Could We Get a Phone Book Over Here? 

I have always been short.  My whole family is short, but at five feet tall I definitely take the cake.  Friends still ask me occasionally if I need a phone book when I sit down at a restaurant.  Which for some reason was the first thing I thought of when I sat down to dinner at the Grand Street Café with Caitlin Maloney, a handful of professors, and our visiting scholar, Reza Aslan.  A brief moment of panic followed when I realized that my feet couldn’t touch the ground when I was sitting in my chair—maybe I hadn’t come so far from those booster seat days after all.  And what does one talk about with a visiting scholar?  For that matter, what does one talk to with a table full of PhD holding professors?  I had done my homework: researched the scholar, wore an outfit that could be interpreted as casual or dressy, picked out exactly what I was going to order based on the online menu, and strategized with Caitlin about where we would sit (while we waited for everyone outside the restaurant, having arrived twenty minutes early).  But even though I have always wanted the opportunity to get to know the Rockhurst faculty a outside of the classroom, and I was thrilled to find that Dr. Aslan did work both in English and Theology (my majors), I still felt like a little girl again in the presence of all those academians. 

Thankfully, that was when Dr. Glen Young, a theology professor at Rockhurst, put my anxieties to rest.

“I’m going to sit by the students!” he said.  He sat by Caitlin and me and informed us that he too was a little intimidated by the scholar, so sitting towards the end of the table was a good strategy, because then we could just introduce ourselves and then be free to make small talk with the people around us.  We laughed and started to relax a bit.  Reza Aslan came in and we introduced ourselves and he asked about our majors, putting us at even more at ease with his laid-back, friendly demeanor.  The conversation then drifted to topics in the field of religious studies, and Caitlin and I—much more relaxed now—were free to listen without the pressure of having to chime in…and as we were listening, we realized we recognized a few of the things our dinner companions were talking about!  We whispered excitedly about how we knew who Bruce Lincoln was, and we had read one of Mircea Eliade’s books.  Granted, we knew nothing about first century Palestine or the ups and downs of attending academic conferences, but we were happy for small victories. 

By the end of the meal, we were on cloud nine from on our experience of keeping company with academics (this is revealing my inner nerd who can’t resist a scholarly event) and the delicious chocolate cake that the professors INSISTED we order since it was on Rockhurst (this is revealing my inner college student who can’t resist a free meal).  The lecture that followed on anti-Muslin sentiment in America was interesting and informative, and I have resolved to read one of Dr. Aslan’s books, How to Win a Cosmic War, as soon as possible. The meal was delicious, the speaker was amazing, and I am even more sure that someday I want to be able to keep up with all that intellectual conversation. 

So no, thank you, I would not like a phone book.

The Bet

What is harder exercising on a Friday afternoon when you could be napping?  Exercising on a Friday afternoon when your roommate is literally waving a slice of pizza under your nose.  They warn you about the Freshmen Fifteen, but what about the Townhouse Ten?  When you can suddenly bake pistachio and chocolate chip cookies to your heart’s content and frozen pizza is accessible at any hour of the night?  After a freshman year of up and down health habits (up—Billy Blanks Taebo videos with my roommate, down—Taco Bell at 2:00 am), I took up running and P90X sophomore year and started visiting the salad bar a little more.  There is a perfect park for running about a mile away from Rockhurst’s campus, Loose Park, and I love going there when the weather is nice, or just running on the Rockhurst field, which is handily lit up all night for night owls like myself.  But this year life in a townhouse full of baked goods and snacks has made staying healthy a bit more of a challenge.

            Enter the bet.  The other girl in the picture is my roommate Samantha—looks nice as can be but her hobbies include eating chips while laughing at my yoga skills and beating me in bets.  After she got a few days worth of enjoyment out of torturing me while I exercised, she and I decided that we really did need to change our bad eating habits and perhaps a friendly bet was just the thing to motivate us.  This particular bet involves no fast food and no eating after 10:00 pm (we are notorious for breaking out the pita chips and cream cheese while watching Grey’s Anatomy at 11:00 pm).  I have to give credit where credit is due—we borrowed this idea from three sophomore friends of ours who made a bet that the first person to eat sweets would have to dye their hair black for a week.  Samantha and I are trying to come up with some sort of similar consequence for the loser of our bet.  Suggestions so far include hair dying, chores, or having to get another piercing (and if you look at my first post, you can see that I’m not too keen on needles).  None of these have really jumped out at us yet, though, so we are open to suggestions (feel free to post some!).  I think this bet will be good for us in the long run, and I am excited to eat healthier to go with my running habit.  That being said, it’s 12:30 am on day one, and I’m starving. 

P.S. Stay tuned for another post later this week…I am going to dinner tomorrow with our visiting scholar Reza Aslan and I’ll update you all on that!

             

The Art of Asking

It really is a miracle that the Fine Arts department has not asked for a restraining order for me yet.  With the amount if times that Dr. Martin and Dr. Bicak have had to deal with me stopping by and asking questions, I wouldn’t blame them.  However, luckily for me these professors are more than willing to help someone like myself with a bit of an unorthodox undertaking.  I mentioned in my first post that I am minoring in Art History—“hopefully.”  I say hopefully because Rockhurst technically does not offer an Art History minor, only an Art minor.  But the school does offer enough Art History classes for an art lover like myself to get hooked on the subject and want to pursue it further.  It seemed like something that would fit nicely with my other majors, especially the idea of potentially tying writing and art together as an art critic.  So, after taking just about every Art History course Rockhurst offers (Integrated Humanities, Art History I, Art in the Galleries, and Non-Western Art), I started asking around to see if there was any way I could create my own minor.  I was sent to speak with Dr. Bicak, who was the head of the Fine Arts department at the time, and he was very enthusiastic and optimistic about this project.  We came up with a plan that involves me taking some classes at UMKC or the Art Institute through the KCASE program, taking some Art History when I study abroad next year (hopefully in Prague), and potentially doing an independent study (see the links below for more information on some of these programs Rockhurst offers).  Although I am still waiting to see if everything is going to work out with all of these options, I am excited about the possibilities and grateful that Dr. Bicak and my advisor Dr. Martin were willing to spend so much time scouring the course catalog with me and talking to other faculty members and administrators on my behalf.  Professors that have the availability and inclination to help students like me seem to be one of the benefits of a small school like Rockhurst.  And I am learning that sometimes if you ask (and ask, and ask, and ask) you can create a pretty good shot at receiving.    

KCASE Program - http://www.rockhurst.edu/registrar/guide/documents/ExchangePrograms_000.pdf

Study Abroad - http://www.rockhurst.edu/academic/international/studyabroad.asp

The Fabulous Life of Allison Marie Catherine Body

After getting up from my kitchen table three times for some chocolate icing, rearranging my pantry shelf, and checking my facebook, I think I have had enough time to ponder this first post: introducing myself.

 

The Basics:  My name is Allison Marie Catherine Body, I am a junior at Rockhurst, and I am a whopping 5 feet tall.  I’m from St. Louis (and for all you St. Louisans with that infamous question on the tip of your tongues, I graduated from Cor Jesu Academy).  I am double majoring in English and Theology with a minor in Art History (hopefully)—this is the part where everyone raises their eyebrows and says “Ohh, interesting, what do you plan on doing with that?”  Editing.  I would love to either edit books for a publishing company or work for some sort of literary journal or magazine.  And if that fails, I’ll just end up being a crazy cat lady living in my pre-med roommate’s basement with nothing but my typewriter and bathrobe.  But I’m holding out for the editing. 

The Many Pies I Have a Finger in at Rockhurst: I’m involved in CLC (Christian Life Communities, a branch of Campus Ministry), Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority, the honors program, English Club, Random Acts of Kindness Spreaders (RAKERS), Visiting Scholars Committee, Learning Center tutoring, Rockhurst Review editing, and a few other random things.  I take after my mother in my need to fill every minute of my schedule, and that compounded with my inability to say “no” to any commitment keeps me pretty busy.  But although I gripe and moan occasionally to my roommates about my lack of sleep, I really do love everything I’m involved in at Rockhurst, as well as the students, staff and faculty I have gotten to know, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Fun Facts About Me: I am irrationally terrified of needles (if you don’t believe me, observe the picture of me getting my ears double-pierced.  The woman at Claire’s said she’d never seen anyone make that face before).  My hobbies include pranking, making collages, making faces, reading (my favorite book is An American Childhood by Annie Dillard), running, and hanging out with my roommates.  The last embarrassing thing I did was set off the fire alarm making bacon about an hour ago.  I am an insanely picky eater, but I like weird foods like artichoke hearts, pancake batter, and anything drenched in hot sauce.  I have a pet hedgehog named Duchess Lola, who is hopefully surviving the care of my family (who are actually my favorite people) in St. Louis.  My favorite painting is called The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano, and I could get lost in an Art Museum for hours. 

So there you have it—everything you need to know about Allison Marie Catherine Body.  Bottom line: I’m livin’ it up at Rockhurst, as they say.  If you’ll allow an English major her literary quotes, Thoreau says “suck out all the marrow of life,” and that’s what I’m about doing during my time at Rockhurst.  And I’m looking forward to blogging all about it.