Starting back on January 1st, there was a rule put in effect in DC that says all bags are now five cents. Whether you go to a deli, the grocery store, a department store or the liquor store, they throw a five cent charge on there. The reason? The Anacostia River in D.C. is apparently littered with disposable bags, and this is designed to a)cut down on that and b)generate money to help clean the river. I support this 100%..but..

The five cents per bag charge annoys me, because it just promotes more talking between the customer and the cashier. Just now, I went and bought some Ritz crackers, some hummus and some cereal from the grocery store, and I had my headphones on my head. When I got to the cashier, I temporarily forgot about this rule, so I just nodded my head when I saw her mouth the words hello. Then I saw her trying to say something else to me, and I tried to ignore it, but when her mouth kept moving, it dawned on me that I actually had to listen. I paused my IPOD, took my headphones out, and she asked me if I wanted a bag, and I said yes. She assessed the items I had, decided I needed two bags, and added a 10 cents charge to my bill. I looked at her, looked at my items again, and I asked her to take 5 cents off ,and force all of my items into one bag. She looked at me and said sir, its only 5 cents, and I countered with, but I only have four items, so lets put it all in one bag. She rolled her eyes, but did what the hell I told her to do, and that was it.

Now, there are a few problems here..
1)That entire exchange extended the amount of time I should be talking in the grocery store. Like I said the cause is good, but damn...

2)Five cents is not a lot of money, but it annoys me that I am being charged for something that was free for so long. Why can't they just insist that everyone donate a dollar towards the Save-the-Anacostia-River fund. That works way better than five cents..

3)Who are these people throwing bags in the river? Can't we police the edges of the river the same way we police the US/Mexico border? We can just have dedicated citizens walk around the river 24/7, and tackle those individuals who violate the bags in the river rules.


Please forgive this nonsensical rant, i'm just perturbed. Plus the Eagles lost yesterday, so i'm frustrated.