Quiet Day

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose." Woody Allen

I couldn't find any pertinent quotes to relate to this post, so I chose one that made me, and will hopefully make you, laugh.

Knowing that it's only been 1 day since my last post, I'm slowly becoming excited about this new responsibility as the Active Mind "blogger". Having just taken a lunch break with my fellow intern who's working as the MPH intern, I figured I would write a quick post.

First of all (and completely unrelated to Active Minds), I just had "Chipotle" which is, apparently, a gourmet burrito and taco restaurant across the United States. However, I had never heard of this place until coming to D.C.!! There are so many places that Connecticut lacks, and my new friends don't forget to remind me of this. They are so surprised we don't have any of those places ("Potbelly" being another restaurant) over in CT.

Anyways, I'll get back on track. Today has been a quiet day. Out of the six people on staff in the office, only two full-timers are in today! Two of those missing are out of state for the week- one in Minnesota and the other in Maine. The the other is testifying at a Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee hearing. Needless to say, it's a more relaxed day.

I'm working on a bunch of things concerning fund raising and lobbying Congressmen during the Fall conference. If any of you Active Minds members are reading this - get pumped! There are currently two pieces of related legislation in Congress - S. 682 and H.R. 1704 - titled "Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act". You can track these bills on www.govtrack.us to see where they are in the legislative process. In November we'll be lobbying Members of Congress to pay attention to mental health issues and, if it has not been passed by then, lobby for them to vote for the bills. They are incredibly important in our fight to "change the conversation about mental health". Basically, they would award grants to institutions of higher education to improve mental and behavioral health services and outreach on college and university campuses.

Please, contact your local House Representative or Senator (which you can find on either www.house.gov or www.senate.gov respectively) and tell them to support these bills!!

Always remember, We are all working towards a similar goal, so why not help each other out!