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

Biography: Pronunciation Matters

Share an event in your life when you later found out you had been wrong about something.

Author's Note: I received a comment on one of my previous Bio Writing posts to "Please write more biography-style stories! We need some good humor in times like these :')" (Thanks Christine! Glad you enjoyed it!). I agree that some humor is very much needed in these stressful times. So, without further ado, one of the most embarrassing moments of my life that my family still harasses me over nearly a decade later. Hopefully it will give at least a few of you a chuckle. If not, I just published this to the internet, so no takesies-backsies. 

Setting: Cancun, Mexico. Circa 2011(ish). On a family vacation.
Age: 12 (I think?)

When I was in 7th grade, my family took a vacation to Cancun, Mexico. I can't remember the name of the resort we were at for the life of me, but I do know it was all-inclusive with a swim-up bar in the pool that did non-alcoholic mudslides and daiquiris for the kiddos. I was in heaven! One of the outings we went on was to an adventure park called Xplor. I went zip lining, despite being terrified of heights, and later floated on a lazy river style ride through beautiful caverns. One of the families in our "group" happened to have a daughter my age and was staying at the same hotel as us! We hung out for most of our time at the park and even had dinner with them the next night!

Now for the embarrassing part: While at the restaurant, my little brother (about nine years old at the time) decided to try ordering for himself.

Lil' Bro: "Daddy, I want this!"

Dad: "That's fine, just tell the waitress when she gets here."

Me: "What are you getting?" *has him point to what he's ordering*

My eyes get wide, and I, in my infinite 12-year-old wisdom, blurt out, "Wait, isn't that underwear? You're gonna let him order underwear???"

That, ladies and gentleman, was the day that four adults had to struggle through tear-inducing laughter to explain the difference between linguine and lingerie to me. In my defense, the words do look quite similar! 

But wait! There's more! Flash forward a year or so to a vacation in Outer Banks, NC with another family that is now our neighbors. They have, of course, heard the linguine story by now. I believe it actually got brought up while we were eating that night, so it was fresh on everyone's mind. We're in the Dirty Dick's Crab Shack gift shop after dinner and my dad pulls some souvenir panties off the rack, holds them up, and goes, "Hey Jess, you want some linguine?"

Haha. Very funny. Mrs. Donna is losing it on the other side of the small store, so dad decides to launch them at her like a rubberband. What no one knew until after she caught them? On the front of this G-string was a cartoon shrimp with the words "Peel Me and Eat Me." On a pair of underwear. Yeah. Nice one, dad.

I remembered the name of the resort! Azul Sensatori!
via Flickr

Microfiction: The Dance of Death

via Flickr

Sudden Fiction: Word Count 162

You push the door open gently and reval an old storage room. There's a layer of dust covering everything in sight. Well, almost everything... The twisted piece of metal seems innocuous enough. Even with its mysterious glow. You're not sure where the knowledge comes from, but you know it won't hurt you. It exudes a sense of peace, warmth, and comfort along with its soft, ethereal glow. You reach out and gently remove it from its place on the crumbling wooden bookshelf. As you fingers close around it, the house shakes and an eerie melody drifts in through the open door behind you. You poke your head back out into the corridor and call for your sister. She emerges from the dining room, gracefully floating down the hall like a dancer in a trance. She's muttering to herself, "Yes, Master. I'm coming to the Ballroom." She begins humming along with the haunting tune as she drifts out of sight around the corner.

Drabble: Word Count 59

You hear the spooky, unnerving sound of a fiddle start somewhere in old house. It gets louder and louder as you sense of unease grows. Then, a sense of calm passes over you as you feel the calming music reach you.. go through you... It beckons you, and you follow with no hesitation. There is nothing but the music.

Author's Note:

These two are based on the scenario of Betrayal at House on the Hill that my family and I played last night. While it's a little complicated to figure out the first few times through, I would highly recommend it! I had played it at a friend's house prior to quarantine (oh the days when I could leave the house...) and convinced my dad to order it off of Amazon. Let me know if you've played this before or end up trying it!

Tech Tip: Randomizer

Let's see if this works... Leave a comment if the randomizer gives you your favorite color!

Week 13 Story: Why the Fairy Hates the Goblins

"Goddamnit, not again," sighed the fairy as she rolled over in her bed and pulled the pillow over her head. This was the third time this week that the goblins had decided to have their meal after midnight. She wouldn't mind there odd meal times if it wasn't for the screaming. It always woke her up.

When they first moved into her island, the goblins actually weren't terrible neighbors. The helped her deal with her pest problem, since all of the little humans had gotten it into their heads that the fountain of youth was located on the island. Her protective storm charms usually blew them off course enough to keep them away.

Recently though, the fog charm had begun to fade (she really needed to get around to redoing it). This meant the sailors could actually see the island and would swim to shore if the storms wrecked their ships. She understood that the goblins couldn't eat their previous prisoners while the next group was around, but did they have to torture the poor men before eating them? Hadn't anyone ever taught them to not play with their food???

It had been about a month since the midnight feedings had begun, and the fairy was sick and tired (literally) of never being able to sleep through the night. "I need to figure out a way to teach them a lesson," she thought. "What if I rescue the next lot that comes in? A few days of hunger might teach them to treat their food better."

And so the fairy began casting her spells. When a group of sailors washed ashore, she watched them and determined which one was the leader. Later that night, while the men slept, the goblins snuck away to feast on the group before that was in the dungeons. "Wake," the fairy whispered in the captain's ear. He snapped awake and realized his wife was missing. In the distance he heard screaming, but thinking it was just a nightmare, he quickly settled back into sleep. Until his wife returned that is. Already having been shaken from a deep sleep, he heard her come in the door. She was singing about all the men she had eaten. She stepped past the window, and in the moonlight the captain saw that his wife was actually a goblin!

He pretended to be asleep and first thing in the morning called for his men. "We must leave this place! Our women are not women at all! They plan to eat us!" he cried.While the crew was doubtful, they trusted their captain. Seeing that her plan had worked, the fairy revealed herself to the group. The men were startled at first, but the capitan recognized her from the night before and reassured him.

"Thank you for heading my warning, young sailors," she said, "For far too long I have listened to the cries of the goblin's prisoners at night as they are eaten alive. I cannot stand it any longer. Meet my pegasus by the sea cliffs after your brides have snuck out to feast tonight. You will be taken home to safety." The fairy turned on her heel and vanished into thin air.

That night, the sailors all pretended to fall asleep early. When midnight struck and the she-goblins snuck out for their dinner, the men all met by the cliffs. A brilliant white pegasus appeared out of the night and by some magic fit all 12 of them on it's back. It rose into the air with two powerful beats of its wings and the next thing anyone knew, they had been dropped off at the beach outside of their village.

The fairy was awakened once more that night by the sound of frustrated cries when the goblins returned to find their meals missing. She smirked to herself and dozed off...

via Pixnio
Here's to hopefully being somewhere warm and sunny for the summer

Author's Note: This is a story that never got posted from ALL the way back in week two. It's based on W. H. D. Rouse's Goblin City. In the original story, it is mentioned that the fairy hated the goblins. I wanted to expand on that. At the end, only half of the sailors believed their captain and went home, but I chose to save them all.