My favorite (ok, only) sister showed me something cool this weekend! She's a junior in high school, but her friends and her trade these little bracelets shaped like animals. When they're on your wrist they look like a twisted bracelet, but when you take them off they sping into an animal shape.

From what I understand, these little animals are addictive. It's about $2 for a pack of 10 or so bracelets, and they sell them at gas stations & such. But apparently in schools people will take them off and trade them. My sister had a beach-themed pack and a glow-in-the-dark pack. I stopped at CVS and got the "baby animals" pack just to see what these things were all about.

Strangely, I really like having a cat and an elephant on my wrist. I've been wearing them around for a couple of days now, and I'm assuming nobody in college is lame enough to realize I'm part of a high school trend. They've been banned in some area high schools, and I can see how they're a distraction. But for now, they're just my secrets. And since nobody ready my blog, I'm going to keep this secret for a while :)

Summ-ahh! I missed it!

I'm terrified of accidentally missing Summer this year. I'm doing two internships and a job and three classes, but I'm determined to live it up.

Today I took my hour between work and class to lounge by a pool with a friend of mine. I'm also determined to work out every day. Conveniently, one of my internships is about working out for free, so I got to work out and work at the same time (see video).

So the only thing I'm worried about is my tan. Last year I was SUPER tan (see photo evidence) but I think that came with teaching waterskiing outdoors for lots of hours per day. All the time I have now is a half-hour if I want to eat dinner.

But my theory is that building a tan up in 30 minute-per-day increments is actually going to be the healthy way to do it. According to one report, 15-20 minutes of sun per day could help prevent breast cancer, heart disease, depression and insomnia. So there. Sun is a welcome addition to my way-too-busy, crazy-person, health-conscious summer.

So all I've done recently (aside from the internship/class/work/running two organizations thing) is hang out with my cat.

I know that sounds lame, but this cat's legit. His name is Maverick (aka Mavvy or MavMav) and I can't get enough of him! I've skipped classes to play with him. He's a Maine Coon Cat, which means he's supposed to get HUGE! Right now he's just 7 months old though, so he's about normal cat size.

But I think seeing my true cat lady potential has weirded out my boyfriend and possibly some of my friends.

Realistically, I would be an awesome cat lady. I'm overweight and often hang out in a robe and slippers. My cat follows me around and sleeps next to me. I seem pretty destined to end up alone. And I knit.

The problem? My doctor. Apparently I'm pretty darn allergic to cats, and developed asthma recently, which isn't helping. So there's some kinks to work out. Aren't there hypoallergenic breeds of cats? I'm not sure. And, against doctor's orders, Maverick's here to stay. But come on... who could kick this cutie to the curb?

-Emily

P.S. Also considering starting a non-profit called Kisses for Kitties. Joiners?

CP in DC for TBG

Hi from Washington DC!

I'm here in our nation's capitol for a conference put on by Campus Progress, an organization that contributes money toward my absoloute favorite publication! www.thebiggreen.net, of course. Getting some great ideas- if you're reading this and you're on staff get ready for TBG's venture into investigative reporting :).

Anyway, some quick pictures...

New Friends

I love new friends. But this crazy place has brought to my attention that I'm missing out on a lot of people just because I never run into them.

For instance, this chick. Her name is Stephanie, and we get along super-well, and she's awesome. But even if she went to my school (which she doesn't) I never would have met her. She's in a sorority and plays college soccer; I'm the editor of a magazine and play risk on loserish friday nights. There's no way we would have ever collided.

Which actually just gives me a whole new reason to be suspicious of the greek system. Are they secretly stealing cool people and hiding them from me? Until now I'd assumed they were just stealing the kind of vapid chicks that formerly populated sites like juicycampus.com, useful to me only when I needed quotes demonstrating how ill-informed student voters were. If they're stealing cool people we're going to have a problem. GDI all the way, homeslices.

Elk Rapids? Accomplished

So I don't have a definite list of things I want to do before I die, but in my mind I know there are some things I have to accomplish to respect myself. One of them was handily executed this summer; moving to a place where I didn't know anybody and thriving.

White Birch Lodge is not really my kind of place- nowhere my family would have gone. We never went to Disney World because there was no beer in the magic kingdom, and I thought the saying was "it's noon somewhere" until I got to college and figured out everybody else waited until five. So WBL is a little too tame, to say the least. All this forced family bonding (square dance, sports night, water sports) would have made all of us uncomfortable. But I'm fitting in, miraculously, with all the people that grew up loving this place. (Even I love the scenery... Northern Michigan has to be one of the prettiest places in the world.)

I guess I've wormed my way into my typical societal role; I'm nobody's favorite, but everybody likes me a lot. Which is fine. But I'm overwhelmingly proud of myself- I feel like conquering one strange place proves my ability to go wherever the fuck I want. And I will.

Kickin' off Sumsumsummahhhhh

So I just arrived at White Birch Lodge, where I'll be working this summer. So far it's adorable! I mysteriously scored the only single room- it's about half the size of my closet (though if you've ever seen my closet it's huge). So I had to take like 40 photos to emcompass everything because it was so hard to move around, but here's a tour of my digs... 

Clearly my camera isn't a fan of the lighting conditions here. But I love the atmosphere here, and everybody seems pretty bomb so far. 

My only concern is that this room looks like it has a lot of spider potential. I say this mainly because I've already found a dead spider. But also because, were I a spider, there would be some pretty sweet hiding places here. You know? Any thoughts and/or volunteers to come to my spidery rescue? :)