10 Things About Me

After four amazing months in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I have returned to Michigan and my favorite neighborhood asylum, Madonna University. I am a second semester junior there, studying writing, and I tend to have weird adventures. My freshman year we reenacted the Crusades, and retook the Holy Lands for the Holy Roman Catholic Church, broke into the Motherhouse to find the Blue Book, and I almost paid a pizza man in pennies. Sophomore year I attended two Writing Center Tutor conferences, mapped out the entire forest behind the Motherhouse, and engaged in some rather pagan ceremonies in said forest which I do not care to mention on the internet…

My blog gets its name partially from Eloise, the closed down insane asylum by my university. The residence hall is often called an insane asylum, and is often mistaken for part of Saint Mary’s hospital, which is next door to our campus. The other reason is that back in the medieval ages people would ask for asylum—for shelter. I think that sums up my school perfectly—we are all inmates, and yet we are all seeking and giving asylum. This being stated, I love my university wholeheartedly (it did just send me overseas), and this blog should be seen in that light.

But this blog is not just a blog of my university; it’s my own personal blog, with my personal exploits and feelings, and with this in mind I’m going to introduce myself properly…

10 Interesting Things About Me

1. My favorite Shakespearian play is Romeo and Juliet, and my favorite character is Tybalt. I am aware that it sounds terribly cliché to say “Oh, my favorite play is Romeo and Juliet,” because all of my friends like to quote Shakespeare’s most obscure sonnets and plays when this question is posed. But my favorite is Romeo and Juliet. I first tried to read it in fourth grade, which was an epic fail, but I’ve grown up with the play over the years and find it beautiful. I love each character, and am always annoyed that Tybalt gets a bad rap. Yes, he is the “bad guy” and yes he does start a smear campaign about Mercutio but people need to stop representing him with cod pieces and flirting with Madame Capulet (I know what the play says, leave it alone!)

2. I really don’t like impressionist paintings, but I am willing to bend to public opinion on the matter, whatever that opinion may be. Personally, I don’t like impressionism because it lacks clearly defined outlines. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was in second grade, and if I want to look at colorful smears, I’ll just take my glasses off.

3. I am ever-so-slightly obsessed with Ancient Egypt (my specialty is the Amarna Period, or the short period in time in which a pharaoh named Akhenaton moved the entire capitol south, demolished statues of the old gods, and told everyone that there was only one god, named Aten. This is the period Nefertiti comes from, and once the period ended, the famous Boy King Tutankhamen took over). I am also vaguely obsessed with Heian Japan.

4. I like numbers that repeat (11, 22, 33) or numbers that are the same backwards (2992). Numbers like 1776 and 1882 work for me as well because they have the repetition thing going on in the middle. I find this extremely soothing. This being said, I hate math.

5. If you give me play-doh, I will start making dinosaur models.

6. I collect rocks and minerals. My favorite rock is obsidian, which usually comes from volcanic lava, and my favorite mineral is olivine, which comes from deep under the earth. Some scientists speculate that the core of the earth is made up of olivine. Olivine is also the root for peridot, which is the birth stone for August. My favorite necklace has a bit of peridot in it. I tend to keep rocks by my workspace, and I hold them when I’m stuck in my writing.

7. I have a key on my desk that would open my grandpa’s casket. Of course, it's not so much a casket as a reworked jewelry box...

8. I can never remember how old I am.This has been a problem since I turned fourteen.

9. My favorite writer is Oscar Wilde. I’m drafting plans to follow in his footsteps and write about my experiences—sort of like Tom Reiss did with “The Black Count.”

10. The best song in the world is the Louisiana state song.