Gabriella Grimes Entry #13

It's the time of the season for leg shaving. Not the most fun time either. Every year I feel like it's a constant competition to see how far I can get into warm weather and still wear stockings. Stockings mean not having to shave but it's gotten to the point where my legs feel suffocated and taking a razor to them is the only way for me to not feel like Mr. Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. I try to preach Feminism up and down, left and right, but I'll never get to the point in which I find it okay for me to not have my legs shaved whilst wearing a skirt. Even some men I've known shave their legs. And they tend to put much more effort into it: they'll shave their legs about every two days. Who has time for that? Not me.

This post doesn't really make sense, but the warmer weather is going to be stressful in more ways than it just being warm. Warmer weather means more idiots out on the streets doing stupid things. It means not knowing if it's going to be warm enough to go jacket-less because it was 60 degrees yesterday and I needed a jacket but it was also 60 degrees three days ago and I didn't need a jacket at all. It means friends are no longer okay with staying inside and want to go outside and do actual activities. I didn't sign up for this nonsense and I'm not here for it honestly.

I wish I could say that I'm not going to give in this year to the pressure from the warm weather and stay inside with hairy legs covered by stockings but that would be lying and I'm a quitter. Maybe if women have to shave their legs, men should have to shave their arms. There needs to be some sort of trade-off. How about if every time a woman was pressured into shaving her legs by societal norms, men lose one piece of hair on their head. And not even in like an organized manner, but just in random places so six months from now, they'll have random patches of hair missing. And as for the friends who think it's okay to drag people who easily overheat all over the city, they should just move very far away so I don't have to deal with their nonsense.

Abdul Moontarin Entry# 11

When it was 11pm on Friday I took the time to leave my house and go in a late night walk. There was barely anyone on the streets. It was just me and and a bunch of strangers passing me by in their cars. What I loved about walking at night was the late night cool breeze that hit my face and ran though my hair. It was honestly a very relaxing experience. Not only that but the silence outside also helped clear my head. That night everything was perfect especially the weather. I should honestly go on more late night walks. They end up clearing my mind and makes me feel all fresh and new.

Melissa Leggard Number 6

I have been absent from classes due to the bursting of a pipe in my home. My family had to relocate throughout this week. I soon discovered I will be leaving for Albany at the ending of the semester. Albany's environment is very different in comparison to New York's. There are more spacious towns as well as just a feel of nature. Although I am not thrilled about the move I think it may serve as a relationship builder for nature and I.

Melissa Leggard Number 5

I believe that the public sharing of our papers has helped me write a better second paper. Although it was very challenging for me to transform from such a factual based writing style into this descriptive one. However, I managed to the best I could with it and I believe that it is coming along quite nicely.

KayJoon #8

Another memorable and unique nature experience I noted during my trip was to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I’ve been here before, but I could go back everyday for the rest of my life and still be amazed. I’ll insert a photo so you can see what I mean. Having only been around the Hudson and our portion of the Atlantic in the past few months, anything even slightly blue is appealing to me. As you can see, Crater Lake is about 1000x more that just “slightly blue”. This photo actually does do justice to the place without any editing. First of all, this body of water was formed because of the collapse of a volcano over a hundred years ago. Because there are no rivers flowing in or out of it, this water is some of purest because of the absence of pollutants. The depth of the lake is also impressively deep, being below sea level.

You know how there are places that are really cool even if you don’t know anything about them? And then there are places that are cooler when you know more about them? Well, I feel like Crater Lake is defiantly the first one, although knowing why it is is cool; it's simply beauty in it’s purest form, no explanation required.

KayJoon #7

This spring break I did a West Coast trip and got finally enjoy the great outdoors after being trapped inside for months from this past winter in New York. One of the first stops I took was in the Muir Woods in Northern California. This park is home to the “sequoioideae” trees, more commonly known as redwoods, and is of the largest and tallest trees in the world. Whether I was walking among the trees, or if I was at the lookout point above all the trees, I could feel their presence. Stepping onto the trailhead, the trees made sure you knew you were there. From the fresh smell of bark to the temperature drop from the shade, I was there. I felt small, but also like I was of the earth and these trees were just an extension of me. 

Gabriella Grimes Entry #12

I'm really certain that in a matter of twenty-four hours, we went from Fall to Summer and it's terrifying. I didn't sign up for this and I'm not prepared for it. Despite the overwhelming sunlight, bees, heat, and stench of weed on the sky terrace, I'm very happy the class had the opportunity to go outside. I have to admit, I wasn't crazy about the idea at first, but it was pretty great having class outside again. I just feel like I get a different vibe from everyone when we're outside vs. inside. It still remains horribly weird to me that in one school, people can be different depending on where they're located on the grounds. I would have preferred had the sun not been blinding me as we talked about Dickinson's poems, but we can't have everything we want in this world. One thing that's for certain is that this summer will be an absolute scorcher and I think I may very well move to Alaska for three months. It'll be bad here,  but at least most of us will be somewhat used to it. I feel bad for friends I have in the U.K., especially England. Last Summer was horrible for them because the weather there had never been so hot; hopefully it won't be as bad this year, but this crazy weather isn't proving great for anyone.

As a side note, while we were outside for class, I couldn't help but to miss the A.C. inside of the school, and I remembered an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy when the Eds decided to make everyone believe it was Fall by placing air conditioners around the cul-de-sac attached to very long extension chords and I can only hope that's possible in the real world.