Famous Last Words: The Final Curtain

Whelp. This is it. The last 2 points I need to hit 410 and get an A in the class. Talk about waiting to the last minute, right? I've been sitting at 400 for the last week with 8 points available just for submitting the simple "I'm Done with My Project" form. Procrastination at its finest. On the upside, I'm finally getting this done, so I'll have my first 4.0 semester ever. It'll likely end up being just this class after converting my other three to P/NP. Hopefully all P's, but I was able to enroll in the summer session Intro to Biochem just in case...

This semester has been a wild ride for everyone, so I hope you're all doing okay. My finals schedule next week is completely front loaded. I have Molecular Biology on Monday at 8am, then Biochem at 8am and PChem at 10:30 on Tuesday. I'm 4 whole days away from being free from this ridiculous semester. Get me out of here already!

After finals, I'm finally gonna let myself have a mental break down and dye my hair purple. Because why not? I'm also gonna try to start an exercise routine, but will probably just end up playing a bunch of Animal Crossing instead. It's finally starting to warm up here on the east coast, so I might even go outside!

I currently have a plane ticket back to Oklahoma from Maryland scheduled for June 7th. I'm really hoping I'll actually get to be on that flight. I miss my boyfriend :( I'm also currently paying $754/month for an apartment I'm not actually living in. My roommate is back in Norman and is struggling to keep our succulents alive, too (she's normally in charge of the big leafy bois). So it's really a matter of my children's safety at this point.

I never got around to doing a puppy photo dump like I mentioned in my introduction, so I'll leave you all with a recent favorite of this goofball:

When the afternoon zoomies hit...

To Laura: Thank you for two semesters now of caring, creativity, and fun. If you come up with a third version of this class I could take before I graduate next spring, please email me!

Week 14 Story (Lab): Twine Part 2

Author's Note:

I used my tech tip this week to learn about embedding twine stories rather than just linking to them! This choose your own adventure is a retelling of Ellen C. Babbit's The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. There are three different endings, so have fun and feel free to play more than once!

Tech Tip: Twine in a Blog Post

This is the same game from my week 12 story lab, just embeded!

Biography: Dads Make Bad Babysitters

Write a story prompted by a personal photo. What words do you need to tell the whole story, beyond what we can see in the photo?

Left to Right: My brother, Andrew (Age 7) and Sean Danilko (Age 4)
Summer 2009 (Personal Photo)

The summer between 4th and 5th grade, my family went camping with the Danilko's. My brother and I were 7 and 10 respectively. Melanie and Derek had a son, Sean, who was 4 at the time. Melanie also had an older son, Tom, who was about 13. The moms decided to run into town to grab some food for that night (I think we were out of stuff for s'mores). While the ladies were gone, the dads decided it would be funny to "babysit" the kids by duct taping us all to the trees around our campsite while they drank beers by the fire. Tom, being a teenager, had a pocket knife and simply cut himself free. I was, and still am, always cold, so I just slipped out of the hoodie I had on. The two younger boys were, unfortunately, a little more stuck without adult assistance. We all had a good laugh and even got some chuckles from other campers who wandered by. The moms were less amused when they got back, but it was pretty fun!

This was also the same trip where Derek caught a HUGE fish at the campground lake... himself.

(Not graphic, I promise)

Whatcha got there, Derek?
(Personal Photo)

Showing off his newest piercing
(Personal Photo)

Unfortunately, it was a barbed hook, so a quick trip to the local emergency room was required to remove it. The rest of the trip went off without any other incidents though!

Author's Note:

I feel like I should say that all of us kiddos were 100% on board with the tree thing and weren't restrained against our will. Tom and I only made a run for it when it took the moms like 20 minutes longer than expected to return. The only one harmed during this trip was Derek, and it was his own fault with no permanent damage.

I've been doing my darndest to insert a little humor into this crazy world through these biographical writing assignments. I hope it's been working! I know these trips down memory lane have been a huge relief for me. There's just something about that happy nostalgic feeling. I hope everyone's doing okay! Hang in there! We're almost done!

Microfiction: Inspired by a Photo

Author's Note:

For these microfictions, I found a random picture generator online. It gave me the following photo:

via Pixabay

Two-Sentence, Six-Word Story: Word Count 6

"Don't lie. Who's my real dad?"

Twitterarature: Character Count 119/140

Lionel Mouster @Fairly_Odd_Predator

So uh... I just found my birth certificate? Explains so much.

#Wild #ReallyMom #MixedKid #TruthCanBeStrangerThanFiction

Famous Last Words: Alum Ceremony

As a member of my sorority's executive board, it has been my responsibility to help plan alternative options to our organization's functions during the Coronavirus lock down. While instructions from our national organization (read: overlords) helped to ease the burden by permitting us to wave virtually all requirements in our constitution, it still fell on us to try to keep some sense of normalcy and maintain the chapter's mental health.

We moved our weekly meetings to Zoom, and even pulled money from the budget to pay for a full subscription to avoid the forty minute time limit. One of the biggest impacts in all of this was our semesterly alum ceremony. Per national guidelines, our ceremonies are top secret and, therefore, can't be done over the internet. Supplies and documents for ceremonies aren't even allowed to be kept in our google drive. Hard copies are stored in a trunk (recently upgraded to a suitcase) that must remain locked and in the possession of the president at all times.

Luckily, the ceremony isn't technically required for a member to be granted alum status. The appropriate paperwork simply needs to be filed with the National Director of Records. So, in place of our traditional alum ceremony, we held a zoom meeting tonight to say good by to, tell stories about, and just generally honor our newest alum members. The only thing missing was our traditional post-ceremony cookie cake. To be fair, it's hard to do when we've all scattered across the country.

Among those leaving was my big, Elizabeth. Hence why I've spent the last 90 minutes fighting back tears. She's graduating in two weeks with her degree in Meteorology. Thankfully, she'll be staying in Norman with her boyfriend after graduation so I'll still get to see her. I'm just going to dump a bunch of personal photos in her honor (the one's I could find). I love you, E!

Graduation Photos:

Meteorology (Swirl Girl!):

 

Joined ASK (Candidate Class):

She Gets a Little (Me):

 

She Gets Some G-Littles (Grandma Alert!):

She Turns 21:

Various Line Shenanigans:

Wikipedia Trail: From Goblin to the Western Apache People

If you haven't figured it out by now, I make it a personal goal to make the weirdest Wiki Trails possible.

This week I started at "Goblin" in reference to my Week 13 Story.

From there I linked to Welsh Language.

Third up was Inflection.

Last was the Western Apache People.

via Pikist