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My First Encounter With Harper Quinn Interpretation

The day I met Harper Quinn Interpretation; she was the customer ahead of me in line at the UPS Store and she had a long laundry list of tasks she was wanting the clerk to do. Many of the tasks were washing various clothes or linens, she explained that she was so glad she saw they’re commercial last night because she had so many things to do today and didn’t know how to get them done. The clerk responded that he was glad she saw the commercial but they don’t do washing and drying, only shipping and packaging so why did she bring her tasks here. Her simple response was, “ well at the end of the commercial someone asked, ’what can brown do for you?’” The clerk apologized for the miscommunication and directed her to the local dry cleaners and laundry service and she turned and began to leave.

This woman was very intriguing to me. I had to get to know her. I could ship my Aunt Judith a book on Greek Antiquities a different day. I followed her out and to the dry cleaner’s wear I luckily had to pick up a suit anyways, so this wasn’t creepy. She was already walking up when I pulled into the lot. That’s when I noticed what a curious outfit she had on.

 

She was dressed quite interestingly. She had on a navy dress with little rain clouds, sunshines, and rainbows printed on it. Over that was an oversized white T-shirt that was covered unexplainably with stains and what looked like coffee rings. And her shoes, they were red heels with golden pears and the word, “Anjou,” written across them in black sharpie.

I walked into the cleaners’ and lucky for me there was a line and she was at the end of it. I got in line and began some small talk with her. I mentioned to her, “what an interesting outfit you have on.” She then explained that this morning on the the news the meteorologist said to dress for the weather so she put on her weather dress. She also explained she had tea later with her friend Cathy and she so glad someone came up with the idea of using a shirt as a tablecloth for when having tea. And she continued, “I think it’s important to always make a statement, that’s why I got these red pear of shoes. They really are hard to find in pears.”

It was then her turn at the counter. She did her business and as she left waved to me. I greeted her farewell, “it was so nice meeting you, Miss Interpretation.” She agreed, “ it was nice meeting you too, Mister Ection.”

Where We Are Now – Becky Rasmussen

For the first alumni feature, we would like to introduce Rebecca Rasmussen. Becky graduated from UWGB in 2014 with B.A. in English, emphasis in Literature and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Becky currently works as a Candidate Services Manager for Wisconsin Progress in Green Bay, WI.

Why did you major in English at UWGB and why should others?

Becky Rasmussen: Majoring in English Lit often required me to experience texts in ways that made me uncomfortable. As a result, I am more empathetic to the experiences of other people than I would have been otherwise. Creative thought processes and group discussions are wildly helpful for my current professional work.

American Lit II, Monsters in Lit, and Sheepshead Review were my favorite classes in regard to assigned readings; History of the English Language and Old English were my favorite classes in regard to accumulating obscure and sometimes useful knowledge. If you love reading, books, or anything with English, I would recommend an English major.

What should other people know about the English Major?

BR: The most practical thing you can do is spend your time learning about things you really enjoy. Many of my family members tried to convince me to major in something “more useful” but I ended up getting hired to do work I believe in. I also enjoyed my college experience because of my choice of major. Bonus!

What were you involved with as an undergrad at UWGB?

BR: As an undergrad, I interned with the Obama for America Campaign, the 2010 Coordinated Campaign. I was also involved in a couple on-campus organization including:

  • Activists for Choice Chair
  • Sigma Tau Delta Vice-President
  • Pep Band
  • Circle K Treasurer
  • College Dems Chair

What is some last advice you have for current UWGB students?

BR: Do the work you love and cultivate a fulfilling hobby. Always take time to sleep, eat real food, and take care of yourself.

The Joy of Paper Making

Have you ever been like, “Hmm, I have so much extra paper but can’t use it!?” If you answered this question with, “Yup, that’s me. I have that problem,” I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong. You can do so many things with that extra paper, such as: make a paper fort, burn it while hosting a bonfire, take up origami, or wrap yourself up like a little homeless lady. Too bad I’m not going to tell you how to do any of those things, especially origami; origami and I don’t mesh well. Instead, I will tell you about the joy of how to make paper from, you guessed it, paper.

Things you’ll need: 

  • A sponge
  • Water (copious amount; you may want to pay your water bill)
  • A car or a really great friend with a car
  • About $26.79 (and $89.62 for that water bill)
  • Paper, I guess… wait, you already have a bunch
  • The will to actually make paper

The steps go as such:

  1. Chop up all that paper into bite size pieces (be careful not to choke on the teeny tiny pieces).
  2. Soak the bits in water.
  3.  Go to The Goodwill, buy a blender, make sure it works, clean it out real nice and such, and never use it for food.
  4. Fill your new blender about ¾ full with water.
  5. Add the soaked paper bits to blender water so it’s about ⅓ the amount of water in the blender.
  6. Blend to a pulp (this will probably take a awhile since you really cheaped out on the blender).
  7. Clean up the giant mess you made if you forgot to put the lid on before blending in step 6 (this actually happens often).
  8. Empty out one of your old Christmas totes (I know you have at least one; we all have about seven) and fill it generously with water.
  9. Dump your pulp into the bin of water. One blender full is not going to be enough pulp to make paper though.
  10. Repeat steps 4-6 as well as step 9 (and 7 if you really just don’t have it together today).
  11. Once it looks like there’s a good amount of pulp in your vat (it should kinda look like murky swamp water) you can finally start pulling sheets of paper.
  12. Go back to The Goodwill and buy 2 identically sized frames, some old window screens, that dress that caught your eye when you were there earlier (just go for it, you look great in yellow), and an old bed sheet of the fitted variety—you’ll need it later and we cannot be going back to The Goodwill a third time today.
  13. Pop in a frozen pizza; this is a ton of work and you’re getting pretty hangry by now.
  14. Make your screen and deckel (I’m sure there’s a tutorial for this on The YouTube).
  15. Tightly cover a flat surface with the old bed sheet.
  16. Dampen the sheet.
  17. Hold your screen and deckel together and finally pull a sheet of paper from the vat.
  18. Remove the deckel and flip the sheet of paper unto the damp bed sheet.
  19. Use a sponge to remove excess water from the paper.
  20. Remove the screen.
  21. Take your pizza out of the oven; it’s probably burnt to a crisp by now.
  22. Repeat steps 16-20 until you reach your desired amount of paper.
  23. Let your paper dry.
  24. Clean up.
  25. Peel the paper off the bed sheet once dry.
  26. Realize that this didn’t solve your problem of having an excessive amount of paper.
  27. Binge watch New Girl.

And so there you have it; 27 easy steps to making paper.

P. S. If you have extra pulp left over you can save it for the next time you feel crafty and want to make paper again.

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