Green Guilt

I have been pondering my "greenness" of late. As much as I love both the concept and the color green, I realize I fall short. I heart the earth, I love that we are moving towards fixing what little of it we can, and yet, when I am completely honest, I rather suck at my personal greenness.
First, the good news.

1. I do recycle, pretty religiously. I have been known to pluck wine bottles out the my neighbors regular trash and drop them in the correct blue bin. I even began recycling the REALLY hard things, like peanut butter jars. I know, right?

2. I currently take the train instead of buying a second car. Not too shabby, right? I mean, i may need to get another car in the future (I currently walk thru a semi-shitty neighborhood, and due to Daylight Savings ending, I do so in the dark, much to Gavin's eternal frustration). But in the now, I take the LA Metro system. No emissions from me, baby. And when I do get a car, it'll be like a focus or a civic or something w/ great EPA ratings.

3. I turn of lights/unplug chargers/turn off unused electronics pretty religiously. My coworker is genuinely sick of me walking into her office and unplugging her cellphone charger.

And now, the bad news.

1. I use bags from the supermarket to pick up m'dogs poo. I know, I know, I could go buy those 10 dollar biodegradable jobs at the pet store- but remember the not having a car part? The only pet store within walking distance sells puppies, which I am opposed to (the selling of puppies in pet stores, not puppies themselves. C'mon, who are you talking to?) and doesn't sell the bags any damn way. And my dogs poop, like every day, twice a day. So I end up using the Ralph's bags, which I guess is sort of re-purposing, right? Right??? Crap.

2. I can't get CFLs for my light bulbs because every light in my house is on a dimmer. This is to my eternal shame, as it was I who made my MIL get on the CFL train, and it is I who gets on her high horse about it to others. I tried a CFL in our sockets, and they strobbed like disco lights, even on the highest setting. They have dimmable CFLs now but they are FOURTEEN BUCKS A PIECE!! That's over 84 dollars to replace the bulbs in my house! Give me an effing break! But as soon as we have another place, or the price goes down just a smidge, I SWEAR......I will get my precious coiled lovelies back in bidness.

3. The car we do have is an SUV. A tiny SUV, but an SUV all the same. We had to get it to move from NY to CA, and I don't regret it for that reason alone. Plus its super convenient w/ the dogs....It only has a 6 cylinder engine, and actually gets decent gas mileage, but I feel like a douche in my SUV. Like a hypocritical douche.

So there you have it. I suck. And to be honest, other than the poo bags, I don't really know what to tell you. Maybe I can do something like plant some trees to offset my evil...I dunno. Sorry for peeing in your pool, oh Great Mother Earth.