Bake Sale!

This was my first bake sale as an active Sister! I was very excited being that I love being able to make a fool of myself for the sake of a couple of quarters. This bake sale happened to be on the last day of student government elections though, so everyone was in super "just look down and say 'no thank you" mode since the people in the yellow shirts had been bombarding them with voting questions and flyers for the past week or so. Even with this slight complication, we had a successful bake sale with a bountiful array of options including: brownies, brownie cupcakes, funfetti cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla icing, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla icing, chocolate chip cookies, and s'mores bars (made by our wonderful sister Robyn Kamp). During my shift, the options didn't even matter being that we had a wonderful football player (I think number 8, I may be wrong though) who "dropped a twenty" on us. He said he was going to do it and kept to his word. He gave us $20 without wanting to take anything. We also had a funny police man come by. He didn't buy anything, but he was fun company for the slow times during class. I loved every second of that bake sale and I can't wait until I can do it again!


- Nastaishia Allen, Alpha Omicron 

Home Grown TV Taping!

Okay, so I love TV tapings! My mind was blown when I found that it was a good way for us to fundraise. I had gone to a So You Think You Can Dance TV taping previously, but sitcom TV tapings are much better. They filmed it in chronological order, which was nice. They even made sure to include the prerecorded sections to keep with the flow of things. But, I must say, our MC was the best part. He was hilarious! Our wonderful Psi brother, Kevin Hudson (who decided to call himself Chester), was picked on at the beginning. He had to dance for everyone to a boy band song. Then our lovely sister, Sarah Cox, was chosen to come up and speak with the MC. He did a lot of other slightly inappropriate, but funny, things which overall made this a wonderful experience, I can't wait to attend more TV Tapings.


- Nastaishia Allen, Alpha Omicron 

What an Amazing Race

I was running on 3 hours of sleep and 3 cups of coffee. After a 9-6 work day and traffic on the way home, I was not too hyped for the B/S Amazing Race. But once I got there I was pumped. I was on a team with my buddy, Joe Alonso, so I knew it was going to be fun. But I also realized that he was going to want to win…which meant running. Once the countdown happened, he ran up, grabbed the clue, and we started running.

Clue by clue we made it to the top of Bruinwalk with the concern of finding parking structure 4 in search of a car. Once we got there, we scavenged for the car marked with ‘PsiEK’ on the back window. Another team chose to look for the same thing, but after 20 minutes or so, neither us nor the other team could find it. After reviewing the clue we realized we were in the wrong section! We ran to the right area and I hurried down to the lowest level. There, in front of me, amidst the empty level, was the car. I jotted down the space number because the clue giver was nowhere in sight.

Joe and I ran off to meet with her and then to the next challenge: writing the PsiEK officer board down in less than a minute. I whipped that one out and we ran over to Janss steps to write down the B/S Song! I was trying to sing it out in my head but got stuck at one line. When we wrote it down, I still couldn’t get it, but after thinking about it for another minute or two we got it! Excitedly, we stood up to have our work checked and then ran up to earn 2^nd place!!!

This event has easily become my favorite B/S event—it was so much fun, especially because it was filmed like an actual episode. I can’t wait to see the show and participate in next year’s Amazing Race!

- Sarah Cox, Alpha Xi
Treasurer, 2010-2011

Monster Ball

It doesn't matter if you're a tuba or a capital S-A-X, at Band Ball, all are welcome. On April 3, 2011 band members of all persuasions came together at Kerkhoff Grand Salon for a night of music, dance, and celebration of the princess, hero, cartoon, and Little Monster within us all.

About a month before the event, I received a call from the Epsilon Kappa chapter of Tau Beta Sigma's Director of Social Activities, Allison Gill. She told me of this annual Band Ball event and asked if I, Mother Monster, would bestow the honor of my presence at this occasion. She told me how the event is held every year to bring together members of the UCLA Marching Band after football season, and how the band performed a field show based on my hit single "Bad Romance" this past fall. Needless to say, I was honored. Then, when Allison told me that her organization's mission was to serve and honor women in music, I was sold. I checked my touring schedule, canceled my concert in Adelaide, Australia (sorry, Little Monsters), and jetted to Los Angeles to turn this Band Ball into Monster Ball.

I pulled one of my tour costumes off the rack, the Thierry Mugler blue prismatic. Only the best for my Bruin Monsters. Plus, I heard the UCLA marching band has a thing for true blue. Disco stick in hand and donning the newest headgear from the Haus of Gaga, I was ready to dance in the dark.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by Allison and the Social Chair of the Psi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, Katrina Madlansacay. Of course, the paparazzi was there to greet me as well. I indulged their shutter-happy wishes with my typical display of congenial apathy, chest out, paws up. Afterward, I patrolled the salon. It was nicely decorated to suit the theme, Lady and the Knight. There were posters of armor-clad medieval heroes slaying dragons and saving fair maidens; there was a cut out of Lady and the Tramp on the second floor; and at one point I turned around to find a 4'x3' 12-piece acrylic panel painting depicting my disembodied head wearing a shako. It was brilliant. I had never seen such artistry in my entire life. I asked Allison who the artist was and attempted to find her so I could invite her to join the Haus of Gaga. Unfortunately, the artist had only donated the piece for the event and could not attend. She was stuck in Adelaide, Australia.

Finally it was time to let the music take control.

Mother Monster took over the floor and commanded her vicious little ones to dance. Like my prized orbital Alexander McQueen, the world revolved around me, as I performed "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" to a sea of mesmerized gazes. I was even able to phone in a favor from Beyonce and got her to make a surprise guest appearance.

Meanwhile, in an adjacent room, a photo studio was set up to take souvenir photos as a fundraiser. It was a genius enterprise and with the option of a green screen, Little Monsters were able to choose their backdrop. I took photos with some of the band members, even became an honorary member of the UCLA trumpet section. I heard they made $100 off those photos. That's money, honey.

It was a killer night, and I had a great time getting to know these little Bruin monsters. I would say that I'll always remember the night and keep a piece of UCLA in my heart....  

... but I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.

MGITB, 

xo LG

Bonfire with JJ!

I was in the car with Ashley, Lauren, Andrea, and Micah on our way to Dockweiler to hang out with JJ. I was super excited since it’s a bonfire and we were going to hang out with JJ. When we got there JJ wasn’t there yet so we played some games until she got there. When JJ got there we started to make the fire, but it took us maybe an hour or two with all of the wind and having little wood. It was still fun though and finally we started our fire even though it was pretty small. We cooked hot dogs and after a while we sat to watch the sunset and get to know each other. We made s’mores and and made marshmallows go up in flames.  Then we tried to play Frisbee in the dark though that did not work out very well. After a while, JJ left and we started to pack up. We sang “The Affirmation” and finished cleaning up. Overall it was an awesome experience and I love hanging out with JJ and I’m sure everyone that came did too.

-Eugenia Leonardho, Alpha Omicron

Not Alone: My Journey Through the Candidate Process

My candidate process with Tau Beta Sigma, Epsilon Kappa has been the most fun, stressful, eye-opening, and memorable experience I’ve had in a very long time.  Between rushing around like a madwoman to get all of my interviews done, to the always-entertaining lessons with our Vice President I formed a bond with my candidate class that I cannot even begin to describe. 

I have to say that I think my favorite part about the candidate process was the interviews.  I got to ask the silly questions that don’t normally come up on a regular basis.  Those always bring up interesting conversations that expand into 4 hour discussions on how much Disney rocks my world or how awesome someone thinks gel pens are. 

But then, I also learned about what really makes people unique, not just the boring basics of major, year, instrument. 

The best part about the interviews were that they forced me to go outside of my little stubborn shell and sit down with people that I would never have spent 2 hours with at Bruin Café before.  At first, I was a little uncomfortable, to be honest.  Although I don’t seem shy once I get to know you, if I’m unfamiliar with someone, I can be cripplingly awkward.  Interviews made me get over that.  I’ll admit, I still get shy around new people, but I’m less guarded and more open to getting to know people, which is awesome.

Although the interviews were my favorite part of the candidate process, I can’t leave out the crazy lessons we had learning about TBΣ.  I really enjoyed learning the history of TBΣ in a way that didn’t bore me.  Although lessons got a little insane sometimes, I feel like that was an element that helped solidify the bond I formed with my class and got me really excited to become a part of the great organization I was learning about.

And naturally, there is no way I would be able to reflect on my candidate process without mentioning degrees.  First degree was just amazing and thrilling; I had no idea what to expect!  Second degree was no different.  I felt so honored to take part in those rituals.  And I know my third degree was not as traditional as people usually have, but I really appreciated the support I received from my friends when I had to go through it alone.  

Yet, I never really was alone.  After my third degree I realized that the amount of time I spent with my class already made them sisters to me, even before I was rewarded my active pin.  I realized that although I wasn’t able to be there when the rest of my class “graduated” to sisterhood, I was with them the whole time.  Yea, yea, mushy I know, but there’s really no other way to paint it.

Although the entire candidate process was a tough time for me with all the struggles I had to deal with in the other aspects of my life, I cannot cherish that time enough.  It made me closer with my class and extremely excited to become a sister and become equally as close with the rest of Epsilon Kappa. 

- Robyn Kamp, Alpha Omicron

AFV TV Taping at Disneyland!!!

Normally, EK goes to TV tapings in order to fundraise for the chapter.  When we've gone to tapings of America’s Funniest Videos for fundraising, they have us dress nicely in case we get on TV.  However, last week, we had a different, more casual AFV taping experience. Though it was a special kind of TV taping and they told us it would not make our chapter any money, our Treasurer still organized a trip to it, and we had so many people who wanted to go that we could not accommodate all of them since AFV capped our number of people who could go at 15.  The reason for the enthusiasm?  The TV taping was filmed at Disney California Adventure, and not only would we get to go there that night for the taping, but they were also going to give free park hoppers to those who attended.

It was so much fun driving to Disneyland last Thursday night, starting at 9 PM, to arrive and meet around 10:30 PM.  It felt really surreal to be doing homework and class all day but to know that pretty soon I’d be at Disneyland.  We couldn’t bring our phones to the TV taping, but we still all found each other in Downtown Disney in a timely manner, and then proceeded to the gates of California Adventure.  We went in around 11 PM after the park had already closed, and it was so interesting to be there with no one else around (except the thousand or so people at the taping).  We filled out a waiver for being filmed, and then they even gave us a fancy veggie sandwich!  Then we went and stood by the water, and we got to see characters in costumes, the water doing its beautiful lit-up, colorful swaying, and to show our enthusiasm for the fun trip by clapping a lot on camera.  We ended at 3:30, and then we got free park hoppers that we will be using together in the future as part of a Sisterhood event to go to Disneyland together.  That night was so much fun, and would have been fun even without the park hoppers, because the atmosphere around Disneyland and California Adventure is just so nice, whether you’re there during the day or in the middle of the night.  But it will be quite fun to go on the Sisterhood trip to Disneyland as well.

Starting at 3:30 AM, we had to make the drive back to UCLA.  Everyone was exhausted, but passengers helped keep their drivers awake, and all the sisters made it back to UCLA, safe and sound.  What a fun night!

- Helen Durand, Alpha Mu

Parliamentarian, 2010-2011

Breakfast For Dinner!

On Monday night of Sisterhood Week, the Epsilon Kappa usually go to a Sister’s apartment after meeting to cook and make things like pancakes and hash browns for our annual Breakfast for Dinner.  This year, however, two of our sisters were in the Percussion Ensemble concert, which was right after meeting on Monday night, so we wanted to go watch them first.  Their concert was amazing.  It is cool to see the wide variety of music you can play with percussion, because people normally don’t think of percussion as being played alone for concerts.

        

 Because we went to the Percussion Ensemble concert first, we did not cook Breakfast for Dinner this year, but instead were graciously hosted at the house of one of our Sisters, where we had pancakes, hash browns, and eggs from Denny’s, as well as fruit, milk, and orange juice on the side.  We started off the dinner with “Roses To,” and everyone had a lot of roses to give in appreciation of their Sisters, especially since we had just had our Sisterhood Retreat in the preceding days.  That night was really fun, a mixture of meeting, music, and dinner, and seeing our sisters all the way through.

- Helen Durand, Alpha Mu
Parliamentarian, 2010-2011