Sharing the Composty Wealth

I love sharing  (if you haven’t figured that our already!).

If something is good, fabulous, and something I think is worth your time, I’m going to tell you.  Like how much I love The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Or how the double lined t-shirts from Target can look professional and fun, depending on how you wear them (a big plus in my late-20′s clothing crisis…another story for another blog!).  Or how wonderful the folks at the Portsmouth Tea Company are, and how great their tea is (and yes, they do have an online store).  Or how I wish I could get minors in both of our new minors (Journalism, New Media and Communications and Medieval and Early Modern Studies).  Or how much I love to tinker in the garden and the kitchen, and sharing the goodies that come out of those experiements.

Or how much I’m enjoying CG’s blog, and her composting efforts.  And that she’s willing to give me the compost if I bake/jam/cook for her in return.  Win-Win if you ask me, folks!

What I’m most impressed about is the fact that CG (a recent SBC grad and fellow Admissions Counselor) decided that rather than buying a composter (which, let’s be honest, I would do), she built it herself.  I’m really impressed with her ingenuity and dedication to creating compost with limited space and resources.

A great example of how Sweet Briar Women tackle challenges head on, both in the classroom and once you’re out of it.

Cement Truck, Part II

Part of the story that gets left out sometimes is the fact that I was meeting two alumnae for lunch the day of the fateful Cement Truck Accident.  Tara is a lovely ’99 alumna who was just as helpful as Ms. Bea was, we just didn’t share the intimate hour and a half car ride back to West Lebanon.

May ’09 was my five-year reunion here at the Briar, and as JGL and I were standing in line to get food, the woman in front of me whipped around and said, “I know you from somewhere….”  Out of the hundreds of people at reunion, Tara (who was celebrating her 10 year reunion) and I  just happened to pick the same food line at the same time.  It was so great to see her again, and introduce JGL to one of the players in that infamous story he’s heard over and over.

Today, with the magic of Facebook, Tara popped up again.  She and her fiancé are one of the five finalists for the Clay Hill Farms Green Wedding Giveaway. I share this not because I’m a sucker for weddings, but for two other purposes:

1. Tara was a studio art major at Sweet Briar, and now is a Photographer in the White Mountain Region.  Her submission for this contest is all her own photography, and it is beautiful!  What an incredible way to take what you love and transform it into what you do in the “real world!”
2. I believe in good juju and karma and what goes around comes around and the “Old Girls Network” here at SBC–help a good Vixen out and VOTE FOR TARA!

Hawks

I think New Hampshire has some of the best local Public TV programing I’ve seen. I’m biased, of course, because I rarely watch it down home in MA or VA, and my grandparents are addicted to NHPTV, especially Chronicle.  We just finished watching a program about the Broad-Winged Hawk, which chronicled the migratory patterns of these exceptional creatures from their birth in NH, to the incredible view at Hawk Mountain in PA (near my sister!), all the way to Ecuador.  It’s amazing to think that what the good people of New Hampshire do in terms of their environment and such eventually affects the Eco-Tourism economy of Ecuador.  How incredible is the fact that we are all so interconnected in such meaningful ways. 

I was most touched, I think, with the segment about an Iraq War veteran who was disabled during his tour of duty while serving our country.  His recovery, physically and emotionally, has been long and painful–but a newfound love of bird watching (specifically these Broad-Winged Hawks) has helped him overcome his injury, and his ability to connect (and reconnect) with people back in his community.  He now acts as a bird guide in one of these bird sanctuaries teaching others about hawks, migration patterns, and conservation.

If we all took the time to foster these small, meaningful connections, imagine how much better our world would be.

Green Bag, Blue Bag, Pink Bag

Dear JGL,

Please don’t be mad at me, but I’ve done it again:  I’ve bought more recyclable grocery bags.  I know, I know, we have a collection that could shop for a family of 10 right now, but I promise–these are different!  How could I resist a pink bag in honor of breast cancer awareness month?  Ever since we lost Crispen, I just can’t stop myself.  I figure it’s either this, or we’re going to have to run a marathon or something in her name.  Since we’re both not in what I’ll call “marathon shape,” the bags seem like a good solution for right now.  That and I had a bagel for lunch and have clocked over 20 hours in the car over the past two days. NOT IN MARATHON SHAPE.

Plus, now we’ll finally have enough bags to put in both of our vehicles, and have some in the house in case we need to lug stuff.  We’ll never have an excuse to use plastic again (I know, you’re so thrilled)!  I promise the pink ones can go in my car, and I will do my best not to bring home any more.  I’ll channel this addiction into chocolate, or coozies, or plants.

I know you’ve put up with a lot from me over the years–insisting we recycle, switching to whole wheat, taking out a significant portion of our salt intake, winning Battle Chocolate Tux, making you draft New England players on your fantasy teams even when they blow out knees in the first game of the season, and calling various teams the New Jersey Jets/Giants (but you have to agree, the stadiums are IN JERSEY–why, for the love of all things good and holy, are the teams called the New York Jets/Giants?!  I just don’t understand….).  But you’ve stuck with me through it all–I hope you’ll stick with me through the Bag Addiction.

I hope you’ll still love me when I get home from DE, even with all the new bags.

Love,

Your GAL

PS  Sorry for telling you this on my blog…

Being Greener

Much like my beloved Kermit said, it’s not easy being Green.  Making the conscious choice to live a greener lifestyle or create a greener work environment is a tough one–sometimes the easy thing to do is chuck something in the trash can instead of walking it over to the recycling bin; sometimes it’s easier to print out a document to read rather than reading it on your screen.  Thinking long and hard about what you use, how you use it, and how you might get rid of it takes time, effort, and energy.

With that in mind, I’m really excited to announce here on the blog that our office is taking another step toward being Greener–we are no longer printing our application to mail to you.  I say Greener because you can still choose to print our online application and mail that paper form to us, and we will send a paper application to students who may not have access to our online version.  I also say Greener because we mailed you a postcard announcing this change.

But it’s a step in the right direction, right?  Right!

There’s also another big change with our application–we are simplifying our process (and thus yours) by offering Responsive Admissions.

What the heck is that?

You must apply before the priority deadline of February 1st, but if you have you application complete and into us today, Sept. 9th, you will have an answer from us in one month.  That’s right, folks, you’ll hear from me by Oct. 9th.  Thirty days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes, however you want to qualify that.  Quick, simplified, responsive.

Exciting, huh?  We’re tremendously excited to see what this means for you, and how this will hopefully make your lives easier.  Which means we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback and we venture forth on this new Greener, more responsive terrain.  Feel free to comment here, or e-mail at gloughhead@sbc.edu.

Want to apply right now?  Check out the following links for tools to our admissions process.

Application 101

Our PDF

Common App

Show me the Money (or at least an estimate)

It’s not easy being Green

I love green.  If forced to choose between our Pink and Green, I pick green hands down.  This partly stems from my involvement in college with a certain tap club that very much so identified with its club color.  In more recent years, it’s become something I strive for–to save some green (money) for my family and my college, and also striving to live more green in my day to day life.

At home we are starting to transition to more environmentally friendly house items such as soap, dish detergent, and toilet paper (verdict is still out on that one).  I’ve even gone so far as to make my own all purpose cleanser, which I am happy to report does in fact work

Here at SB we are doing our best to go green as well–we just completed our Green Village for our students, Dr. P had the college order more Pink Bikes since they were such a hit last year, and my new favorite endeavor is our attempts at going trayless.

Now, one might not think that going trayless would make a difference in how Green or Not Green a college cafeteria is, but it does.  The average tray  needs a half-gallon of heated water for one wash, and that the average student throws away five ounces of uneaten food when using a tray.  That means if all 700 of our students came to three square meals one day we would use 1050 gallons of water and throw out 218.75 pounds of food.  Stretch those numbers out into a week, and that would equal 7350 gallons of water and 1531.25 pounds of food.  Imagine if you keep stretching those numbers out from days, to weeks, to months, to a year, to multiple years.

It adds up quickly.  Too quickly.

It’s not an enforced “no tray” policy, and trays are still available if you care to use them, but I hope we can all stop and think what impact we can make by not picking up that little green tray.