It should finally work.

I revamped my blog in honor of the fact that I haven't updated since the day before my birthday.  That's over THREE MONTHS!  Disgraceful.

...to update my poor old blog.

Poor thing.  See it lying there...decrepit...gasping and wheezing for air.  I fear it is dying.  I don't wish for it to die, but the university is soaking up my life like a sponge, and my time for blogging hath greatly diminished and shall perhaps go away in to the west.  Not permanently, of course, but until at least April 19.  You see, for some strange reason, all of my professors scheduled me to present my final projects in early or mid April, so my huge stressful school crunch-time is right now, as opposed to late April and early May.  It's very strange.  However, I will survive, and so will my blog.  We will merely leave you temporarily.

In the meantime, a quick Persephone update.  I followed my entomology professor's instructions in dispatching most of her thirty-seven offspring.  I kept four.  However, they were foolish little creatures, and clambered up into the water dish, whereupon they promptly drowned with no one to save them, because I was gone at school and did not discover them until it was too late.  Alas.  But!  Persephone is alive and well, although she does not hiss as often as she used to.  I hope she is not ailing.

Oh, and I adore French.  It's very difficult, but I am enjoying it immensely!

I feel happy...because...somebody told me that my essays are amazing, and that he was disappointed when they ended, and that the way I brought emotions to paper was phenomenal, and that my characters were lifelike and tangible.  I feel that I have, in some small way, succeeded in what I am trying to do.  Hopefully, with this encouragement, the dry spell I have been going through in my writing will disappear and inspiration will come back to me.

Au revoir,
Mary Katherine

P.S.  A couple of photos of my life and times as a college student...enjoy!

The Phi Eta Sigma freshman honors society induction banquet:





Kyle, Jessa, and Andy:





After the banquet, we were all being juvenile, and hung around outside the Borah Theatre, imitating the picture of Mr. Borah himself:








Jessa tried to imitate him...but she couldn't keep a straight face.  heehee.






Jessa and me talking/contemplating:





Jessa and me being cute...we couldn't use the flash because Jessa kept blinking, lol:





Jessa pretending to be emo at Hannah's birthday party:






Hannah, me, and Samuel at said birthday party:





Bri and yours truly at Bucer's:





Noah and Daniel trying to choke Michael at the previously mentioned birthday party:





This is one of my most favorite pictures of the school year...taken over Christmas break.  Jessa was lying on the floor, and we all gathered around, and she took the picture.  Yay!






Kyle, Joe, and moi at that same birthday party:





Eating Hannah's birthday cake...





And, last but not least, me stabbing Ryan in the heart with a pencil.  *diabolical laugh*

As I hope all of you know from a previous blog post, I am the not-so-proud owner of a Madagascar hissing cockroach.  If this is news to you, you may want to scroll down and read that post, otherwise this post will fail to be amusing.

After Entomology class on Friday, I was at the music school talking with a fellow cockroach-owner.
"Well, mine died." She said, "I'm not sure what to do...I guess I need to go to the professor and ask for that second chance he promised us...I dunno."
"I think mine's fine..." I began to say, but then it occurred to me that I had neglected to check on Persephone for a lamentably long time.  Four or five days, in fact.  A sliver of fear pierced my heart, What if she is dead?  What if I fail because Persephone has passed away, fallen, died, cashed in her chips, kicked the bucket, opened herself up a worm farm, gone to be with her forefathers?  What will I do? 

Afraid of what I might find, I rushed home.  Persephone's cage is kept in the laundry room, and I brought it out and set it on the kitchen counter.  Before taking off the lid to see the damage, I had a stiff drink to brace my nerves.  Just kidding.  Anyway, I took off the lid, and the first thing I saw was little brown pellets--all over the paper towels in the bottom of the cage.  I groaned, "Do not tell me that Persephone soiled her paper towels to such a great extent--in a mere five days!"

But then one of the little brown pellets moved.  Then my eyes focused, and I saw antennae. 

Yes, the dreaded, terrible, always-in-the-back-of-my-mind, horrible possibility has happened.  Persephone is not dead...but rather...a mother.  Ladies and gentlemen, I kid thee not.  Persephone has THIRTY-FIVE OFFSPRING.  Thirty five little cockroaches...each dark brown and the size of an ibuprofin tablet.  It's disgusting.  Revolting.  I have no idea what to do with them.  I suppose I'll probably donate them back to the UI lab from whence their mother came...but in the meantime, I can't clean the cage or replace the paper towels, because while it is one thing to ask my brothers to babysit one cockroach, it is an entirely different thing to ask them to babysit thirty six while I replace the paper towels in the bottom of the cage.  So it's turning into a revolting mess.

Someone save me if you will,
And take away all these pills...

Okay, so maybe they're cockroaches, not pills.  But they still look kind of like dark brown, tubular ibuprofin tablets.  And I thought that the Shinedown lyrics were appropriate for the situation.

The moral of the story is...do NOT, under any circumstances, take an entomology class.  And if you can't avoid it, be sure to get a MALE cockroach.  It will make a huge difference in your future sanity.  Trust me.

It all started on Friday afternoon...

        I was sitting in the front row of my entomology class (HON: CORS: Insects and Human Health) looking through the notes my professor printed of the class period's powerpoint presentation.  I like to sit in the front because I am slightly near-sighted and I can see the powerpoint much more clearly.  But I digress.  As I sat there, examining the notes, the professor handed out an extra sheet of paper.  After a cursory glance--I noticed some notes about cockroaches and different care for certain insects--I returned to studying the powerpoint notes. 
       Then our prof said, "I had originally planned to give you this assignment next Friday, but I think it will be nice to let you get a jump-start on it since you can take advantage of the three-day weekend.  This is a semester-long assignment."
       What?  I thought, quickly returning my attention to the sheet of paper the prof had handed out.  At the top of the sheet were the words RULES OF ADOPTION.  Underneath, it said, "The insect you have been given is a Gromphadorhina portentosa..."  Oh cool, I thought, we get to write a paper about an imaginary pet insect.  Naively, I still assumed that the assignment would be to do some research, and write a paper.  I was wrong.
       In the next thirty seconds, a clear plastic tube, reminiscent of a film canister, was plopped on the desk in front of me.  Inside was...a creature.  It looked like it was supposed to have six legs, but one of the legs on the right side of my specimen appeared to be missing.
       "Now," the Prof continued, "this is no ordinary cockroach.  This..." he paused for emphasis, "is a Madagascar hissing cockroach.  Your assignment...is to take this friendly little creature under your wing.  At the end of the semester, bring it back.  Bigger, healthier, and happier."
       The guy sitting to my left cautiously opened the top of his cockroach container.  It crawled out and scurried across his desk.  He dove for it, and shoved it back inside the plastic tube.  I carefully popped the top off my tube, and my cockroach squirmed out.  It ran around my desk, and I managed to herd it around on my desk with the help of my ballpoint pen.  I reached out and touched its back with my finger.  It hissed--loudly--and I jumped about a foot, but the two people sitting next to me jumped just as high as I did.
       I herded my cockroach back into its plastic tube, set the tube upright on the desk, and skimmed through the RULES OF ADOPTION.  "...it absolutely needs a source of water.  This need for water is more critical when the relative humidity is low, such as it is in Moscow.  Always keep some water in its cage, but be aware that if the water dish is too deep, the cockroach can drown....Your first task should be to find it a better home....Cockroaches tend to roam about, especially at night, so make sure that the house you choose has a secure lid that is cockroach-proof but allows them to breathe.  Place the food and water in its home, put the cover in place and find a quiet spot that is warm, but not too hot.  Please be especially careful about loose cockroaches if you live in a dorm room or apartment.  University Residences is particularly, and understandably, sensitive about cockroaches roaming around its buildings.  Keep large pets away from them; cats and dogs tend to eat cockroaches....Study it carefully.  Give it a name.  Learn what sex it is and what food it likes and dislikes...."
       I compared my cockroach to the drawings of male and female cockroaches.  Mine was a female.  I continued reading, "Do you have an adult or an immature?  If you have an immature, you may be lucky enough to catch it in the act of molting.  Bring it back at the end of the semester larger and healthier than it is now, and for those lucky enough to get a female, with lots of grandroaches."
       Oh.  Joy.  Grandroaches.  Apparently I can expect to be caring for between ten and forty new little Madagascar hissing cockroaches before the semester is over.
       I mulled over names (Penelope?  St. Monica?) and finally decided on...Persephone.  Daughter of the Greek goddess Demeter, and wife of the god Hades.  If my little Persephone follows in the step of her name-inspiration, then I can hope that if she ever disappears, she will turn up eventually (ha, ha).
      
       ...To be continued.  Assuming, of course, that I don't accidentally kill her.