The University of Blog

I actually have an update. After a slow summer full of hanging out, swimming, working and enjoying every moment, I finally have had a real adventure.

I moved in. And it happened to be one of the most stressful experiences of my life. Well, we got the key and entered the door on August 1, and nothing was done. This includes painting, cleaning or any maintenance. We were ready to move. Our parents came in town, and we had rented a truck. I wanted to walk away right then and find the nicest apartment in Columbia. It was really awful. Well, my roommate’s dad decided that we could do the painting ourselves. So we ended up painting, cleaning and moving all in the SAME day.

As I was painting in the kitchen, I hear a scream. Sure enough the scream came from my roommates’ room where her parents were installing a window air conditioning unit. When I got to the room, everyone was gathered around the window. Sure enough it fell out the window and crashed two stories below.

Then our box springs didn’t fit up the stairwell. And our knob to the hot water in the shower fell off. We had to use pliers to get it to work for the past few weeks. I still don’t have a bedroom door.

Now, we are finally moved in and settled. Jimmy the cat joined our little family. I love my room. And once we put some art up, it will truly be a home– with a few maintenance issues that will maybe be resolved in two weeks to a year. Who knows.

Fun times were had at Six Flags on Sunday—big surprise. It was my first Six Flags experience—ever. After buying tickets online for the children’s price, I hopped in a car with my roommates. We jumped right in with our first ride on Batman. The line was minuscule. Perfect weather (not too hot) made it a superb day. In fact, there were very few lines even for the most popular rides like Mr. Freeze. This is the one with a 90 degree vertical incline. It lasted about thirty seconds, but it was the most intense thirty seconds, especially considering the fact that it went from 0-70 mph in about four seconds.

Superman was the ride which I was the most scared. It was a straight drop. The worst part was not knowing when I was going to fall. I ended up really enjoying it, but it was quite intense. I actually really like the ride Evil Knievel despite the fact that it was a wooden roller coaster. My experiences with wooden roller coasters have left me wanting to go to a chiropractor. This as well as Screaming Eagle were well worth it.

One of the best parts was not having to pay a lot for food. We ate lunch before entering the park and then brought a snack bar. When we got hungry, we split a funnel cake. Good deal. Everything was so expensive. I couldn’t believe charging $9 for a bucket of cotton candy or $3 for a soda. Parking alone was $15 and locker rental was $9. Thus, spending as little as possible made it worth it. And the trip overall was worth it despite getting lost on the way home.

Stardeath and the White Dwarfs

Last weekend my roommates and I hit up the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. The campsite is only about ten minutes from my home, but we decided to camp this year. After driving three hours to get in Thursday afternoon, we arrived to warnings of the biggest storm since the mid-1970s (the year of seven tornadoes). Needless to say, we stopped in at the grounds and then headed back to my house to sleep. Back at the campgrounds, everyone was safe but may have had a flooded tent or have had to sleep in their cars. I felt a bit like a wimp for leaving, but I had no desire to sleep in a car.

Friday is when all the music that I was really excited to see went down. We saw Stardeath and the White Dwarfs (Wayne Coyne’s nephew’s band—they are in highschool, and are really good), Apollo Sunshine, Galactic, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill and Cake. Cake had a scheduling issue and ended up playing really late, but it was really cool to see them perform and play the songs that I listen to regularly. By far, the Flaming Lips put on the best show – Wayne Coyne certainly knows how to perform to a festival crowd. My roommate Kristin had seen them several times and was fairly unimpressed, but the combination of the songs, confetti and crazy dancing made it a great experience and not one that I will soon forget. When I hear “Do you Realize” I will now remember that moment dancing at Wakarusa to that song with my closest friends.

Flaming Lips

Saturday was a day full of mild exhaustion, dirt accumulated from camping and fun music. We headed to the music tents early to check out the bands — Ozomatli played last year, and are a mixture of Spanish, hip-hop, rap and salsa. The Old 97s played before Ben Folds and were a mixture of pop and rock-and-roll. I saw Ben Folds last year at Mizzou and it was fun in the festival crowd. It was too bad that he overlapped with STS9, that did amazing things with colored lights, smoke and 3D lasers. I lost the people that I came with to crazy crowd dancing. For me the night ended with Yard Dogs Road Show. It was a bit of vaudeville mixed with theatrics – there was even a knife eater (there is little that is more impressive in a performance than knife eating).

We packed up early Sunday, checked out Dr. Dog and the communal drum circle and headed out. For Wakarusa, I really enjoyed the bands that were not quite as “jam-bandy.” I like finality. I could dance forever to one song, but I like noticing the changes in songs. I also like lyrics. I think that Wakarusa did a good job this year of creating a mixture of jam-bands and more mainstream bands. I’m sad the weekend is over, but excited for the summer ahead.

Wakarusa last year with my friend Kristin
For the next four days, I will be at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kans. There are a lot of smaller bands and then the Flaming Lips, Cake, Ben Folds and the Old 97s. I went last year and it was a lot of fun, but I commuted from my house 15 minutes away. This year will be the first year that I am camping. I haven’t camped since a family trip more than three years ago. We used to take camping family vacations all the time. Needless to say, I miss it. The music will be really good this year. I’ll let you know how it goes.

When I returned from my wonderful vacation, I came home to an empty foyer – which meant that my bikes were gone. I had two bikes – one was a mountain bike and my road bike. The mountain bike was strewn in the middle of our lawn (which was only a cheap Target bike), but my road bike that I ride everywhere was missing. I asked my roommates when it happened and then filed a police report. Apparently, it happened three days before I returned. This was really awful. I don’t know if it would have made a difference if my roommates noticed earlier, but alas, it was a sad day of return for me.
So, the lesson that I learned is to ALWAYS lock up the bike, even if it is to itself. A thief that cannot immediately ride away on a bike will be deterred. This means even locking it up INSIDE the foyer of our apartment. I will apply this to my NEW bike that I got off of craigslist.com yesterday. Once I learned my bike was gone and sulked for a few hours, I got online to find something that would work. I paid $70 for a used road bike. It was more than the road bike that I got for $25 at a garage sale, but it just got new rims, tires and cables. The price was for the work done on it. The best part is that it fits me, rides well and is blue – bright blue. A very sad return turned into a very sweet ride.

I had a simply fabulous birthday. Much better than the previous year where I had to wait two hours for dinner. First off, we had a dance party at our house and we had a great time. I danced. A lot. Any party with dancing is a good party. Mission successful.

The rents came Saturday and we ate breakfast at Café Berlin. It serves ethnic breakfast like eggs with tomatoes, feta cheese, olives and deliciousness. We ate there and then I was off to work on my birthday eve. No worries, my parents were able to see where I work when they came into Sycamore.

My parents then took me to the Le Bourgeois Winery in Rocheport. Last year we did the same thing and it was quite delightful. My parents asked them to bring out a CostCo cake (this serves 50 and contains 2 lbs of chocolate mouse frosting.) Needless to say, it took up half the table and the server had to put it on a platter.

Then we went to Macaroni Grill with the roomies and had a delightful evening. They brought out a cake- another chocolate cake (with candles). Then back to eat some more cake and open gifts. I am proponent of birthdays- especially birthdays filled with attention. Thus, birthday wish fulfilled.

Living off campus has a wonderful plethora of advantages. Not sharing a small rectangle living quarter with another person is a cause for celebration. Luckily, I did get along with my roommate last year; enough that we are living together again. However, there is nothing like having a space that is all your own. The aspects that make living off campus wonderful include more space, personality through adding decorations and the freedom to dance in the middle of the night to what others deem as “euro-trash” music.

Our apartment is an old east campus house divided into two apartments. The selling factor was the Van Gogh mural in the livingroom. However, we have to deal with everything on our own including utilities, laundry and cleaning. In the dorms, a friendly knock at the door meant a clean mirror and sink, but here a knock at the door could mean anything. Today it meant a man equipped with a net would have to get out the bird that was flapping around in our chimney. A chimney is not the most delightful place for a creature intended to fly. We’ve had a squirrel (we’ve named Franklin) in our attic before. This only became a problem when he wanted to get out and couldn’t figure out how. Otherwise, it was nice to think that we had a pet for a few days.

Laundry is an issue, but only a small issue. There is a coin washer outside and downstairs (only annoying with weather). Recently, the Columbia Appliance delivery truck was a cause for celebration. This would mean no more walks downstairs only to find clothes seeped in half a load of blue water. The only disadvantage is that our new washer does not like to stay in one place. Instead, it wants to be free and proceeds to dance all around making it impossible to open the door to the laundry room. Once we harnessed the strong powers of the machine with a cinderblock to keep it in place, we were set.

These are small issues that of course we can deal with because, after all, we have a space of our own. Which, besides the occasional animal that visits, it is quite a happy house.

(this was an extra credit assignment for my newswriting class)

The sun sets over the Missouri River on Sunday, Sept. 23.

As the sun set over the Missouri River, it brought the close to the Second Annual Eco Art Festival, a two- day event highlighting the necessity to clean up the river. The festival provided arts, music and educational events on Sept. 22-23 at Coopers Landing on the bank of the Missouri River.
Karen Crane of the Missouri River Relief worked a booth at the festival to help get young people interested in cleaning up the river.
“I’m a regular down here,” Crane said. “I would like to bring more people into it and push younger generations to realize the importance of the river and have more respect for it. Basically, keep it clean and don’t dump your trash there.”
Crane believes her efforts have been worth it after meeting a couple of young guys at a campfire and getting them interested in helping clean out the river.
“People love the environment,” Crane said. “It gives them idea of what is good, history and how much we actually get since we get a lot of trash.
To concentrate on the natural resources of the river, the festival also brought in artists that use natural materials and are inspired by the environment. This adequately fit the theme “Our Local Treasures.”
“I like the fact that it brings so many creative artist here,” Crane said. “It brings a lot of lovely talented people.”
Columbia resident Gale Johnson uses electrical wire and Missouri river rocks in her sculpted jewelry.
“Electricians can’t work with short pieces and it ends up somewhere,” Johnson said. “I keep as much as I can out of the recycle bins and trash cans.”
When Johnson helped to clean up after Hurricane Katrina, she picked up pieces of ceramic and glass from the shore to keep kids safe and decided to use it in her necklaces and hanging art to help preserve the earth as our “playground.”
“I make it all up myself and take art to a different place,” Johnson said. “I use the leftover wire and start making stuff. The shards from hurricane Katrina are absolutely beautiful and meaningful.”
The festival raised money for the Missouri River Cultural Conservatory as well as raised awareness for the Missouri River in a relaxing, scenic atmosphere.
“Being on the river is an absolutely beautiful place,” Johnson said. “It couldn’t get better than this.”

Goodness, what a busy day!

It began with my News Writing lab course. We started with a classmate interview and our story is due on Thursday. It will be a lot of hands-on work, but that is the best way to learn. That is the definition of the “Missouri Method.” Then, I had my Fundamentals of TV, Radio and Photojournalism class. I will begin researching three story ideas that I will spend a majority of the class exploring. Then I had my Introduction to Film Analysis class and we discussed Mise en scene (everything that goes on in the film) in The Graduate.

Also, I filled out my paperwork for my new job at Sycamore, a contemporary American restaurant. I will begin as a busser and go from there. I will be there every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. This means that I will need to record Grey’s Anatomy and be an avid multitasker (which I am anyway).

On Wednesday I move into my apartment. I will room with my freshman roommate as well as our friend down the hall. My roommates have already moved in. I’m nervous. Moving is a big process. We rented a trailer to hook on to our car to put everything in there. Driving for four hours with a u haul hooked on the back is nerve-racking in itself. Then we have to move everything from the trailer up the stairs. Yikes!

Since we are renting an unfurnished apartment, we had to buy furniture. This included a mattress, which I got for a deep discount (since it was a discontinued model). Then we got the kitchen table, chairs (4 for $15 at a garage sale), tv (which I got a 27” tv for $25 at a garage sale) and a bedside table ($5). I love the deals. I have to frequent the garage sales to get the best deals. The garage-sale season continues until early fall.

Then I got some posters and post cards to decorate my room. Even though I don’t have cinderblock walls, I still have white walls, which asks for a little color. I have all of that on lockdown, but cooking by myself will be another challenge. We’ll see. It will probably come down to a lot of frozen meals.