Katie Crane

Every year at Columbia I have had a close encounter with some kind of pest. I thought that this year might be the exception. WRONG. Freshman year, Carman: I get off the elevator and am greeted in the lounge to news that I have a roach. Fantastic. In my room, my roommate and floormate pal are staring at the wall (It apparently ran up the wall and into the drawers). I start freaking out and yelling at floormate pal to take all the drawers out and dig through them. For some reason he felt really uncomfortable rustling through my t-shirts, which only made the high-pressure situation worse. It was nowhere to be found, and we had to sleep knowing that it was probably inside our walls.more Sophomore year, Mcbain: My roommate is out and it's around 10 at night as I work on a paper due the next day. Throughout the evening I had heard an unidentified scurrying sound, which I originally thought was a mouse. But I could never find the source, so decided it must be coming from next door. As the scurrying persisted, I decided to open my bottom desk drawer, just to be safe. A MOUSE APPEARED. I slammed the drawer shut and stereotypically jumped onto my chair. My dad said that it wouldn't crawl all over me in my sleep, and that my best bet was to try and kick it and probably kill it. Not following that advice, I had to haul over to Hartley in the pouring rain. The mouse was caught on a sticky trap, which was then picked up by a different floormate pal. We put the trap in a box, carried the box outside, and poured olive oil all over the little guy until he freed himself. I slept on a futon and caught THE SECOND MOUSE the next day. He was freed in the same matter.  Junior year, Symposium: I'm about to go get my laundry from the basement when I hear my roommate say, "Kaaaaatie...?" The tone did not sound good. I look up and there is a HUGE, FLYING, COCKROACH-LIKE CREATURE on the wall. Screaming ensued, and I went to get my laundry to escape. A friend came up to see what was going on after hearing several cries of, "JUST KILL IT!!!!!" My roommate made the rookie mistake of taking her eyes off the bug, therefore a hunt ensued. Friend then killed it with a roll of toilet paper. Lessons learned: If you are able-bodied and hear the telling yells of what is sure to be an infestation, please go help. We can get through this together. Katie Crane is a junior in SEAS and should be given a humanitarian award for all the weird looks she got from passers-by whilst dumping olive oil on mice.

Fact: I live on an urban campus, and thus walk a lot. Fact: So do you. All of this constant walking has brought up a curious debate—to headphone or not to headphone? Many a time have I had the conversation about the reasons for and against listening to music through headphones while strolling around, be it to class or wherever. I'm going to list reasons I've heard on either side, and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. My personal opinion varies from moment to moment. FOR:

Despite the sucky weather, I walked past two people yesterday hating on umbrellas! Here's a secret: I used to be one of them. I didn't own an umbrella until this year. My freshman and sophomore year I was convinced they weren't worth it. Every time the wind blew they were always turning inside out. Additionally, when I walk holding an umbrella the tines are right at eye-level for most people I'm walking past, and I wouldn't want to be responsible for partially blinding anyone. Also, doesn't your arm get tired? However, this year, after two years of raincoats whose hoods won't stay up in the wind, water running off of the same raincoats to soak my pants, and stepping in all the puddles our brick walkways spawn, I was willing to splurge  the $20 and give umbrellas a second chance.more Guys. Umbrellas are awesome. First of all, this thing has a button that extends it and opens it. The button ALSO collapses it, and then you just have to push it back in. MAGIC. This magic rain tent is also waaaaaay smaller and more portable than a raincoat. If I had to carry around my raincoat, it would fill up my entire backpack, whereas this guy is smaller than my water bottle. It's also significantly easier to open and close this push-of-a-button umbrella than it is to put on and take off a raincoat, which always leaves me soaked anyway since it's still sopping wet. Most importantly, not only does the umbrella prevent hood hair, it also means you won't end up with WET hood hair, as the hood inevitably never covers the entirety of your luscious locks. Also, I just think people look less frazzled and more put together if using an umbrella instead of a raincoat. The choice is yours, but I've switched to team umbrella. Katie Crane is a junior in SEAS who still has no solutions for the puddles around campus because she hates rain boots. For now.