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!

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:

Famous Last Words: Pink Elephants!

White elephants tend to be featured heavily in ancient folklore, but do they actually exist? Sort of. When looking for pictures of white elephants, my first instinct was to search for albino elephants. That's how this whole spiral started. As it turns out, albino elephants are actually pink!

via Wikimedia Commons

While low pigment patches aren't uncommon among elephants, full albinism is. However, in 2016 there was an albino elephant born in Kruger National Park located in South Africa. It is the third documented albino calf spotted in the area after one in 2005 and another in 2006. Unfortunately, most wild albino animals won't make it to adulthood. Their lack of pigment leaves them without protection against the harsh african sun. There is currently a fourth albino calf, born this year, that is in the care of specialists after being found caught in a poachers snare in the Kapama game reserve. She has been named Khanysia, meaning light.

So if "white" elephants are pink, where do the white elephants come from. The short answer: mud!

Namibia's national park is the home of  "The Ghosts of Etosha". Etosha meaning "Great white place". To keep cool during the day, elephants play in watering holes and cover themselves in mud. The high salt concentrations left in the ground in this area from melting during the last ice age leave the clay a brilliant white color when it dries. So the elephants aren't actually white, they're just dirty!

So there you have it! No white elephants. Although I am tempted to drop the $500 to go on an african safari now... I need to stop researching national parks! Especially ones that offer spa packages. Anyways, feel free to click on the links and do some reading on your own. I personally find elephants adorable and fascinating! Enjoy!

Famous Last Words: I'm Slowly Losing My S**t

Well it's official! Junior year is royally kicking my butt. It's now almost 9am and I've slept for a whole 45 minutes in the last 24 hours (two 20 minute naps when I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer). There's been so much stress in my life over the last few weeks and I feel so bad for neglecting this class! Just in the month of February I quit my job, had a friend committed to a mental institute, and will now be starting the process to drop my PChem Lab. Why is college so hard??? I don't think I've managed to eat a vegetable all week and we won't even talk about the current state of my apartment...

On the bright side, I did manage to have a pretty good Valentine's Day! This year was actually the first time I've had a date for it 😊
We went to a benefit dinner for the school of music because my boyfriend managed to grab a set of free tickets. Let me tell y'all those were some of the BEST mashed potatoes I've ever had!

This last Friday was my boyfriend's birthday too! We went up to Edmond to hang out with some friends and did an escape room. So needless to say, I've spent WAY too much money recently, but it's been super fun!

I got really behind in this class over the last couple of weeks, but I managed to do everything plus all of the extra credit this week! Yay! I know I need to work on my time management skills. You would think that at 21 years old I would have figured this stuff out by now. Apparently not. I guess we'll see how the rest of the semester goes. Right now I just want some sleep.

To help make this Monday not so sucky, I'm including a picture of my pupper. My dad sent it to me when he has trying to go to bed and she was NOT having it 😂Enjoy!

The spaz refusing to settle down for bed and ready to pounce. (Personal Photo)