Nature is nice

After a stressful week of midterms that I messed up, art projects that I messed up and lungs that I messed up, a weekend at Lake Arrowhead sounded like a perfect way to clear my head (and lungs).

Lake Arrowhead, which could very well be the lake from which Arrowhead water comes from, was a beautiful place with snow-coated banks and sparkling water dazzled by the sun. The weather was warm and I felt that I was seeing nature at its finest.

As a southern California native, springtime has become pretty monotonous. The days alternate between breezy and less breezy, sunny and slightly cloudy. I've never been able to see a spring snowfall or an environment naturally covered in pine trees and home to roaming chipmunks. This is why Lake Arrowhead was such a refreshing retreat. It was something new, and it was something beautiful.

One of the coolest parts of the trip was Earth Hour. From 8:30 - 9:30 on Saturday night, every single person in the world was asked to turn off all lights and other electronics to help make a statement about global warming. My friends and I participated in the hour, using our cell phones to light up the questions on our Trivial Pursuit cards (do you know who Erica Kane is? I do.).

But mostly it was cool to be a part of something that, if it were to get huge, could truly change the world a little bit. It was also cool to know the answers to the weirdest questions in Trivial Pursuit. I'm grateful to Ben & Jerry's for hiring me and enabling me to know the "Phish Food" answer and I'm grateful to my mother for raising me on soap operas like "All My Children," enabling me to know who Erica Kane is, though "General Hospital" is my favorite soap opera.

The best part of Lake Arrowhead? The morning. How often do you get to wake up and walk down to a lake at nine in the morning, make pancakes and eggs and toast for breakfast with some cool friends and not have anything to worry about except the fact that your iPod died?

The low part of Lake Arrowhead? One of the guys fell off our moving vehicle.

One thing that I wish I could have done is listen to Fleet Foxes. Their music just screams "weekend at the lake/in the mountains." Instead of mountain music I listened to electronic music (not of my own will). It put a different spin on nature I guess. And it definitely put a different spin on Earth Hour, but don't worry. Our MacBook was unplugged.