastics use a small percentage of our fossil fuels (70% of plastics in the U.S. are made from natural gas; 30% from oil), much of it from waste products from oil refineries, that rate is quickly rising as plastic consumption increases all over the world. Worse, our oceans are FULL of plastic. The North Pacific subtropical gyre is a huge loop in the Pacific Ocean nicknamed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch because of how much plastic is circulating there, but it’s more like a soup than a patch—plastic soup. While plastic bags and bottles are harmful to the ocean (fish mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them), it’s the tiny fragments of plastic that are especially deleterious because they’re impossible to clean up and because small fish eat them. Then big fish like mahi mahi and tuna eat the small fish. And guess who eats the big fish? We do. Worse yet, plastics are a sponge for toxic chemicals in the ocean, so when you eat a big fish, you’re not only eating plastic, you’re eating plastic marinaded in DTT and PCBs.

Even if you don’t eat fish, the plastic in our homes gets into our bloodstream every day. It’s not enough to not microwave your food in plastic containers. It’s not enough that companies have banned phthalates and BPA (bisphenol A) from baby bottles, baby toys, and Nalgene bottles. Canned foods, soda cans, and beer cans are lined with plastic that contains BPA. Any product with fragrance in the ingredients (like all my hair products) probably has phthalates in it. The little rubber toys your kid sucks on is so full of phthalates that one researcher called it “a phthalate lollipop.” But what’s the big deal about these chemicals? They are endocrine disruptors. This means they fuck with your endocrine system. Results? Smaller penis size in baby boys whose moms have a high count in their bloodstream while pregnant—and the count doesn’t have to be that high. Lower sperm count. Possible miscarriages and infertility in women. Boys who are more feminine and girls who are more masculine (because they are synthetic estrogen). Learning disabilities, ADHD, diabetes, autism. The critical times for kids are during pregnancy, during the first year of life, and during puberty. My three-year-old son prefers playing with puzzles and games to trucks and guns. Is this a result of his being brought up in Berkeley? Of genetics? Or of the amount of plastics in my bloodstream while I was pregnant? I’ll never know. (It was found in a study done on 134 women pregnant with boys that the boys of the women with the highest phthalates in their bloodstream later preferred playing with gender-neutral toys like puzzles over more “boyish” toys like trucks.)

If you want to learn more about the dangers of plastics to both our health and our environment, I highly recommend reading Plastics: A Toxic Love Story and watching the film Bag It. You can’t rent Bag It, but you can buy the DVD or you can look on the website for public viewings in your area. There is also a plethora of information about plastics (recommended books, organizations, etc.) on the Bag It website.

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering what you can do to reduce plastics in your life, start by eliminating single-use plastic products. There’s nothing more wasteful than using something once and then throwing it away. And if you think, “Oh, but I recycle my plastic bottles and plastic bags,” remember two things: It’s MUCH better to reduce (and reuse) than to recycle. Plastic bottles can only be recycled once, while aluminum cans can be recycled infinitely. And you know what happens to the plastic grocery bags we drop off at the grocery story to be recycled? They get shipped to Asia, where women working for sub-par wages sift through them to pick out the cleanest ones to recycle. The rest go in the trash. Of the one trillion+ plastic shopping bags manufactured globally each year, only 1% is recycled. What’s especially shocking is that many countries around the world have banned plastic grocery bags, but the U.S. has not. In fact, only a handful of cities have done so. (San Francisco was the first, and Berkeley is working on it.)

As for plastic bottles, only about 19% got recycled in 2003, down from 53% in 1994. 40 million a day go into the trash. And of those that do get recycled, only a small percentage (5-10%) is recyclable. In addition, recent research has found that PET bottles, what your bottled water and other drinks come in, leach chemicals as dangerous as BPA and phthalates. One researcher even found BPA in PET bottles.

So here’s what you can do: use cloth bags when you to the grocery store. Buy five or six (or more) and store them in your car. If you forget to take them in, tell the checker, “Oh wait, I’ll be right back!” and run out to your car to get them. Seriously, I do this all the time. If you can’t be bothered, ask for paper, but try to remember your cloth bags next time. Eventually, it will become second nature. Not sure where to buy cloth bags? Hate the cheap $1 bags that fall apart or are too flimsy to hold heavy groceries? Buy this Planet Bag set of six or buy some plain ones at Eco Bags. Next, get yourself a bunch of net bags to buy produce in, and stick those right in your canvas bags, so you’ll always have them at the grocery store. You can buy Eco Bags produce bags, or you can do what I did, which is to buy these bags at Bed Bath and Beyond with some of those 20% off coupons and get three for $5-20% (They’re cheaper at BBB). I bought three sets and use them every day. Next, you can get yourself a Klean Kanteen for your water and stop buying bottled water. (Sigg bottles, btw, are now BPA-free, but if you bought one before Aug. 2008, you should get rid of it because it had BPA in the liner.) If you hate your tap water, filter it or, if you live in Santa Barbara where the tap water tastes like doo-doo, think about getting those big tanks delivered. Whatever you do, stop using throwaway plastic bottles. They’re bad for your health and they’re bad for the environment.

I’m not even halfway through reading Plastics, so I’ll have to do a follow-up post at some point, and I have a LONG way to go to eliminate single-use plastics from my life (like yoghurt containers, carry-out containers, tortellini from Trader Joe’s, etc.) but here are a few other things we can all do:

1. Tupperware is better than baggies, but non-plastic food storage containers are even better. Check out sites like Life Without Plastic and buy some nonplastic portable food storage containers. You can also use waxed paper (which is compostable) or aluminum foil to transport sandwiches.

2. To store food in your fridge, buy glass Pyrex containers (They have plastic lids but at least they won’t leach into your food) at a store like Target, glass containers with stainless steel lids at Life Without Plastic, or do what we do: reuse glass peanut butter jars, pickle jars, jam jars, etc. to store your food.

3. Buy glass bottles instead of plastic when you can. We buy glass milk bottles (I know that’s a bit extreme) because you can’t recycle the paper ones. They have plastic spouts and a plastic coating inside. Peanut butter jars are sold in glass jars, and so is olive oil and a variety of other foodstuffs.

4. Stop using plastic cutlery. If you’re having a picnic, you can get biodegradable cutlery online or at Whole Foods. If you need it for personal use—eating at Panda Express for example (yes, I love Panda Express), you can buy these awesome To-Go Ware bamboo sets. I have two and keep them in my car.

Okay, that’s enough from me tonight. I know there are many more things we can do to help both for our bodies and for the environment—eating organic foods, buying local, cutting down on water and energy use. It’s overwhelming, and I totally understand if your reaction to this post is “I don’t have the time/money to worry about the stupid fish out in some gyre in the middle of the Pacific. I’m vegetarian anyway.” But watch Bag It, and soon you’ll be washing and reusing your Zip-Locs like I do. Making changes starts with one small step—purchase some cloth grocery bags and put them in the car. Don’t let the initial investment deter you. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did.

And now you tell me—what do you think about all this stuff? Have you already eliminated plastics from your life, or do you have bags full of plastic bags stashed beneath your kitchen sink? Would you like to see a plastic bag ban in your town? Are you worried about BPA and phthalates, or do you think it’s a good thing that our boys are less aggressive and our girls more macho (I do kind of like that part of it)?

*Don’t forget to participate in the Writerland Pledge Drive. All proceeds go to Free Is A Verb to fight human trafficking. If you need help signing in to Writerland, just watch the instructional video!

Gene at Our Oakland. He has this cool map he created of all the neighborhoods in Oakland.

Becca “V Smoothe” of A Better Oakland, who was one of the organizers of the BlogOakSphere party.

A fellow Midwesterner whose name I forget of Oakland Space Academy, which is a blog about spaces around Oakland and not that other space up there in the sky.

Max of Big Ideas for Oakland, who proposes Oakland throws out its design restrictions in the residential neighborhoods of the flats of Oakland to stimulate development.

Lukas “Coolhand Luke” of 38th Notes, who blogs about hip-hop culture in the Bay Area.

Rachel of Vampituity, who is seeking women turning 40 in 2011 to interview for her Forty By Forty Project.

Risa of Zero to Sixty In One Year. Risa is blogging about each of her sixty years during 2011 (ie five years per month), as she turns 60 this year.

Don’t forget to sign in to Writerland in order to donate money to Free Is A Verb, an organization that helps fight human trafficking. I’m upping my donation to $2/person who signs in to my blog and $1/comment.

See you next week!

1. Writerland was one year old, uh, a couple months ago and completely forgot to celebrate!
2. Writerland reached 100 followers a while back and what would a blog be without a 100-followers Pledge Drive?
3. Last but not least, Writerland missed out on the Heifer International drive and other worthy causes over the holidays and really wants to get involved.

So here’s an opportunity to help Writerland celebrate its anniversary and to donate to a good cause. For every comment on this post and for every new follower to this blog I will donate $1 to a fabulous organization called Free Is A Verb. Founded by my amazing friends Laura and Nate Davis, who are spending the year volunteering their time in the Philippines right now, Free Is A Verb is an organization that fights human trafficking. If you’ve ever seen any of those movies about human trafficking, they’ll make your stomach turn. If you haven’t, you should because it’s much more prevalent than you would imagine. Especially right here in San Francisco. So please, please, PLEASE tweet, retweet, blog, reblog, Facebook, reFacebook and all that other good stuff to get the word out about the Writerland Pledge Drive. Together we can make a difference!

Don’t let this happen to you:

Writerland Pledge Drive from Meghan Ward on Vimeo.

Because we at Writerland strive to be as unhappy as possible , we seek