Oh, LUSH, how we love your fresh, natural products! Wait, what's that? They contain methylparaben? Wait a minute, doesn't that cause cancer??

Yes my friends, the sad truth is that your favorite LUSH product may be increasing your chances of getting cancer.

Because I love LUSH products, I have written to them to express my concern, and my desire to use LUSH products safely. Here is my letter:
Friends, I am sure that some of you also use LUSH. Please, please write to them asking that they remove all parabens from their products! You have my permission to copy and re-send my message.

It's important that we get as many people as possible to write to LUSH! If they see that a large enough number of their customers are demanding the removal of parabens, they will surely have to respond or risk losing business.

I am doing this out of love for the company. If I didn't like them so much, I would just stop shopping there--but I would much rather keep using my lovely LUSH soaps and scrubs, minus the parabens!

After four months living in Japan, I have returned to the United States. Culture shock has not quite set in yet, but jet lag has. I am glad to be home, though, as much as I miss my friends from abroad.

Now that I am on summer vacation, it is time to bust out my Photoshop skills and make some icons from all the photos I took in Japan. Other art types as well shall be forthcoming, especially once Kristin and I get started drawing our comic.

Today I went to Harvard Square to visit Lush. Kristin introduced me to the chain while we were in Japan; I had known about it before, but never stopped in. The woman who helped me today gave me a free hand treatment, and I bought some deoderant sans-aluminum. It smells like citrus! Yummy. If I'd had a bit more cash to spend I would have bought the lemon and shea butter lotion as well, but after that I was going to pick up my car from the garage, so I needed to keep my money tight.

My car sat in my parents' driveway while I was in Japan. Naturally, after four months of sitting still it needed some tuning up. The poor thing needed parts replaced in the front breaks, which ran me nearly $400. Better to have working breaks than not, though. I have a long drive tomorrow! Some of you may know the radio show Car Talk; it's their garage that fixes my car, so she was in good hands.