As of today, at the baby stage of my blog, I have completed 12 steps in what seems to be the right direction (see What I Have Accomplished). Most of them are on-going tasks that required me to change my habits. That’s the tricky part with the whole green-living thing; doing something good once is not the point. You’ve got to do it over and over again. And if you don’t enjoy it you feel like a complete asshole.

Well, I didn’t (and still don’t) enjoy some of the things I managed to regularly do. Sorry, but biking to work in the winter sucks (or in the summer, if you live in Florida). Joining the company green team sounds hip when you first think about it – but when you end up with 10 additional things to do in the week, you start wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into.

So, over the next 12 posts, I’ll summarize, one by one, the bright and dark sides of each of the current 12 items on my list.

1. Bike or ride the bus to work

Summers are very nice in Portland. Perfect, mild temperatures; sunshine with a little cooling breeze; flowers, squirrels, and smiling people everywhere. The city dedicates by law 10% of its road budget to bike lanes, making Portland super easy to ride around. Most downtown buildings have showers and lockers, so you don’t have to be sweaty all day. Heck, the city even got “Platinum Certification for Bike-Friendliness”. I think that there are over 5,000 bike commuters every day. It’s actually exhilarating to be a part of the crowd of bicyclists in the morning.

Bonus: when you ride to work, you don’t need to hit the gym after work.

Things become more complicated when the weather doesn’t cooperate. In Portland’s case, it’s the winter and spring rain that make my motivation fizzle. First of all, you’ve got to dress warmer, wear a rain jacket, deal with fenders and lights on your bike, and make sure that your change of clothes for the day doesn’t get all soaked in your backpack. The little pannier in which your summer clothes fitted perfectly is quickly overwhelmed by the boots, jeans, and heavy sweaters that you try to stuff in it. Needless to say, there no additional room for your healthy brown bag lunch.

So you switch to a bigger, waterproof backpack. Everything fits, but the ride, which is already harder due to the freezing air entering your lungs at 7am, is made even more difficult by the weight you’re now carrying on your back.

As for the buses, they’re packed, smelly, slow, and you risk catching the worst flu in every breathe you share with your grumpy neighbor.

So what do you do? Here are a few ideas that have worked for me:

• Find a riding buddy. If you go by bike, try hooking up with someone from work, from your neighborhood, or on www.exercisefriends.com (that’s where I found mine!) Your local Craigslist might be a good resource too. Don’t be shy, and motivate each other by agreeing on a meeting point a couple days a week; then ride the rest of the way together. Sharing the pain with someone else removes 50% of it, I swear!
• Get yourself an iPod. I created a perfect soundtrack for my morning bus ride; a mix of mellow songs and pumping, happy ones. I now take a great pleasure in watching people in the bus, or out in the streets, and matching what they’re doing with what I’m listening to. It’s like making my own movie.
• Tell the world. Be proud. People might call you crazy for riding in these conditions, but secretely they envy your energy, determination… and waist line. Especially after Christmas. If you have a local bike group, or local bike event, be in touch with them. They often share great tips on how to make your ride easier. (Portlanders, check out www.bikeportland.org, and join the fun for the “Worst Day of the Year Ride“).

Oh, and you can always shoot me a message to get some additional motivation. I promise to kick your butt.

Yesterday I finally watched “The 11th Hour”. Despite the fact that hot Leo DiCaprio shows his lovely face throughout the movie, I, for some reason, never had gotten around to watch the film.

Like “An Inconvenient Truth”, the film had strong and weak points. On the bad side, it was 30 minutes too long; it featured too many “shock” images intended to scare or sadden viewers; and we didn’t see enough of Leo.

On the bright side, the message had a refreshing scientific angle: human are one of nature’s species; it’s not a question of good will to preserve our natural ecosystem, it’s simply being a smart animal. If we destroy what permits us to live, we’ll die. Duh.

And as in Al Gore’s movie, a plethora of scientists (or not) shared knowledge and advices. Some were using an impenetrable scientific jargon, some were too new-agy for me, and some were so smart that I felt compelled to say “yes, exactly” after each of their sentence. Which pissed off my husband after awhile.

One of those smart ones was David Suzuki, a genetist and environmentalist who spends his life making sustainability understandable to the rest of us. He succeeds pretty well. His website, which I strongly recommend to check out, lists the incredible amount of things we can (and need to) do to survive. The list is really, really long, which is depressing. But his recommendations are easy to follow, realistic, and they don’t make you feel like a criminal for doing what you’re doing right now.

So today I’ll populate my “what’s left to do” page with his advice; even though it will add more lines that I care to see there, I will patiently write them down — and check them off.

I made you a promise, didn’t I?

I live in an apartment complex with a dozen of other tenants that I don’t know. Actually, I know that the guy across the lawn is a nurse (unless he gets a kick out of wearing a blue nurse suit while walking his dog), and I’m pretty sure that the girl upstairs has a new boyfriend. I’m actually 100% sure thanks to the strange noises that I can now hear every night when I try to sleep.

The laundry room is three buildings away from my unit. On my way there I used to walk in front of a patch of ground. Yesterday the patch was all grown up, with squash, tomatoes, and sunflowers (my favorite!) Obviously someone has been allowed to plant a garden. So why wouldn’t I be allowed to provide the garden’s food?

I’ve been wanting to compos my banana peels and other food craps for awhile. But how do you do that when you rent, when you kitchen is the size of a closet, and when the city only picks up yard debris?

Portland happens to have an awesome city service called OSD (Office of Sustainable Development). OSD’s employees answer any question that citizen or businesses might have regarding recycling, building green, etc. I had called them long ago to inquire about composting at my place, but they told me at the time that the only way would be to collect my staff on site and use it for a local garden. At the time that seemed way too much trouble. But now that the garden appear by miracle, I have no excuse.

Can’t wait to check that one off my list. Stay tuned.

Now, starting a blog is an overwhelming idea. Exciting, but overwhelming. So I’ve done my homework and browsed around the web to get an idea of what it would entail. For two months. I would have been just fine staying at the research stage, but as my husband judiciously pointed out, I wouldn’t be “helping the world” much.

There are lots of good websites for tips out there  (“ProBlogger“, if you’re reading this, your site rocks! Even I couldn’t come up with more questions than you; and believe me, my brain never stops asking.)

One of the recommendations I received is to clearly introduce yourself. So here I am.

I’m an active women, age dependant (on whom is asking), living in Portland, Oregon, USA. “No fair”, you’ll tell me; it’s much easier to be green when you live in one of the greenest cities in the U.S. Maybe. But I promise that I’ll try to find ways to get around challenges that one might find, let’s say, in Houston, TX (hey! I have nothing against Houston; just a friend who lives there and tells me that there’s still some work to do).

For the rest, go an visit my “About” page!

Oh, and one more thing. I am no writer. I misspell, mistype, and mistake. Bear with me.

“Hello world!” is what wordpress called the very first post of my very first blog. The pressure is already on.

So, hello world, and welcome to my journey. My odyssey to become green. Greener. Live a sustainable lifestyle. Reduce my footprint. Whatever is the current hip way to say it. The journey that I thought would be worth blogging about.

How hard is it, really, to make those changes?

To do all the nice things that are listed in the “Inconvenient Truth” or “The 11th Hour”?

Is it viable in our modern society? Can I stay an effective employee, enjoy my life, and still help the world?

Let’s find out.