I love the outdoors (and the consumerism that goes with it!)

REI trip included the purchase of three pairs of hiking socks of varying thicknesses, heights, and outdoorsy heathered grey colors, replacement of my old "port" colored Newport H2 Keens in favor of the new Keen Venice H2 (meaning water/land hybrid) in black. I'm gonna miss those big red Keens, but these definitley fit better, with no pinching across the widest part of my foot like the same size of the Newports. I also got a sort of ridiculous little Pelican case for my digital camera, which is pretty exciting because it means I can literally take it anywhere, also keep it dust- and water-free when spending most of my time outdoors. Also, I found a pair of Merrell mary-jane's for $40 and I got them to help balance out the wear and moisture on my Keen light hiking shoes. This way I can give them time to dry out, and avoid trench-rot. I can't even put into words how excited I am for camp. I've even been listening to the parenting and supervisory seminars-on-tape that our camp director put on CD's for us counselors, and am looking forward to employing some of the strategies mentioned by the speakers. And I'm looking forward to doing it again next summer after I graduate. I'm happy that I've figured out a way to keep the outdoors in my life despite being a full-time student in an urban environment. Maybe through leadership training and retreats outdoors intergrated into student affairs is one way to work it in the future. Heading up to UC Santa Barbara's hillel (Jewish student organization) to see the Stein family perform. Traffic going down the grade is bad apparently. Oh, so-cal.