Author Archives

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With Mommy & Mommom

Destoto State Park & Mentone, AL

 

 

 

Mommy.

Mommy at the Edge.

Through the Rocks.

Beautiful.

A Small Part of Desoto Falls.

 

Path.

View beside the boardwalk.

Arching Boughs.

Mommom & Me.

Lovely flowers.

Blue Blaze Trail.

Always Happy in the Woods.

Mommom Crosses the Rocks.

Scary Bees.

Mommom Down Below.

Mommom & Me.

Lack at the Foot of the Falls.

Might Fall.

Now That Would Be a Fall.

Mommom & Me.

 

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Hmm…

So in a week I will be heading off to Italy with the Honors Program. I hope to be able to post here some and upload photos about the trip — although I don’t know how dependable internet will be. But I am looking forward to it! I’ve not been able to think much about the upcoming trip due to how busy I have been, but I have been preparing today with some final purchases. Now I’m getting excited…

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Last Day – One Baby Crane

Today was the last day of our class and the last day of the month…and we folded paper cranes.

Why would we do something so silly?

We folded these paper cranes so that we could send some to the Oklahoma City National Museum, where many similar cranes are featured or stored in their archives.. These paper cranes are a symbol of hope and peace.

So we all learned how to fold them and wrote a brief message inside.

Dr. Woodworth is sending these to the museum’s archives, a token of our thanks and promise.

I made three paper cranes that day, a big one, a medium, and a tiny one. Per Dr. Woodworth’s advice, the tiny one of mine was sent. I had remarked originally that my cranes made a family: a mommy, a daddy, and a baby! The baby crane is being sent to Oklahoma City, without his mommy and daddy.

And I would like to dedicate the baby crane to the parents whose children were taken away from them on that day, 17 years ago. Never forget.

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Oklahoman Hospitality

Dr. Hessler —

Thank you for allowing your class to work with us this year; they are all good writers and their comments were appreciated.

Thank you for being such good friends with Dr. Woodworth, allowing that friendship to overflow into our lives.

Thank you for your ideas, which together with Dr. Woodworth’s, made this class a success.

Thank you for the class time we had together: laughs, discussions, photos.

Thank you for your students, whose kindness in class and on our tour made us feel welcome.

Thank you for coming with us to the Archives, and helping us to see beyond.

Thank you the brilliant, funny, lovely, insightful, creative maps your students made; they were a joy to peruse, to explore, to take home, and to write about.

Thank you for welcoming us to the lovely campus of Oklahoma City University; I enjoyed coming to class, eating in the cafeteria, and exploring the whole place.

Thank you for the opportunity to learn from OKalahoma City, from the things you have learned.

Thank you for helping us to see the beauty and the sorrow.

Thank you for the people we met, your students and people at the memorial.

Thank you for helping us to remember; I know I won’t forget.

Thank you, thank you.

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What a Trip, What a Class

A THANK YOU NOTE

This was a very different sort of class when compared with others I took. Greater flexibility, different assignment standards…always fun…

Yet amidst these oddities, one thing is for sure: I thought, I wrote, and I learned.

Whether I was reading some of How to Lie with Maps, writing a post, commenting on a post from an OCU student…I thought, I wrote, I learned.

But let’s be serious. The best part was the trip to Oklahoma City. And while this class is a benefit from and a creation for the University Honors Program, for the trip I am especially grateful to Mr. Nobles.

So thank you Mr. Nobles for letting us have this class. More broadly, thank you for working tirelessly to better the University Honors Program. It is an honor to be a part of it. Thank you for allowing us to go on this trip.

It was great in so many ways. Never stayed in a Hilton before. The food we ate was fantastic. I”d never been to Oklahoma City before, but it was a beautiful city. It was wonderful to connect with students at another school — and then to be able to meet them. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum were amazing; I cannot say how amazing that was.

What a class, what a trip.

But not without you, Mr. Nobles.

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Exploring OCU’s Library

The map I received from OCU was the Oklahoma City University Library Map by Something, Someone. To see some images of this map, and read the mapmaker’s own words, see the following links: OCU Library Map and Invisible Map.

While the maps that I and my fellow AUM students created were all made on an original, paper map of Montgomery, the OCU students chose where to maps of and used their own creative designs. Their maps were therefore quite different from ours, as is this delightful map of the OCU Library.

As I’m an English and History major, libraries mean a lot to me. I was overjoyed to receive the map of OCU’s library.

Yet this map is not just a map; it tells a story.

First, the format of this map is very creative. Originally, it looks like a book. How clever! It is titled “Oklahoma City University Library Map.” The subtitle reads, “Enjoy your exploration! ;)” which is of course very appropriate, seeing as our class has been doing a lot of explorations. When you open up this map, it shows a color coded sketch of the five floors of the library tower. Green shaded areas reference study areas, while the purple points out book shelves. Little stars, 1-7, mark special areas. To see what these numbers refer to, you need only flip over the plastic cover page. It lays atop the inside of the map, and each number has a picture and a description of the thing. They all point out special — secret — things to see and find in the library. A place to get hot chocolate, where to learn about Native American culture, and the perfect place to study.

Due to the multi-layering of this map, it is very creative and very fun to examine. Since we got to spend sometime in the OCU library, I had a chance to visit a few of these places, if only briefly. And it was a helpful map.

I feel that this map would be especially helpful to new OCU students, to give them an insider perspective of how to get around and best utilize the library.

Because this map tells the map maker’s story, it has to lie simply in what it emphasizes. In what it emphasizes, I think it tells a lot about the map creator. For example, three of the 7 pictures show a place to see a great view! This makes me think that OCU has a great library: plenty of books, plenty of study area, and plenty of places to gaze out into the world while working.