In which my life is changed by water filtration

This is the first time in my lifetime that earth day has been a holiday celebrated by regular people. Historically, even in the earthy-crunchy kingdom of Southern California, it has been a holiday reserved for hippies and stoners. But now, even the regular grocery stores (not just organic food markets) sell reusable grocery bags. Thanks to Al Gore, and the fact that this last year has been the year that the effects of global warming were truly visible (it was HOT last summer, and this has me terrified of what this coming summer will bring), now all the regular people are celebrating not just Earth Day, but Earth WEEK.

This week I bought myself a Brita filter, because I am convinced that tap water tastes worse in the summer. Maybe the heat allows more nastiness to leech from the copper pipes into the water, or maybe I'm just crazy, but the Brita has already changed my world. Water tastes SO MUCH BETTER. I'd purchased one of those kind that stick onto the tap, but my faucet is ancient and is NOT AWESOME enough to handle the tap filter, so I had to return it and instead get the pitcher kind. And it came with a "free" bright green Nalgene bottle, which is the cutest darned thing on the planet, and has replaced the ugly old one that has lived on my desk for the past six years.



Lovely as it is, my happy new Nalgene bottle has me a little worried about all this talk about plastic being poison, which I finally just researched after hearing the hype for weeks. It's a bit silly, honestly. I mean, we've always known that plastic was poisonous. I killed many a pet goldfish as a child by placing them in a plastic container while changing the water in their bowl; and even as late as college, I made the mistake of refilling my fish's bowl with bottled water, because I thought it would be better for it than the disgusting travesty that is Santa Barbara Water, forgetting that bottled water comes IN PLASTIC BOTTLES. But now, in addition to killing fish, it seems plastic also gives us cancer. So I purchased an adorable aluminum Sigg bottle for carrying water around with me. Of course, aluminum causes Alzheimer's, so I guess you have to choose your poison. Or, like me, choose both.

But, the Brita water is delicious, even if it does have to live in a plastic pitcher and be served in an aluminum bottle. I may die of cancerous dementia, but at least I will be well-hydrated!