"Quick, are there zombies by the door?"

It's not every day I get asked this question.

A game of Zombies vs. Humans began on campus yesterday. I didn't sign up because I don't have time to participate this week, but I love watching the mayhem. I came upon a human-zombie confrontation on my way to Art History this morning, and I'm pleased to say that the humans appeared to be holding their own.

The rules are as follows: Humans wear red bandanas on their arms, and zombies wear red bandanas on their heads. Humans can fight zombies off with nerf guns or balled-up socks. All human-zombie battles, attacks, etc. take place outside only. I saw a pack of zombies patrolling the front doors of my dorm around suppertime, and I think a lot of the humans chose to stay in.

They did tonight, anyway. I'm in my university's Jazz Ensemble, and we played some music in the coffee shop tonight for Swing Night. Usually, people show up and swing dance, but hardly anyone came tonight. Our director joked into the microphone, "What's going on? Are there zombies on campus or something?" *Ba dum chh*

And the few people who did show up to dance? Most of them were zombies. I'm not sure if the three humans who came made it out alive.

Happy Almost-Friday,

A Very Zombie Holiday

Tips--some of them mildly disturbing--for surviving a zombie apocalypse during the holiday season.


Via bookshelves of doom.

Happy Fall! + Pictures and a Library Story

Happy Belated First Day of Fall! This is my favorite season, and I'm so pleased it's here. I don't know about your neck of the woods, but the first day of October where I live was like a switch: leaves that were holding on in September started falling like crazy. I loved it.



I also love apple orchards, and I visited one with some friends a couple weeks ago.

If you look at the banner, you'll see I decorated for fall. It's the same one as last year because I like it, even though it has some design issues and showcases my very low knowledge of Photoshop. (But I did make the trees the duck is walking through out of paper bags and felt.)

Some of the apples were amazing. We know this because we sampled them straight from the tree.

School is super busy right now, and I'm sorry I've been such a poor reader and commenter--I don't mean to be. The first 8 weeks of my semester are outrageous as far as homework goes. I'm also participating in Academic Mentoring this year, which means I'm leading two discussion groups of freshmen a week until Midterm. It's part of the freshman orientation class, which meets separately. I've got lesson plans, I take attendance, I grade small assignments...I feel a little bit teacher-y. It's a little spooky.

Not all of the apples were so good.

I'm still working at the library, too. Last week a gentleman (an immigrant and non-native English speaker) came to the circulation desk and asked:

Gentleman: Do you have any movies about people who die and rise from the dead?

Silence.

Me: ...do you mean like Jesus? Because we have--

Gentleman: No, no, no. Like, like--

Me: Oh! Do you mean like zombies?

Gentleman: What are these zombies?

 

Me: Um, they're dead people who rise out of their graves and...well, they're not like they were. They're monsters. They usually want to eat people.

Gentleman: ...Are you scared of these zombies?

Me: Um, ah, they're in movies--Would you like a copy of Night of the Living Dead? That's a zombie movie.

Gentleman: No thanks.

And then he walked away. Maybe he wanted a movie about a ghost?



Ready for the homework avalanch to stop falling and hoping you're having a lovely autumn so far,

A macabre and strangely sweet news article.

Widow lives with corpses of husband, twin
From the article:

"I could see him, I could look at him, I could touch him. Now, some people have a terrible feeling, they say, 'Why do you want to look at a dead person? Oh my gracious,'" she said.


"Well, I felt differently about death."

ZombieFit classes in Chicago.

So not kidding.

Quoted in the article, bold formatting mine:

And so, two nights a week in a gymnastics studio in St. Charles, five to a dozen people gather to run, jump, climb and vault up, over and around obstacles that stand in for the features of a city in the grip of a zombie infestation. They also undergo strength and conditioning training because zombies are relentless.