Summer Bucketlist!

Hey all,
The past few months I have been wrapping up the last parts of my high school life!! It's been pretty crazy; I graduated last Wednesday. It is so weird to know I won't be going back to high school next year. It hasn't quite hit me yet that I'm done, but that day I realized how lucky I am to have all my family and friends in my life. They are so awesome! I am heading to University of Oregon in the fall, and I couldn't be happier. I love the campus - the brick buildings, trees, trails by the river, all of it. It will be exciting to explore all the opportunities and majors of study, although I'm leaning towards business or something environmentalist-based.

Speaking of the environment, I am ecstatic that San Jose is finally putting restrictions on how much water we use. I hope the water cutbacks will help. Here are a few tips on how to save water:

• when it's yellow let it mellow, when it's brown flush it down (I know, kinda gross, but it works)
• put a bucket under the spout when waiting for water to heat up for your shower or dishes; use the water in the bucket to water plants (when we change out my dog's water, we put the old in the bucket as well)
• take military/submarine showers (get wet, turn it off, shampoo & soap up, rinse off, turn it off, conditioner (if necessary), rinse again, and you're done. I do it all the time, its amazing how much water it saves!!)
• put your dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing (for the most part) and test how much it can clean before wasting water trying to pre-clean before they go through the cleaning cycle again!
• and of course, the typical "don't let the water run when you brush your teeth" (who even does that?!)
• let your lawns go - they take up most of the landscape water
• if you can, redo your lawns with "native" plants - plants that can grow with minimal water that were designed to live in your area naturally. Drought-tolerant plants work great as well.
• set up a gray water system: for example use the leftover water from your washing machine to water your yards. You can hook the pipes together. If you utilize the washing machine water, make sure to switch to biodegradable soap!
• use drip-irrigation. It has the least runoff and evaporation, whereas sprinklers are highly inefficient.
• water in early morning or night - minimizes evaporation
• just don't waste! Even when using napkins, toilet paper, paper plates, you have to realize that water is used in the making of those items. One startling example: To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 GALLONS of water are consumed! 

SO PLEASE PEOPLE, THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!! I believe that most people don't realize how dire our situation is. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER!! Before you know it, you will be paying triple for it, and it will be a household problem. Unfortunately most of our society, as a whole, does not directly deal with issues until they become first and foremost the worst problem out there. Lack of water and the drought in California is well on its way to the top of the list. Hills that used to be green until April or May are brown in March, reservoirs and lakes in the Sierras are being drained to feed growing cities, whole ecosystems are going downhill and the natural beauty of the wilderness is declining. SO START BEING AWARE AND HELPING OUT NOW BEFORE IT'S MUCH TOO LATE. Please spread the word help people become more conscious of these problems. One by one, we can make the world a better place to live in. (I realize a couple items above require too much money for some families, but many are do-able, so just start off with one or two little tweaks to your life. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to adjust.)

ANYWAYS, back to life. This will be the longest summer of my life! 4 almost full months :) Unfortunately, my close friends will be traveling a good amount, so I will have many weeks to figure out what to do without them. They will all go to school about a month before me as well, since they are on semester systems and I am on the quarter system. I think it will be fine though, because I have made a couple of good friends from work and I like spending time with my family or just myself.
Anyways, I'm just going to write a summer bucket list to keep track of my goals and hopefully give you ideas!

• hike Mission Peak
• backpack in Yosemite (from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley) and ascend Half Dome 
• go to the beach a lot!
• go camping in the Sierras 2-4 times
• major clean up/redo parts of my room
• spend time with friends when I can - swim, hike, bike, draw, eat, sleepovers :)
• Santa Cruz Boardwalk
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• learn constellations
• write more - journal more & poems
• make ice cream/bake
• eat healthy and exercise 6/7 days a week ;)
• hike a lot
• just drive around, figure out where roads go, and get lost with music blaring!

Ok that's all I have for right now. Make summer count, because it will be gone before you know it!