For Once, a Productive Weekend

Usually, when Monday morning arrives, I am depressed because I got nothing on my ever-growing "to do" list accomplished over the weekend. But this weekend was different... and as proud as I am to not own a car, I must concede that the main reason for my productivity across Saturday and Sunday was that I was armed with a rental car. An extremely crappy rental car, but a car nonetheless.

Saturday morning I was pumped to head out to Chicago's "Household Chemicals and Computer Recycling Facility." This place is only open on the first Saturday of every month, so I was in luck. I loaded up about 25 old paint cans into the trunk and threw a bunch of cordless phones in as well for good measure, and then headed off.

An out-an-out miracle occurred when I arrived. I asked an attendant if they took cordless phones, and he said they did. So I gave him those, and then he instructed me to pull up to another door of the building to turn in the paint. I drove a small distance to the other receiving door, popped open the trunk, and before I knew it, two guys had unloaded all of the paint cans and had closed the trunk. The entire process took less than two minutes, I kid you not. I was absolutely astonished.

On a nerdy high from doing my part for the environment as well as selfishly being happy to have freed up a ton of room in my dining area where the paint cans had piled up (classy, I know), I headed out to the post office to FINALLY mail back a recyclable printer cartridge to its manufacturer (the box had been sitting in my closet for months). Then it was time for some fun... next stop: the grocery store Trader Joe's.

As some of you may remember from my post about Peapod home grocery delivery last summer, I typically order food online because of my no-car status. So when I go into a real live grocery store, I completely freak out. I've been to Whole Foods and local Chicago chains (Jewel, Dominick's, Treasure Island), but I'd never been to Traders Joe's. So rest assured, I almost had a melt-down in there, too. So many different types of foods that I had never seen before! I left with three grocery bags full of new dishes to try, and I'm pleased to say that I've been happy with what I've eaten so far. The best thing was that even though the store is fairly high-end compared to the normal chain stores, the prices were really cheap!?! It's too good to be true!

Next up... taking in a ton of batteries for recycling at my neighborhood library. Then transferring my gym membership from the place I've been going for over a decade to the new, fancy gym that is taking over right across the street (with my ultra-cheap rate locked in for a year, no less!). The day was topped off by picking up a half-dozen cupcakes for a dinner party we were going to that night.

On Sunday I continued checking things off of my errand list by heading to Borders to use a 30% off coupon I'd been waiting for (sign up for Borders rewards if you go there a lot, it's worth it!), choosing a gift for my neighbor at World Market for watching our dog while we were traveling, selecting a new lovely-smelling candle for myself (yes, gifts for myself are on my to-do list...), and then buying a paper shredder from Bed, Bath & Beyond (with their ever-present 20% off coupon).

On top of the errands I needed the car for, I also got a lot of filing, laundry and cleaning done in my condo.

And so, today I feel really good about myself. I still need to call the local clothing charity to come pick up some bags of clothes we're giving away, but other than that, I accomplished a lot. Therefore, next weekend I intend to do nothing but read magazines and eat bon-bons.

- e