IT IS THE FINAL DAY!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! Here’s how my final day of senior projects was spent. Wednesdays are usually my quietest day at the museum, so there wasn’t a whole lot that I absoulutely had to go do. I started off my day by helping put together the school bus crafts. They are all cut out, but I put wheels on each and punched holes in the others that we did not have enough wheels for. It may sound boring, but I found it enjoyable because it meant I got to listen to my Art Donaldson from “Challengers” playlist, which, not so humble brag, is fantastic. After that, at around 11:00, I got to go on a volunteer’s practice tour. Her name is Beth and we had met briefly before. Her tour was really good and she did not seem nervous or like it was her first time at all, she is already a pro! Then I had my lunchbreak and finished my project presentation slideshow. Then I went back to the busses. I didn’t finish it, but a lot got done! In total, I spent about 5 hours working on those busses. I NEVER WANT TO SEE A BUS AGAIN. Just kidding, but I was happy it was over. Before I left, and I thanked Kat for being such a good host and organizing everything for me. It was a little bittersweet as I walked out and there were even a few tears (or maybe just water) in my eyes. As I got into my mom’s car, I played “I Had the Time of My Life” from the “Dirty Dancing” movie. I am currently sitting on the couch with my hair dye in! I am very excited to get to watch presentations and present!
Blah blah blah blah blah blan blahblabl bhalbh.
Nothing happened, just working on my presentation
Today was crazy, like actually insane. I think I lost some sort of my brain and soul today. OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was crazy. So, first I Tashi Duncan-ed myself, this is a “Challengers” reference meaning that I injured myself, BUT it was no where near the level of her injury in the film. So, basically, I decided I would go for a walk this morning and to make my walks harder I have been wearing wrist and ankle weights. Normally I do about 10-15 minutes, but today, I did 10 and felt like I could go longer, so I was nearing the end of the second 10 minutes, and I was getting pretty tired. Our driveway is all gravel and has a bit of a slope down where our mailbox meets Fiddle Creek, so I am not paying attention and step on a rock, “snap!” goes my ankle, I fall down, yelling an explicit. Then I go to sit down, and I take off the weights, I stop the music, and I see that not only have I twisted my right ankle, I have also ripped my favorite pair of leggings and badly scraped my knee causing me to yell another explicit! I limp back in and I thought my dad knew, but he was just peacefully watching television and had no idea! So, then I told my mom, she looked at it, and I cleaned it up. Then of course, as we are leaving it starts pouring rain. So, I take an umbrella, but I still get sopping wet! My ankle and knee are fine, but I do think the knee will leave a pretty nasty, gnarly Tashi Duncan esque scar. So, maybe in 15 years, I can obsessively rub lotion on my scarred knee while trying to wake up my husband who looks like Mike Faist at 5:30 in the morning so he can start pre-gaming for his tennis match! Just kidding, but if my husband looked even remotely like Mike Faist, I would let him sleep in anytime he wanted, like yeah, I wouldn’t want to wake up at 5:30 A.M. either, but ironically, today I did wake up at 5:30 A.M.!
I was hoping for a boring day after this mornings events. I did not get my wish (womp, womp). The clubhouse was incredibly packed for both museum babies and storytime. This is the fullest I have EVER seen it for just a regular day. Courtney read for both– head to toes for the babies and books about Jewish people and religion to celebrate Jewish Heritage Month. Afterwards, it was so noisy, my word. There must have been something in the air that day because Elena also fell down! We were sitting on a bench talking after storytime and she goes, “I just can’t take this level of noise today,” and I go “Me, too,” as children laugh, scream, and squeal in the background. Afterwards, I attended a K-12 and Early Childhood meeting where we talked about events for the summer. Then Maria walked me and the K-12 team through this program called “Curator For A Day,” where kids get to learn more about the jobs of curators, conservators, and designers in museums. The program was really cool and she just had us run through it like we were a kids group in the World’s Fair Gallery. At one point, we were supposed to grade the conservators on how they were preserving an artifact. I was in a group with Andy and Ryan, who are both VERY funny. The artifact we had was a lion’s head, which was supposed to be on a flat surface for display, but was propped up some so we were all questioning if it was being preserved correctly. We are writing down a letter grade for it and Ryan turns his paper and he gave it an “F” (it was a joke) and I started laughing so hard. And then I was like, “Andy, what did you give it?” and he gave it an “A” and I was like, “Oh my god, and I thought a “B+” was harsh”.
I also worked on my senior project slideshow presentation for Friday today and I am almost finished. Today, I also found out I got into the Gleich Honors College at Webster. This is really cool because, and I did not know this when I applied, only 15 freshman are admitted, which is 3% of the freshman class, so it is quite exclusive to get in. They said they were impressed with my “originality, creativity, and thoughtfulness” for each of my answers! Stay tuned for what will probably be my final post tomorrow!
On Thursday there was an article published titled, ‘St. Louis’ Juvenile Justice System Is Failing Youth and Families,’ essentially complaining about all of the flaws in the system. The article was incredibly contradicting and poorly written so Robyn and I talked about it. Most of what the writer complained about is valid, however she never addressed any solutions. The biggest thing that I have learned as I’ve been here is that our taxes are what pay for the attorneys, DJOs, CASA workers, etc., as well as the entire building including the detention center. And because those funds are limited, nobody here is paid nearly enough and the building is incredibly outdated. So, when the journalist argued that the lack of improvement to the detention center and the fact that the kids aren’t given sunlight due to the high number of escapes in the outdoor area of the center, she doesn’t take into account the fact that they have no money to fix any of these issues. The point is, these attorneys and case workers are given inhumane case loads and paid way under what they should, while journalists complain and give no direction or thoughts on how to solve the problems.
This week has been weird since my employers have had their hands full with a bunch of legal stuff (don’t worry it’s nothing interesting I promise) so my schedule has been really off. This weekend I helped clean off the insane amount of pollen caked onto everything, moved a bunch of lumber, and painted some stuff for a guard rail.
When I was thinking about what I was gonna title this post, I was like “Oh, like I’ll just do ‘Bonus Content, Saturday’, ” then I was like, “WAIT! ‘Direct to DVD’!” So, it’s like those ads before you watched DVD’s as a kid where it would be like Direct to DVD Disney sequel of like Cinderella or something. Ugh, the good old days with DVD’s, which it’s not like you can’t still buy or use DVDs like we still watch DVDs sometimes and have a player, but it’s not the same. And actually fun fact, we had and used a VHS player still in one of the bedrooms when I was a really little kid and then it finally kicked the bucket once I was around four or five years old, but I loved that thing!
OK, after you read that tangent this is what I actually did today. Today was History Exploration Day (HED). HED is a family and kids focused event that happens once every month or so. It is a Friday and Saturday, so today I helped with storytime. Instead of one of the staff reading today, we had Estafani one of Lindsay’s friends come in. Estafani is a Spanish Speaker who reads different stories to kids groups in Spanish. This was her last event in St. Louis before she essentially goes on tour around Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. She read three books all on Summer themes. After that, I took a lunch break and chatted with Julie and Maggie and then worked the clubhouse front desk from 12:00 to 12:30. After that, I was just floating around. I was gonna do laps all around, but then I just spent the time talking with Elena in the Time Travel Room and then helping her, Maggie, and Julie clean up. After that, we took a group photo with Maggie and we all said bye. I was officially off at 2:00, but didn’t leave until about 2:30. I walked over to the pagoda area again and just sun bathed while listening to music. At one point, I moved to the bench to be under shade and write this post and then there’s just this crowd of people behind me trying to take pictures of two geese! I was like so surprised and I only turned because I had that feeling of “there’s people behind me / people watching me,” feeling. So, I was actually just being a narcissist because they were just watching geese. There was also a guy who walked over with the cutest pitbull puppy!
I left off on Tuesday, and now my week is Wednesday through Friday. Every day is the same. Except on Thursdays, some of the students get to go to Straubs Grocery store. They get to bag groceries and check out people’s groceries. I also help out in the kitchen to make the hot lunches daily. The students prepare it, too, which is pretty cool. Friday was a fun day because the students got to listen to high school musicals during SMZ, and in their classrooms, they got to play games that they don’t usually get to do every day. That was the week at Promise Christian Academy! I will display some photos of the kids I was with. I got permission from the school and the parents.
Hey guys! So, as you know, I finished at Crisis Nursery last week. I am now at promise. If you’re unfamiliar with the school, it is a private co-ed special education Christian School in town and Country. I started Monday with my mentor, Mrs. Tyler, and met some Visitation Academy students volunteering. I began with SMZ, known as the Sensory Motor zone, where students work out to loosen their muscles. Then we went into the OT room with Mrs. Tyler and different students, played with Thera Putty, and worked on their writing skills. After noon, the students were working on their play for the end of the year. My day starts at eight and ends at 3. Tuesday is the same schedule every day because they want to keep the students on a strict routine. Every once in a while, they change it. Come back for part two of my week, Wednesday through Friday.!
On Wednesday, Blas and I went to Lambert to see the tower. The tower is the tallest part of the airport, with glass windows all around it. Its job is to direct traffic at the airport so that planes can land on the runway or land and get to their gate. The tower’s airspace is 3,000 feet to the ground. Something different between Lambert and Spirit was that Lambert had a map of the airport and showed where the planes were on the ground so that in case of bad weather, they could still know where the planes were, but Spirit did not have this. If Spirit has bad weather, they need to have the pilot tell the controllers where they are constantly so that they can control them to where they should be. Lambert has mostly commercial planes landing and a couple of business jets, but Spirit only has business jets and smaller planes. Even though Spirit doesn’t have commercial planes, they were surprisingly still busier than Lambert at times.
On Monday and Tuesday, Blas and I went to Gateway Tracon. A Tracon is a place where people direct plane traffic. Gateway Tracon’s airspace is 3,000 feet to 15,000 feet with an 80-mile radius, and the middle is Lambert. The people at Gateway Tracon control any planes that are in this area. You go in to direct the planes in a very dark room with a screen that shows you where the planes are, how fast they go, their height, and what plane they are. Gateway Tracon’s airspace is separated into multiple parts, so one person is not controlling everything. There is low arrival and departure, which both control 3,000 to 6,000 feet, and high arrival and departure, which control 6,000 to 15,000 feet. Each plane needs 1,000 feet of vertical or 3 miles of horizontal separation. On Tuesday, Blas and I both got to do a simulation where we had to tell a trainer what to do with the planes which was really fun.
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