How simple is Simply Orange?

I am a Northwest girl at heart, and I do my best to eat and use all-natural products and ingredients. My favorite store is Trader Joe's, and I only use soap that I (or my mother) have made by hand, using natural, trackable ingredients.

I recently stumbled across an article that details how Coca-Cola makes their Simply Orange orange juice (original investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek).

I love orange juice, and usually always have a carton in my fridge. I am picky about this as well, and don't drink anything that isn't 100% orange juice, so Simply Orange has been a past occupant of my fridge. This article, however, concerned me because it explains that in order to preserve the orange juice, the oxygen is sucked out. However, sucking out the oxygen also sucks out the flavor, so hired flavor/fragrance companies engineer "flavor packs" to reinsert the orange flavor and smell. Because the flavor packs are made of orange elements, they aren't listed on the label. But it sure isn't "all-natural" orange juice anymore.

At the end of the article, it advises us to stick to juicing ourselves, going to a juice bar, or just eating an orange. So I decided to research and see if there are ANY production orange juices that don't use flavor packs, or if it's time to buy a juicer. The orange juice I drink now is from Trader Joe's:

So I googled "Does Trader Joe's orange juice use flavor packs?"

I found this: http://www.toxinless.com/orange-juice

Someone already did my research for me! Trader Joe's, as always, proved why it is my favorite grocery store, because it does not allow the use of flavor packs in its orange juice.

So, dear readers, be careful about what you eat, because even if it isn't listed on the label, it still may be in your food.

Making and coloring natural soap

So my mom and I learned how to make cold-process soap a while ago, and over Christmas break, we made another batch, but it didn't hold the color very well with our synthetic colorant. That's fine, because I don't mind the natural-colored soap. But it DID motivate me to research how to properly color my soap. See, I decided that I'm going to make this my new hobby. I have my beadwork, but sometimes a girl just needs to rest her hands a bit! So soap it is!

In this path of colorant discovery, I'm realizing that I really don't want to use commercial/synthetic/mass-produced colorants. I want to go natural. I've always wanted to keep my soaps as natural as possible, so I like the idea of using things like kelp powder or paprika or alkanet to color my soaps instead of mica powders or waxes. Plus, soap gets washed down the drain. I want my oceans to be there in 20 years, thanks.

I've realized that I want to buy some of these herbs fresh, dry them myself (hello delicious-smelling apartment!), and then use a mortar and pestle to grind them up to a powder for coloring. This is a great, simple post on using a mortar and pestle: http://cutemojo.com/2012/05/how-to-use-a-mortar-and-pestle-to-make-powders/

What I'd like to try, especially for swirling, is pull out a small amount of the soap once it traces, then color it with the powder, then swirl it into the main mixture and pour into the molds. I've seen it done, I'm just not sure how strong the powders will be. Fun experiment though, and it's not like it will ruin the soap if it doesn't color it deeply enough.

In my Internet vortex, (I have 25 tabs open right now! eek!) I learned that infusing herbs into oils before I use them in my soaps is another great way to increase color: http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/07/color-soap-naturally-infusing-oil-with-herbs-and-spices/

And then, depending on the herb, I may put slightly larger pieces (like seed-sized pieces) into the soap at trace for either an exfoliant or just decoration. So there you have it, a three-fold way of increasing the herb presence in my soaps AND colors, the natural way.

Numb3rs is underrated

I've been watching Numb3rs on Netflix during the break. It's my second time watching the series, but I just really love it.

I think these are what I like most about it:

1. Charlie and Don are an awesome sibling duo. As the series unfolds, it becomes apparent that this has not always been the case, and they spent a long time out of touch, but when the show starts, they are becoming friends, as well as brothers. It's awesome because both brothers are so crazy smart in their own way that each brother has an unspoken awe of the other one's talents.

2. It's the cleanest show on Netflix right now, I'm positive. I didn't even notice until the second season, but I realized that there is very, very little swearing, and no sex scenes. Actually, the closest we get to a sex scene, everyone still has their pants on. Blood and gore are kept to a minimum. The cameras don't just sit and focus on it like some other shows do while I'm trying to keep my dinner down (ahem SVU).

3. There is very little drama. The show has its own continuing story arcs like the cute Charlie-Amita dance, but there is no main antagonist besides the criminal-of-the-week, and we don't really strongly dislike any of the characters, even Millie, who ruffles feathers at first, but then settles in as one of the crew. Basically, there is never any deep, traumatic drama that leaves me feeling unsettled at the end of the show. Which leads me to the next favorite:

4. Each episode ends with the brothers and usually their dad or friends engaging in gentle banter and such. It's very heartwarming (as much as I hate that word) and makes me smile. That's a win in my book.

5. Each character is just a good person. They are good people. There is a scene where Alan stops by the office to see if the boys want dinner, but he declines to interrupt their heartwarming little sibling moment, and instead asks Megan to come by the house for dinner. She is just his son's co-worker, so really it should be a bit more awkward, but I love how they get along too. All of the group members are  just friendly and likable and get along easily with each other.

5. It draws attention to the importance of math. I'm terrible with math, but watching this show makes me realize how important it will be to make sure my kids do well and enjoy it. Plus, I like how the crime solving aspect keep it from being too nerdy.

6. Charlie and his friends' nerdisodes are hilarious. Most shows have some aspect of them just geeking out, like making ice cream from liquid nitrogen (I did that in high school!), or making things explode through high school science experiment type stuff. I love it. It's so funny. Like, the world's most brilliant minds and they are thoroughly entertained by scientifically determining how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. They really are kids at heart. (and boys will be boys).

7. Random little comments that make me laugh, because it's so true life. For instance, there is a time when Charlie is with Don, Sinclair and Granger, and Charlie says, "the odds of that, it would be like all  four of us getting struck with lightning on the way home." Enter Sinclair: "...and it's not even raining." Astute observation, buddy. I love how all of these characters are so intelligent in different ways. They complement each other so you never feel like any one character is smarter than everyone else. Even Charlie has to be schooled by the others sometimes.

So if you haven't watched Numb3rs yet, I suggest you start. It's a detailed, intensive show, but it is also lighthearted and cute. Good combination.

Five Fast Findings

It's been a while, but I had some random thoughts to share today:

1. I hate funerals. Hate them. I will do anything to avoid a funeral. And a viewing. At my grandpa's funeral, I refused to look at his body in the casket. Because that wasn't my grandpa, it was simply what he had left behind. Funerals, similarly, are just pointless because the person DIED. They are not around to enjoy the funeral. Sure, you can argue they are watching from above, but that doesn't matter to me, the person who is now suffering through 2 hours of people trying mightily to joke instead of cry about the person. No thanks. I refuse.

2. I also hate wedding receptions. I think the thing is, only weddings and funerals will be enough motivation to gather some families together, and that just feels so false to me. If you're really family, and if you're really connected, then you won't really even need a funeral or a reception, because you guys all had an impromptu gathering the moment it happened anyway! Perhaps that's just me being naive and watching too many movies, but I hope hope hope that my future family is tight and yet inclusive. I want my kids to bring random people home for the holidays. I want them to gather together on their own because they're friends as well as siblings, without needing the matriarch and patriarch to organize get-togethers. I want my grandkids to pop by without notice, just to say hey. So I think that's why I don't like funerals and weddings. If you weren't close enough to see everyone without the excuse of a reception or the funeral luncheon, then why bother?

3. I need a What Not To Wear makeover. I'm still wearing things that are like 6 years old. A few items (not many, thank goodness) are actually holdouts from high school. Why? Because a) I don't have money to get a brand new wardrobe, b) I'm always hoping I'll lose weight, or I will lose weight and then gain it back later, and c) I have a terrible eye for fashion and what looks good. I can pull together a fantastic photo shoot or organize a perfect art display or design my own beadwork, but the second you throw me in a store and expect me to piece something together, I'm totally lost.

4. I want to visit Puerto Rico. I just watched a What Not To Wear with a girl from P.R., and it just seems fun. Plus, you don't need a passport, but it's still "spicy" and traveling out of the country.

5. I just completed my first law school final exam. Mostly, I'm grateful that my toughest class was the first exam because I had more time to study and also got it out of the way faster, plus, every exam is just easier from here. But dang. It takes a long time to recuperate. I got home at about noon, zoned out to an episode of Psych, and then halfway through, nodded off and took an unplanned 3-hour nap. Plus, I need to do laundry and take a shower, but the thought just overwhelms me. My brain is so burned out. I'd been studying nonstop for this exam for the past week, and I was spent. Last night, at Taco Bell, I forgot the name of the Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes, even though I've been ordering them for years. Now, I have to turn around and start studying for my Civil Procedure exam on Thursday. say what? I'm so done with finals already, but this was only the first of three!

Discrimination is not always what you think

I was watching a TV show where a little white girl was kidnapped from her upper middle class neighborhood and a special FBI team flew out to help find her. At the crime scene, a black mother demanded to see someone and she revealed that her daughter had been abducted 9 days prior from their high-crime neighborhood, and there were vigils or community help for her, nor did cops have the time to look into it. I had two thoughts:

a) As much as I try to run from it sometimes, the likelihood is, if my kid were abducted, it wouldn't take 9 days for cops to have their attention. I'm a racial minority, but I grew up in a middle class neighborhood, and so will my kids.

b) This is why education is so important, so we can shrink the gap between economic levels. If my kid were abducted, I would move heaven and earth to get people to look for her. I have a bachelor's degree and am getting my law degree, so I know how the system works and who to talk to. But to many others out there, they grew up in fear of the police, and may not know how to get things done and navigate the justice system.

In this situation, when it came to getting the attention of police, it didn't matter that one family was white and the other was black, it mattered that one was privileged/educated/whatever you want to call it, and the other was not. So this is dumbing the issue down a bit, but really, if we want to fix economic disparity in this country, we need to improve schools so that black mother could have had a chance to get more education and not only live in a nicer area, but have the power and confidence to demand authority's assistance. She did everything she knew to do, but education would have expanded her toolbox. Bottom line, racial discrimination is still an issue, but more often than not, much of what we call racial discrimination today is actually class discrimination.

5 Fast Things

It's been a while so... :

1. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in psychology!

2. I'm going to ASU law school!

3. I live in Arizona now and right now, it is hotter than anything you can imagine until you experience it. Ugh.
Tips:
a. Go out in the early morning before 11am, or after the sun goes down.
b. Don't leave anything meltable or flammable in your car.
c. Don't move into a new place in the heat of summer.
d. Don't move here in the heat of summer unless you're in a financial position to not worry about your A/C bill.
e. Drink water. Constantly. Don't leave it in your car either, it gets hot, not warm, hot. Hot water in 110-degree heat is just nasty.

4. Decorating a new apartment is fun, especially when you have a nice budget to do so. Pics coming soon when I get everything situated.

5. I'm thinking of learning to box, and got reactions like this boxing meme:

10 moseying months

So it's been a while...I'm sorry. But not really, because instead of blogging about life, I've been out living it.

Here's a quick recap of 2012:

April-July: Spring semester at BYU-Idaho. Psychology major. love. Went to the lake for 4th of July. ideal. Got a 3.7 GPA my first semester back in real college (cause community college doesn't really count). legit. Decided to go to law school to study Indian Law.

July-Septemberish: Summer break in Spokane. Barbecues. yum. Studying for the LSAT. blech. Hanging with the family. yay? Swimming in our pool and tanning. bliss. Made soap and other homemade beauty and home products with my mom. delicious. I had my dog with me for the summer too. I miss him. (He lives with my grandma during the school year because BYU-I approved housing doesn't allow pets.)

September-December: Fall semester at BYU-Idaho. Asked to be PRESIDENT of the Native American Heritage Association. gulp. Took the LSAT in October, bombed the games section so I'm not really proud of my score, but it got me into law school so oh well. sigh. I completed my law school applications and sent them over Christmas break. Fall semester was rough, I had SO FREAKING MUCH going on. glad it's over. but wait...there's more. law school in the fall.

January-now: Back in Rexburg for my offtrack, taking 14 credits to graduate in July. I hate this blasted weather. I got sick for the first time in over a year, probably thanks to the -18 degree weather (no joke, it was -18 degrees Farenheit). Car decided it wouldn't start unless I jumped it. Luckily, I'd bought a jump starter in December. So I jump started it every time I went anywhere for the first 3 weeks of January, until things warmed up. I'm now a bada** girl who doesn't need a boy to take care of her car! Naturally though, my ignition went out soon after. Had to get that replaced. I'm still president of NAHA, and we are going to South Dakota for spring break, to volunteer at the Cheyenne River Youth Program. I've heard back from 3 of the 12 law schools I applied to. Acceptances all, at Michigan State University, Lewis & Clark, and University of Utah. Each place I applied to has different and significant perks, so unless I get into Yale (hahaha), it's going to be a very tough choice on where to spend the next three years of my life.

And now you're all caught up. Cause ya know you missed me.