I've been away from NYC for two months and I really missed walking! I always considered myself lucky when I lived in NYC that for several years, I lived close enough to my workplace that I could walk there. For a while, I lived 1.5 miles away and had a great 30 minute walk each way. Then I switched jobs and the office was 1.8 miles away, so I got even more exercise (in addition to training for a half-marathon!) plus time to ponder the meaning of life and other important matters.  

I've been known to walk over 4 miles from my downtown office to dinner with friends up by Lincoln Center. Some say I'm crazy, but I just love to people watch and see the hustle and bustle of the city, so when given the time, I walk everywhere. Of course, I also loved the ability to just hop on a bus or the subway to get where I need to go as well. Just in the last two days, I've taken the bus/subway combo to and from NYC to my mom's place in NJ. It took me 1.5 hours each way and I was able to read and crochet during the ride. This is one of the perks of the city that I miss when I'm in Orlando.  

Back in Orlando, I walk and bike everywhere that I can... which isn't much. It's too bad that I now have to own a car, make regular trips to the stinky gas station, and drive alone to places all the time -- usually in traffic too! I haven't been able to figure out our bus system yet, but that's next on my list of things to tackle. Still, regardless of where I am, I am thankful for alternative transportation!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

It's great to be back in the NY/NJ area and I had such a wonderful time with my family yesterday! We certainly upheld our tradition of eating straight through the day and into the wee hours of the morning! Somewhere in between lunch #4 and dinner #3, my cousin Alice said something that sparked an idea in my head. I gave it a lot of thought this moring during a brisk walk through the park (not meant to work off what I ate yesterday, but to make sure I can eat even more today!). I feel so blessed and happy with my life right now, that I've decided to post at least one thing that I am thankful for each day on my blog--starting today!  

After a fun-filled day yesterday, that I really wished would never end, I have to put my family as my first entry. They make me laugh, help me through my troubles, are always there to just chat, and I wish that I didn't live hundreds of miles away from them, but it's my secret hope (ok, maybe not-so-secret now!) that they'll all move down near me =) Even if they don't, I am so thankful that I have them in my life! I am one lucky, lucky chica!

You don't have to publicly announce what you're thankful for in a blog, but I suggest you give this little exercise a try too. It's bound to lift your spirits even when you're down!

Talk about the event that keeps on giving!

I was thrilled to find out that I won a free month of yoga classes at Shine On Yoga. I've never really tried yoga before even though my mom is a super yogi and has been trying to get my to try it for years! Well, I have been taking classes for two weeks now and love it! The instructors are awesome, the class is a good challenging level, and the people in the class are so friendly! Thanks Shine On Yoga!

Also, I just got an email from OurLando with some photos and the video from the event. Check it out! =)

By the way, I don't come up til the third minute in the video because I didn't see the booth til late in the afternoon! ...and in case you can't read it, my board says, "i <heart> jogging around our LAKES!"

What’s worse than wasting food, gas, paper, or natural resources?
...Wasting your VOTE!

So get out tomorrow and make your voice heard -- America is counting on you! Every single vote really does count. The 2000 presidential election was the closest election in the United States to date, and polls indicate that the upcoming election could be even closer yet.

For me, one of the first things that I thought when it finally hit me that I was really moving to FL was… YAY, I’ll be in a swing state for the 2008 presidential election! So assuming that my vote actually gets counted, it may really make a difference! But even if you’re not in a swing state, it’s still so important for you to vote!

See you at the polls!

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to cut down on paper use in my life. Back in the good old corporate days, I always had to print millions of documents to review with different teams. And I was famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to) for shrinking down each page to 50% so I could fit two pages on each sheet of paper, and of course I’d also print on both sides of the sheet. One client in particular often complained that the type was too little for him to read, so I’d print a “special” copy for him that was at 100% but still printed on both sides. Once, I tried to pull off a review with no paper copies and just projected the document on a large screen… while this saved several trees, it required me to shut the lights and I heard several people snoring!

So in addition to shrinking pages and printing on both sides of each sheet, what else can we do around the office to reduce the amount of paper we use?

First, change your Word settings (in the normal.dot template).  Why Microsoft decided that we’d need an inch on the top and bottom and 1.25 inches on each side is completely beyond me, but it’s excessive. You can reduce your margins significantly with no impact to your documents. I set mine to be a quarter of an inch on each side and half an inch on the top and bottom to allow for a quarter in for headers and footers. You can also change the margins in Excel files too.

Second, I also always use font size 10 instead of 12 and up.

Third, unless your document is going somewhere or to someone really important, I find that Title pages are completely superfluous. Just include the information in header or footer instead.

Fourth, while we’re at it, a lot of networked printers are set to print out a cover sheet to distinguish the owner of the print job. Let’s get rid of that too. We’re smart enough to figure out which documents are ours. (And let’s face it, even with the cover sheet, we’ve all accidentally stolen other’s printout before!)

Fifth, (this one requires a little more effort and coordination) dedicate one network printer to draft copies and other non-important printouts. Since there were people that were against printing on both sides, they could drop off papers that still had a blank side into this printer and we would be able to use up the blank side before sending these papers off to their final destination to be recycled. This was also great because we could set the printer to economy mode and use up less toner too.

Sixth, in Powerpoint, print in Handout mode and include several slides per page. If you’ve got an effective presentation, then there should only be a few bullets per page, so it will still be readable when you shrink it down.

Lastly, think before you print. Do you really need hard copies of your emails and TPS reports? Probably not – so don’t print it! If you really must have a hard copy, then see if someone else has already printed it out. If not, then at least try to share your copy when you’re done to save someone else from printing it also.

Now take these ideas to your office manager and demand change! …And while you’re at it, ask for a raise too -- you deserve a reward for helping to cut costs and go green! :-)

It’s been a week since I attended VegFest in Orlando, and I’m still processing all the great info that I got! For one thing, it reinforced my decision to make at least a few days a week meatless and buying organic meat for all the other days (see previous post). As I see it, you get three chances a day to do something good for the planet… or in my case, five or six chances (did I mention that I’m constantly eating?!).

In addition to learning about vegetarianism at the event, I also connected with lots of great people who educated me on the happenings in Orlando. Here are a few of my fave findings:

- Audubon Park Community Market opening on December 3rd! (It’s so close, I can walk there! Yay, no car needed!)

- Critical Mass is also here in Orlando (but I missed the ride on Halloween)

- We’ve got some great organic, raw, veggie and vegan restaurants that I have to check out! Ethos, Z-Café, Café 118, Drunken Money, and Infusion Tea, and the Dandelion Communitea (which I’ve been to before).

- There’s a cool organization called Ourlando that strives to create a vibrant and sustainable local living economy.

It was a beautiful day in Loch Haven Park, the sun was shining, and I just loved talking to random, but friendly, strangers at the event and wish I had room in my stomach to eat more of the goodies that were there! (I definitely would have had room for cupcakes, but they ran out, so I’ll just have to visit their store.) Plus I met up with Karla and bumped into Karen there, so it was the perfect Saturday afternoon. (I knew Karen wouldn't want me to put her picture up, so it's just met and Karla here! BTW, I wore my Buy Local tee that day, which some guy really liked and asked me where I got it... ironically, I didn't get it locally, it's from Martha's Vineyard up in MA!)