Goodness/Gracious

Just when I'm thinking that Halloween is my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving always comes along and throws me a curve-ball.  No classes?  A chance to go home?  Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and creamy corn and fresh rolls and cranberries and pumpkin pie?  Yes, please!  Forget what I said before - Thanksgiving is totally my favorite holiday.  Plus, Thanksgiving is only the beginning of the Christmas season; meaning that once Thanksgiving is over, there's still so much celebrating to be done!

Waiting in line for the SAB turkey dinner.

Before Thanksgiving break even began at Rockhurst (we had a whole week off of classes!), SAB sponsored a free turkey dinner for all Rockhurst students.  You have to get there early because the line gets pretty long, so my roommate and I camped out for 45 minutes before the doors opened.  SAB offered all of the traditional Thanksgiving feast favorites and played gentle piano music in the background.  That free dinner definitely got me in the Thanksgiving spirit!

During Thanksgiving break I was fortunate enough to be able to go home for five whole days.  Once I got off work on Sunday, I dashed home, threw everything in my car, said goodbye to KC's bizarre 75 degree weather, and prepared for bundle up for the low 30s in Omaha.  Brrrrr.  It certainly is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  Once home, my mom and I took a little over-night trip to visit my grandparents in Norfolk, Nebraska, then we hurried back to Omaha for the main event.  Thanksgiving dinner.  Yum.

By Kent Bellows

Even though I had to go back to KC in order to work on Black Friday, I managed to cram in a little bit more family time on Friday morning.  We all woke up bright an early to take advantage of - no, not the Black Friday shopping deals - free admission to Omaha's Joselyn Art Museum.  Let's just say that the crowds at the art museum where much easier to handle than at Best Buy or Wal-Mart or SAB's free turkey dinner.

You might be thinking right now that I must be some sort of art museum junkie, since I just made a post about the scavenger hunt I had at KC's Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, but this frequent museum-going is entirely a fluke.  My dad really wanted to see an art exhibit by Kent Bellows, an Omaha artist who made pencil, graphite, and charcoal drawings that capture the "reality" of the observed world.  The exhibit was absolutely breathtaking; even up close, so many of his realist drawings looked like photographs.  

Before we left the museum, my family took the time to look at the steel sculpture of blown glass located in the Joselyn's main entry/atrium.  My little nine-year-old sister, Monica, was so interested in the twirling tendrils of colorful blown glass. It was the perfect end to a perfect Thanksgiving break.

Chihuly: Inside & Out, , glass and steel

Monica was amazed by all the colors.

By the end of all that fun, Andrea and I were pretty worn out.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Tall Tales

With finals right around the corner, it's difficult to not constantly think about school and the projects I have to do before the end of the semester.

The smallest and tallest men in the world.

In my Principles of Economics class, for example, I recently gave a presentation on the height tax.  It is statistically proven that tall people (above the national height average) make more money than short people (below the national height average), as tall people are more likely to have developed to their full cognitive potential.  Essentially, tall people were more likely to be well nourished and educated as children, which allowed them to 1.) grow tall and strong, and 2.) develop a high IQ.  The height tax suggests the government tax tall people more than their shorter peers because tall people can't help that they innately make more money.  Their income is based on an involuntary condition - being tall - so a height tax would defer our system away from heavily taxing people who work extraordinarily hard for their high income.

As a tall person myself - six inches above the national female average - I had fun debating the pros and cons of such a proposition.  First of all, it does seem very alarming that with the height tax, I would be taxed more than my shorter coworkers who make the same income as me.  It seems a little unfair that I would be singled out for being tall, but then again the government already taxes according to other demographics such as personal disabilities, number of children, charitable contributions, and, of course, level of income.  Through the height tax, perhaps being short will become a personal disability?

That being said, I think it is much more important to consider why it is that tall people have such an economic advantage.  That's easy: their parents were able to provide them with proper nutrition and a good education.  The way to solve the height advantage is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to become a "tall person" by having access to healthy and intellectually stimulating conditions.  Until that happens, the height tax may always be a possibility.

Secondly, I've been working on a research proposal for my Mass Media Seminar course.  I have been investigating the effect of lying behavior portrayed on prime-time television on the behavior of children.  Children already develop with a healthy capability to lie, but watching television programs that feature characters being dishonest in order to get what they want may disrupt the honesty and lying guilt that children form as they grow into adults.

So that's little look at what's on my plate right now.  The great thing is that I had the chance to choose my own topic for each of these projects, so the research and work isn't so hard when I'm working on something I'm interested in.  I encourage you to use that opportunity to your full advantage in college.  Your work will never be dull and you'll learn so much along the way!

Clues Before Christmas

It's only November 9 and I'm already tempted to be in the holiday spirit.  But I know that if I cave, I'll get sick of Christmas before the season truly begins.  Still, it's really difficult when I see holiday commercials on TV and hear Christmas music in the office.

Before the holidays can really hit, though, I have one major roadblock.  Finals.  And all the crazy preparation, papers and presentations that precede finals.  Just this week alone it seems that all the teachers are trying to jam everything in before Thanksgiving break.  I'm going to be running around with a chicken with its head cut off by next week.


My last glimpse of sanity took place this weekend.  On Saturday I had the chance to spend the day with my sister eating junk food and watching movies.  Then on Sunday a group of girls from my sorority met up with our sister chapter at UMKC to go on a photo scavenger hunt at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.  I love the Nelson as it is - like with the Plaza, we Rockhurst students are so fortunate to have something so amazing close by!  At the museum, we all broke off in teams of two and looked for everything on the scavenger hunt list.  The list contained items such as an orange light switch, a diner with many reflections, corn with butter, and a real armor for a horse.  The team that came up with the most pictures in the end won a $30 gift card to Chipotle.  Chipotle is a pretty big deal around campus, so the stakes were high.

Once the hunt was over, we all went outside (it was strangely and wonderfully beautiful out for November!) and took a group picture by the shuttlecocks on the front lawn.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Halloween.  One of my favorite holidays, during one of my favorite months of the year.  You can probably already tell from my other posts how much I love fall, but as much as I love the pumpkins and the falling leaves, I also love dressing up for Halloween! Here's a peek at my Halloweens past here at Rockhurst:

2007
Sadly, I was sick on Halloween freshman year and didn't get to dress up.  Don't worry - I made up for it the next few years!

2008
My friend Kate and I embodied the spirit of the 2008 presidential election our sophomore year by dressing up like Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

 

2009
We came down from our political platforms junior year in order to have a little Peace (hippy) and Quiet (mime).

Then Kate and I took out our frenemy issues by dressing up as Serena Vanderwoodsen and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl.

2010
And finally, for our senior year Kate and I were the most popular sites on campus - Twitter and Facebook!

Jennie photo-bombing in the background as Where's Waldo.

 Happy Halloween!