Selling Cookies to Hippies

It's no secret that some of the most interesting adventures I have occur while I'm selling Girl Scout cookies door to door.
One of said adventures occurred the other day when my friend Nina and I went to sell cookies in her neighborhood.
It started out normal enough: Nina and I wandering down the street singing the Doctor Who theme song and talking about how excited she was to sell cookies.*

*Nina isn't actually a Girl Scout, but since very few Scouts live in her neighborhood I convinced her to go around and bother people with me. She was actually really thrilld to sell them, which I personally find bizarre, but it was good too! :D (love you, Nina.)

The first few houses we went to had a more or less normal reaction
("No thanks", "I already have some", "Sure", "My granddaughter sells them"), but then we came to a small grey house.

Now, let me tell you that there is nothing about this house to suggest that it may be out of the ordinary, or that it may be inhabited by anyone other than the people who generally seem to live in this neighborhood:
Normal families or older folks.

Yeah.
No.

Nina and I walked up to the door, undoubtedly singing I Am The Doctor and laughing about all the random responses we had gotten so far.
We rang the doorbell, and out came...
A man with a beard, a yellow shirt, green pants, and red suspenders hanging from his sides.
I'm not kidding.

We were trying to be polite, so out came ther regular greeting from Girl Scouts:
"Hi! Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?!"

Now, just as a side note, most people either say "yes" or "no". They don't usually dilly-dally between yes and no, and they're usually very enthusiastic about either answer.
(Yes, we know you're saying "sorry, but I already bought some", but we all know what you really mean is "WOOT I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO GET RID OF THESE RANDOM STRANGE GIRLS RINGING MY DOORBELL AND BOTHERING ME FOR MONEY".)

This was the second sign that maybe this wasn't the normal sale.
Instead of a "yes" or "no". we got...

"Yeah, probably. Uh. Come on in."

Again as a side note, it isn't smart to go into a stranger's house. But he had grabbed my order sheet, and I felt duty bound to protect it.
So we went in.
And were immediately hit by the smell of either (or both) incense and marijuana.
It was a very strong smell.
Overpowering, you might say.

So while we stood there trying to breathe, the oddly dressed guy turned to the rest of the room and asked,
"Do we want to buy Girl Scout cookies?"
The four or so people sitting in a circle on couches eating scones had a mix of reactions that ranged from "Yes!" to "Absolutely!".
That is, they all answered in the affirmative.

Please note that he still was holding my order form.

So while Nina and I stood there trying to breathe and not really believing what was going on, he motioned us farther into the house, saying that there was a table to write on.
So we followed him.
Into the house.
Of hippies.
That may have been filled with pot.
It was interesting.

So we ended up in the kitchen of this house. The dining area was filled with another circle of brightly colored couches, and the table in the kitchen contained a guitar, at least three books with men with beards on the front, and a bunch of boxes of obscure looking tea.
There were also a bunch of brightly colored banners hanging from the stairs, and the entire house was painted yellow.

While we stood there, and the hippie looked at the order form, he asked what is probably the most baffling question I've gotten all cookie season this year,
"Do you have that new cookie? Like a fruity mango one?"
Uh.
What.
I don't understand.
Fruity... mango... cookie?
Because this doesn't actually exist (and never has), I told him that no, we didn't have a fruity mango cookie.
"That's okay. I didn't really want it anyway."
O-kay then. And you were just asing for... fun then?
Nina and I were by this time trying not to look at each other because it may have ended with both of us cracking up, or one or both of us bolting for the front door.

The hippie asked how much it was per box, and I told him that it was four dollars. He then looked at me and said he better buy twenyt dollars worth. Because he didn't seem to be able to do math at that moment, I told him that that would be five boxes.
"I better do two and three then!" he looked awestruck by his brilliance.
Yes.
Yes, three and two would make five, I suppose.

So he ordered his cookies, and got out the money to pay us. Just at the moment where Nina and i were like "WE MIGHT ESCAPE FROM HERE ALIVE", one of the hippies (a very short, barefoot woman) wandered into the kitchen.
She also seemed a lot brighter than the first hippie.
"So do you live around here?"

Author's note: I've already covered how much I hate that question. I hate answering it. It's creepy and stalkerish, and what if I DON'T live around there? What? Are you not going to order cookies? Well, will ya?
This time the question was even creepier because we were standing in a buttercup yellow kitchen surrounded by tea and hippie books and.. well... hippies.

Thankfully Nina doesn't mind telling a few white lies, so she answered that yes, we did live around there and yes we were part of the same troop, and I added that we were both seniors and that yes we were still Scouting and it really was quite wonderful and that I hoped they had a good day.

Another Author's note: It was disturbing too because the second hippie actually reminded me a lot of my teen group leader who I do love very much, but who also sort of frightens me. So the entire time I was standing there going "No, it isn't your teen group leader." Which made the stalkerish question even more scary.

This is when the hippies let us leave their house.
And yes, as soon as we were outside, Nina looked at each other and I started laughing and she gave me a look and said
"That was seriously pretty scary in there. I would not have gone in there alone."
And then we walked away as fast as we could, laughing the entire time, partially because it was so surreal and partially because we had just survived a close encounter with hippies.



So yeah. That was the most interesting thing to happen to me this time.
Also, I think I'll kidnap Nina and make her go to a site sale with me.
:D

Girl Scout Cookies: What They Mean to You

It's that time of the year again, where we put on two sweaters, a coat, gloves, scarves, two hats, socks, boots, and venture out into the realm of grumpy non-sugar eating grandparents-with-Girl-Scout-granddaughters strangers to sell them cookies.

Now, let's face it. Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies. There's always a type that you're going to love, even if you're a weirdo and don't like Thin Mints.
...You think I'm joking, but a few of my closest friends can't stand 'em.
Weirdos.

We also all know the mission behind the Campain of Ruthlessly Harassing People to Buy Cookies. That is, we're trying to fundraise to go do a special trip, to go somewhere, or just to fund our troop for another year so we can go ask people to buy stuff from us next year.
It's a vicious cycle.


But what the actual person doesn't know is what Girl Scout cookies mean to them. Yes, we all know that you're "supporting your local Girl Scout troop!" when you buy a box of Savannah Smiles, but do you really know where your money is going?

Let me break it down for you.
The majority of the money goes to the Girl Scouts to take care of our camps, to pay the bakers, and to otherwise run the organization.
The meager .80 cents we get?
It goes to fund our vacation.

HECK YES.

So while you're enjoying your delicious boxes of Tagalongs at your kitchen, you're also allowing my troop to go out and enjoy our Tagalongs (yes we buy them from ourselves, silly) while sitting on a beach in Georgia.

Wait, what?

Oh, yes. Did "fund our trips" sound more noble than "throw money at me so I can go on a vacation this year"?
Why do you think we're not as brutally honest as we could be?

I'll tell you why.
Because
"Would you please buy some Girl Scout cookies" translates to "BUY THE FREAKING COOKIES MY FEET ARE GOING TO FALL OFF FROM THE COLD."
"Thank you for supporting my troop" translates to "WOOT. I'M ALMOST A DOLLAR CLOSER TO MY $850 GOAL TO GO TO GEORGIA!!!!!"
"Thank you anyway" translates to "You miserable jerk."
"Good morning!" translates to "I'm about to harass you to buy some stuff at me"
and
"I'm selling cookies!" translates to "Throw money at my face! Fund my vacation, lowly minions and strangers! I'll bribe you with cookies!"

But seriously, that's what's going on here.
We're using the art of manipulation to force strangers to pay for our vacations.

But hey.
It works.
:D

Silver Award- Finished!

Here it is, folks!
The update on my Silver Award... *faints*
Yes, it's done.
One day before the deadline. ;)

I earned the Girl Scouts Silver Leadership Award by:
Earning the Understanding Yourself and Others badge,
the Heritage Hunt badge,
the Eco Action badge,
by earning the "Uniquely Me! The Real Deal" Studio 2B thing,
and by helping to teach Religious Education for (at least) 15 hours.

I also earned the Silver Career Award by:
Finding out about Forensic Science (it's a job I knew nothing about, one very few woman did, AND it required a special degree. Three in one!),
talking to Laura from Starved Rock Hot Glass,
asking my Cousin in college about what classes she's taking and what she wants to be when she gets done,
talking to several self-employed people about what they liked about their jobs, and how they spend their regular days,
and earning the Your Own Business badge.

And I earned the 4Bs by planning and helping with the Nature Center. That was our big project, and it turned out really cool. (Sorry I don't have a link or a picture or anything. It really looked good.)

And... Ta da. I'm done. Thank heavens...

Eco Action Badge... Finished!

Last one!

Skill Builders:
#1: Try to make your family "greener". (Did.... With marginal success. :P)
#4: trace the contributions of someone who was very concerned with environmental quality. (See Career Exploration 4)

Technology:
#1: Demonstrate to others how an alternative source of energy is tapped. (Did, did not post.)
#2: Find out about testing air, water, and soil quality. (did... I even got a really huge, fat book from the library! ;) )
#5: Find out about how one recyclable resource is recycled, and what is made out of it. (See link)

Service Projects:
#1: Display energy-saving posters in a public place, and have people sign energy saving pledges. (The posters are up at my library, and I had everyone in my lit group sign pledges. :) )

Career exploration:
#4: Write reports on three environmentalists. (see here, here, and here.)

Your Own Business` Finished!

Here's the third one. :)

Skill Builders:
#1: Analyze advertisements. (Did this at meeting.)
#4: Interview a woman who runs her own business. (I think this was also covered at the meeting.)
#5: Make a hobby into a business. (EDBD Beads, anyone? :) )

Technology:
#1: Interview three self-employed people to find out about the technological advances which have helped them with their business. (I did this, but it isn't on my blog.)
#3: draw a 2D advertisement. (I made business cards for EDBD Beads. )

Service Projects:
#2: Create a project to help parents educate their children to be knowledgeable consumers. (see link)
Career Exploration:
#2: consult a professional about how to prepare for a job interview. (Did at meeting.)
#5: explore the careers of three women who started their own businesses and became multimillionaires. (See here, here, and here.)

Understanding Yourself And Others Badge... Finished!

Second of two finished. ;) and I just realized that I actually did one extra requirement. Headdesk! No wonder this one took me so long!

Skill Builders:

#1: Watch people and observe how they use body language. (See link)
#3: Break social norms. (See link! And then try! xD )
#5: Role-Play the situations they outline in the Interest Project book. I did this at one of the camp outs. :) (BRUCE FTW!!!!!!)

Technology:

#1: Present something that shows awareness about particular issues that affect teens. (Did this at a meeting.)

Service Projects:

#2: Put on a play about peer pressure. (did at the meeting.)
#3: Put together a booklet/pamphlet to help adults understand teens. (Finished today... link to come, possibly. :) )
#4: Observe how you feel when you wear different types of clothing. (I went goth for an entire day. Let's just say... I've completed this. :) )

Career Exploration:

#3: Make a list and observe your roles, and the roles of an adult woman. (See link.)

Pamphlet Help

So, for my Girl Scout "Understanding Yourself and Others", I need to make a pamphlet to help adults understand teenagers.
...Problem is, I don't have much to put in said pamphlet.
See, I have one narrative/article by my friend Ellen, one poem by Jessica... A comic I clipped out of the paper, one quote, and something I wrote.
This, my friends, is not enough for a pamphlet.
not in my opinion.

So, I'm sort of putting up and entry thing. Contest. We'll call it a contest. Why? Because contests are fun. ;)

Rules:

• You can only submit things that can be seen. That is to say, no videos, no music... You can submit a photo/picture, article, story, allegory, poem, cartoon, quote, joke, essay... Whatever. As long as it represents what it's like to be a teenager, or as long as it helps adults understand everyone between the ages of 12 and 20... It's good.
• WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS MUST BE UNDER 1000 WORDS. If they are longer, they will not fit and I will not put them in.
• No inappropriate content.
• no plagiarism... If you get a quote or a cartoon from somewhere, site your source.
• Please spell check, and add proper grammar. I have a lot of work to do, and while I WILL read your submission once or twice to make sure that it's more or less correct, I am not known for my grammar, and I might miss something.
• All submissions have to be in by Sunday at midnight. All late submissions will not be taken into consideration.
• No whining.

I think those are all the rules... The person who puts in the most meaningful/funny/interesting/informative submission, I will post here. On my blog. ;) But all of them will be put in the pamphlet, which I'm also planning to put a link up for. I think. :D

Thank you!
~Angela

Edit/ You can send it to me at my SPAM email... (Why? Because all of you guys are creepers. Why? Because you're on the internet and therefore your goal in life is to stalk me. Duh. Gotta love internet stereotypes)... Which is hippo_girl.SPAM@yahoo.com
;) Don't you feel loved?

Breaking Norms- A Girl Scout Post (and also a fun activity)

For the Understanding Yourself and Others IP, I had to "break social norms". They gave a list of norms which I could break, but I didn't think many of them were very... eh...... let's just say that I know people who break all of those norms several times a day. (Things like, riding an elevator backwards. Standing very close to a friend while talking to them. Etc.) So... I broke social norms my own way.

Today, I went on a walk with Veela, and my brother Kenneth. It's a 3 mile walk, down the road across our street, and back. We hiked down the road (1.5 miles), then turned left, and got into a forest preserve.
In the forest preserve is a park, and I had told Ken that we would go there, if he could make it the entire walk. So we went in, prepared to break the norms.
In the park, there is this very large boulder. It goes up to at least my shoulder, and it's meant for climbing. (I'm not kidding. It's the "climbing boulder".) So, Veela and I climbed up onto the rock. After pondering what to do for several minutes (and texting my friend to see what they thought), we decided to sing VERY LOUDLY, several girl scout songs.
On top of the boulder.
In front of a ton of people.
So, we stood up, and started singing. We sung "The Princess Pat", "Tarzan", and "My Auntie Monica".
So, now I have to answer some questions.

How difficult was it for you to do the activity?
Not that difficult. I mean, there was a certain leap of mentality that I had to go through... From being "People are going to stare. O.O" to... "People are going to stare! AWESOME!"

How did the other people react?
To tell the truth? Most of them didn't even notice. The ones that did (namely, several small children and two mothers), either stared at us in bewilderment, or laughed at us and cheered us on, respectively.


And that, my friends, was my adventure with breaking social norms.
...
...
I think I'll go back there on Tuesday and repeat the experiment.

What Happens to Plastic Milk Jugs

So, you and your family are sitting around the table. In the center is a box of cereal, and a jug of milk. When you and your family use up the milk in the jug, of course you take the plastic container and throw in the recycling bin.

Thus begins the milk jug's journey.

First, waste management and takes your recycling. The milk jug is then taken to a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility, pronounced "murf") , where it is scrushed into a bale with the others of it's type. Each bale can weigh up to 1,200 lbs.

From there, the jug is taken to a reclaimer. There, the bales are broken open, and the plastics are crushed, cleaned, and made into flakes. When all the plastics are made into flakes, they drop them into a flotation tank. Because some plastics are heavier than others, some float and some sink. Milk jugs, which are made of HDPE, float to the top. They are skimmed off, and melted down into spaghetti thin strands. The strands are then chopped into pellets, and shipped off to companies to be used as raw materials.

Milk jugs are not "recycled" per say. In that, I mean that they are not made into new jugs. Once they have been used for milk once, they are not suited to other food materials. Instead, they are made into certain types of shampoo/conditioner/soap bottles, bottles to hold cleaning products, building materials such as boards, pipes, fencing, and gutters. The jugs can be made into picnic tables, and there's even a bridge made of 68,000 milk jugs mixed with fiberglass, that is strong enough to hold a car. It is located in NY.

Resources:
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Milk Jugs
What Is The Process Of Recycling Milk Jugs?
Where Does Your Recycled Bottle Go?

Mary Kay Ash- A Girl Scout Post

Mary Kay Ash's successful cosmetic business actually started far before she even had an idea for a business. It started when she was a six year old girl, taking care of her ailing grandfather while her mother worked 14 hours a day to support them. For most of her life, if Mary Kay had a problem, she'd ask her mom for advice. Her mom would advise her, then tell her "You can do it.". That spirit was part of the way Mary Kay decided she could start the business she did.

When Mary Kay was studying to become a doctor, she was also selling products on the side. She soon decided she was far better at selling than she was at being a doctor, and switched to selling products full time.
Eventually, she found her way into sales training, but after working there for 25 years, and being passed over for promotion many, many times, she got fed up and quit.

After she quit, Mary Kay started writing a book on business. She soon realized, however, that what she had actually written was a plan for a business. Mary Kay enlisted the help of her 20 year old son, and with the $5,000 she had saved up, started Mary Kay Cosmetics. Within the first year of the business, they earned something around $200,000, but that was not the goal. Mary Kay's goal was to make a place where women could be equal to men, where they could achieve their dreams. She wanted to make a company "with heart".

Mary Kay retired in 1987.


Resources:
Mary Kay Ash Biography
Remembering Mary Kay

Martha Stewart- A Girl Scout Post

Martha Stewart started her infamous career in the late 70's, when she and a business partner started a catering business. Stewart became known for her business, due to her creative approach and gourmet foods. A few years after her business took off, Stewart wrote a book, Entertaining, which made the best seller list. She soon published several more books, and started her first magazine, Martha Stewart Living.

It all ended in tears, however, for a little while. Stewart was charged with insider trading, after returning to Wallstreet. She was charged guilty, and went to prison for several months. She finished her sentence in house arrest.

Soon after her sentence ended, Stewart was back, and accepted two offers to do daytime shows. Although one of the shows ultimately ended as a major fail, the other one has been on since 2005, and shows no sign of stopping.

Resources:
Martha Stewart Biography
Martha Stewart.Com: Martha Stewart

Doris Christopher- A Girl Scout Post

Doris Christopher is the founder and chairman of the Pampered Chef business, which sells quality cooking tools. Christopher's urge to form the Pampered Chef started when she observed that more time was spent cooking the meal, than spent around the table with family, enjoying the food. Thanks in part to her experience as an economics teacher, and also as a stay-at-home mom, she had an idea about how what sort of changed would be good to make to the traditional cooking tools.

In 1980, with a $3,000 loan from an insurance company, Christopher started the Pampered Chef from the basement of her Chicago-located home. To make the products more appealing, and easier for potential customers to use, she decided that the easiest way to sell them would to demonstrate them in the homes, instead of just having a store. Thus, Pampered Chef parties were formed.

More than 20 years later, and Pampered Chef has turned into a huge business, worth several million dollars. Christopher still oversees the design of the products, and is active in her business.

Resources:
Grace Matters: Doris Christopher
The Pampered Chef: Our Founder

John Muir- Girl Scout Post

In Scotland, April 21, 1838, a boy was born to Daniel Muir and Ann Gilrye. His name was John, and he would become the father of forest preserves.

Muir's father was a very religious man, and by the age of 11, Muir had most of the Old Testament memorized, and all of the New Testament. It was also when he was 11 that he and his family moved to America, to a place near Portage, Wisconsin. Muir's father worked Muir and his family all day, but whenever Muir had time, he'd go and explore the forests around his house.

Muir attended the University of Wisconsin, but left after 3 years to travel. He started working at a carriage shop in Indiana, but after an accident left him temporarily blind in one eye, he left to travel from Indiana to Florida, sketching wildlife as he went. From Florida, he took a boat and traveled to Cuba, Panama, and finally California, where he discovered the Sierra Nevada... His "Range of Light". He worked in, and near, Yosemite Valley for several years... That was when he first developed his theory that the valley had been formed by glaciers.

He wrote, about this time, his first book, Studies in the Sierra, that started his career as a writer. He married about this time, and moved to a different city in California, where he lived with his family. Muir had wanderlust, however, and often traveled to places such as Alaska, Japan, China, and Europe, where he studied wildlife. He and several of his environmental followers formed the Sierra Club, which he was president of.

Muir wrote several articles for a magazine, and one of them was extremely influential in the making of the Yosemite National Park. A year later or so, he wrote another book about National Parks, that caught the attention of president Theodore Roosevelt.

Muir and the Sierra club managed to found several National Parks, but failed to stop the building of a dam in California. Muir died in Los Angeles in 1914.


Resources:
PBS: John Muir
Americans Who Tell The Truth: John Muir
Wisconsin Historical Society: John Muir

Aldo Leopold Report

Aldo Leopold was born in 1887, in Iowa. While he grew up, he spent most of his time outdoors, exploring the wilderness. He was sent East, to New Jersey, for his high school, and although he did eventually graduate, he was often so busy with being outside that he didn't always do his homework, and in fact flunked some of his subjects.

When Leopold graduated high school, he went to Yale, and graduated with a degree in forestry. He joined the Forest Service and went to the Arizona Territories. It was there that he originally started observing the connections between people and the land, and started to develop his ideas of a "community" between the wilderness and humans. When he transferred to a laboratory in Wisconsin, he convinced the Forest Service to protect 500,000 acres of a forest in New Mexico, as wilderness.

A few years later, Leopold accepted an offer from the University of Wisconsin to teach a program in game management. Two years later, he helped form The Wilderness Society, The same year, he and his wife, and their children, bought 80 acres of abandoned/ruined farm land to try to restore. An abandoned chicken coop on the property, fondly named "The Shack", became the Leopold's research center, and the family spent almost all of their weekends on the land, planting hundreds of trees in an effort to restore the health to the land.

It was around that time when Aldo Leopold started writing his Sand County Almanac, a collection of nature writings which he is most famous for. The book was originally rejected, but after being edited, was accepted. Unfortunately, Leopold never got to see it in print. He died a week after it was accepted from a heart attack while he was fighting a forest fire. It was printed a year after he died, and is still in print today. Leopold wrote about 500 published articles, pamphlets, essays, and works, and there are still more of his journals that are unpublished.


Resources:
Aldo Leopold Nature Center
Aldo Leopold- The Wilderness Society
The Encyclopedia of Earth- A Sand County Almanac

My Roles/My Mother's Roles (Girl Scout Post Yet Again)

For the IP "Understanding Yourself and Others", I had to think of all my roles (or as many as I could think of), and then find those of a woman I know. (I chose my mom. Surprise surprise.)
So, this was kind of fun, and I'd encourage any readers I might possibly have (I have 29 followers... Eh... I don't know how many people read my blog though. :-\ ) To try this.. at least with their roles. It's very fun, and rather interesting. So, here are my roles:

• Daughter
• Sister
• Niece
• Granddaughter
• Great Granddaughter
• Girl Scout (woot! GS FOREVERRRRRRR!!!)
• Student
• Teacher
• Babysitter
• Piano Player
• Author
• Altar Server
• Dog Walker
• Blogger
• Crafter

Alright. Now here are my mom's, that I've observed..

• Wife
• Mother
• Daughter
• Sister
• Sister-in-law
• Granddaughter
• Cook
• Chauffeur
• Teacher
• Pet Owner
• Girl Scout Leader
• Lawyer (once a lawyer, always a lawyer)
• Blogger
• Crafter
• Baby-watcher (Yes, this is different than "babysitter")
  

People Watching Observations (Also a Girl Scout Post)

So, you're probably getting a little sick of my Girl Scout posts. Sorry about that. I'm getting a tad sick of them too... But I do have to get my Silver Award done by May 1st, so I really do have to do these...
on the bright side, this one was fun. I had to watch people (uh huh... and no, not stalking. Watching.), and then observe five things about them.
I went overboard and observed ten.
So, these are my (admittedly not so funny) ten observations about people. :)

1. When people are lonely/out of their comfort zone, they tend to cross their arms/legs and look around wistfully.
2. People tend to gather to whatever screen is on, and often laugh riotously no matter what's actually on the screen.
3. When people are relaxed, they often tend to rock back and forth without seeming to notice.
4. People get louder the more excited they get.
5. You can generally tell when someone's making an inexplicable mental leap of logic because they get a very far off, brainless (almost zombie-like) expression on their face.
6. If you get a group of people with similar interests together, conversations always center on the things that are mutually loved or hated.
7. In a group of teenagers, if there's a pillow/stuffed animal, it will be thrown around as a ball in catch, with virtually no exceptions.
8. When people get bored, they develop a very tight, pained expression.
9. People act differently depending on who they're with.
10. If someone thinks that the group they're in lacks a personality or stereotype, they will often start acting that way, simply to fill the imagined gap.

There you go. Ten observations on people.

Sources:
Myself
My memories
YEAGOS
lit group

Rachel Carson (Girl Scout Week Post)

Rachel Carson was born May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Even though her protective mother kept her home from school quite often, she also installed a love of nature in Rachel, and the outdoors helped Carson's education anyway. In fact when she was only 10 years old, her story A Battle In the Clouds was published in the St. Nicholas Magazine, a children's magazine where William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, e.e. cummings, Edna St. Millay, and E.B. White were first published.¹

Eventually, Carson got into Pennsylvania College For Women (Now Chatham College). Midway through her studies she took a biology class for science, and met Mary Scott Skinker, the biology professor. Although Carson originally majored in English, she switched majors to biology after being inspired by Skinker.

After college, Carson won a scholarship to Woods Hole, MA, where she saw the ocean for the first time. The sea would become one of Carson's most frequent topics for books.

She studied at the John Hopkins University, and got her degree in zoology. She then went back to Woods Hole to study at the Bureau of Fisheries (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). She wrote seven minute radio scripts for the Bureau, before being hired for a permanent job of a junior aquatic biologist. While she was working as a biologist, she edited many pamphlets, and published her first book, Under the Sea Wind. The books were well received, but due to the effects of Pearl Harbor, it didn't sell well.

Carson's government work increased, and it was several years before she had a chance to publish another book. During her “real” work, however, she had many opportunities to travel and research marine life.

She began writing her second book in 1948, and in 1951, The Sea Around Us was published. It was very well received, stayed at fifth place on the Best Selling list for eighty-six weeks, and won several prestigious awards. Carson received enough money from the sales of this book that she was able to resign from her government job, and devote all of her time to creative writing. Several years later she published her third book, The Edge of the Sea.

A while after her third book was published, Carson had a plea for help from Olga Owens Huckins. Huckins had a bird sanctuary, but after DDT was sprayed over the area, the birds had all died. She requested assistance from Carson, who had been concerned about pesticides for many years. She immediately set out to write another book to raise awareness on the negative impact of pesticides, and soon after, Silent Spring, a scathing review of pesticides, the government's use of them, and Carson's last book, was published.

Silent Spring caused quite an uproar. Carson was personally attacked as being hysterical, as over sensationalizing the issue, and as an alarmist. Not everyone, however, thought that she was exaggerating the issue. President John F. Kennedy read the book, and it influenced him to call for the testing of chemicals, and to the banning of DDT.

Rachel Carson died in 1964 at age 56 after a long battle with breast cancer.

1Learning To Give (www.learningtogive.org), Carson, Rachel (www.learningtogive.org/papers/paper81)

Resources:
Carson, Rachel
Rachel Carson Biography
The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson
Fish and Wildlife Service: Rachel Carson

Girl Scout Week post #3: Money Management For Kids Using Birthday Parties

Money management is an important skill, especially in this day and age. Today, when so many basic things are so expensive, it’s a good thing to know how to stretch a dollar. For kids especially, I think this is an important thing to know. How many times does your child beg you to buy them a toy and refuse to let you get them the (almost) exact copy for several dollars less? I know that was a somewhat regular occurrence in my family.

If you teach your kid how to mange money well early on, it will benefit them in the long run. Ever heard the phrase “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks”? Same idea. If your child grows up without having to think about spending money wisely, it will be that much more difficult for them to learn when they’re older.

One of the most effective (And fun!) ways to start teaching your child about managing money is to let them plan their own birthday party. When I was turning ten, my mother gave me a budget of $100, and told me that I had to plan my party using only that much money. She would help counsel me, but in the long run, everything was up to me.

I was thrilled. $100?! You could buy a palace with that… or so I thought.

My mom helped me budget out how much each thing should get (goody bags get $30, the cake gets $10… etc.), and then took me to the store. It didn’t take me long before I realized that $100 wasn’t as much as it sounded like. Things were way more expensive than I thought, and in order to keep the cost within the budget, I was forced to think very carefully about where each dollar went.

After the party, I not only got to keep the $60 dollars left over, but I also got positive comments from all of my friends about my party. Turns out that $40 could make a pretty good party.

In order for this plan to work for you and your child, there are a few things you have to do before hand. You have to decide a reasonable amount of money, you have to get a different mindset, and you have to make sure your child knows that the amount of money you let them use is not going to change.

First of all, you have to decide the proper amount of money. To do this, you have to make sure that you give them enough to have a good party. This knocks out any $10 parties. On the other hand, you have to make sure you don’t give them too much money, or you’ll find yourself paying for a far more expensive birthday party than you thought you would be. At least when I was 10, $100 was a good amount. One of the ways you can make this amount of money last longer is to take your child to the dollar store, because, really, if your guests are small/smallish children, they aren’t going to care that their treats came from Dollar General. Another way is to check the sale isles of Target, Walmart, Walgreens, or even craft stores.

Secondly, you have to get a different mindset. Instead of wanting to control your child’s decisions, or trying to keep them from spending too much money on one thing… let them. After all, if Mommy or Daddy are just going to say, “No, that’s too much”, then they really don’t have to really think about how much they should be spending.

You should also make sure that they know, early on, that the amount of money you give them is not going to change. This will ensure that you will not get any requests for giving them more money, halfway into planning the party.

Money management is an important skill for your child to learn, and it really can’t be learned too early. The “birthday party approach” is one of the things that I have personally observed to be effective. It can be fun for both you and your child, as you find out how much you really don’t need to spend, in order for a birthday party to be a success.

Girl Scout Week post #1: Traditions, traditions, traditions.

It was my sixth birthday, and a tragedy had happened.
My birthday party wouldn't be on my birthday.
I woke up on March 28th, feeling heartbroken. How could I possibly wait three more days for a party? How could I survive for so long without celebrating?
I wandered out of bed, feeling the unfairness of the world. The tragedy. The unfairness of my mom. Life would never hold joy anymore.
That is, I felt the unfairness of the world until I walked into the kitchen and saw my chair.
Oh, my chair! I had never seen it in such regal decorations! I had never seen it celebrated in such glory! Hanging from it were streamers, in such colors I didn't remember ever seeing. Balloons were stuck to the chair, seemingly with magic. Oh, chair, oh chair! How beautiful it was! I was speechless. My faith in humanity was restored! The birthday party left my mind. It was just my chair. My beautiful chair.

...Okay. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic. But that's how I remembered it. The amazing streamers. I had never seen streamers stuck anywhere but on my bike, and that was only during parades.

It is now exactly one week until my 14th birthday. A lot has changed since I was six... For example, I can now reach the scissors. But some things haven't changed.
For example:
The chair.
We still celebrate the chair. The morning of the birthday person's birthday, the rest of the family wakes up at the crack of dawn, and decorates the chair with streamers and balloons. Then they go back to sleep, waking up only to see the birthday person's face when they see their chair.

For the IP, "Heritage Hunt", one of the requirements is for me to help with a tradition. Now, there aren't many traditions in my family that I can help out with... most of them are near Christmas, and since my bridging is in May... that's sort of out of the question.

So, last month, in February, I woke up at the crack of dawn, got my sister Veela out of bed, and we decorated my sister Christina's chair for her 9th birthday. That was my participation in a tradition.

One requirement done. :)

Say What?

Now, as a Girl-Scout-Site-Sale-Er, I have learned to expect a lot of weirdness. (Actually, as a I-Shop-At-Costco-And-Target-Person, I have learned to expect a lot of weirdness... but we won't even go there.) Kids coming over and knocking over the cookie boxes. Customers walking away with their cookies without paying, people bragging about their granddaughters and daughters and sisters and nieces and students and neighbors and distant relations.
However, it does happen occasionally, that some person, truly determined to be weird, succeeds in exceeding my expectations of weirdness.
Mostly, this weirdness comes from their replies to my friends' and my friendly "Hello"s.
Here, I have a list of some of the weirdest replies that my friend Cat, her mom, my mom, my sisters Veela and Christina, and I have received today. (Yes. All of these happened today. Yes. We really could find that many weird replies. Be amazed.)

1. "I'm sorry, I already have too many Girl Scout Cookies." I'm sorry. What? What is this mythical situation that you speak of? Too... Many... Girl... Scout... Cookies. I do not comprehend. That's like having too much French Toast. Simply... inexplicably weird. How can you have too many Girl Scout cookies? This makes no sense. Moving on...
2. "Sorry. I've already bought some. I have a lot. ... I have 33 grandchildren... two are Girl Scouts... *hugs Cat*... you know how it is." Okay. SO MUCH is weird about this reply. First of all... If you don't want cookies... SAY SO AND THEN GO AWAY. I think I've already covered this here, in reason five. Secondly... If you absolutely MUST tell us why you can't buy cookies from our poor starving group... then just say "Sorry. Already bought some from my grandchildren," and then leave. Poof. End of situation. We don't need to hear about your grandchildren. We don't know them, and we don't know you, and we don't care. Thirdly... ... ... YOU DON'T GO UP TO A GIRL SCOUT ON A SITE SALE AND HUG HER! I could write an entirely different post on why this is unacceptable and weird. But for here, I will simply say... That's stalkerish, that's weird, that's... we aren't standing around with a sign that says "FREE HUGS", for pete's sake!
3. "I'm going over here." ....uuuuuuuhhhh... ...... ... maybe if we rewind this scene, it'll make a little more sense. We say, "Hello! *smiles*" You say, "*glares* I'm going over here." .... huh. Does that reply have anything to do with the salutation? ...Does that reply even have anything to do with ANYTHING?!
4. "Nrwaaaahhhh!" .... .... .... .... I almost have nothing to say to this, except... "Are you kidding?" and "Are you a dinosaur?"