For people around the world, summertime is synonymous with sunburns. And although you probably don’t run to the doctor every time your skin turns red, sunburns are a serious matter that can’t be ignored. Despite common knowledge that sunburns can lead to skin cancer, the Centers for Disease Control reported that over one-third of adults and 70% of children got sunburned last year.

Even people who don’t like trying home remedies or prefer all-natural treatments are familiar with aloe vera. Almost all over-the-counter sunburn treatments that you find in your pharmacy have an aloe vera base, and it doesn’t take a botany degree to figure out how to cut open an actual aloe plant either. You can sometimes moisturize burns better with a an aloe cream than an aloe gel. But believe it or not, aloe isn’t the only sunburn treatment that is made by nature.

If you have a carton of milk in the refrigerator, pull it out when you come home with a sunburn. Try soaking a cloth in a bowl of water with milk, water, and ice cubes. Then hold the cloth on the burned area for several minutes, repeating the process several times a day. Milk contains fat, protein, and a pH that can soothe inflamed skin and reduce swelling. Similarly, the yogurt in your refrigerator may also be able to offer you some sunburn relief. Try smearing yogurt on the affected area to cool your skin, balance the pH, and promote healing. Full-fat, plain, unsweetened yogurt works best since it doesn’t contain as many artificial additives. If you’re feeling especially crafty, you can also mix a paste of equal proportions yogurt, barley, and turmeric to speed up the healing process.

As if tea wasn’t already good enough for you, a pot of strong tea can also help soothe your sunburn. After you’ve made you pot of tea, use a cloth to soak it up and apply to the burnt area. Some people find that the tannins in tea help to draw out the burn and speed along healing. If you have some extra tea bags to spare or have all-over burns, you can intensify the process by soaking in a bathtub full of tea!

You can also find oil-based topical sprays and creams that have shown to give temporary relief of vesicular eruptions like blisters and inflammation. The ancient remedy of making potato peel bandages, as well as lavender essential oil, are also good burn options to try. So while aloe vera is great for burns, it isn’t the only way to find relief. In fact, you can boost your aloe’s soothing power by combining it with a little vitamin E oil and cucumbers that have been liquefied in a blender. Although you should avoid getting burned in the first place, stock up on some easy home remedies in case you leave your common sense at home when you head to the beach.

Dear 20-year-old Alyssa,

That stuff that you’re studying in school right now…you know that law stuff? You won’t need any of that in ten years. But keep at it for now, okay? It’ll keep your brain from turning to mush and help boost your savings account when you move on to other things.

You know that dude that you’re seeing? My mistake…any of the douchebags that you’re “casually hanging out with.” It’s all temporary, so don’t get worked up over that crap. In ten years, you’ll be in the best relationship of your life and it’ll make sense without having to try so hard. Sorry to say, there’s a lot of shit to go through between now and then.

Put more effort into your friendships, because believe it or not, you’ll still be hanging out with some of these fools in ten years. Everyone will move, change, pop out babies, or start to suck. Don’t dwell on it. There’s a ton of cool people coming your way, and most of the ones that really matter right now will still keep in touch in 2013.

If you thought things were rough with your parents before, you haven’t seen anything yet! But hang in there, you’re an only child so don’t be a total jerk. Believe it or not, mom and dad will actually respect you and accept you for who you are in ten years. But they’ll never stop sending you three letters a week with tampon coupons and newspaper comic strip cutouts.

Keep writing. Even when it feels lame and everything you put down sucks. You’re a creative person, so stop letting people put you in a boring, corporate box. Trust me, it’ll come in handy down the road.

Keep drinking. Your twenties will be full of booze-fueled misadventures and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on any of them. Step up to the plate and make sure you hang like a real woman. Your headaches will become excruciating in a few years, so enjoy the late nights while you can.

Get outside. When you’re feeling depressed and can’t find your purpose to anything, open the door and step on some grass. You’re not a religious person, and you’re barely spiritual. Let nature fill the void you keep feeling alive.

Think of change as an adventure. You’re going through a lot of right now, so soak it up and chock it up to accumulated experience. There will be plenty of years ahead to make feel stagnant and stuck in a rut. Change is cyclical, so take deep breath, take a step back, and take control of the ride.

Stop comparing yourself to everyone else. A lot of people you know will be more successful than you by traditional standards. They’ll move to cool places and make more money than they know what to do with. You’re on a different path. You still won’t know exactly where it’s going in ten years, but the universe thinks you’re going the right way.

Screw everyone’s judgment and travel more. I know that waitress job isn’t getting you rich, but start doing some research because you actually can afford to travel now. You can play it safe when you’re old and feeling content watching Matlock in an easy chair. Your travel won’t be glamorous and it’ll take a lot of work to figure out how to do it, but you’ll feel a lot more satisfied about what you accomplished by the time your thirty.

Yours truly,
30-year-old Alyssa

P.S. – Happy birthday, you lush.

Have you ever gone running next to a superhero? How about a school of fish? Or perhaps a gorilla? Bizarre costumes and a party atmosphere are staples of San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers footrace that takes place the third Sunday of May each year.

The popular West Coast event has been one of the world’s largest footraces for decades. The race became an annual even after the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as an attempt to lift the city’s spirits.

The 12k race course starts on Howard Street and turns up Hayes Street Hill near Alamo Square. After an exhausting incline, the course follows the panhandle, through Golden Gate Park, past the Conservatory of Flowers, and finally to Great Highway and Ocean Beach.

The 2013 race is scheduled for May 19th. Registration fees for adults cost $53 and child registration is $48. The fees include a cotton t-shirt, online training program, race bib with timing tag, and finisher’s certificate.

The starting line for the first corral is located at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which is less than a half hour from the San Francisco airport. Although no street parking is available at the start or finish lines, shuttle services are offered from several locations throughout the city.

Several costume contests are held during the event, including Best Overall Individual, Most Creative Group, and Best Be-Zazzled Costume. Prize shopping sprees are awarded from $50 to $1,000 for each category. A two-day health and wellness expo sponsored by Volkswagen will also take place on May 17th and 18th, which is free and open to the public.

Although Bay to Breakers has been notorious for drunkenness and public nudity, alcohol and floats are not permitted and laws will be strictly enforced. Volunteers are always needed for both the expo and the race and all volunteers receive an event t-shirt as well. To register to race in the event, to volunteer, or to get costume ideas, visit the event webpage or send an email to [email protected].

South Dakota’s scenic Falls Park has been a celebrated recreation center for over 150 years and an important part of the region’s history. Today, the 123-acre park has an average 7,400 gallons of flowing water that drops 100 feet over the course of the falls each second.

Falls Park is conveniently located near the Foss Field HLE airport and accessible for visitors.These are just a few of the historic sights you can take in while visiting this beautiful area.

Queen Bee Mill 

Opened in 1881, this seven-story mill was built so that farmers could avoid shipping costs to Minnesota and Wisconsin. As one of the most advanced mills of its time, the Queen Bee Mill once processed over 1,500 bushels of wheat each day. However, the mill was closed a mere two years later, due to inadequate wheat and water supplies. The remains of the mill continue to be a popular sightseeing attraction to this day.

Light and Power Company Building

This historic 1908 building once held powerful hydroelectric and coal-fired steam generators. The generators were used until the 70’s, which the Falls Overlook Café took over. Both indoor and outdoor seating are available at the café, which has a nice selection of ice cream treats.

Horse Barn

Although the builder and purpose of this historic site is unknown, locals believe that the barn used to hold horses that worked at the stone quarries or that it was part of a local creamery in the late 1800’s. In more recent times, the horse barn has been home to an arts center for local artists to exhibit and create works of art.

Falls Park Open Air Shelter

This popular area of the park is home to the local farmer’s market and is often used for large picnics and special events. The shelter has electrical and water service, as well as a designated parking lot.

Just off of I-90, Sioux Falls is easy to navigate and you can reach any destination in the city within 15-20 minutes. On your way to visit the South Dakota landmarks of Mount Rushmore and The Badlands, make a stop at Falls Park for an afternoon of relaxation and a glimpse into the history of this beautiful land.

You hear the phrase being tossed around all the time…..”don’t just half ass it,” “she did such a half-ass job on that project.” But what exactly is a half ass?

Is it literally half of an ass? What would “full-assing” a job actually entail? These are the thoughts that keep me tossing and turning with fits of insomnia night after night.

By using some questionably reliable sources on the Interweb, my suspicions are confirmed that half assing does, in fact, mean to do something to less than one’s full ability. In 2006, a stranger in a forum explained the origin of this baffling term to the world.

Believe it or not, the term originated from “half-adz,” which is mid-19th century slang. An adz is a tool with a curved, axe-type blade for shaping wood. If you were wealthy and wanted a new fireplace, the mantle could be shaped using an adz to finish the front and back. But obviously, the back of a mantle isn’t visible. To save money, you could have only the front of the mantle shaped, leaving the back as rough and unfinished wood.

Over time, this woodworking term has slowly evolved into today’s “half-assed.” Our friendly companions in the UK tend to prefer the term, “half-arsed,” based on the incorrect assumption that the US equivalent term refers to the posterior of the human body.

So alas, our mystery has been solved and one more research item has been checked off the list. And now that my worry has subsided, I’m going to take a nap.

An inevitable lull occurred in the conversation at the Thanksgiving Day dinner table.

“Have ya’ll see the witch’s grave in Chesterville?” asked Aunt Janet, completely out of the blue.

The blank stare of each member of my conservative family turned even blanker.

Page thirty-one of the annual regional magazine, Discover Central Illinois, had featured an article about a microscopic town called Chesterville, Population 148. Aunt Janet had recently read this article and had a copy of the magazine. According to local folklore, a mysterious witch is buried in Chesterville’s cemetery.

The story goes that a rebellious young woman, who was thought to be a witch, disappeared and was later found dead in a farmer’s field. Even though authorities ruled her death to be of natural causes, many locals feared that she would come back to life and seek revenge. People from all over the countryside, came to see the witch’s body in the funeral home. When she was buried, a tree was planted on her grave to keep her spirit trapped in the tree.

The Capital Area Paranormal Society published this article in 2011 after a couple of their investigators visited the Chesterville cemetery. CAPS elaborates on the folklore to add that the witch was actually an Amish woman who challenged the elders of the church in the 1800’s. She was ultimately banished from the church and accused of being a witch. No definitive ghost sightings were reported from this particular CAPS visit.

For a town of 148, this is a big deal.

On the day after Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad shuffled my boyfriend into their car to go on a witch hunt. It was a windy day and there was no one around for as far as one could see down a country road. There were no signs marking the witch’s grave, but it was distinguish able by an iron fence surrounding a crooked oak tree, atop a faded tombstone.

I walked around the fence to find that part of it was missing and open. Does this mean that the witch ghost has escaped? I also noticed that there were knife markings on the tree mark? Will these incisions eventually kill the tree, resulting in the witch’s spirit being released?

To this day, many locals believe that if the tree is destroyed, the ghost of the witch will emerge from her grave in search of those who caused her death. Cemetery visitors have reported ghost sightings around the tree.  I like to think of myself as open-minded to the paranormal, but I didn’t see anything at all. And even though our witch hunt was unsuccessful, it sure beat sitting around and discussing my retirement plan and tax deductions.

Never fear! A few articles about my recent Death Valley trip are in the works. It’s no secret that inspiration has been lacking and motivation has been low. However, a comeback is underway. In the meantime, I’ve updated the header and background photos for the blog site. Been awhile, eh?

The header photo was taken by my favorite photographer (and boyfriend) during our first night camping in Death Valley. I’m posed atop our rental Jeep, not my Jeep. My Jeep is much more awesome.

The stars were ridiculously bright and the air was ridiculously silent. I struggled to adjust to a place that I felt more at home in. I struggled to enjoy a place that brought me happiness. Photos like this capture the sense of peace, sense, and purpose that I have only been able to feel in the outdoors. While my average day embodies chaos and discontent, days like the one captured here are rare and precious to me. One day they will be less rare, but just as precious.

The background photo (also snapped by my favorite photographer) was taken on a hike through Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley a few days later. The terrain in the area was incredibly varied – sand dunes, salt flats, mountains, forests, rock, grass, etc. There was something different around every turn and it made me see beyond the monotony of an ordinary life.

Changing the norm is inevitable at this point. It’s only a matter of the path to get from point A to point B. Point B doesn’t seem as far away as it did before my trip to Death Valley. And because of that, my inspiration and motivation is returning a little more every day.