I voted!

Quick note to say: I voted yesterday! Printed off my absentee ballot and it is headed to the U.S. Consulate/ Embassy in Marseille tomorrow - wheeeeee!

I'm registered to vote in Colorado (uhh, should I be saying this on the internet? oh well, whatever, it's public record anyway) because it's more of a swing state than New York (hello blue!), so my ballot should be in Denver by next week.

EVERYONE MUST VOTE! I AM IN ANOTHER COUNTRY AND I DID IT, YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.
(unless you're like my Uncle T: "I don't vote and I don't complain." well, that's one way of looking at it)

Happy election season :)
xxo, S

JFZ

Do you know what a JFZ is?
Chances are, you don't. Why? It's kind of a made thing, an acronym for judgement free zone. And up until about a year ago, only a few people used the phrase JFZ. Because about a year ago, I went to college and plastered it on my door and introduced it to my friends and now we use it all the time.

see JFZ right in the middle there? see how important it is!

You could call it an inside joke, but it's more of a growing trend that encourages an optimistic outlook. Sure, maybe just a few people know what it is, but we're all optimists and like sharing our little phrase. So you can imagine my surprise when I was walking down the street and saw THIS:

It was in the window of Planet Fitness, no less! Now EVERYONE knows about JFZ!!!
Well, they don't know it's called a JFZ. That's just us :)

xxo, S

I'm on OperationBeautiful.com

So sometime last month I found one of those Post-Its in one of the bathrooms in Sturm Hall. It was for Operation Beautiful, which if you don't know what it is, is pretty great. Women write happy, inspiring, un-fat talk messages and post them in public places for other women to see and feel good about themselves. I sent it into the website, and it got posted today!

http://operationbeautiful.com/friday-notes-february-11-2011/
(you have to scroll down a bit)

If I could write a Post-It, mine would say "SMILE! happy looks good on you"


xxo, S

Humanitarian remark of the day

This is my new shirt and I will love it forever and ever.

After weeks of searching, I finally found the guy who sells these shirts in the West Village at the Ye Olde Village Fair. Saturday, on a classic May day, hundreds of people filled the streets of "THE BEST street fair in the city, with bands all day and tables and chairs set up so you can hear the band and eat or have coffee, wine or beer."

here are some other slogans I will put on a t-shirt someday

note: I did not make these up

other note: if you thought I made these up, I appreciate your acknowledgement of my creativity, but maybe you should get out more and read some hippie newsletters.

MAKE LOVE

NOT WAR

SAVE WATER

SHOWER TOGETHER

DROP ACID

NOT BOMBS

Maybe my future t-shirt making business will put me through college.

xxo, S

The right to sleep

For at least two years now, I have been actively arguing that teenagers are among the most sleep-deprived people on earth. This month in National Geographic, an article by D. T. Max backs up my suspicions.

"The natural sleep rhythms of teenagers would call for a late morning wake-up—but there they are, starting high school at 8 a.m... Yet he or she has no choice."

Read for yourself at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/05/sleep/max-text

Sweet dreams,
xxo, S

Day of Silence

April 16th (that's today!) is the DAY OF SILENCE. The Gay-Straight Alliance at my school will be participating, and encouraging others to participate, in "taking a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment" in schools.

Simple actions like removing "that's so gay" from your repertoire show support for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community. Diversity is one of the most beautiful parts of humanity and we should embrace equality and all differences in all people.

  Visit http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm for more information.

Think about the voices you aren't hearing today.

xxo, S