Then last night I heard this quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “I’d much rather be happy than right any day.”

It made me think – would I rather be happy than right? More precisely, would I rather show love than be right?

~Molly Shannon, Superstar

Tonight I’ve been held hostage for 30 minutes attempting to report a service problem. The story really begins two nights ago when I was reporting another outage on two different channels. Two nights ago, after navigating a complex maze of menu prompts and getting a live customer service representative, I asked if there was an easier way to report an outage. Nope! I was told I have to go through this maze each time. Seeing as I haven’t had to do it that often over the past year, I accepted this answer calmly.

Until tonight…

when I had to call again to report an outage and was hung up on twice! I used two different phones to report the outage only to be hung up on both times. Supposedly they couldn’t hear me. Want to know the kicker? The second time I called, albeit slightly annoyed but mildly accepting my cell phone had poor reception, I was calling from the landline, you know the phone that is connected to their service. Seriously you’re telling me Cherelle couldn’t hear me from my landline, the phone that is connected to your service? You’re telling me that your phone service does not provide enough reception for me to report a cable outage?

Really?

Stefan (vampire): “I’ve seen a lot of evil, Matt, more than you can imagine,” Stefan said. “I’ve even lived it. It’s always going to be a part of me, no matter how I fight it. Sometimes I think the whole human race is evil, much less my kind…I can’t tell you there’s a point or if things are ever going to turn out all right.” Stefan looked straight into Matt’s eyes and spoke deliberately. “But I’ve got another question for you. So what?”
Matt (human) stared. “So what?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“So what if the universe is evil and if nothing we do to try and change it can really make a difference?” Matt’s voice was gaining volume in disbelief.
“Yeah, so what?” Stefan leaned forward. “So what are you going to do, Matt, if every bad thing you’ve said is true? What are you going to do personally? Are you going to stop fighting and swim with the sharks?”
Matt was grasping the back of his chair. “What are you talking about?”
“You can do that, you know. Damon (evil vampire) says so all the time. You can join up with the evil side, the winning side. And nobody can really stop you, because the universe is that way, why shouldn’t we be that way too?”
“Like hell!” Matt exploded. His blue eyes were searing and he had half risen from his chair. “That’s Damon’s way, maybe! But just because it’s hopeless doesn’t mean it’s all right to stop fighting. Even if I knew it was hopeless, I’d still have to try. I have to try, damn it!”
“I know because I feel the same way,” Stefan continued. “There’s no excuse for giving up just because it looks like we’re going to lose. We have to try–because the other choice is surrender.”

Yes, it will be extremely difficult to unitask today especially since this is mandatory training (i.e. I think I have better things to do with my time). It will be the first time in years where I will just be listening to the speaker instead of doing a crossword or checking my Blackberry for the hundredth time.

Maybe I’lll be pleasantly surprised.

*As I type this I have three applications on my computer running and nine tabs on Firefox open. Needless to say – this will be a challenge.

So after a week of my non-plastic journey I have to admit that I don’t necessarily have one final conclusion (I suppose the scientist in me desires that) but I can say I’ve learned a few things:

• I learned that the rise in our use of plastic coincided with World War’s I and II¹.
• I was also reminded that plastic is a by-product of petroleum and that without petroleum, we wouldn’t need to find a use for this by-product.
• I learned that plastic fuels our convenience and throwaway culture.
• I agree with Katherine Sharpe and her hierarchy of plastic. There are items that have single uses and are extremely wasteful. Then there are items like credit cards, computers and microwaves that seem like a decent use of plastic.
• I learned there are areas of my life where I can make non-plastic choices.
• I was reminded of the various types of plastic.
• I asked a lot of questions.

I suppose this whole experiment was about the journey – what I learned and how it will affect my future choices.

¹Fellow blogger’s plastic history entry and American’ Chemistry’s History of Plastic

• 7pm on Day 4 I’m starting Day 5 with a non-plastic shower. I wash up using a bar of soap that is carefully wrapped in wax paper. I then condition my hair using apple-cider vinegar.¹ Needless to say I and the upstairs stink like vinegar. Dave and the cats are offended by the smell.

  Cranky level: Low.

• 6am I wake up the next morning and still smell like vinegar albeit not as strong. Maybe my fruity hair product will cover it up? I then fry my egg in butter. Not necessarily a bad thing but I wasn’t able to use my plastic-bottled ketchup. For those of you who don’t know, it’s my favorite condiment.
• OK so it’s 6:30am and I’m doing alright. That is until I pack my lunch. Since I work for a food company I’m not allowed to have glass in my lunch bag.² That means I’m forced to use paper bags to pack my sandwich, blueberries and other food items. I’m annoyed to have two constraints on my lunch.
• 7:00am All my hair product comes in plastic containers. So not only can I not cover up the vinegar smell with Fructis, I’m also left feeling a bit insecure about my flat and not-put-together hair.

  Cranky level: Moderate.

• 7:15am I made coffee and thought I had stainless steel travel mugs. Oh I do have stainless steel containers but they have plastic inside – ARGH! I’m left with bringing my coffee to work in our at-home ceramic mugs.
• 8:00am Can you imagine what happened next? Yup the coffee splashed all over my center console while I was driving to work.

  Cranky level: High.

• 8:30am While everyone is asking me about my weekend I can only think of the stinky shower I took the night before. Mondays suck already. Why did I have to make this one worse by doing this non-plastic thing?
• 12pm I need some salt for my lunch so I go for the paper salt packets instead of the plastic salt shaker. Is that really better?
• 12:15pm My co-worker points out that the binder clip³ I am using has plastic on it. Argh! Can’t I get away from this stuff?

  Cranky level: High.

• 3pm Time for the afternoon snack and it’s crushed blueberries. Apparently the paper bag doesn’t offer protection for the blueberries. O well, it’s still edible.

  Cranky level: Low.

• 5pm Absolute elation as I drive home and realize I’m going to shower this smell away with all of my plastic bottles!

  Cranky level: Non-existent.

As I re-read the events of the day I don’t know that I can capture the emotion of how I was feeling. I can only describe it as a day when all the little things don’t go exactly right and annoy you little by little.

It’s really hard to escape plastic.  I suppose that’s where my trouble forming a conclusion occurs. Is plastic so bad?

To Emily’s point, is it really better to throw away all of our current plastic items in exchange for non-plastic, doesn’t that just add to our current problem?

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, when it comes to the environment it doesn’t seem to be black and white.

¹ I know you think I’m crazy but I got the idea from another blogger who was also doing a week without plastic. She was my inspiration for this whole thing.She was also the motivation to count a week as five days.
²For a thorough discussion on the topic, see Day 1.
³I later learn that the clip is made of spring steel.  Score!

The long answer: On this site I found out that my retainer is made of acrylic. More specifically, an acrylic resin. An acrylic resin is a polymer derived from the monomer acrylic acid. Acrylic is clear plastic that resembles glass with superior physical properties (it doesn’t shatter as easily).

This question also answered another question – Is a resin a polymer? Yup.

References:
- Wise Geek
- Wikipedia – Acrylic Resin
- Wikipedia – Thermoplastic