Success of the Future Tobacco-Free Policy Depends on Positive Communication

Student awareness of the University of Iowa’s upcoming tobacco-free campus policy will be vital to it’s success.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa—Starting in the fall 2015 semester, the University of Iowa will implement a new tobacco-free campus policy.

In an email sent out to faculty and students in April, UI President, Sally Mason, said the objective of the policy is to support a healthy campus culture and to promote the health and well-being of all campus community members.

The new tobacco-free policy goes into effect Aug. 24, 2015, and is currently being worked on by an implementation team chaired by Joan Troester, who is director of Human Resources Services at the university. The new policy will be an amendment to the current smoke-free campus policy to now include all forms of tobacco such as electronic cigarettes, smokeless or chewing tobacco, snuff, and hookahs, along with the already banned cigarettes and cigars.

In her email, Mason cited there being “a significant amount of research documenting health risks associated with tobacco use, and there is growing evidence of the potential health hazards around the use of e-cigarettes” as part of the university’s decision to implement the upcoming policy change.

Troester and her team will be working throughout the summer to begin changing signage, informing those on campus about the policy change, and amending the current smoke-free campus policy.

UI’s current smoke-free campus policy was implemented in July of 2008 following the Iowa Smokefree Air Act signed by Iowa Governor Chet Culver in April of that year.

Here is a timeline showing the history of smoking in the United States, from cigarettes being promoted by “doctors” to the current policies and bans that have evolved from better knowledge about the dangers of smoking cigarettes.

The university’s policy states that “smoking is prohibited in all university owned buildings, university owned or leased vehicles, and on all university grounds, including recreational facilities, athletic facilities, parking lots and enclosed parking facilities.” Failure to comply with the smoke-free policy could result in a citation of a $50 fine, according to university regulations.

Despite the current smoke-free campus policy being implemented seven years ago, some UI students are still skeptical about the effectiveness of the policy. This skepticism could create challenges in implementing and enforcing the latest tobacco-free policy, they said.

 

Police Regulation

Troester said her implementation team includes a member of the UI Department of Public Safety, which will be highly useful since the current regulation and enforcement of the smoke-free campus policy falls mostly on the responsibility of the UIDPS.

In 2014, the UIDPS responded to 688 calls concerning smoking on campus. Of those calls, 668 contacts or calls were initiated by police and only 20 were complaint driven. In total, 56 smoking citations were issued by police in 2014, down from 149 in 2013 and drastically down from 463 citations in 2012, according to police records.

The ratio of smoking violation calls to actual citations given in 2014 may seem low, but UIDPS officer, Alton Poole, explained that the UIDPS is most concerned with cooperation from violators to the smoking policy.

“It’s not just about looking to give out as many tickets as possible. It’s more about looking for compliance,” officer Poole said. “The intent is to promote a “smoke free” environment, not to see how many people we can cite.  At times, the best option to accomplish that is by informing people and asking them to simply extinguish their smoking materials.”

The University of Northern Iowa campus also employs a smoke-free policy, but Milissa Wright, a representative for the UNI Department of Public Safety, said warnings are no longer issued to violators.

“Everyone knows you can’t smoke on campus,” Wright said.

Wright said smoking violators on the UNI campus are automatically given a citation of a $50 fine which is considered a civil penalty.

UNI’s strict adherence to the smoke-free campus policy seems to be effective because UNI freshman, Genevieve Moravek, said she does not recall seeing many people smoking on campus.

“Smoking isn’t really a thing at UNI. It would be really weird seeing someone smoking on campus,” Moravek said.

Emilie Olson, a junior at Iowa State University, shared similar sentiments about smoking on the ISU campus.

“In my opinion, I don’t see smoking on campus as an issue at all. I would say in the last two weeks I haven’t seen anyone smoking on campus at all,” Olson said. “ISU also has a no-smoking on campus policy and I think it’s well enforced. ISU has its own police force as well as an Ames Police force that patrol the campus.”

Similar to the UIDPS, the Iowa State University Police Department gives out citations or warnings on a case by case basis, according to a representative for the ISU police.

Despite the UIDPS’s efforts to curb smoking violations, students tend to be more relaxed about the smoke-free policy than would be desired.

John Sagar, a UI senior, said he quit smoking a while back, but said during his time as a smoker on campus he never really was concerned about being caught by university officials.

“I would just try to hide it,” Sagar said. “I heard of people getting warnings or asking them to move, but never an actual citation.”

Will Lovendahl, a UI sophomore who is in the process of quitting smoking cigarettes, said he recalled smoking right outside of his residence hall last year and was simply reminded of the university policy.

“A RA might come out and say, ‘Hey, you’re on school property you can’t be here.’ We stood up and walked to the curb which is no more than seven to eight feet away and continued,” Lovendahl said. “When it was enforced, it was hardly enforced. We definitely smoked on campus, without a doubt.”

Shanea Condon, a UI sophomore, expressed concerns at how well the no-smoking policy is enforced on campus. Condon also expressed frustration at the amount of smoke on campus she encounters on a daily basis.

“I inhale so much secondhand smoke when I go past the Old Capitol Mall and it’s not pleasant. I’m kind of worried because one of the main selling points for coming to the University of Iowa is that it is a smoke-free campus and clearly that’s not the case when I’m coughing and gagging every day,” Condon said. “If you’re just going to tell people like, ‘Hey don’t smoke,’ that doesn’t really enforce anything. If you give them a fine I would think probably help enforce it more.”

 

Regulation Obstacles

In speaking with Condon, she brought up two major issues with enforcing the UI’s current smoke-free campus policy: student knowledge about the policy and the integration of the UI campus and Iowa City.

The integration of Iowa City with the UI campus is partly to blame for seemingly grey areas in the smoke-free campus policy. Compared to the way that ISU and UNI’s campuses are very centralized, the sprawl of the U of I campus allows the illusion of loopholes to the policy.

Secondhand smoke inhalation is a valid concern for students like Condon because even a little bit inhaled everyday can add up, said Jane Greiger, a nurse at the UI Hospitals and Clinics Smoking Cessation Clinic. In the audio question and answer interview below, Greiger discusses the issues of smoking, including secondhand smoke.

However, the area around the Old Capitol Mall in downtown Iowa City where Condon mentioned she inhales a lot of secondhand smoke technically is not under the UI’s jurisdiction, despite the location being within steps of the Pentacrest, which is a central part of the UI campus.

The UI smoking policy maintains that smoking is not allowed in UI buildings and on all UI grounds. However, many of the streets that run through campus, especially on the east side, are actually owned and maintained by Iowa City and therefore people are allowed to smoke on the sidewalks adjacent to those streets.

Popular streets where smoking is allowed include Madison Street, which borders the UI Main Library and the Pentacrest, as well as Clinton, Jefferson and Washington streets which border the Pentacrest. This means that sidewalks in areas, like right in front of the university library, that seem like strictly campus jurisdiction are actually fair game for smoking, which does not seem cohesive with the smoke-free campus policy.

“I don’t really think students even know the laws or rules and regulations very well. I didn’t know there were city streets versus campus streets and that’s really confusing,” Condon said. “Especially I know a lot of international students smoke quite a bit and if I don’t know that living here in Iowa City my whole life how are people coming from across the globe going to know those rules as well?”

Although Sagar did not think smoking was as big of an issue on campus as Condon, he still was not completely sure what qualified as being campus.

“No, not on campus,” Sagar said regarding whether he sees many people smoking on campus. “I guess the only place I really define as campus is the Pentacrest and the T. Anne Cleary Walkway and all that area, but I don’t see people smoke on there very often. I think they would know better. It’s kind of a grey area around some buildings.”

Since the UI’s smoke-free policy applies to all university-owned grounds, the campus technically extends much farther than just the Pentacrest and the T. Anne Cleary Walkway. According to the UIDPS activity log for 2014, some reoccurring areas of smoking violations included around UIHC, Kinnick Stadium and residents halls.

While the discrepancies between strictly university-owned areas and Iowa City jurisdiction cannot be easily changed, student knowledge can definitely be improved, said some students.

“I don’t really know anyone who reads the rules and regulations that Dr. Rocklin sends out,” Condon admitted. “I would consider myself a pretty informed and involved student, and I’m not saying I’m a know-it-all figure, but if you’re not going to read the policies how are you going to know a new one is being implemented?”

Despite the UI smoke-free policy being a permanent fixture since 2008, some students still do not completely understand the policy.

“I don’t think there’s anyone out there who thinks ‘yeah, that makes perfect sense to me,’” Lovendahl said about the current smoke-free policy.

Strong enforcement of the new policy also will be important to the implementation and UI police officer Poole ensured that the UIPD will continue to address violators of the smoke-free policy as it transitions to the tobacco-free policy.

Most importantly, students agreed, student awareness and cooperation is what will be the driving force behind the success of the upcoming tobacco-free policy. Troester, who is heading up the implementation team of the new tobacco-free policy, said getting the word out to the public is a main priority for the university.

“We are really working on making sure there is positive communication with the campus during the course of the implementation,” Troester said. “We want it to be really positive, looking at it as a culture change. We want the communication to be all inclusive and will be making sure to communicate with faculty, staff, students, and perspective students.”

How to Survive College as a Vegan

Being a vegan in college seems like a daunting task, but a University of Iowa student shows that you can have your vegetables and eat them, too.

IOWA CITY, Iowa—In between classes and extracurricular activities, college tends to revolve around food—the good, the bad for you and the ramen noodles.

With dorm dining halls offering buffet-style eating three meals a day and Friday nights spent ordering cheap pizza with friends, the choice about what to consume while away from mom’s disapproving look is entirely up to you.

While this food free-for-all can lead to not so glamorous consequences, such as the dreaded “freshmen 15,” with this newly found food freedom students also have the ability to deviate from the stereotype and try new dietary lifestyles.

University of Iowa junior, Seanna Feijo, decided to move about as far away on the spectrum from the pizza and junk food college lifestyle as possible when she became a vegan a little over a year ago.

“I was a vegetarian for eight years. After I studied abroad I figured the food just wouldn’t compare to what I had abroad anyways so I decided to just do it. It ended up being really easy.” Feijo said about transitioning to being vegan.

Veganism is a division of vegetarianism in which those who are vegan do not consume any animal by-products in addition to not consuming meat. Eating vegan includes avoiding milk, cheese, eggs, and even honey. Instead, those who are vegan get the main source of their food intake from plants such as leafy greens, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

The reason for becoming vegan varies for everyone, but the main factors to becoming vegan for the majority of people are for health, environmental and ethical reasons. For Feijo, the transition to being vegan stemmed from her love of animals.

“I started being a vegetarian in eighth grade. It really freaked me out thinking about eating something that was a living animal,” she said. “My parents were super open about it and would help cook.”

As for what one of the hardest parts about being vegan Feijo has encountered, she said it is missing home-style cooking.

“General things I miss are homemade things, like stuff mom makes. I really love making vegan macaroni and cheese,” Feijo said.

Living a vegan lifestyle requires a lot of home cooking and extensive meal planning that busy college students may not always have the time or resources for. JoAnn Daehler-Miller is a registered dietician for the UI Student Health & Wellness and said that a main concern for vegans is to eat an adequate amount of protein.

“Going vegan shouldn’t be about just cutting out meat, you have to replace it with some other protein source. Beans are an easy an inexpensive one and are a great one for students,” Daehler-Miller said.

She also said vegans should eat a variety of protein and that other good protein sources are tofu, falafel, and nut butters.

“Another nutrient to pay attention to is calcium. You get most of that from dairy foods, so one of the best substitutes is soy products, like soy milk or tofu,” she said. She also said that those products generally have calcium added to them so it is a good way to get the necessary calcium.

Daehler-Miller also said that iron is a common nutrient vegans are low in as well as vitamin B-12, magnesium and zinc. She recommended for vegan students to keep snacks like nut and trail mix around in their dorms to help combat the lack of magnesium and zinc and to also take a supplement if necessary for nutrients like vitamin B-12 that are harder to come by.

Due to the extra effort that has to go into eating vegan the healthy way and making sure the adequate amount of nutrients find their way into vegan diets, convenience, one of biggest things that is valued as a college student, has to be sacrificed as a vegan.

“It’s the convenience thing. Being a college student it’s a convenience thing.” Feijo said.

Unfortunately, cooking a full vegan meal in a college dorm room can prove to be extremely challenging, if not impossible, to do every day. But, the UI dining provides vegan options every day to make sure vegan and vegetarian students always have a protein source available.

“We make a special effort with the vegan items that there’s protein,” UI Dining Director, Jill Irvin said.

She said that creating the recipes for vegan options is not really any different from creating other menu items and that the dinning department tries to rotate the selections often.

“The one comment we get from vegan students is that there aren’t a lot of vegan options. We really try to make sure we’ve got a good variety out there,” Irvin said.

For vegan students eating at the dining hall, Daehler-Miller said sometimes those students have to be a little creative and the variety in the dining halls comes in handy.

“So maybe you have to go to the Mexican bar and get a tortilla and beans and then you have to go someplace else to complete the rest of your meal. There’s beans and hummus and they offer whole grain salads on the salad bar,” she said.

The issue of convenience comes up not only in everyday eating, but also just trying to make plans with friends to go out to eat as a vegan can be challenging for vegans in Iowa City.

“If my friends are like ‘You want to go out?’ I have to Google the menu to see if they can accommodate,” Feijo said.

Iowa City has a very diverse selection of restaurants and many are vegan-friendly. Happycow.net and vegguide.org keep a running list of vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Iowa City and the map below is a compilation of each list.

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Iowa City has a very diverse selection of restaurants and many are vegan-friendly, but the only place in Iowa City that is 100 percent vegan is the Trumpet Blossom Café located on Prentiss Street. The rustic styled café is owned by Katy Meyer and just celebrated its three year anniversary Saturday April 18th.

Feijo said she frequents the Trumpet Blossom Café and said one of her favorite things to get there is the French toast.

“They have a really good BLT with maple aioli. They also have a really good vegan eggs benedict,” Freijo said.

Darcy Keller has worked at the Trumpet Blossom Café since its opening and has also been a vegetarian and vegan, stopping only while being pregnant with her one year-old son. For her, she said the reasons for going vegan were connected to environmental impact.

Keller said that she worked at the Red Avocado, another Iowa City vegan restaurant, with Meyer before the restaurant closed down in 2012. After the close of the Red Avocado, Meyer opened the Trumpet in April of that year.

“Katy really knows what she’s doing. Everything is so good because it’s local, mostly organic and quality ingredients,” Keller said about the Trumpet Blossom’s menu selections.

As for her personal favorite item served at the café, she said, “Every Thursday we do a southern fried tofu. It’s so good. I feel like vegan comfort food is the best.”

Keller said she felt like the social aspect of being vegan and going out with friends was one of the biggest challenges.

“If you’re with people who aren’t vegan it’s hard. Eating is such a social thing,” she said.

Keller also said that the vegan community in Iowa City comes and goes and that the Trumpet Blossom does have a few regulars because it is some customers’ main option in town.

Despite the vegan community not always being very prominent in Iowa City, for those who are looking for a sense of community while being a vegan there is an online vegan and vegetarian group led by Carol Throckmorton. The group holds monthly potlucks. Throckmorton said at these potluck meetups usually around 35 people show up.

Veganism has become fairly trendy in the past couple years. However, since being vegan is challenging, taking on a vegan lifestyle is not as easy as trying out other trends. Commitment is key said UI sophomore anthropology major, Rylee Kerper. Kerper tried out eating vegan for a week to see how feasible it would be for her. Despite only lasting a couple days, she was not discouraged.

“It wasn’t so bad. I don’t eat a lot of dairy anyways,” she said. “I think it’s perfectly feasible to be vegan as a college student, you just have to have the right mind set. I would give it another shot.”

Commitment to the diet, as well as the cost for eating vegan, can be difficult for college students. Feijo said she mostly shops at the New Pioneer Co-op for groceries. And while the quality of groceries from New Pioneer is exceptional, the prices are a bit higher than those of Walmart or Hy-Vee she said.

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Theresa Carbrey, education and outreach coordinator for New Pioneer, explained that the New Pioneer Co-op serves a very diverse group of people, including vegans, while making sure its products are local, fresh, natural and organic.

For students who are considering becoming vegan, Feijo shared some advice as a fellow student:

“Read labels. Read them like you’ve never read before,” she said. “Before you go out, Google the menu. When people are snotty and tell you just one person can’t make a difference, tell them that one person can. Don’t let people tell you what you’re doing is wrong.”

The End of “The End”

So this is officially the last post of my 20th birthday blogging project.

Yes, today was the first day in 7 years I could not be referred to as a teenager. And what do you know, I survived.

This project was a lot of fun for me, and despite not posting as regular as I would’ve liked, I am proud of myself for sticking with it and finishing the 100 days out. This won’t be completely the end of me blogging, I’m sure I’ll post here and there with whatever comes to mind. Honestly, I think the worst part will be having to come up with more creative titles, I’m going to miss the scapegoat of always having “The End: Day __” as my title.

For those who are reading this and have read my posts through out this project, thank you for reading. Y’all are lovely. And for those who are reading this for the first time, feel free to look back on my previous ramblings.

I guess I’ll keep this pretty short, yesterday’s post was more of the exciting part of this 2 day series. So now I suppose I’ll look forward to being a “twenty-something” for the next decade and see where I end up on the other side.

See you later friends. Stay golden.

-Alison

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The End: Day 1

So this is it.

The second to last post of my “end of teenage years” countdown.

In less an hour I will officially be 20. (Well actually you’d have to ask my mom as to when the exact official moment is, but as far as the legalities of it matters, that will be the time.)

It’s crazy to think that this little project that I started back in January while still on winter break is coming to an end. And what’s even crazier to think about is that it’s been two whole decades of me being a dork. Amazing.

I feel like I haven’t really changed that much since the beginning of this project, I mean honestly 100 days isn’t that long of a time, but I feel like everything around me has changed a lot. The weather is now absolutely lovely (I suppose that’s what happens when you go from winter to spring…). There’s only 4 more weeks of the semester left and I only have about 3 more big projects left to do which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

I’ve already started getting antsy for summer, I can’t wait to have free time to do art projects that I’ve been saving up. (I’m super jacked about some of the ideas I have floating around and just want to paint RIGHT NOW.) I am also oddly excited for my summer class, which is going to be a intro to graphic design course, and to live in Iowa City for a little bit when normal school isn’t in session. I can’t wait to see what Iowa City is like in the summertime when there aren’t as many hooligans running around.

Tomorrow I get to register for fall and summer classes (at 6:30 am…I can’t promise I’ll be up and ready to register right when it opens up but we’ll see.) Like I said, I’m a nerd and I love registering for classes. And what’s pretty cool is if I take 2 journalism classes and 3 art classes for the next 3 semesters, I’ll be able to graduate right on time, a semester early.

I’m really happy with the journalism skills I’ve gained throughout this semester and I feel like I might actually be able to do okay in this field. I wasn’t quite confident in them enough yet though to look for a summer internship, but next summer I’ll need to look for one for sure. (I also really wanted to work at the bar again this summer…)

Speaking of working at the bar, I need to remember to stop in when I go back home for Mollie’s prom and be like “what’s uppp pls let me work here again”. I’m also really looking forward to working on my photography final project that weekend and taking pictures of Mollie and Jake and their friends being teenage hoodlums for my future series titled “Teenagers: The Kids Will Be Alright” (title is a work in progress). And to see Mollie all gorgeous, of course. (I’m doing her hair and makeup so of course she’s going to be flawless.)

So yeah, that’s where I’m at as of right this moment at 11:51 pm on this lovely April evening. Tomorrow will be my last post of this series. Let’s think of this post as part 1 of 2, like a before and after if you will. So if you’re reading this you might as well stop back for tomorrow’s post. See you then.

Also my roommates are the best and made this super adorable cake.

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Byeeeeeee

-Alison

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University of Iowa CAB Casino Night

The annual Casino Night put on by CAB provides students with a fun evening full of music and prizes.

IOWA CITY, Iowa– The Night Hawks division of the University of Iowa Campus Activity Board, led by Kelsey O’Connor, puts on a lively Casino Night every year.

This year’s event featured a live jazz band that played throughout the night and plenty of exciting prizes to win. Students were able to play games like Bingo and roulette to win tickets to put towards one of the many raffles throughout the evening. Prizes that could be won included a flat screen television and an iPod mini.

CAB provides students fun alternatives to going out or drinking. Casino Night is one of these many colorful events and had a great turn out.

The End: Day 11

So it’s April. (April 3rd to be exact, but it’s not like I’ve been punctual on this thing anyways.)

My birthday month is officially here, which means this blogging project is quickly nearing the end. (The End, get it??) Now that it’s so close, turning 20 doesn’t even feel like a real thing. I do get to register for classes on my birthday though, so that’s pretty exciting.’

That’s not sarcasm, either. I LOVE registering for new classes. Because I’m a nerd.

To be honest, I actually haven’t really been thinking about the end of my teenage years much at all lately; between work and school, all my attention has pretty much been devoted elsewhere. So there is this post’s excuse as to why I’ve gone so long without posting. Again.

Speaking of school, the end of the year is coming up much faster than I thought it was. The semester basically has about 4 weeks left until finals week, and due to the fact I have 8 projects left to do until finals this means I’m massively stressing out.

I generally don’t get anxiety often, I do stress out quite a bit over things but I don’t usually have full anxiety attacks about it. This past Thursday though I was stressed out from thinking about everything I had to get done to the point where I was on the verge of completely freaking out. You, know hyperventilating, increased heart rate, feeling like the world was slowly suffocating me, that whole ordeal.

A lot of my problem has to do with the fact that when I think about what I need to get done, I don’t just think about the immediate issue. My mind likes to think about EVERYTHING I have to get done in the foreseeable future and it becomes overwhelming really quickly. There’s never really an on and off switch, so my mind is usually spinning in a million directions at once. It’s a whole lot of fun.

And when I say I don’t get anxiety often, I mean anxiety in general. Social anxiety is a whole other story. I’ve always struggled with it, but up until recently I was never really able to put a name to it. I always thought the way I feel like there’s a terrifying barrier between me and new people is more than just shyness.

Here’s something I wrote out a while ago trying to explain my social anxiety:

Whenever I’m out in public or faced with being surrounded by a lot of people my reaction is always to say “I hate people.”

But I really don’t hate people. (At least not most people)

I hate feeling stressed out walking through crowded places when the energy just feels like static.

I hate feeling like I’m trapped and the walls are closing in on me when I’m in a crowd of people that I don’t know.

I hate how I always come off shy or cold, because no matter how desperately I want to contribute to conversations with strangers or people I’m not entirely comfortable with the words get stuck in my throat and I choke on my own spit.

I hate that I turn down invitations to things because, even though I really really want to go, I never know if I’ll just feel anxious and uncomfortable the whole time.

I hate that I could probably have a whole array of friends because I know I’m a fun person once I let my walls down, except for the fact that just the thought of reaching out to someone first is paralyzing.

I hate that I push people away because there are some days that I just collapse into myself.

I hate that this is a thing that happens.

But all this would take too long to explain and would require me to bare my soul every time someone asks me why I have such a weird look on my face in public.

So instead I just settle with saying “I hate people.”

The reason I bring this up is because the point of this blog is to do some self-searching and to put these thoughts and discoveries into words. Plus talking about it is kind of cathartic. Social anxiety isn’t fun, but I’ve been working on taking small steps, like making a joke a work or making conversation with a stranger, to push myself out of my comfort zone and try not to sink into a habit of clinging to social anxiety as an excuse.

I want to be a journalist so I obviously can’t be too scared to talk to people. The exercises I’ve had to do this semester for my journalism classes have definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and I think have actually helped me quite a bit in learning how to get around social anxiety in situations. Mind over matter, I suppose.

I’m really happy to be home for Easter this weekend because literally no matter what, while I’m home classwork is pretty much the furthest thing from my mind. Plus, it’s quite  difficult to stress over classes when your’re what watching Spongebob with your brother.

So basically I’m going to pretend classes don’t exist and eat too much candy for the next three days.

-Alison

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The End: Day 20

Is it super late?! (2:40 am)

Yes!

Am I slightly seeing things from exhaustion?!

YeS!

Are there going to probably be a lot of grammar/spelling errors in this post?!

YES!

Did Zayn Malik leave One Direction today?!

*sad emotional yelling while his high note in You & I plays in the background*

WHYYY

Thank you for your enthusiasm. Despite the intro, this post is not about 1/5 of One Direction leaving to seek out his own happiness and healthy state of peace. (You deserve it Zayn, YOU DESERVE IT)

This train wreck of a post is just to acknowledge that today (yesterday?) marked the 20th day of this 20th Birthday countdown, and since that’s kind of like a golden birthday I felt like it deserved its own post. However as I am sitting here typing this out I can see that it probably was not a good idea.

Then again, I haven’t had a post since I was comfortably at home doing nothing productive over Spring break, SO THIS IS WHAT YOU GET. (I also will not apologize for my use of caps in this, my pinkie just won’t leave the shift key alone.)

I did seriously consider raising a duck about 2 hours ago. Bomgaars has a bunch of little ducklings and they’re so cute an fluffy, and people actually raise ducks as pets. Here’s your fun fact of the day: pet ducks can be trained to cuddle!

However, they can live up to 20 years and cannot be potty trained so that would probably be a bad life decision.

I’ll just wait until I’m living somewhere in Colorado on a tiny mountain farm.

And that’s all I have for this mess of a post. GOODNIGHT.

-Alison

(I found this by searching for “cool duck” in google images, idk)

The End: Day 27

Greetings from Spring Break limbo.

I had all these grand plans for the pre-homework I was going to do over break so I’m not so stressed when I get back to Iowa City, and what have I done? NOTHING HAHA.

I even meant to write a post like two days ago, but that obviously didn’t happen.

I have, however, been enjoying my break visiting my grandparents, hanging out with family and friends, avoiding the demon geese at Bacon Creek during runs (and by runs I mean painful jogs), sleeping way too late, and generally enjoying myself. And that’s all that counts during break, right?

Today I did work on a photography project, so I guess I have been slightly productive. This assignment is centered around a narrative and I thought what better to document while I’m home than the lovely town of Sioux City.

The thing about Sioux City is that no matter how I try to explain it to people at college who have never spent a significant amount of here, they just don’t get it.

And a lot of the problem is that Sioux City is really hard to explain. It has so many different facets, and driving around with Mollie this afternoon trying to capture quintessential Sioux City things was a lot of fun. I feel like Sioux City is one of those places you both love and absolutely hate at the same time while living here, and after you leave and come back, you really come to miss the ridiculousness of it.

The hardest part about trying to explain Sioux City is that it really is so ridiculous, in the best way possible. That’s usually how I end up summing it up.

Sioux City has a lot of history here, from it being the resting place of Sergeant Floyd from the Lewis and Clark expedition, to it being home to Al Capone during prohibition. At one point we were called “Little Chicago” because of all the traffic coming from the railroads and stockyards and the booming industries, and now all we have to show for it is a deli place by the same name. (Literally the best sub shop though, suck it Jimmy Johns.)

We have an extremely diverse population here which has created a multitude of strange and wonderful shops and restaurants downtown. It’s also pretty nifty that since it’s right on the Missouri River the town spills into not just Iowa, but also Nebraska and South Dakota, too. There are always a multitude of interesting characters everywhere you go.

And speaking of interesting characters, if you ever want to experience the beautifully redneck side of Sioux City at its finest, go to a Musketeers hockey game. It will be the most ridiculous production you will ever witness for a bunch of 16-19 years skating around on ice. The Zamboni guy is basically a legend and comes out riding out at half time to dimmed lights and Iron Man blaring throughout the arena.

Lets just say the first time I went, I literally ended up with tears in my eyes from how overwhelming it is. Mollie can vouch for that.

Sioux City also has a surprisingly good music scene. There are a lot of bars who always have live acts come in, the Tyson Events Center gets some big artists stop on tour (mostly country and rock), and now that the Hard Rock Casino has opened even more big name artists have stopped by, which is pretty cool. One of my aunt and uncle’s favorite artists, Tommy Bolin from Deep Purple grew up here and one of the local bars, The Ickey Nickel (definitely my summer job) always has a huge Tommy Bolin Festival every year. Saturday in the Park is also pretty epic. Like really epic.

So Sioux City is pretty much a crazy mix of the weird, wonderful, and the not-so-wonderful. I think one of the best depictions of this is on historic Fourth Street, despite all the work the city has done to renovate that area into a strip of nice bars and restaurants, there’s still an adult book and video shop called Francis Canteen that’s been there since the 80’s and the city just can’t seem to get rid of it.

Sioux City is ridiculous. And the more time I spend away from it, the more I love it.

You don’t have to take my word for it though, just watch this video. It’s a little old, but pretty much sums up Sioux City, cringe-worthiness and all. (It also definitely went viral. There’s a little clip at the end of Bret Michaels trying to make us sound less lame. Thx Bret.)

-Alison

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Iowa Artisan’s Gallery Spring Gallery Walk Featured New Solo Exhibit by Local Textile Artist

Local textile artist, Jan Friedman, had solo exhibit “Embracing Nature” open the evening of the Gallery Walk.

IOWA CITY, Iowa–The Iowa Artisan’s Gallery hosts the Downtown Gallery Walk three times a year. The spring session this year included 17 different locations around downtown Iowa City for people of all ages to visit and have an evening of local art viewing and refreshments.

Jan Friedman, a local textile artist who got her start at the University of Iowa, had a solo exhibit opening at the Iowa Artisan’s Gallery that evening. Her colorful, nature-inspired textile exhibit, called “Embracing Nature”, can be viewed at the Iowa Artisan’s Gallery until April 12. [soundslides width=”620″ height =”533″ id=”54″]

The End: Day 35

This is a bit of a spur of the moment post.

It’s currently a little after 1 am and I should definitely be sleeping because I was exhausted today, but who has time to sleep, really?

I don’t have anything that exciting to relate, but this post is mostly because today it really hit me how I’m not really ready to not be a teenager anymore.

I’m so bad with change. I’m not really sure why, but big looming changes just make me really anxious. I’ve always been the type of person who tries to live completely in the moment. I have never really wished to be any older than was, like when I was seventeen I was perfectly content with not turning 18 for a while. There’s always so much going on at any particular time in your life, why would you want to risk missing any of that?

I just keep forgetting how different turning 20 will be. And maybe I’m just being a bit dramatic and silly about change as usual, but turning twenty is so daunting.

Like I’ve said before, turning 20 really isn’t a huge deal in the sense that you still aren’t a full adult, aka being able to drink (whats being a “full adult” actually consist of anyways, does anyone actually know?), but when you really think about it, it is a huge deal.

It’s the end of a whole era of your life.

I’ve been a teenager for nearly 7 years, almost one-third, of my life now, and within those years so much changes. Literally your whole life is different on the other side of adolescence.

I watched a documentary today about how first the demographic, and then the term “teenager” came about. We weren’t even called “teenagers” until halfway through the twentieth century, which is crazy to think about because teenagers now is a term that is used both with love and disgust all the time.

I’ve grown up in a generation of teenagers that kind of had to fight our way through. We’re frequently accused of being apathetic,indifferent, destructive, and self-obsessed. We’re one of the first generations to be fully immersed in the rapid explosion of new personal technologies, and as a result that’s where we get a lot of our lazy, indifferent,entitled, ect. accusations from.

But we’re so much more than that.

We’ve grown up with the attack of 9/11 at an early age, and never really had a false sense of security. We’ve watched our country go through natural disasters, soldiers go to war, and a massive recession which has resulted in our job prospects being significantly lower and our price of education significantly higher than ever before.

We’re immersed in social media culture and nobody but us really understands it. They see us using it to post stupid tidbits from our day and to fuel our narcissism, but they don’t see us using to fight for social justice in a society that is still far behind and to educate ourselves about issues we wouldn’t have even known existed without it.

Am I saying that this teenage generation isn’t flawed? Of course not. We’re as stupid as every other teenage generation that came before us because, deep down, we’re only kids; but we are definitely self-aware.

And that’s why I’m not ready to put my teens behind me yet. I’ve grown so fond of this generation and everything that’s come with it. The term “teenager” is powerful and colorful and reeks of Fall Out Boy songs, and in a little over a month I’ll have to leave it all behind and move into the next phase as a “20-something”.

I’ll probably be fine and I’ll grow to love the term “20-something” as much as I love the term “teenager”, but right now it’s completely uncharted territory and that frightens me a bit.

But what’s life without a healthy dose of fear to keep you moving?

For now I’m just going to try and keep living one day at a time and just enjoy being a teenager while I can. And I still need to find something stupid to do just once while I still can and be excused for it under the cover of being a “teenager” (this instance spoken with disdain).

-Alison

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