Days as a Freshman: 76

Mood: Amused

Daniel B sat down at the table across from me, setting a giant coffee cup in front of him and dropping some heavy books on the table.

“So, what page are those problems on that you wanted to take a look at?”

Just like Daniel, wasting no time getting down to business. Idle chatter made him uncomfortable. He could talk for hours about numbers and equations, but ask him about the weather or his favorite food and he’d tense up; his hands turning into fists and his adam’s apple sliding up and down in a constant rhythm.

I wondered if he had friends who he could relax with. I wondered if he had any friends at all.

“The ones on 154 and 159. I’ve been trying to do them on my own, but I don’t know if I’m getting the right answer.” Pushing my tea of the way, I set my own book on the small café table. I liked coming to the cafe at night. Even though it was inside the student center, it was mostly quiet after nine, and ever since that uncomfortable incident with Sasha and his “buddies”, I hadn’t seen a single person I recognized at any of the tables.

“These?” Daniel B. ran his finger down the page, pushing his glasses up with his other hand. “These are easy. You shouldn’t be having a problem.”

Another thing about Daniel B., he rarely filtered his thoughts from his mouth. Whatever he thought, he said. Even if it could be construed as insulting. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 64

Mood: pissed off

“Campbell!”

As the soccer boys stomped over to us, I felt myself pushing against my hard, black chair, wishing I could use it as camouflage. Everything about them was loud; the way the walked, shoving wayward chairs and tables out of their way, the heaviness of their boots on the linoleum, the shouts they threw back and forth at each other, even their energy made too much noise, the small atrium cafe seeming suddenly much too tight and airless.

“You missed the meeting, man!” Pulling a chair over to our table and sitting on it backwards, the loudest and biggest of the soccer boys pushed Sasha’s shoulder playfully, but hard enough to almost throw him off his chair. “It was a shit show. A total shit show.”

The two other soccer boys, dressed in almost identical blue sweatpants, white shirts, and blue baseball caps, stood on either side of Sasha. Their eyes slid over to me. I looked down, staring at the bobbing teabag in my cup.

“Coach was there. He told the student life people to calm down. But not before they put the whole f*cking house on probation.” Still ignoring me, the head soccer guy pulled his own baseball cap over his face. “No parties for a while, man. At least none that they hear about.”

“So they didn’t…did they ever find out if anything really happened?” Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 61

Mood: Heavy

“So…” Sasha pulled a chair from an empty table over to the one I was sitting at, holding a paper cup of tea and chewing on a plastic stirring straw. I watched him sit, look down into his cup, chew on the straw, and blink. What was he waiting for?

“Should’ve put honey in this. Green tea sucks without honey.” He looked up and grinned, the straw bending with his smiling lips, his messy brown hair falling into his eyes.

I wanted to freeze everything; take a picture of him just how he was right now with my eyes and keep it in the back of my head. I wanted to find a way to memorize the little dimple on his left cheek. I wanted to come up with an exact recipe for the smell he carried with him; a mixture of fresh deodorant and warm fuzzy dryer sheets. I needed to never forget the way a simple plastic straw could make someone irresistible.

The moment of realization that you’re sitting across from someone who could actually be everything you’ve ever dreamed about is strange. It’s not a big feeling, not a sharp feeling either. It’s mostly just a warm sensation, like someone’s poured bubbly, fizzy water into your limbs and into your chest.

“People make fun of me for drinking tea.” Taking the straw from his mouth, Sasha stirred the liquid in his cup absently, looking up at me and then back down at his hands, smiling in a quieter way. “It’s not cool or something. But I like it.”

And I like you, I thought, holding my own cup between my hands and breathing as carefully as I could. It seemed like a strong exhale could ruin the moment, blowing away the comfortable yet electric energy between us. Read More »

Kombucha!

No, I’m one of the Three Ninjas (Remember them? How cute was Rocky?), Kombucha is a fairly new organic refreshment. A drink. An expensive drink, but, it’s damn good…good for you, that is.

According to Wikipedia, Kombucha is “the Western name for sweetened tea or tisane that has been fermented by a macroscopic solid mass of microorganisms called a “kombucha colony,” usually consisting principally of Bacterium xylinum and yeast cultures.” Fermented tea?? Sounds delightful.

A man by the name of G.T. Dave began bottling this light and fizzy juice in 1995 after his mother beat breast cancer, all the while drinking this ancient concoction. According to the bottle, Kombucha supports digestion, metabolism, immune system, appetite control, weight control, liver function, body alkalinity, anti-aging, cell integrity, healthy skin and hair. Need I say more? Read More »

Starbucks was an integral part of my college experience.

Whether it was grabbing a latte before my 8 am class at the building next door, or catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile due to crazy schedules, I have so many memories that include Starbucks and college, it’s hard to count.

Over my four years, I started to become more aware of what I was drinking and just how many calories and grams of fat I was ingesting (one venti white chocolate mocha can cost you 580 calories…not to mention almost 5 bucks).

I eventually became used to ordering drinks with skim milk and sugar-free syrups. I downsized from Ventis to Grandes, and — gasp! — even Talls. Recently, I have also become very fond of their tea selection.

And much to everyone’s surprise, there are actually ways to order low fat/low cal drinks at Starbucks…you just have to know what to ask for.

Fortunately, a great health and dieting blog called, Back in Skinny Jeans, gives us “7 ways to cut down calories and fat in Starbucks drinks” : Read More »

Coffee became my addiction in college. I was completely unable to start my day unless I had a large cup of Dunkin Donuts brew in my hand. It helps me focus and gives me something to sip on during class. I think it’s more of a therapeutic thing for me…Like somehow the world would be okay as long as I had my soothing cup of coffee to start the day.

But, I am aware that drinking so much caffeine may not be very healthy for me in the long run. So, I have been trying to drink more tea lately, since it has a lot of healthy benefits. I’ve also noticed that tea has really grown in popularity, at least on my campus it has become sort of trendy. If you are a tea lover, you might want to check out The Calm-a-Sutra of Tea Scholarship Competition (what a great name!)

Basically, all you have to do is create a 1-2 minute internet video of yourself drinking tea in the most unique or unusual scenario, upload the video to youtube, and send in the link. If you win, you will get a $20,000 scholarship, an all expense paid trip to NYC, and afternoon tea at a trendy New York tea place.

Bottoms up!