I came to college up north because I insisted on going to a school with all four seasons. I chose Syracuse because I tend to do things in excess. Why have a few days of snow every school year when I can spend 8/9 months at Syracuse freezing and wearing the somehow-still-popular Ugg boot for the majority of the year?

Four years ago I ran outside as the first flakes fell from the sky. I spun around and around with my tongue out reveling in the snow not because it came naturally but because that’s what people always do in the movies. I stayed spinning until a bus pulled up in front of the dorm, almost ran me over, and my friend asked me to come inside and stop embarrassing myself. Even as the winter wore on I got delight out of hearing the crunching snow beneath my feet and writing my name over and over again on ever snowy surface.

But nothing good can ever last and now as the first snow falls, I’m sitting inside wrapped in fourteen layers chugging a large coffee. I made a list of everything in the kitchen and rationed it out so we can survive five months without having to go outside and to the supermarket once. I haven’t been this prepared with food since I won the Oregon Trail in fifth grade.

So I guess the magic of snow has worn off. The first sign was probably when I put a hat on and everything remarked that I looked unmistakeably like a penis. The second sign is when my boots stopped working and I had to wrap plastic bags around my feet so the 3-foot ice puddle wouldn’t give me hypothermia. The third sign was when I made a snowman last year and someone ate the skittle eyes. Ever since then I just can’t look at snow the same way.

So here goes hibernation ‘09. It should be a blast.

Just because you’re a college student doesn’t mean you have to drink like one. I mean, come on; vodka and Crystal Light gets old after awhile. Why not try something a little more…sophisticated? (Editor’s Note: You can still chug it like a college lady.)

These cocktails are guaranteed to make all your friends love you, and, of course, get everyone very, very drunk.

So welcome to the world of sophisticated drunkery.

What better way than to start of the list that with a drink that compliments fall season upon us?

Warm Fall Evening
1 part Absolut Peach
1 part apple flavored vodka
1 part Absolut Mandarin
1 part cinnamon syrup
1 part hot apple juice / cider
Cinnamon

Combine and serve in a glass.

Fall flavors not really your thing? How about a drink that is guaranteed to warm you up in the cold days and put your drinking skills to the test? Can you handle hot sauce? Read More »

Friday night: You’re at a crowded bar, and have to pee. Fearing the toilet seat, you pop a squat, clench your thigh muscles and hold onto the walls while you unleash your last five beers. You make sure you wash your hands (sometimes twice, depending on how filthy the pub is), and maybe even reach into your purse for some hand sanitizer, just to be safe.

Saturday night: You’re at a frat party. You just won three consecutive games of beer pong. You don’t think twice about drinking your cups, despite the fact that you’ve seen the ball land in other peoples’ used cups, roll along the basement floor, and watched the ball pass between thirty-something unwashed hands.

What gives?!?

Obviously, beer pong isn’t the most sanitary party game out there. But you have the “water cup,” right? That cup of tepid, dirty water is totes gonna disinfect that old, recycled ping pong ball (that was most likely found under someone’s bed 10 minutes before party time). Or not.

Some microbiology students at George Washington University decided to test exactly how detrimental to your health beer pong can be. If you like beer pong, you may want to skip this article. Read More »

Remember when you were little and you came down with a cold? Mom or Dad would make you soup, tuck you into bed, and feed you medicine. Well, now you’re on your own, and chances are when you are hacking all over place even your best friend won’t want to get near you. What to do!?

First things first…if you wake up in the morning feeling like total crap, give yourself a sick day. We have a tendency to push ourselves to the limit in college, but remember: even big corporate offices give sick days, and that’s for a good reason. If you try to keep going like normal, chances are you’ll make yourself even more sick, thus forcing you to possibly miss even more time than if you just took it easy early on. Obviously if you have an important exam or test you may have to suck it up and go to class, but otherwise, just stay in bed.

Make sure to sleep in and get some extra rest–close the blinds and don’t turn on the TV (not yet, at least!). When you feel like you can’t sleep anymore, take a hot shower. Sudacare makes these great tablets that you stick on the floor of your shower; they react with the hot water to make a really nice steamy vapor that opens up your sinuses (and calms you down). Read More »

I never had allergies when I was a kid. However, I do remember my father telling me that his allergies only developed when he was older.

This all seemed like hypochondriac nonsense to me…until I developed my own allergies. As a singer, allergies may very well be a bigger pain in the ass for me than most people. Therefore, I have recently felt the need to learn all that I can about my own symptoms so that I can effectively tell the difference between a common cold and an allergy. After all, you can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s broken, right?

Here’s the rundown of allergy symptoms versus common cold symptoms.

Both come along with a sneeze, but a sneeze from a cold is typically very loud and infrequent, coming more from the lungs than from the nose. The allergy sneeze is much more frequent and it stems from irritation in the nose.

You’ll have runny eyes with a cold, yes, but you will experience this symptom much more clearly if what you’re struggling with is actually an allergy.

The difference between the itchy nose you get when you have a cold and the one you get when you have an allergy is this: Allergies causes itches that really can’t be scratched. You feel them in the back of your nose and it makes you miserable. The cold, however, causes an itch that can typically be alleviated much more easily by, for example, blowing your nose. Read More »

I cannot stand getting sick. About a month ago, I caught a vicious flu bug and completely denied its existence in my system until I woke up one Sunday morning hallucinating and unable to stand.

Had I only taken more Airborne….my feverish mind reasoned as my roommate and I raced to the emergency room…I would be completely healthy right now…

Well, it turns out, I could have popped one hundred little Airborne tablets and it probably wouldn’t have made an ounce of difference (it also turns out that if you’re crazy sick and in an emergency room, crawling onto the floor and lying there gets you in to see a doctor way ahead of everyone else).

The makers of the popular take-it-and-you-won’t-get-sick tablet have recently settled a class-action lawsuit for $23.3 million, a lawsuit which claims that despite Airborne’s compelling advertising campaign, “There’s no credible evidence that what’s in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment”. Read More »

Happy Tuesday! No, I am normally not this chipper on a Tuesday morning, even if it is warmer than yesterday’s one degree. Yes, one. In fact, I’m was still feeling rather crabby and I-Hate-This-Cruel-Cold-World for the first few hours of my day (having broken a nail while trying to open my car door that was frozen shut), until I began sipping on my third cup of coffee and reading this.

Check out that loooong list of shows that will be coming back now that the writers have returned to work. Granted, they really didn’t get everything they want and will probably be doing this whole strike thing again in 3 years, but being an American, I am all about the here and now. And here and now is looking quite good with our favorite shows coming back to TV. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 116
Mood: Startled

“Not many girls would jump up and down in the middle of the woods at ten at night.”

Justin and I were walking back through the dark path towards campus, my fingers occasionally grabbing onto his sweatshirt for support as we dodged shadowed roots and branches. I could have stayed in that starlit clearing with him forever, and probably would have, if Rebecca hadn’t called me, worried and wondering why I wasn’t back in our room.

Realizing we had been outside for over an hour, Justin decided it was time to go back. I wasn’t sure if he had been caught off guard by the quick passage of time like me, or if he just really wanted to get warm, but whatever the case, when he stood up and started back towards the dorms, I followed.

“You’re a good sport with putting up with my weirdness.” Stepping over a root, Justin reached out to help me do the same. “I usually don’t let people see how awkward I am until I know them really well.”

“Well, I’m perma-awkward, so you’re in good company.” I grabbed his hand and hopped over the root, but the contact of his skin against mine rattled my head so much I let go too soon and almost toppled over.

“Whoa, you okay?” Catching my arm, Justin stopped and waited until I was standing steady again.

“I told you, perma-awkward.” I laughed to cover my embarrassment and was glad the night hid my burning cheeks. “I can’t even walk right.”

Justin chuckled. We stood facing each other for a moment, one of the longer moments in my recent memory, until Justin let his eyes fall to the ground. Read More »