...books, vampires, and work parties...

“…happy endings are possible,

even in situations

as fraught with complications

as this one was.”

~James Howe, Bunnicula

We have one more week left in the semester and then we go into final exam week. That gives me one more week to finish preparations for the new faculty search, somehow put together the final touches on my summer school cemetery course that begins immediately after graduation, and complete my own final paper for my graduate course. Thankfully I submitted my chapter edits last week so that is not left on my to-do list. At this time of the semester, we are all busy and stressed. 

What do we do in situations like this? In the English department at my university, we throw parties!

I love working in the department; my colleagues are the best; and, arguably, we have the best majors! In a typical academic semester, we do not see each other very often. With various course schedules, if the students are in my courses, I often do not see them as a collective group. The same can be said for my colleagues.

Our university theater is currently performing the children’s play, Bunnicula; because it is based on the book, and since I teach adolescent literature, it became the perfect theme for our semester party. It was even one of our majors who came up with the idea, which fit perfectly because, well, we are a department who likes to dress up.

None of us had time to do much planning but it all came together perfectly.

Yesterday, I donned the new Victoria Beckham for Target bunny collared dress and was a dress twin to one of my students who wore the pink version. The dress is boxy and shapeless. If you look at the Target advertisement, they clearly tapered the model’s dress. Nevertheless the bunnies on the collars were cute and fit yesterday’s party theme.

I figured that several students and faculty members might wear lace bunny ears since they’re somewhat easy to come by so I opted for Lace Avenue’s corset-style ears. If the headband did not squeeze my head so, I might wear them everyday.

I do not have many photos that I can share publicly but here are a few decorations and the Bunnicula puppet, created by a colleague in the theater department.   

Fortunately, this was timed near Easter so I was able to convert some Easter items into Bunnicula party items. Yay Capitalism! I brought in white-ish vegetables since Bunnicula drains the juice from them in the story.

Cauliflower, light yellow sunburst tomatoes, and parsnips were some of the decoration and food options.

And, as a reminder to myself of one of the perks of wearing black, the last picture shows a very small (most likely) fruit punch dot on my the white collar. Really?!? I mean, great for a Bunnicula party but *Sigh* Fortunately, it came out easily.