Summer is not coming to a close! Do not listen to your television blaring “back to school” commercials at you! Keep on loving the sun and living the summertime life. Here are my five favorite things about summer - the good, the bad and the sweaty.

1. Venti Starbucks Iced Passion Tea Lemonade (with two pumps of melon):
If you haven’t tried this drink, walk… no, RUN, to your nearest Starbucks. Don’t worry; if you live in America it will probably be no further than a block away. This drink is the greatest non alcoholic summer beverage I’ve consumed. I’ve even attempted to make it the greatest alcoholic beverage I’ve consumed. Do not mix with vodka! Not good. Anyway, it’s sweet, tangy, caffeine free and most importantly, it’s pink.

The bad?: Friends mock you for embarrassingly long and girly drink order and local Starbucks staff start knowing you as “Two Pump Melon Girl.”

2. Rainbow flip flops
Obvious summertime staple! These go with everything and flip flops are the only shoe of choice for the summer. I have a beach pair, which are completely destroyed and a nice pair, which are on their way to being completely destroyed. Can wear these to class, bars and the gym. But only to the gym if you plan on just walking around observing, in lieu of legit exercise. My kind of gym shoes! Read More »

You know how sometimes Friday rolls around, and your week has been really long, and some weird lady on the bus stared at you the whole way to work for no reason, and the guys in your office keep trying to get you to watch something you’re positive is gross and will scar you for life?

Yeah. It’s been one of those weeks.

So when we here at CC have one of those weeks, we sort of just talk about whatever we want — let it all hang out. Our filters have been corded by a week filled with strippers, bikini issues, porn, lists that piss people off, and of course, Guido dancing.

Read More »

I’ve decided that to keep my budget under $100, I’m going to use internet resources and not buy all the books I really want to buy. Like this one. and this one.

But I digress. The first website I checked our was Flylady, which I’d heard a lot of good things about and at first glance seems frightening comprehensive. Seriously, there is so much on this site that I’m not really sure where to start. I find a ‘Beginner’s Babysteps” section and note that they mention something about sending you 15-20 emails a day. Yeah, I don’t think so.

I get the impression this website is more for people who need their hand held–That’s not me, but maybe it would work for you. Flylady does give me the idea of sectioning my house into “zones” and concentrating there. She does have some good tips, though. I would start in her site index and skip around.

Next I try organized home and it seems a lot more user friendly. It puts many of its tips into list form, which is good for me because I read “list” fluently. I also like it because it gives you tips not only to help you get organized in the first place, but to maintain your level of organization.

I was hesitant to look at Martha Stewart’s website; I’ve always kind of thought that her ideas were interesting, but not always especially practical or doable on a budget or my kindergartner’s level of organization skills. I can admit it, I was wrong. Read More »

Finals were rough this year. Not that they are ever especially fun, but for some reason I had an inordinately difficult time sitting down at my desk and forcing myself to write. And once I did, I would realize that I didn’t have the right book in the right place and I couldn’t find these notes or those notes and I could hardly type with the mountain of work piling up, threatening to topple over onto my keyboard at any moment.

I found myself in that predicament because I tend to get unorganized when I have a lot of stuff to do. Dangerously so. Which is bad, because I have a hard time concentrating when things need to be straightened, or cleaned, or filed away. I can’t work unless my workspace is clean and everything I need is at hand.

And so, I thought that I would take the first weeks of the summer before I start classes in July and totally reorganize and idiot-proof my office, and, as massive an undertaking as it will be, my entire home. Read More »