I lived very close to the Mississippi river. My friends and I would always climb down the cliffs and skip rocks off the sand patches. One day we dared my friend to swim in the river and go all the way under. We told him that we would pay him 40 dollars. Now if you're from Minnesota you know how gross the river is. You can see where the sewage runs into it and you have definitely heard about all of the dead bodies they find in there. Well my friend knew all of this and decided that 40 bucks was well worth it. He swam out there and dunked his head under, two weeks later he was on bed rest with bronchitis and vertigo.

When I got to Montana and saw people floating down the river, I was shocked. I then started noticing how clean the streets were and how I didn't have to step through trash as I walked through town. The water was clear, the air was fresh, and the town was spotless. I never thought St. Paul's sanitation was bad. I thought it was pretty clean compared to New York or New Orleans, and it is, but it is still a gross major city. I now feel extremely lucky to be living in Missoula. No it is not perfect and it can be grungy in some areas, but if I can come here and feel a change in my skin and lungs, they must be doing something right.

I think that people in bigger cities need to be more aware of the messes they are creating. Cities are materialistic. That is where companies are advertising, producing, and selling their goods. Because of this, people from the outskirts of the cities and the people living within the metro areas are all buying and wasting in the same place. It is difficult to figure out how we can make this problem go away, because it is a matter of everyone participating. They advertised and forced the "go green" stuff on us back home too, but it just didn't have as great of an impact in some places. If we really want things to change, we need to enforce more laws and have more consequences, otherwise no one is going to listen.

Sustainability Research Paper

For my research paper I wanted to compare the newest "green" cars with larger "inefficient" vehicles. I have been reading a book  for my philosophy class called Justice, What is the Right Thing To Do? by Michael Sandel. In this book the author talks about putting a price on lives. One section is strictly about green cars vs non green cars. I want to research the amount of money corporations spend to make their cars more efficient and how many lives are lost in each type of vehicle. The main topic of sustainability is the sustainability of lives, what type of vehicle will save the maximum amount of people?

"It's Tater Tot Hot Dish, don'tcha know!"

Everyone has a special dish served at thanksgiving. One besides a turkey or a pie. A dish that represents their culture and family. It is the unifying dish of the evening. Back home in Minnesota we have a very creative dish. The tater tot hot dish! It is a very salty, meaty, and delicious dish. One great thing about this casserole is that it feeds a ton. It was actually created to be served potluck style after church services. This hot dish is especially perfect for my family because I come from a very large Catholic family. And it is a great fall or winter meal because it'll add some pounds and keep you very warm through all the 30 below winter nights. Its calorie count is high, and it is about 50% fat. According to calorie count in just one serving you will have eaten 517 calories. That is over 1/4 of your daily recommended amount of calories. It's not all bad though, in the Minnesota Recipe there is 57% vitamin A and 11% vitamin C. It is also a great source of protein.

For some reason Minnesotans are weird about sharing their recipes with anyone, but I'd say it is time the whole world knew about our ever so famous tater tot hot dish. I would definitely recommend tater tot hot dish to anyone. Yes this dish seems like an automatic drive to the gym, but when you're hunkering down on a snowy Minnesota night and you want some comfort food, this is the perfect dish for you.

A Little Piece of Me

I am from a pretty big city. Big traditions, a big population, and even big people. My hometown is a top ten candidate for one of the most obese cities in the United States. The main event to prove those statistics to be true, is the annual Minnesota State fair. You can get anything from large glasses of fresh milk to deep fried candy bars! This fair has been a huge part of growing up! Every year, my family and I, would wake up at 6:00am to start getting ready. We wore matching t-shirts and neon colored fanny packs. My small family of four were some of the most stylin' people there. We would take pictures in the photo booths, pet the cows, and ride up and down the space needle until it was time to go home. We would normally get home around midnight, exhausted from walking, with tons of dirt caked on our skin. Those were some of the best times of my life. 

Although the fair was the highlight of our summers, there was still a downside to it. Once we saw the rides being set up, our hearts would ache, this meant that school started in a week. Immediate images of desks and pencils and books were consuming our minds. The thought of- ugh how many books will I be forced into reading this year?- would haunt me until the first day of school. I hated reading while growing up. We were required to read 25 books a year and I was not an efficient reader. I also never had an interest in fantasy stories or goosebumps, like the rest of my peers. So for 17 years of my life I refused to read for pleasure. 

I have recently become interested in reading, ever since someone recommended Mitch Albom's books to me. The first novel I read of his was Tuesdays With Morrie. It is a sweet and sincere story that blew me away. Since then, I have read 4 more of his novels, and branched out to all different types of books. Now I finally read for fun and not just for class. The two books I would greatly recommend are Tuesdays With Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom. He is a fantastic writer that will leave you feeling endless amounts of compassion for everyone around you.