in new york, you have to recycle. it's the law.

for us, that mostly means putting plastic bottles, etc., into a crate and then emptying it all into bins in the basement once in a while. that's the easy part.

then, there's the cans of diet coke. in michigan, you put them into a bag, take them (in your car) to the local meijers or wherever and shove them into that cool and sticky crusher machine which then spits out a receipt that you can redeem at the cash registers.

here, we have to drag the bags to the grocery store on foot (so it's three blocks - that's not the point), track down the one guy authorized to count these things and then spend however long it takes to count it all out. then you go to the cash registers and hope that the guy who helped you count is available to tell the cashier how many you actually had so that they can calculate how much they should give you.

and the kicker? the cans are only five cents each. hardly worth it at all.

speaking of grocery stores, last week they had a bagging contest in new york. baggers from a variety of supermarkets competed for speed, packing prowess and distribution of weight. some girl won.

i was thinking about that today when i was carrying my groceries home: five cans in one bag, a bag of tostitos in the other. at least my right arm is building some serious muscle.