I am from the scent of hockey and callused hands.
I’m from water in the sandbox, sunken dinosaurs and shift your weight.
I’m from the neighbor’s garden and rocky driveways.
I’m from long car rides, weedy lakes and Sunday dinners.
I’m from playing through the pain, bear hugs and dog hair.
From never having snow days, car pools and Saturday bacon.
From white-trash hockey boards, summers at the country club and always saying ‘I love you.’

A couple friends and I decided that after the weekend we had and the last four years of college we were struggling to fit in our jeans… so starting today our summer project is our jeans fitting once again.

Yesterday we had our last “fat day” and pretty much did what bears do and bulk up for winter – we ate the foods that we will be strictly limiting/ cutting out of our diets for awhile. After last night, I’m pretty ok with not eating foods like that again for awhile.

So far, it’s 7:37 a.m. on Monday July 6 and I’ve gone running and had honey nut cheerios for breakfast. Hopefully I’ll continue this “work ethic” for the rest of the day, week and however long it takes!

Weekends like that are what I’m going to miss about Minnesota, and what will make me return every summer no matter where I am.

Another successful fourth of July weekend that will go down in the books as the best one to date. Especially after me doubting the “funness” of the weekend, it blew the others out of the water.

Leaving Friday morning we knew traffic would be dreadful, but I don’t think we expected the 2.5 hour drive to end up being a 4.5 hour drive complete with a chat with cops, a urinating vehicle and four gallons of water.

We were about 45 minutes away from the cabin and sitting in traffic in Brainerd, right near the Kohls that was home to the late Paul Bunyan land – an amusement park that holds almost all of my childhood memories from Northern Minnesota. We were googling the definition of “Trifling” when we looked over and saw the driver of a camper starring and waving at us – that’s because our car was smoking. Josie’s reaction was the best and almost jumped out of the car with all of her belongings, Matt floored it onto the median and we all got out of the car. Turns out the radiator tube had falled off and the line of goo left on the highway was all of the coolant – hence the smoke. Matt and Bryan started walked to the gas station to get gallons of water while Josie and I held down the fort… until two police cars came to assist us.

They asked what was wrong. We weren’t really that sure and said words like tube, pipe, leak, coolant… all with a tone that made us seem very unsure about everything. They stayed with us until Matt and Bry got back. They she-cop wasn’t very kind, but the man-cop was quite entertaining.

From then on I knew the weekend would be a success.

We arrived and started to eat and drink (duh) and didn’t stop until Sunday at 2 a.m. The weekend included fireworks, beer pong, flip cup, wii tennis, drunken jenga, beer pong in a lagoon, jet skis, boat rides, someone actually cooking the chicken, uncooked queso dip, smelly boys, sunburns, 200+ beers, vodka drinks, moonlight, a gorilla man, trifling, failed flirting and more bruises and laughter than I ever thought would happen.

I love cabins. That’s the just of the weekend.

Its May 19th at 10:07 a.m. I have exactly 53 minutes until I am allowed to turn in my last assignment ever. Weird.

Yesterday was my last exam ever… and I went out how I came in. I’m glad after four years nothing has changed and I still spend 45 minutes bs-ing my Art History final. Lovely.

And, instead of working on my final paper for my Irish class I went to a friend’s house and got up early this morning to do it… again, after four years I am still the biggest procrastinator ever, but with more than an hour to spare I finished my paper. It just proves that I’d rather lose sleep than miss out on something… and that I am pretty good at getting up in the morning and getting stuff done when its got to get done… pat on the back for me.

But still, its so weird that my homework is done… forever… unless I decide to go to grad school or something, but that wont be right away… My career at the University of Massachusetts is over, as long as I don’t get hit by a bus when I walk to turn in my paper and I pass all of my classes (which I should).

Crazy. The end of an era, but the start of a brand new adventure… I’m ready.

I am graduating from the University of Massachusetts in just less than two weeks. From there I don’t know where I’ll go, what I’ll do or where I’ll live. What I do know is what I want out of the place I live… that is sustainability.

But, is that possible with the way the average American lives? In recent years more and more people, government groups and politicians have started to see the importance of sustainability. Waste not want not, a common proverb that has been said since the late 1500s, but just now is being put into some sort of action.

It’s taken a long time, 500 years (minus different activists and other groups that have been working towards sustainability) to actually come to a public realization that something needs to change about the way Americans, and several other countries, live their lives.

Searching the Internet to find little tidbits about the future of sustainability I came across a New York Times article about a 20-minute film that is being shown in classrooms to replace dated textbooks that don’t supply students with enough information on climate change and the effects of pollution.

In the article, a 9-year-old boy was riding in a car with his parents and he was worried about the effect he would have on the environment if he bought a new set of Legos – and that was a nine year old. His father explained to him that it was OK to get Legos because he would have them for a very long time.

The video, put together by former Greenpeace employee Annie Leonard, hit the Internet in Dec. 2007. To date, six million people have viewed the video on its host Web site (its also available on google videos and YouTube and a YouTube short introduction), according to the article. The video is being put into curriculums and Leonard has a contract to write a book based on her video.

The article continues to explain the lack of support that people have over the video – that is the problem with the future of sustainability. The article explains that a school in Montana decided “screening the video treaded on academic freedom after a parent complained that its message was anticapitalist.”

There are still many schools across the nation that don’t focus on the environment, according to the article. It stated that, “environmental education is still a young and variable field, according to Frank Niepold, the climate education coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There are few state or local school mandates on how to teach the subject.”

That’s the problem. Since I started school I’ve heard that we, students at any age, are the future of America… the future of the planet. It is important for us to be educated so we can eventually lead the country, to be successful in this world. But, if students, if the youth aren’t educated on the effects of consumption, pollution and waste and what that does to the environment, to the planet, there will be no country to lead.

Leonard’s video is just one way that students can be educated about the effects of consumption. This short Internet video has already made an impact – positively and negatively depending on the location. But it’s just a start.

For the future of sustainability to be successful, for it to continue to be accepted nationwide – worldwide – the youth (as well as the adult population) need to be educated about how one person’s actions can affect the future of our planet, the future for their children, the future of sustainability.

It starts with education and then asking yourself a question just like that 9-year-old boy did – what affect will this have?

Things to be completed before I leave Amherst.

[x] Trivia at the Harp

[x] Tunnel Bar

[ ] Feed a black squirrel (I fed ducks and a gray squirrel so far, the black squirrels were afraid of the lawn mowers)

[ ] Get my hair cut at the Barber Shop in the Campus Center

[x] Visit the Dinosaur Tracks on Route 116

[ ] Steel the Nutting Ave. sign

[x] Make 916 cocktails

[ ] Have at least one drink every day until graduation

…more to come, and to be completed.

When I’m alone I get bored, when I get bored I think… when I think I get emotional. Emotional about the end of things, mainly college, and what is going to happen after I leave Amherst? Will I still be friends with the same people I am now (hopefully, because if I’m not I don’t think I could handle it)?

I overanalyze everything, and well, sometimes that screws me over… or just puts me in a bad moo – and I’m usually a pretty cheerful person, but I guess lately I’ve just been in a funk… and I need to get out of it I just don’t know how – well I know one way, but that way just wont happen.

And that’s why I have this blog… to ramble about everything that I need to say I just don’t know how to say it… I have so many questions for a few specific people, but I don’t know if I can ask them… or how.

I’ve decided that instead of moving home for the summer I’m going to just move to Boston. I don’t have a job, but I don’t have a job if I move home either… and this way I wont move home and never leave again, because I know that would happen.

Now that I’ve decided to stay East post-graduation I’ve got to find a job (I’ll take anything that pays) and a place to live… Good thing Mama T approved all of this and said she’d help me out at the start… I’m glad I wont be completly cut off when I graduate, she just said that I have to get a paying job becasue she’s not going to fund my living and boozing for another four years – she knows me all too well.

Scary to think that Minnesota really wont be my home anymore… that is if everything works out according to my current ideal plan – chances are it’ll change in the next couple of days.

Thinking about the future is so scary… but I’m getting kind of excited to graduate. Whoa, I can’t believe I actually admitted that. Granted, I’ve been “over” school for awhile now, but the freedom and lifestyle is something I’m not quite ready to give up… I’ll be a person who “stays young” forever.

Here’s to the biggest adventure of all… another new place all by myself woo.

There was a commercial on during the Masters for a cell phone company… the guy sends text messages about three putting through Ireland and spending the day on the beach, then ends with the guy making a long putt and sending a text message that says “Who am I kidding, I love golf.”

That’s why its such an amazing game…

I played for the first time this week, 9 holes on Tuesday and 14 holes on Friday. My first rounds of the season and lets just say they were less than mediocre. They sucked… I played VERY poorly and was very upset.

But that commercial describes the game perfectly. There is no game that is that mental… My first hole of the year I played horrible. I chipped over the green nearly four times but then the next hole I got to the tee box and had a beautiful drive, I ended up bogeying the hole… missing a two foot putt for par (ugh), but that drive… that shot, it made up for the horrible hole that I had just played. One shot can change that mentality, give you hope for the round changing and going in your favor.. even if its just for a second. Just being on the golf course, it makes me happy. It used to not, I would never want to play probably because my dad always tried to teach me, and it made me mad. Now I just wish I would have taken his lessons and been as good as I could have been… oh well maybe this summer. Played golf this week, played soccer today and will tomorrow and watched the Bruins tonight… all I need to do is play some hockey and I’ll get my sport fix in.

My grandparents bought my sister and I snuggies for Christmas, but we didn’t receive them until we came home from our respective college for spring break.

Originally, we thought it was absolutely hilarious that we got snuggies because we had been mocking the commercials for months. Look at all you can do now that your hands aren’t under a blanket… seriously?

Still I think the marketing gimmicks are hilarious and dumb, but they worked for my grandparents to buy them and well… its a great idea, as much as I hate to admit it.

The snuggie is actually amazing, and there is so much you can do without letting your arms get cold – yes I could put on a sweatshirt, or wear a bathrobe because a snuggie is practically a backwards robe without the string… But seriously, the snuggie is ideal.

But watch out… it says that you can do things you couldn’t do while wearing a normal blanket… be careful before you try certain tasks. I was attempting to walk down my stairs wearing my snuggie and holding my laptop when my dog came and walked on my snuggie, on the steps, and I didn’t notice, I tried to walk and nearly tumbled down the stairs and would have ruined my laptop and seriously injured myself. Wearing a blanket and walking down the stairs with my computer is something I never would have attempted with a regular old blanket… so unlike me, use your common sense while wearing your snuggie – don’t walk down the stairs with it on.

But overall, I suggest the snuggie. It’s amazing.