So the fall semester is rolling round again. For you freshies that means the dreaded “Freshman 15.” For the rest of us it means the shame of gaining an undisclosed amount of weight even though we are supposed to be “adjusted” and know how to stay healthy while we’re away from home.

It’s not like we don’t know what is healthy and what isn’t – we do. And we all vow that the next year will be different – that we’ll stop getting seconds at the caf and drinking 6 nights a week – but then classes start, beer pong ensues and it all goes out the window right to our asses.

To most of us calories are just confusing; who the hell knows how many calories we actually consume on a daily basis. How much work we need to do in order to burn off dollar pitcher night.  How many calories we burn walking to the library? But those things definitely need to be figure out if we want to steer clear of the not-so-attractive muffin top.

So, I thought I’d break it all down in a way everyone could understand: comparing the things we love to eat to our daily activities.

There’s always going to be that day when you have two tests to study for and an essay to write, which means zero time to cook yourself a healthy meal. But perhaps those days will be a little further in between knowing that you’ll have to wash dishes for five hours the next day to burn it off:

Two Slices of Domino’s Cheese Pizza (540 calories)= 3 hours of vacuuming (which is probably 1,214 laps around that 10X12 box of yours)

One Order of “General Tso’s Chicken” From Your Favorite Chinese Place (844 calories)= 2 hours of running on the treadmill at the gym

One Grande Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte (330 calories)= 3 hours of taking notes in class

One Plain Bagel With Cream Cheese (436 calories)= 1 ½ hours of dancing at a party

One Bowl of Ramen Noodles (296 calories)= Walking around campus for an hour

One Subway 6” Philly Cheese Steak (520 calories)= 4 hours of doing laundry Read More »

Check out Britney’s performance on Letterman last night.

Madonna gets weirder by the day.

Put Whitney Port on your face. No, really.

Michael Jackson’s doctor speaks!

How much do women cry? A lot a lot.

I want me a loaded Corona!

[Welcome to my Weekly Love List, a list on all things I love. Because if I love them, well, obviously you should love them too. As the Backstreet Boys song says (and yes, I am actually quoting them) “My Love is All I Have To Give.” So with that throwback, here are this week’s list-worthy things…]

Sure we all remember our jams from 8th grade. Baby One More Time made pigtails cool; we were singing about Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems, even though our $5/ hour babysitting fee was our only income source; and the Backstreet Boys got us doing the Everybody dance at bar mitzvahs around the nation.

We all reminisce about those regularly (…or is that just me?), but what I fail to remember on a more regular – wow I was soo awkward – basis are the earlier 90s jams, and the jams that were from the random bands/artists (Vitamin C, anyone?). But when you listen to them now, you are taken back to that time in 3rd grade when you stopped playing pogs to bust a move to one of these…

Surely these were on the very first editions of the Now That’s What I Call Music! CDs.

Ah, memories.

Love em.

So this is my Now That’s What I Call Music! Love List Throwback. Read More »

I remember being in middle school when I first heard about Supergrass. I always wondered if their name wasn’t just code for marijuana…and I still wonder that after having seen them in NYC at Webster Hall…but I mean that in the best of ways. The band, to be honest, gave me a whole lot more than I bargained for. I went into the show rather aimlessly with a friend and waited for them to start their set.

The crowd around me was buzzing, filled with twenty and thirty somethings; all thoroughly enthusiastic about the show. I sipped on my Corona and waited. Finally, the band boldly took their stage-hollow-body guitars in hand.

Automatically, I was taken back by their energy and their actual songs. Unlike so many other acts these days, they didn’t employ a crew of dancers or fancy lighting techs to help take the focus off of their songs. (Note: Why do so many bands do that these days? Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to work on the music than to hire an entourage of cover-up specialists? Just a thought.) They brought their songs to the table eagerly and the audience eagerly received them. Read More »

I opened the fridge and there stood a Bud Light Lime—a new beer from Budweiser!? Fancy. My roommate is the best. And no, I wasn’t reluctant; I twisted off the top with a swoop of my palm like I knew what I was doing. Lucky for me, it was indeed a twist off. Otherwise, that could have been painful.

Down it went. Nice.

I love nothing more than a Summer beer; they are perfectly light and not too filling. Not that I have anything against Winter brews – I really am an equal opportunity beer drinker – but no one wants to walk around feeling bloated. Especially in a pair of skinny jeans.

Now that summer is here, it is time to enjoy the best beers this season has to offer. Get those shorts out, maybe some bikinis, strike up that BBQ and run in a sprinkler. All with a frosty brew. Don’t know which ones to try? Here are some of my all time favorites:

Pyramid Apricot Weizen Ale

This beer goes well with a chicken sandwich, or if you have a bit of sweet tooth. It’s not too sweet however…no promotion for gut rot here my friends.

Bud Light Lime

I feel like it tastes like Corona–you just don’t have to buy the limes.

Miller Chill

Sorry, but I was born in raised in Wisco; it’s my duty to represent. Read More »

Today, I realized I had been living a lie. When I changed my major from journalism to English last semester (big mistake – but that’s another story for another blog), I thought “Hey, sweet! I can catch up on classes this summer by reading classic lit (poolside, albeit), expanding my already-extensive vocabulary with words like ‘subtilization’ and ‘castrato’ and still work on my tan!”

Apparently, I had fallen prey to my university’s (and um, my so-called ‘friends’) pernicious lies about the elusive evil that is summer school. Both my advisor and financial counselor had blissfully encouraged me to spend my hard-earned work/study cash on summer classes because, well, they were going to be so much easier than the normal, semester-long demons I would inevitably have to struggle with during the fall semester. It sounded like a pretty good idea, and when I consulted my girls who had all previously taken summer classes, they too said that summer school was way easy. And okay, I got a little excited when I realized that this meant I could wear flip-flops and jean skirts to class every day if I wanted– something northeast Ohio school years rarely permit.

So, I took the plunge. I signed up for summer school…with little to no idea about what was in store for me.

I was still floating on cloud nine after a post-midnight romp with an attractive boy when I waltzed into my first English Studies class – totally ready to tackle Faulkner and Woolf with ease. However, as soon as the syllabus reached my freshly-manicured fingernails….I practically went into cardiac arrest. Read More »

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s finally warm enough in the summertime to step outside and feel the breeze without wincing, or maybe the wind really does smell sweeter, but either way, there is definitely something fun and breezy about summer. There is something light and bubbly about this season and there are a wide array of drinks out there to accompany such a bohemian sensation.

Why do I feel more comfortable drinking in the afternoon in the summertime than I do in the winter? Is it the dazzling sunlight that beckons me to the outdoor seating of bars, whispering, “It’s vacation weather. Drink up…”? Is that what does it? Who knows. Regardless, here is my personal list of summertime beverages that I know I won’t be going without this year.

WINE SPRITZERS

I may easily be an old cougar at a country club despite the fact that I’m a 24 year old girl in the big city…I don’t care. I like wine spritzers. They’re so bubbly and delicious and easy to make on your own. Wine+Sprite+Ice+decorative lemon= BOOYAH, a tasty wine spritzer. I used to always drink these with red wines, but I’ve moved on to the lighter white wines these days and I love it. Read More »