Pumpkin Carving and other Halloween Happenings

Halloween is less than a week away, so those of you who don’t have your costumes ready I suggest you start working on one! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because I can showcase my creativity. This is the first year in a very long time that I bought my costume, but since I’m helping my boyfriend make his I don’t feel so bad. Of course, Halloween isn’t just about the costumes. There’s also pumpkin carving!

The other night my friend decided to host a pumpkin carving party at his house. I didn’t get the chance to carve one last year so doing it this year was even more exciting than ever. My friend Shelby and I went to pick out our pumpkins then headed to our friend’s house.

There was a really great turn out and a lot of creative ideas. I chose a pretty simple design due to my limited carving abilities.

One of the major advantages of pumpkin carving is cooking the seeds after. It’s a pretty simple process and my favorite seasonal snack.

Simply separate the seeds as you are taking the pumpkin guts out and try to remove as much of the orange pumpkin goo as possible. Then soak the seeds in salty water for about ten minutes and spread them out on a baking tray. I choose to sprinkle more salt on because I like mine salty. After that put them in the oven on 325 for 15 minutes. Take them out once they start to brown. Let them cool and enjoy!

CMC’s Alpine campus has a lot planned to help celebrate the holiday. The dorms will be opened up for trick-or-treaters this Thursday from 6-8pm. All are welcome to attend.

This Friday there will be a campus wide costume contest. Whoever is dressed the best around campus will win prizes, so be sure to wear your costume to class!

And last but not least, CMC’s Sky Club will be running “Screamboat”, the best Haunted House in Steamboat. It will be the 29th, 30th and 31st from 6-10pm. The cost is $10 at the door. (I went last year and can say first hand this is not for the weak-hearted).

However you choose to celebrate, enjoy your Halloween. Just be sure not to overdose on too much candy!

CMC Safe Ride

Most college towns have them. The guy who learned his lesson driving drunk and decided to prevent others from making the same mistake. They buy 15 passenger vans and charge a flat rate of $5 per person and take you anywhere in the college area that you need to go. These are usually underground shuttles yet somehow everyone on campus seems to have the number. They are the safe rides for students.

Some colleges are in major cities and have a bus system that goes until all hours of the morning, commonly known as “The Drunk Bus”.

Here in the small town of Steamboat Springs there are not so many options. There is no safe driver who shuttles kids around town for a reasonable fare. The bus stops running around 10pm and riding a bike while under the influence qualifies you for a DUI. Some kids find a designated driver, some opt to split a taxi, and some choose drive drunk.

For the month of October Student Government has decided to try and eliminate drunk driving altogether. If you are at a party and you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation call Alpine Taxi. If your designated driver didn’t follow through with his or her commitment call Alpine Taxi. If you go to the bar and realize you had too much to drink call Alpine taxi.

They can be reached at 970-879-TAXI (8294) or 970-879-2800

Student Government will be covering the charge for any student attending the Alpine campus of Colorado Mountain College. All you need to do is show the taxi driver your student I.D. (If you haven’t picked yours up yet talk to someone in the first floor of Bristol).

This is the very first time something like this has been set up by Colorado Mountain College and it is important that students do not take advantage. This isn’t for rides from party to party. This is to ensure everyone has a safe ride HOME. It would also be beneficial to get a group going to the same area to take the cab together. Just remember to be safe!

Environmental Science Field Trip 1: River Days

As previously stated, I enrolled in late start classes this year. In order to get my degree I need at least 4 more science credits. Math is hardly a problem for me and I actually enjoy learning about history and writing research papers for english. Science on the other hand is my  downfall. I am certainly not made of steel but if I was science would easily be my kryptonite.

I have a difficult time understanding bizarre concepts that can be disproven at any time. I have an even harder time motivating myself to study things that don’t interest me in the least.

I struggled for a while trying to decide which class I wanted to take a shot at. Last year I took astronomy thinking the material would be new and interesting and believe me it was, but I still got a C. So I looked into other options such as biology and chemistry with terror.

Finally I decided on taking Environmental Science. I heard the class was more hands on and relevant to our every day lives. We deal with  issues that are happening right now including beetle kill, nuclear energy, and deer overpopulation. It’s a four credit class and for once I feel I stand a fair chance at getting an A in science.

We have a lot of field trips this semester and our first was at the Yampa River. We explored the riparian habitat, which I initially learned about on River Orientation.

First we were told to pick up rocks in the river and try to find creatures on them. After playing around for a little while we were then asked to try and identify the creatures we found. It was so interesting, we were finding bugs I never even knew existed. Some of them looked like they came from another planet while others were similar to worms and other creatures we see daily. Unfortunately my camera isn’t the best quality so I couldn’t get any good pictures of the bugs.

After looking around on the banks for a while two brave souls went into the river with a net to try and collect different samples. It was 85 degrees out so they hardly froze, but the water was only 61.

We found eggs and larva and creepy crawlers that I wouldn’t want to find in my house. But for as scary as some of them looked they were delicate species. Finding as many creatures as we did shows that the river is healthy.

It was a fun class where we were able to explore through hands-on experience. Alas! A science class that’s right for me.

KICKBALL

Hey everyone! I apologize for the month long hiatus but I had late start classes this semester and am just now getting into the swing of things

Putting classes aside there have been a lot of events going on around campus. This has included everything from a comedy show called “Sex Signals”, a night at the foam pit and KICKBALL.

Last year while working at The Steaming Bean I covered shifts for one of my co-workers while she competed in a weekend kickball tournament. Now to most people Kickball is just a middle school sport that kids play during recess. However I am not the most athletic person in the world and kickball is one of the few sports where I feel I have a fair chance at competing. Needless to say when I heard there was a kickball league in town the next two words out of my mouth were “Where and when?”

Unfortunately I couldn’t play last year because I was working, but when my friend Mark told me he was starting a CMC team I immediately told him to sign me up.

Since CMC sponsored our team we made an agreement not to participate in the drinking, which is a small price to pay for a weekend of competitive kickball. Not to mention it gave us a pretty clear playing advantage.

I did let my temper get the best of me during our second game against a group of drunk hooligans. We began losing when the ref started making unfair calls and the team started making unnecessary comments in an attempt to intimidate us. We wound up losing after a horrible inning where they gained ten runs, but they didn’t last long in the competition and one of their players was barred from the tournament.

All in all it was a great was a great way to spend the weekend.  The weather was perfect and a lot of people were there to compete and cheer each other on. We were eliminated in our forth game with an 0-2 loss.  We walked away knowing we played a fair game and tried our hardest.

Upcoming events include a CMC Coffee House from 6-8pm this Wednesday and broom ball.