People like to help out

Yesterday evening I visited a friend who's moving out of her apartment and giving away a motley assortment of clothes, kitchen items, crafts and furniture. I felt a little vulture-like but she reassured me that she was happier for her stuff to find a home with friends than to all go to Goodwill. I am now the proud owner of two pairs of perfectly-fitting pants, a super cute hat I'd always coveted, a ridiculously bright miniskirt, and some plant pots and potting soil to grow my own herbs or chilis.

She also donated some cardstock that will come in very handy making gift boxes or display cards for my jewelry, and some scrapbooking paper that will go to another crafty friend of mine.

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Needing to do laundry, I walked the 2 blocks to a different set of friends, bearing gifts of homemade granola (I substituted a generous handful of coconut for all the seeds and nuts this time) by way of thanks. They have recently been salvaging bags of perfectly edible (and delicious, high-quality) bread from behind a local bakery (a.k.a. dumpster-diving). The name suggests getting covered head-to-toe in disgusting goop, but it's more akin to plucking out the garbage-bag full of today's bread from the top of the trash can. They'll give me a loaf next time they go on such an excursion. Part of me wishes that local businesses would donate their food waste to homeless shelters or charities for the less-fortunate, or at least compost it instead of sending it straight to landfill without a second thought.