Pool Drains = Evil

Although I have the Star Tribune website bookmarked, I rarely look at the newspaper from my hometown. Today I decided to click on it, and I became very sad.

Abigail Taylor died.


Sad.

Last summer at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, the suction from a wading pool drain literally ripped out six-year-old Abigail's insides. She had transplant surgery at a Nebraska hospital to get a new small bowel, liver, and pancreas. She had one setback after another, undergoing 16 more surgeries. SIXTEEN!

Then at the beginning of this month she began chemotherapy for a rare cancer associated with transplants called posttransplant lymphoprolipherative disease, or PTLD. It affects some blood cells.

Abigail's parents are in the midst of suing the golf club and the company that manufactured the pool drain.

After Scott and Katey Taylor campaigned for new legislation regulating safety of pool drains, a new law was passed in Congress banning all manufacture, distribution, and sale of drain covers that don't meet anti-entrapment standards. The bill is named after Virginia Graeme Baker, a seven-year-old who was pinned to the bottom of a pool and drowned in 2002.

I vaguely remember reading about a story similar to this in some medical oddities book a few years ago. It was weird and sort of gross and amusing then. It's not so much anymore.

Who Wants to Date a Celebrity?

Oh man.

On Monday I took my friends to West Hollywood because they are visiting from Minnesota and they wanted to see Hollywood. Ugh. Hollywood is such a pain in the ass. But that's a different story.

So we decided to see a movie at Grauman's Chinese Theater. It's very beautiful I've never actually seen a movie there before (probably because it costs $11.25). We saw "10,000 BC." It was...pretty bad. As a history major I was minorly disgusted. But that is also a different story.

The point is...the leading man in the film, Steven Strait, is HOT.


HOLY CRAP. And look at those LOCKS!

Naturally, I immediately looked him up on IMDB when I got home. He's 21! He's my age!! He turns 22 next week! Even better! I am used to Googling hot actors and finding out that they are 30-something and being crushed. (See Adrien Grenier, James McAvoy, James Franco.) Or worse, hotties that are YOUNGER! (See Daniel Radcliffe, Corbin Bleu.)

So I was very happy to discover this hott-ay Steven Strait. No word on his 'ship status.

Lately I've been kind of depressed about Zac Efron because he's dating that stupid chick from High School Musical Vanessa Hudgens. He's 20 and he's beautiful. I may have an unnatural crush on him. Every time I watch High School Musical (which isn't that often....but probably more than a 21-year-old should...) I just want to date him so badly!!! So I'm working on that, but we'll see...

Living in LA you'd think I'd have a really easy time dating a celeb. What's wrong with this city!!??!?!

Maybe if the guys at my school weren't such idiots my life would be easier. Alas. I'll just search for Steven Strait. And Zac Efron too.

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The Grand Canyon is Very Grand

Hello friends, I haven't written in a while because I've been on vacay. Spring vacay, to be precise. I went to beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona with my roomie to visit our friend. It was awesome! Mostly. I'd never been to Arizona except driving through on the way to Mexico. Arizona's weird. But that's a different subject.

Anyway, so my roomie and I decided to go to the Grand Canyon before we drove home.

It was Grand.
We went to the South Rim. It takes something like 5 hours to drive to the North Rim from the South Rim.

It was very cold at the Grand Canyon. There was snow on the ground!! I didn't realize that the elevation is about 7000 feet. I was wearing shorts (and a sweater!) and many people we passed commented on how crazy my roomie and I were. In reality, we were just tougher than them.

We saw mules.Mules are bigger than I thought! They also aren't as ugly as I thought. We didn't ride the mules because we are tough and we didn't need no stinkin' mule to take us down the canyon.

We hiked the Kaibab Trail. We didn't go all the way down, because that is really far. The bad thing about canyon hiking is that, as the signs say, "What goes down must come up!" But it wasn't so bad. Except it was sort of icy and there was snow. I slipped a few times. Liz laughed at me.I truly wasn't expecting the Grand Canyon to be as Grand as it actually is. It's very surreal. I am really glad that we went there, even though it was three hours out of our way and it took us 8 hours to drive home. It was totally worth it!! I highly recommend visiting the Grand Canyon!! I feel as though my life is just a little bit more complete because I went there. Ah. That feels nice.

Bye!

Why is Claremont's Food SO MUCH BETTER!?

On Saturday night I went to Claremont, CA to visit my friend Galen who goes to Scripps. Pomona threw their annual "Smiley 80s" dance party which was really fun. (Smiley is a dorm apparently, not just a dorky name.) Even better than dancing the night away with an aged 80s cover band, however, was dinner.

Students at the 5 C's (Claremont-McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, Pomona, Pitzer) can eat at whichever school they choose. On Saturday we ate at Mudd, but as I understand it the dining halls are pretty much the same and they have rotating special stations.

Some highlights:

• There was sushi. FRESH sushi. Being made while you watched. (This station rotates around. On Friday it was at Scripps.)
• The best veggie pizza I've ever had at any school anywhere.
• Really awesome plates. Like, I would have them in my house.
• 4 flavors of ice cream, plus two flavors of soft-serve fro-yo. And toppings.
• PIE.
• The biggest selection of the best cereals ever. Oh, the cereal!
• All the disposable utensils and cups and stuff are totally eco-friendly and biodegradable.
• A rotating special station. Saturday was Indian. Obviously not real Indian, but delicious nonetheless.
• So many different kinds of pastas and raviolis and tortellinis.
• VERY vegetarian friendly.
• An awesome salad bar.
• Lots and lots of fruit

I would get SO fat.

I know my frame of reference isn't huge as I've only actually eaten there once, but it was just so wonderful that I had to write about it.

Oxy's food isn't that bad. I've DEFINITELY had much worse. Oxy's food just gets incredibly monotonous, and I don't even live on campus. Plus, the main Marketplace isn't even OPEN on Saturday!! They get SUSHI!?

Ethics and Pressure in American Schools

The cheating scandal at the prestigious North Hollywood private school Harvard-Westlake has my mind ticking. Six students were expelled from H-W for stealing world history and Spanish exams. Dozens of more students face punishment for looking at the exams.

What has become of our nation's youth?



While so many kids fall behind at inadequate schools, the lucky ones who get a top-notch private education cheat. Isn't this country supposed to be moving towards a more liberal, ethical, and educated future? Shouldn't kids be valuing what they're learning and upholding the highest ethical principles?

Either these kids haven't developed a sense of ethical responsibility or they're choosing to ignore it.

It's called....pressure.

I could write a dissertation on the absurd amount of pressure put on today's youth. From sports to grades to extracurriculars to standardized tests, these kids are getting crushed!

College is everything. If these students don't get accepted to a top-tier school, they can essentially kiss their lives goodbye. (Not really, but that's how they see it.) The college admissions process has become increasingly intense and competitive. In order to stand out to the admissions committee at a "good" school, students have to be involved in every area possible with the best grades and the best recommendations and the best GPA and the best test scores.

So really, it's no wonder students feel like they need to steal tests! It's for their own success! Failure isn't an option and they're willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, including abandoning all ethical principles.

While this is just one of the many problems with education in the US, it is still important to address. We need serious reform in K-12 education as well as in higher education. I don't necessarily have the answers.

Maybe Barack Obama does.

The Oscars: Best and Worst Dressed

I know, I know. I'm probably the ten gazillionth blogger to write about some aspect of the Oscars today, but it's the most interesting thing going on in my life right now. It's the most interesting thing going on in most people's lives right now. Can't wait for People magazine to come out.

Here are my picks and pics for best and worst dressed at the 80th Academy Awards!

Katherine Heigl in Escada:

Katherine Heigl is stunning in this one-shoulder column gown and old-Hollywood hair and makeup.

Calista Flockhart in vintage Valentino:

I love this dress. I love Valentino and I love vintage. Perfect. Although I'm not so sure about her hair.

Saoirse Ronan in Alberta Ferretti:

A future fashion icon? This dress is beautiful and just right for the 13-year-old. She looks wonderful, not at all terrifying or horrible like her character in Atonement. (Note: She plays Susie Salmon in the forthcoming The Lovely Bones. Can't wait!)

Heidi Klum (sans Seal) in John Galliano:

I know it's Heidi Klum. If it were anyone else it would be 100 times worse. But in my humble opinion, it's just TOO MUCH! Her hair is awesome though.

Penelope Cruz in Chanel Couture:

This is not cool. The drape-thing in front is totally wierd and I have no idea what's going on with the fur/hair/tinsel.

Jennifer Garner in Oscar de la Renta:

She looks like a curtain rod. With ugly curtains. In an ugly room.

Rules for a College Party

**Disclaimer: This post involves discussion of possible underage drinking. I do not wish to incriminate anyone at Occidental College or any other college. The author, who is 21, does not necessarily condone or condemn underage drinking. This post is not meant to advertise or encourage such behavior.

Loyal readers, I'm not going to lie to you or sugar-coat anything: This semester sucks.

All my friends decided to go abroad this semester. Literally.

OK, not literally, but pretty darn close to it. Last semester, when I had friends and a social life, we all partied together on the weekends and had a great time and everything was perfect. The same cannot be said about this semester. No one knows how to be a good guest or a good host.

Many students live off-campus and most of the houses host the occasional party. The party may be large or small, exclusive or open, fancy or casual. Regardless, there will be alcohol. It's college.

As a general rule, the house hosting said party provides at least some alcohol. Alcohol, unfortunately, costs money. Thus, hosting can get expensive. However, the same house almost never has two parties in one weekend, and rarely has a party two weekends in a row. Because of the rotating party venue, the alcohol money usually balances out. I say usually, but let's be honest here: This is Occidental. Some students can put the booze on daddy's credit card anyway.

Most of us, though, cannot afford to supply unlimited alcohol to the general public...i.e., freshmen. Or, gee, sorry, "Frosh" or "First-years" as we call them here at Oxy.

So, to the free-loaders and party-throwers, here are my suggestions to you:

1. Don't go to a party JUST because there will be "free" alcohol there. You should at least sort of know someone who lives there or have a good friend that does.

2. Don't expect there to be enough booze to get smashed. If you want to get smashed, hey--that's your prerogative, but do it on your own dollar and your own legal (and medical) risks.

3. Maybe...bring a 12 to share at a party once in a while. If it's an exclusive or small party, bring something for the host like a bottle of wine.

4. If you have a house, share the love. Host, please. It doesn't have to be a rager. Just host sometimes.

5. Don't be mean and charge people for alcohol at your party. If someone offers, you can accept if you really want to, but don't ask. Putting a jar out may be OK sometimes, but don't push your luck (or your popularity/reputation which obviously is everything at Occidental).

6. Love everyone as a guest and as a host. And just as a person in general!

Peace!!!