Souvenirs and Such

“She never did decide (on joining a church).  She did develop a terrific hankering for a crucifix, though.  And she bought one from a Santa Fe gift shop during a trip the little family made out West during the Great Depression.  Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”  Slaughterhouse-Five, pg. 49

My quest to find a souvenir took me pretty far (and by “pretty far” I mean the TCU Bookstore). So after looking around a bit, I found this TCU mug.

It may not seem like anything, and it isn’t really, but my mom and I have this tradition where we collect mugs from different colleges. It began when I started visiting colleges at the beginning of my junior year. My mom and I rarely take trips together just the two of us, so when we made our travels plans to look at different universities we decided we would turn it into mother daughter time. I looked at nine different schools, and on every one of these trips it was just my mom and me. Since I applied to a bunch of random schools scattered across the country, it gave us the opportunity to go visit a bunch of states I probably would’ve never seen. So for every school I visited, we bought a mug. Even when I visited a school I knew I wasn’t going to go to, we still bought one just for the heck of it. Over time it became our tradition.

Below is a picture of one of these mugs we collected. It’s from the University of Chicago which I visited last winter. We have mugs from all over the place: Seattle, Boston, Santa Clarita, San Francisco, and of course, Texas.

So when I wandered into the bookstore and saw the large collections of mugs, it immediately reminded me of all the trips I took with my mom the past two years.



Initially after I read this line from Slaughterhouse 5, I’ll admit I found it very peculiar and maybe a little pathetic. Like, who actually buys stuff from gift shops? But then I thought about it and realized we are all probably guilty to some degree. That’s why Vonnegut says "Like most Americans". We buy little trinkets and stupid toys to represent things that we deem are important. We give them sentimental value. So yes, there does seem to be some truth to the idea that we try to make sense out of these things we find in gift shops. Otherwise we wouldn’t buy them right?

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the links to my other group members' blogs!

http://smileswithmackie.blogspot.com/
http://kfaciane.blogspot.com/

APRIL FOOLS!

April Fools is a holiday that I have always enjoyed. Since I was a little kid, my sister and I would pull stupid pranks on each other and we got pretty creative. Sadly, this year I haven't participated in any pranks (yet), but i did find this April Fools joke below pretty convincing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H542nLTTbu0

Basically, this video states that YouTube was created in 2005 solely as a competition to find the best video on the Internet. Supposedly YouTube will be closing at midnight tonight, upon which the site will be shut down and will cease to exist until 2023. When the site is reinstated, it will only feature the winning video of the contest (selected by a panel of judges).

Maybe I am just extremely gullible, but I found this pretty believable. The video looks professional and was put on YouTube's own account, so it seemed credible enough to me. Granted, I have very little knowledge about this kind of stuff, but still, props to Google.

If people actually believe this, it could cause serious consequences. So many people rely on YouTube  for a variety of things (jobs, advertising, entertainment, etc.) that its demise could be devastating.

Anyway, I thought this was one of the best April Fools pranks that I've seen in awhile. Hope you enjoy it!

Laugh Lurking

            For Easter Break this year, I got the chance to go home with my friend Mackie to her hometown in Overland, Kansas. I was sad I would have to spend the holiday away from family, but luckily Mackie’s family was gracious enough to let me and my friend Lauren stay with them for the weekend.

           

            Mackie’s whole family was in town for Easter, so there were plenty of opportunities for me to just sit back and let them have some family time while I observed from afar (and yes, I’ll admit it did feel a little creepy). I swear their family should have their own TV show. They are absolutely hilarious! It was refreshing to spend a weekend with people that knew how to relax and didn’t take themselves too seriously.

            There was one instance in particular that I observed which gave me a lot of insight into her family and their sense of humor. The family was cooking Easter dinner as Lauren and I sat on the couch and I overheard a conversation between Mackie’s siblings. Mackie’s sister Libbie was complaining about her headache, whining that she didn’t feel good and was in a lot of pain. Then, Jake (Mackie’s brother) retorted with the shocking remark, “Hey well remember that one time I had cancer?” Overhearing this, my immediate response was to chuckle. That’s horrible, I know, but it was just the complete opposite of what I was expecting. Libbie then hit her brother playfully and they both laughed, even gathering a few giggles from Grandma and Mrs. Louis sitting down near them.

            At first I was surprised they were able to laugh about that subject. I knew Jake had cancer and I assumed it was a taboo topic between the family. That’s what you would expect right? Something that serious and horrible I would think wouldn’t be brought up in such light conversation. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it totally made sense. It was a coping mechanism. Even though Jake is now fully healthy, it is still funny for their family to bring it up from time to time. It has become an inside joke between them, and though others may find it offensive, it is something their family can still laugh at, despite how awful that situation was.

           

            Being able to eavesdrop on this conversation this showed me a lot about Mackie’s family and their sense of humor. They are extremely open, not just with each other but with everyone else as well. Like I mentioned before, they don’t take themselves too serious. There was tons of playful, lighthearted joking and poking fun at one another. It gave me some insight into how close-knit her family is.

            Others may not understand this kind of humor, and I think that makes sense. I probably wouldn’t if I hadn’t observed her family dynamic. And that is the thing about humor; it has many different social and contextual aspects. In this case, the humor of the Louis family bonds them together. Their shared experiences (as awful as they may be) give them something to laugh about.