Reading Day Spring 2011

It was a beautiful day on campus but unfortunately most of the students were inside the library.  Since yesterday was the last day of classes, today was Reading Day, a study day before finals begin tomorrow, take a break on Sunday, and then finish up Monday-Wednesday.  I hope everyone had a productive day with nice study breaks in between: some students found themselves out on the quad enjoying the sun, and a large group of kids played ultimate frisbee for the last time of the year.

I myself practiced my clarinet for my jury on Tuesday, turned in a final portfolio, read a book for fun (the first time this semester!), and started a few revisions I'll turn in on Monday.  Once all my school work is done, I'll have to think about packing and moving out.  Crazy.

Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society Induction

A few weeks ago I received an email saying my good grades first semester got me an invitation to Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society on campus.  It's a national honor society for first year students and once you're inducted, you're a member for life.  The initiation happened on Wednesday night in the Perrine Gallery (second floor of the library).  We signed our names into the official Alpha Lambda Delta book for Coe's chapter, received our pin and a certificate and then ate cake in celebration.  Neat honor and neat experience.  

A little history lesson: the society was started in 1924 as a way to the recognize academic excellence of freshman women at the University of Illinois.  The society took off from there and eventually allowed men into the society.  Their motto is: "We shall pass our torches on, one to another."

Last Blindspot Footage

Last Friday, the final Blindspot of the year occurred.  All the acts were fantastic, probably my favorite Blindspot of the year.  I took a lot of footage and will be sprinkling it in throughout the next few weeks.  I'm going to start out with a BAM and show you how Blindspot ended.  Make sure to watch Rashad in the background, right hand side, as he discovers what the boys of Sinfonia did.  Enjoy!

Now that you've watched it, watch the original.

Shake Your Willie Dance: Shakespeare Themed PUB Dance

Oh hello Shakespeare,

The wonderful kids of Offstage Players (known as OSP on campus) wrote down their favorite Shakespeare quotes and plastered the posters around Gage Union on Friday night.  I tagged along for the fun since Alison is a member and had a good time.  They were making the posters in preparation for the Shake Your Willie Dance in the PUB on Saturday night.  The dance was a BLAST.  PUB dances are always fun and this one was no exception.  A Coe alumnae DJ-ed the event and for three hours it was a dance party.  Favorite song?  Probably when "The Circle of Life" (yes, the epic song from the Lion King) was played.  Everyone on the dance floor circled up and we swayed back forth, singing the song as loud as we could.  It was kind of fantastic.  A great way to spend one of my last weekends here.  And now I'll probably join OSP in the fall!  :)   

Here are some of the quotes we had up.  Can you name the play they are from?

Hamlet

Othello

More Hamlet

Winter's Tale

Murray Murals

 A quirk of Murray is that there are lobbies on every floor.  With a table, two couches and a few chairs, it can be a popular hangout spot for homework or general chilling.  The wall of this lobby is very important: every year the floor must paint a mural on it.  It's a way for the students on the floor to express themselves and build a floor community.  Our floor has a lot of busy girls and we just got around to the mural a few weekends ago.  Our floor used to be a male floor so a lovely image of Homer Simpson in his underwear was the mural I encountered when I first moved in (see picture).  We then decided on an image, painted a pretty sky blue background color but failed to finish the mural.  Now it's done (again, I've included an image).  I also went around to a few other floors and took pictures of their murals so you could see what the kids of Murray can do.  I think it's a neat activity and another reason why I enjoy living in Murray.

Sixth Floor Today

Seventh Floor (Female)

Third Floor (Male)

Fourth Floor (Female)

100th Post Celebration!

Dear Readers,

OH MY GOSH.  THIS IS MY 100TH POST.

Seriously, I can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday I started this blog.  Now 100 posts later, I'm still so glad I accepted the task of writing this blog.  I have so much fun writing posts, making movies, and showing you why I love Coe.  I even got my friends into it; when we do something fun they comment, "You can blog about this Hailley!" And I will keep blogging, and my adventures will continue to be posted.

Thanks for checking this blog out! :)

Hailley  

P.S. My excitement for my 100th post is like my excitement when I saw the Federal Reserve Building (hello FYS) in Washington D.C.  See above picture for level of excitement.

Flunk Day

Flunk Day finally occurred on Wednesday, April 20th.  What is Flunk Day?  Well, the tradition started in 1911 (making this Flunk Day the 100th anniversary) when students decided they needed a day off from classes.  It was such a great idea, Coe continued the tradition every year.  The student body president calls the day which can take place any day after Spring Break but not during the last week of classes before finals.  The day is called around 7 AM and Coe brings in carnival rides, sets up the grill on the quad for a cookout.  It's suppose to be a nice and needed break for the students.

Rumors have been swirling around since we got back from Spring Break of potential Flunk Day days.  It was finally on Wednesday and although the weather wasn't the nicest (cold and rainy), I still had a fantastic day.  Here's a run down of my day:

6:45 AM: Woke up assuming it was going to be a regular day.  Got a text from a friend saying the carnival rides were being set up.  It was Flunk Day.

7:00 AM: Received official email as well as students running through the halls yelling, "IT'S FLUNK DAY!"

8:00 AM: Alison (P), Haley, and I walked down First Ave to Riley's (a tiny but wonderful restaurant just past St. Luke's).  Had a yummy turkey omelet and blueberry muffin.

10:00 AM: Returned to campus and chilled in Alison's room watching Monty Python and not worrying about schoolwork or finals.

11:30 AM: Ventured to the quad for lunch.  Saw lots of friends and grabbed food, choosing to eat it inside because it was so chilly.

2:00 PM: Decided to go bowling at Lancer Lanes.  Great call.  So much fun.

5:30 PM: Returned to campus and had dinner in the caf.  There was a live band playing and there was such a great Coe atmosphere.  Everyone was relaxed and happy, really saw the Coe community spirit I love so much.

6:00 PM: Flunk Day excitement had finally worn off and decided to log in a few homework hours.

10:00 PM: Went to bed early.  Not the typical Flunk Day (because most Flunk Days are 70s with sun) but a fun first one!

Spring Band Concert

Last Saturday I performed in my Spring Band concert.  We had been working on challenging music all semester and we were finally able to show it off at the concert.  And it was a big concert, complete with an intermission!  It was an extra special concert because we had two guest composers (one was able to come to the concert and one was not), a Coe alumnae who is now a professional flautist, and a senior baritone player who played a solo backed up by the band.  There were a fair amount of people who came, even my family came down to hear me play.  Everyone enjoyed it, and I'm still receiving compliments.  I wish I could find a video so you could listen to a song, but there's no recording on YouTube yet.  I'll let you know if one shows up.

Budget and Finance Day 2011

Bright and early on Saturday morning I made my way over to Stuart for Budget and Finance Day 2011.  It's an all day affair for every organization on campus.  Pretty much what goes down is Senate doles out money to support the organizations next semester.  The money comes from the Student Activity every Coe student pays yearly.  The Budget and Finance Committee is made up of Senate members like myself: during the semester we approve or deny supplementary allocations (fondly known as sup alls) for clubs who would like more money to do things during the semester.  On Saturday, the treasurers came in, asked for a certain amount of money, explained the justification, and did some trimming because we are running on a tight budget.  It was a long day and by the end, the committee members' fuses were short and wordy treasurers were asked to cut to the chase. But it's all worth it in the end: students are gaining an understanding of budgets and the Senate members are learning about negotiation and how to balance a budget. What I like about it is that I can see where the money is going, I have some say on how the money will be split, and I know what to expect from the organizations in the coming semester.  It's all done now, and we won't have another one until next semester...boy oh boy I can't wait.

Bob Hicok Poetry Reading

Bob Hicok came to Coe on Thursday night to do a poetry reading.  Leading up to his arrival, all the English and Creative Writing professors were having their students read his poems.  I found myself really enjoying his poem, one of my favorites being "A History of Origami".  Needless to say, I was pumped for his reading.  Kesler was about half full, most of the students in attendance majoring in English or Creative Writing.  Hicok read a variety of his poems for about a half-an-hour and then opened the room up for questions.  The most interesting thing that came up during the question and answer session was about the revision process.  Hicok is against it, believing the first few lines of his poems create the message of the entire poem.  If the first lines don't satisfy him, he scraps the whole poem and begins again, the focus being on those first few lines.  He believes too many people think of revision as fixing something that is "broken."  Hicok doesn't consider his poems as broken things, rather, if he wants to fix them it's because there is a desire and want to fix, not because he is expected to fix them.  I thought it was a different view on the revision process and I hope I'll be able to discuss this idea with my peers and professors since in my opinion, revision is a very important part of the writing process.

Opening Night of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

On Friday night I attended Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.  It was opening night and I couldn't wait to see it especially since Alison (P) was in the cast.  It was definitely another long play, going on three hours with an intermission and it was different.  This play was movement based which meant the actors really used their bodies to express their characters' emotions.  The play is all monologue based and the twelve actors had three different monologues.  The play was based off the Rodney King beatings and witnesses who shared their experience with Anna Deavere Smith, a playwright.  It really got at the issue of the beatings and the riots that followed the trial of the police officers: racial tension.  There was a lot of tension, and I think through the monologues we were better able to see it.  I would say it was definitely an experimental piece for the theater department because there were chunks where the actors came out and did movement, even moving the props on stage was movement with a purpose.  Overall, I liked it and got job to the cast and crew for a successful show.  Twilight ran last weekend and has three more performances: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night.

Room Draw Night

So today (Tuesday) has been a big day, I've posted quite a bit.  I don't know if I've ever posted four times in one day...

Anyways, tonight was the infamous room draw night.  Basically it's madness that happens in Lower Gage as everyone scrambles for a room.  Right before Spring Break everyone was assigned a room draw number based on the credits you've accumulated.  The lower the better.  If you want to live in the apartments or Kohawk Village, you fill out some forms and that selection happens sometimes in March.  If you want a single, then last week would have been the time when you got your room.  Today was picking doubles, triples, or quads.

It's madness.  Really.  Heidi and I decided to room together and Heidi had a decent number, 783.  Everyone waited in the Lower Gage hallway until their number was called.  We then filled out our rooming contract and waited until our exact number was called.  From there we went into another room with floor plans so we could see what rooms were open.  After we decided we went to yet another room to place a hold on the room.  Heidi and I will be in Murray again and we are pumped.

The whole process took one hour and there were still people waiting.  Thank goodness it's done.

Student Symposium Day

I didn't have classes today because it was Student Symposium Day.  Basically the day was devoted to students giving presentations on research they've done or manuscripts they've written.  A poster session occurred in the morning and then Allison Carr '05 gave the Plenary Talk.  The afternoon consisted of oral presentation sessions.

Allison Carr's speech was called "Room to Fail."  She discussed our idea of "failure" and what it means "to fail."  In today's society, we consider failure the opposite of success and failure is the absence of success.  Carr wants us to reconsider "failure" and not let failure become our isolation.  She created the Failure Project where people can post their failures; it's an archive of failures.  She hopes to keep working on it and hopes it takes off.  She ended her speech by saying, in the future, Carr hopes failure will be linked with wonder.

I was only able to go to one of the oral presentations, and the one I went to was fantastic.  I heard from four Creative Writing majors' manuscripts (the capstone of the Creative Writing major).  All four of the readings were from four completely different genres but all had the same general idea: coming of age.  They were able to read to a full house, and each reading ended with a question and answer section.  This session was quite inspirational for me; I hope to give an oral presentation in three years but instead of a fiction or poetry manuscript, I hope it's sections from creative non-fiction essays.

Overall, a BEAUTIFUL day (the weather was amazing) and it was a great Student Symposium.

Admitted Students Weekend Recap

Last weekend, the campus was swarmed by high school seniors who are accepted to Coe.  The Writing Center held their Fellowship Competition which brought back some good memories.  When I came a year ago, I met Heidi, a fair amount of the current consultants, really saw the Writing Center, and had a good time.  Unfortunately, I couldn't do an overnight because I had a band show in Mt. Horeb on that Friday night, so my day was jammed pack.  Just remembering the day brought back a lot of good memories and I was psyched to meet our future consultants.

After class, I helped out with the competition by simply talking to our prospective consultants and seeing if they can carry a conversation and if I think they would fit in with our clan.  I met some great people and I'm excited to see who ends up being in the Writing Center.

I was suppose to host a student, but unfortunately she wasn't feeling well and left early.  There was lots to do on campus: Sean Kingston performed, the play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 opened, a game night, and a variety of other clubs hosted events.  On Saturday there were more information sessions and a hopping organizational fair.  Hopefully all the students had a good time.  If Coe is the place for you, I hope I see you here next fall!

I Finally Met Someone Who Knew About My Blog!!

So big moment on Friday, I met someone who knew and read my blog!  What I didn't realize was it was Jordan who had commented on an earlier post.  I was so psyched, I couldn't get over it.  I've been waiting all year to have someone I meet identify me as the blogger.  Yeah Jordan!  I'm so glad you're coming to Coe and I hope you had a great Admitted Students Weekend!

Paul Schrader Visited Coe

Does the name Paul Schrader ring any bells?  He's a film director and he visited Coe last Thursday.  I went because one, I'm an English major and Gina recommended it and two, because I enjoy film.  Leading up to Schrader's talk, the PUB showed some of his films such as "Taxi Driver" and "Affliction."  Kesler Auditorium was packed and Schrader talked about how he got where he is today, the future of the film industry, which according to him isn't going anywhere unless things change, and opened the floor for questions.

When he talked about the current film industry, he said we have too many theaters.  People in my generation aren't watching movies and eating popcorn in the theaters, we are watching things online and through other sources of media.  Schrader believes the movie industry needs to find a new way to show movies or else the movie industry is going to bust.

After an hour and a half of questions, discussion, and laughter, Schrader finished his talk.  It was nice and I liked seeing the view of the movie industry through the eyes of a film director.

Why Are They Not Wearing Shoes?

TOMS

If you walked around campus today, you would have found students walking around in just their bare feet.  I mean it was a nice day but no shoes?  You might think those students were crazy.  Unless you knew what those shoe-less feet meant.  Today, April 5th, was One Day Without Shoes, an event hosted by Toms, a shoe company where every pair of shoes bought provides another pair of shoes to a child in need.  Coe's Human Rights Club (newly created by the way) supported the day by encouraging their club members and other Coe students and staff to give up the comfort of their shoes for one day.  The club is hoping their first attempt at supporting this event gains some publicity, and they really want to plug the event next year once the club is off and running.  I tried the no shoes, and it was definitely different.  When I was about to leave my room, I had to tell myself I didn't need anything else, I was set to go.  Got a fair amount of weird looks and can only hope more people participate next year.  Couldn't do it the entire day though.  Tuesdays are my busy days and I couldn't go everywhere I wanted on campus with no shoes.  It's a great cause though and I'm excited to see what other events the Human Rights Club will do.

Is That a Comma Splice? The Joys of Coe Review

Mondays are always busy days but I didn't get back to my room until a bit later tonight since I spent two hours in Hickok.  The Coe Review is in the final stretch of putting our fiction issue together and tonight was an editing night.  The magazine was printed out and the readers sat around with various pages reading the stories and editing them if needed.  We made sure all the words were there, words were spelled correctly, and if there are any comma splices.  Oh  comma splices, how writers love but hate them.  What is a comma splice you may ask?  It's when a writer puts two independent sentences together with a comma, failing to use a connector, a semicolon, or a period.  And of course the other thing we had to look for was if an "error" was an actual error or a stylistic non-error put in by the writer.

After reading the stories I'm excited to see the issue all published and ready to read; there are a lot of good stories in there, some even written by Coe students.  Looking forward to see the issue in print, to attend the wrap party, and show friends and family what I've been working on Monday nights.

Presidential Ball

Ha(il)ley

Although it was April Fool's day I'm not joking when I say I went to a dance on Friday night.  It was the annual Presidential Ball known by Coe students as Pres Ball.  It's held in Eby (the field house) and the night is divided into two parts: Dr. Carson's Big Band music for the first two hours and then a DJ for the last two hours.

Kathleen, Hailley, Alison W. and Haley

The night started off with me heading over to Armstrong to get ready in Haley's room.  We curled our hair, took pictures next to the bell, and ohh and awed over all the other girls' dresses on third floor.  Everyone looked very nice.

Ha(il)ley Sandwich 

Ha(il)ley and Alisons :)

Around 8:30 PM we headed over to Eby, did a little dancing, and watch Rugcutters (the swing dance club on campus) perform a number to the James Bond Theme Song.  Rugcutters had a pretty large crowd and even more people started coming around 10 PM when President Phifer and his wife made a toast and danced with Justin and Kelly, the student body President and Vice President.  The DJ got started after that and went until around midnight.

My night was over after that; I was tuckered out and decided to go to bed instead of staying up even later.  I also work Saturday mornings at the library so only a few hours of sleep wouldn't make me a happy camper in the morning.  A nice first Pres Ball!