no thanks

Ok, are you ready? Cause this post is gonna go ALL the way around the block, down the street for an ice cream sandwich, over to Mary Jo's house for a quick visit, and then back around in a taxi cab to get to it's point. ok? You've been warned.

So today I was roaming Old Navy (and as an aside, I used to work for Banana Republic, so I still consider myself an honorary employee, only without benefits, a paycheck, or anyone actually saying "Hey, old pal!" to me when I walk into a Gap store (Gap owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, by the way.) So ANYWAY, Old Navy has been rocking! out the candles as of late. PS - as method should know by now (and all my friends for that matter) I'm a candlewhore. HORRIBLE. SO BAD. CAN'T GET ENOUGH. GIVE IT TO ME, BABY. ONE MORE TIME.

Well, today as I usually do, I had two candles in mind I have been wanting to buy there - have been wanting to buy, but hadn't because everytime I smelled them I went "MMM! Hmm? I'm not sure..." as I'm really picky. But today I was determined, and I walked right out of that store with... two totally different candles. (This post must be about method candles, right? Uh, no.) They were Island Lime (coconut, lime, and ginger. Hint hint, method!), and Spring Lily (lily of the valley, tuberose, and pear blossom. Hint hint, method.) And they smell DIVINE. So I go up to the counter to purchase them, and the woman is all nice and such, and we chat for a bit, and she gets ready to put them in a bag, and oh my word here he goes, but no I simply said "Oh, I don't need a bag." but I had forgotten my Baggu bags and she chatted a bit more, and suddenly was like "Well I have to put them in a bag, because it's store policy." To which I simply said, nicely, "Well, I definitely don't want to take a plastic bag." It's like my mantra now, I think I chant "no plastic bags shall I take" in my sleep and during all yoga poses. No, seriously. Well, if I were to actually do yoga (that downward-facing dog pose is freakin' HARD!) And she sort of was "uh, well" and that was that. She thanked me, I told her she could watch me walk all the way out of the store if she needed to, but no problem, and on I went.

Whew, where the h#!? is he going with this? I thought this blog was called method lust. Ok, so I was patting myself on my back, mentioning out loud in my truck (cause I talk to myelf... out loud. Yes, I have troubles.) about how I was doing so great, not a single plastic bag from a retail store once this year. Then I started going "But when it comes to the dry cleaners (plastic bags on your clothes), the grocery store (only the plastic bags for tiny produce items (green beans, small potatoes, etc.) or fast food restaurant food bags (which I usually will try to remember not to take, but fail at sometimes) it's much more difficult for me. I'm 100% successful with not taking a single retail plastic bag this year at a checkout line, anywhere! For six months! I'm very proud of that fact. But what do YOU do with the other situations? How do you handle plastic bags on your dry cleaning (which I realize, dry cleaning alone is a bad method word, I know, I know. One step at a time, ok?) Or for your produce? How do you do it? Give us all some pointers and tips!

I told you, had'ta visit Mary Jo, in order to get here. But, here we are. Ok, I really didn't have'ta, I could have just went "BAGS!" and been like that. But it was way more fun, right? And yes, it's not really about method, but I'm a big advocate of no plastic bags, and so is method! (Hello, Plastic Bag Rehab!) And maybe they'll get some new candle hints out of this eh?

Hey, you know, I just realized my Old Navy candle is called Island Lime, and uh, it smells totally like coconut. That don't make no such sense... oh well! (At least I didn't take the bag.)