Senior Year Blog

I just finished putting the semester's last assignments and exam dates into my planner. It's turning into a checklist pretty much. Once a few more assignments are turned in and a few tests are taken, I'll be all ready for graduation! It will be amazing to be able to do things this summer like go to the library and check out books to read for fun or go visit family and friends! Before Lent I deactivated my Facebook account, but when Lent ended, I decided to get it back. It took getting rid of Facebook to realize how important it is for me to stay in touch with people and to realize how great Facebook is!

I thought everything would slow down this close to the end, but the schedule keeps getting packed. It's not just the professors who are trying to get last bits into the semester. Saturday night my friend Beverly and I performed the "Macavity the Cat" dance from the Broadway musicale "Cats" in a Delta Omicron music club Gala. It was fairly informal and a lot of fun. Students from Judson, Marion Military Institute, Judson faculty and staff, and even members of the community participated. Two other groups of dancers from the dance group did pieces. The first was a two couple rumba to the song "Apologize" and the second was a gorgeous original dance to the song "We're So Far Away". Vocalists sang pieces ranging from "Adele's Laughing Song" to "Hansel and Gretel". Everyone did a fantastic job!  

I had my last voice lesson earlier today. Right now I'm mainly working on "Voi Che Sapete". There's a non music major voice recital this Thursday that Dr. Betty wants me to perform it in. This will be my first and probably last voice recital. I'm way nervous! 

Other than the voice recital, there are several other events coming up. Tomorrow the Marion Military Institute drama club will be putting on "Tom Sawyer". Sunday there's a Judson choir spring performance. This weekend there's the Muckle's Ridge festival. Saturday there'll be Gala Part 2. I want to attend everything, but know I need to keep cranking through my studying to do list.

It'll only be 19 days until I'm finished with the semester. All of my courses have picked up a bit as most professors try to cover all of the information they wanted to fit in before finals week. J Day or Judson homecoming and alumni weekend was this weekend. There have been quite a few Senior traditions going on lately and SGA events. There was a 90s dance last week! In addition to all of the social events, the quail from my third honors project batch are hatching and I'm dancing in a Delta Omicron music/dance Gala this Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning, my father like many other members of the Judson and Marion community is riding in the Old Howard 100 bike ride. He's planning to do the 45 mile route!

I've been trying to cut back my event, traditions involvement, and dancing recently, but even just the academics without the minimum are keeping me pretty busy. There are rules at Judson about major tests being scheduled at least week in advance, but bad luck has given me quite a few projects, tests, and reports in the last couple of weeks that I didn't feel I did as well with as I could and should have. I tried to compensate for the scheduling by staying up late at night and studying or writing, but that isn't such a good idea. There's really nothing to do but the best that you can, try not to get any unnecessary obligations, and know that there'll be time to bring up the grades if things don't go so well.

This coming week should be a lot of fun. I don't have a SINGLE test or report this week! Tuesday there's a Senior tea at the President's home. Thursday I'm presenting my honors project to the Judson College Honors Committee, so that will be out of the way. I need to turn in my thesis paper by the end of finals week. I've been putting off practicing for the Gala performance this Saturday due to tests, papers etc., so I can finally do that! My friend Beverly and I are doing a piece from "Cats". I can't wait to work on costuming and makeup! This afternoon I've started working on reports that will be due week after next. Later this week I should even have time to start studying for finals as well! It's amazing that my last semester is almost over! There are only 19 more days counting finals! I know they'll fly by!  

I'm on the way back from the Alabama Academy of Science meeting at Alabama A&M. According to Dr. Wilson, this is the 11^th straight year that Judson students have presented at the Alabama Academy of Sciences. 

It was a good experience! Public speaking is definitely something I want to work on. I presented my paper "The effect of photoperiod on hatchability and hatching time of Northern Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virgianus) strains Jumbo Wisconsin and Georgia Giant" covering the first two batches of quail from my honors project. Elyse McIntyre, a science education student from Judson, also presented a paper titled "Expanded coliform sampling of four Perry Lakes Park aquatic environments." Our faculty sponsor/advisor Dr. Thomas Wilson and Elyse's parents attended. 

We got to hear several interesting presentations. One that really stood out was a by Dr. Brain Keener about an upcoming website called the Alabama Plant Atlas. The atlas will be a sort of plant encyclopedia for all vascular plants found in the state of Alabama. There is no current overall taxonomic guide for vascular plants in Alabama, just regional guidebooks. Once it is complete, anyone will be able to upload pictures they have of different species of plants which will be placed on the site after being checked by an expert. Other papers in our session were concerning vegetated roofs of buildings, another paper discussing human type coliform bacteria in the Fish River, a taxonomic study of Alabama Blenny Darters, an analysis of frog and salamander population studies, and one on chromosomal DNA inserts in mitochondrial DNA. It's definitely a small world! The moderator of our session was Dr. Brian Burnes, a former biology professor at Judson. Dr. Burnes taught me Physiology, Developmental Biology, and Microbiology, and also sponsored the Judson Chapter of Water Watch when I was a member.

Jr/Soph weekend is this coming weekend. It crept up on me this year! My brain feels like it's swimming just with school work and obligations, so I've been trying to put off thinking about social events until the last possible moment. There will be a Jr/Soph dance "Where the Wild Things Are" Saturday night at the Birmingham Zoo. Thankfully I picked my dress earlier this year. It's a red strapless semiformal with a full calf-length skirt. I chose it mostly because it should be easy to dance in. Unfortunately I made a bad decision and chopped my hair a few weeks ago to shoulder length and am still getting used to fixing it. Luckily Mary at Tangles, a hair salon in downtown Marion, was nice enough to fit me in Saturday morning!  

I'm planning to go with a group to the dance. It'll be me, my friends Susanna and Bev, and Bev's sister Deborah who goes to Samford. Being an all female college, it's not unusual to be dateless at a Judson dance. People just go and have fun, no worries. The dance starts at 7:00 and there will be animals there until 7:30, so I'm hoping that we can get there early enough to get some good pictures with them in our formals! If we get a good one, I'll add it!

Tonight I'm putting the finishing touches on my paper about the first two batches of quail (fluorescent light, light deprived) for the April 1^st meeting of the Alabama Academy of Science. I'll do a run through of my power point presentation tomorrow afternoon for Dr. Wilson. I already have the revised honors project proposal and abstract, so really just have my results and conclusion sections to add into the paper. It's already after midnight. I wish papers could write themselves! On the bright side, I am treating myself to coffee, listening to Pandora radio music, and drafting a blog. It isn't so bad!